1 Corinthians 10:6-28 | Episode #993

July 30, 2025

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

1 Corinthians 10:6-28

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

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Transcript

This is Chad Harrison, and you're listening to Hope.

Applying God's word to your daily life.

As we finish Faithful Finance, we want to produce our winter Bible study done at Lake Community Church on First Corinthians.

It'll be a fairly long Bible study.

We will break it up into different parts and so you will get a really good, really fast study through the book of First Corinthians before we move on to the book of Joshua.

He says now these things became our example to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted and do not become idolaters as.

As were some of them. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.

What he's saying is, don't be like the world.

What happened? They had all these experiences. They had all these understandings from God. They got all these opportunities.

And what they do. The minute Moses goes up on the mountain, what do they do?

They act like they back in Egypt.

They act like they're Egyptians.

Nor let us commit sexual immoralities.

Some of them did. And in one day 23,000 fell.

Nor let us tempt Christ as some of them also did and were destroyed by serpents. That's when they refute. They just basically said that God wasn't enough and Moses wasn't enough.

And they spoke. They spoke ill of God and Moses in front of Moses.

God sent the serpents to kill him and he killed 23,000.

What were they doing?

They were refusing to be what Christ desired them to be. Now, all these things happened to them as examples and they were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

What he's saying is we've got these stories for you to learn from so many times. And I'll just deal with this real quick.

So many times.

Curtis, can you handle that? The.

Yeah, we. When I got to. We didn't got to the hot level.

You saying, pastor, you got a sweater on. It's a thin sweater.

So many times when we're dealing with this,

we want to spend our lives complaining about what's not rather than walking in what is.

He says.

And by the way, I needed to say this is. This is what I was thinking.

What is.

When. When we studied Romans two years ago,

what did Paul make all his arguments based off the Old Testament.

When we studied Hebrews last year at the same time,

what did I think Paul make all his.

All his illustrations from the Old Testament.

Now we're in First Corinthians Dealing with a group of people that are not Jews.

Are you following me? Majority not Jews.

All of them heathens.

You with me?

What's he using?

Old Testament.

Anybody who says to you that you don't really need the Old Testament,

stop listening to them.

Jesus quoted the Old Testament over a hundred times.

Paul quotes the Old Testament over and over. James, the Old Testament, John, the Old Testament, Peter, the Old Testament.

Over and over and over and over again.

What story they always go back to? They were in Egypt. They were delivered out of Egypt. God wanted to grow the promised land.

Have you noticed that?

Might ought to study that.

Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed, lest he fall.

No temptation is overtaken you, except such is common to man.

But God is faithful. What he's saying is, if you're being tempted, and we all are,

don't think you're somebody special who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able.

But with temptation will. Will also make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it. What he's saying is,

is that if you think you are being tempted beyond what you can bear.

That's not true.

It's not true.

He'll give you a way out.

He'll give you a way out.

Therefore, my.

My beloved. Notice he. He changed. He. He. He gets a little tender here. Therefore, my beloved,

flee from idolatry.

Don't worship things of the world.

Don't worship things that are not God.

I speak as to wise men. Judge for yourselves what I say.

And that's a little bit of a jab.

The cup of blessing which we bless is not the communion of the blood of Christ. The bread which we break is not the communion of the body of Christ. For we, though many, are one bread and one body.

For we all partake in the one bread. What he's saying is this is all about one sacrifice. It's all about one hope.

Observe Israel, after the flesh are not those who eat of the sacrifice partakers of the altar.

What he's saying is, look at the example of the sacrifices of the Old Testament.

You know, I've spent now four years basically going through the Old Testament, going through the Pentateuch.

Four years.

And I've had people ask, why are you in the Old Testament?

Well,

on Sunday morning, I try to stay in the Gospels.

On Wednesday night, I try to give people a little flavoring of the rest of Bible. Maybe it'll entice them to study it.

But in the morning,

that's the ch. Time for me to Grab hold of some of these big Old Testament books and deal with them.

And Paul is talking about what we're studying in the Old Testament here.

If you don't, if you've not read any of that, you don't even know what he's talking about.

What am I saying then?

That an idol is anything,

or what is offered to idols is anything.

Rather that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God and do not want you to have fellowship with demons.

You cannot drink the cup of our Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake in the Lord's table and the table of demons.

Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? What he's saying is, and he's saying this to this culture, especially quit going to the Greek temples.

But I would dare say to you, you can figure out what are the worldly idols that are around all the time that the world is trying to suck us into.

And he's saying,

stay away from those things.

Stay away from them.

Don't make things your idol. Don't make physical things your idol.

Verse 23.

All things are lawful for me,

but not all things are helpful. Now listen,

you need to really memorize this,

okay?

Notice I like the word profitable.

All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable, meaning they work to my good.

What he's saying is I'm free in Christ.

You do know that you're free in Christ, right?

I know some of y' all came from Christian backgrounds where you were not free in Christ.

Okay?

Now we don't use that freedom to the detriment of others.

But that doesn't mean you're not free.

You are free. And those he set free are free indeed.

Don't say that.

He says, let no one seek his own, but each one the other's well being. What he's saying is, you're free,

but you need to be self aware.

Can I use that term over and over again tonight? You got to be self aware.

How does your actions affect the people around you,

by the way?

When you get self, aware, you know what you realize almost everybody around you is as selfish as they can possibly be.

And it really makes you powerful.

You know why?

Because you can evaluate their struggle.

And they're so into themselves and so myopic that they don't even know what's going on around them.

How many times have I been somewhere and somebody say, would you see so and so? How what he said to me and how he acted,

I Can't believe he said that to me.

And the whole time they're saying that, I'm sitting there thinking, well, have you watched him since he come in the room?

What he said to you had nothing to do with you.

You, you reckon he, he's mad at me about something? No,

he's not mad at you about something.

He mad about something, but it ain't got nothing to do with you. You just in the way.

I've realized that 99.9% of the things that go on around me have not. As far as the people I'm dealing with have nothing to do with me.

Got nothing to do with me.

Now once you realize that and you watch people and you realize that they're not self aware,

you can actually help them.

You can say things because you see how they are acting out in their struggle.

You can say things that change their heart.

But you can't do that. If you're all into yourself.

There's no way to. You're blind when you are about you, you are blind to everything else.

Eat whatever is sold in the meat market,

asking no questions for conscious sake. What he's saying is you can eat what you want to.

Should I eat what I want to?

For the earth is the Lord's in all its fullness.

Do y' all hear me?

He's saying everything is okay. Everything is, is, is okay.

Not everything is profitable. Not everything's going to be to your benefit.

Pastor, that can go down a long trail. It can. And if you think it through to the end, you realize he's even talking about those things too.

He's saying under the New Testament you can smoke a five leaf weed that's around.

Should I?

No.

Can I?

Yeah.

Being honest.

That's what he's saying.

Everything is free.

Every. You are free to experience all that God made.

But should you?

No,

you go. I don't. I can't put those two things together. I know. That's why you need to figure out how to put them together.

Because when you figure that out, you figure out how to follow Jesus.

I can do it,

but should I?

Well, how do I decide?

Well, I better figure out how Jesus decides.

Gotta figure him out,

right?

People say you are a heretic right now.

But if any of those who do not believe invites you to dinner and you desire to go eat whatever set before you, asking no questions for conscious sake, what he's saying is don't go in there and put your religious views on the table.

As a Baptist minister, which I was for 11 years,

I went and did a wedding in Alaska.

And the people are doing the wedding for was.

Were in my Sunday school class.

And I think it was his, but it might have been hers. I think it was. His mother was Ukrainian,

and she was.

She was a. I think she was a. Not a reformed.

The Eastern Roman Empire.

Orthodox. She. She was Orthodox. And he had told her that I was an Orthodox priest.

That's why I had. Actually, the robe I wore this week in court was the robe I bought to go do that wedding so that she would think I was an Orthodox priest.

And I didn't have the collar exactly right. And she goes, he don't have the right color. She goes, yes. She was actually literally from Ukraine. He goes, he's an American Orthodox.

But Orthodox priests drink alcohol,

and I was a Baptist.

So if you drink it, you're out. You know what I'm talking. You just out.

As long as the other people in your church who are buying it at the liquor store don't call, you're out. You're good to go.

Okay.

So at the. At the. At the reception after the wedding,

I was supposed to do a toast,

and I had to drink her special type of. It was a sherry, I think.

Yeah, her special sherry from Ukraine.

Okay.

They said, pastor, we'll give you just grape juice. I said, oh,

give me the sherry.

You know why? I said, give me the sherry.

I was in Alaska. Who's there? No, that's not right. Curtis.

You know why I did it? Do you know why I did it?

Because Paul says here in Corinthians,

he says, if you eat dinner and somebody puts it in front of you,

eat it.

Be self aware.

Are you offending somebody with your religiosity?

Stop.

But if anyone says to you,

this was offered to an idol, do not eat it for the sake of the one who told you, or for conscious sake, for the earth is the Lord's in all its fullness.

What he's saying is,

if you eat it,

you're not eating something that's made to an idol. You're doing it for them.

I'm going to tell you, 1 Corinthians messes up a whole lot of new of. Of American Christians. I mean, they can't get it. And listen, we ain't even got to the hard part yet.

As you go today, I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you, that he'll make his face to shine upon you, and that he will give you hope and peace today in Jesus name.