Freedom's Confidence

Speaker 1: 0:06

Well, good morning Westtown. My name is Stephen Clark. I'm a retired pastor, but it's a real joy to be here with you. My wife and I live over, just over in Safety Harbor, and when we retired we decided that, hey, on a Sunday morning, if I got invited to preach somewhere, she wouldn't feel obliged to come along, so that she could have our own church, of which she's a part. Well, the past week she said to me gee, I think I'm going to have to come with you to Westtown, because you're always telling me how great these guys are. So that's just to say what a privilege it is to be with you and to love you and to serve you in this way.

Speaker 1: 0:47

Heavenly Father, thank you for this time of worshiping you. Thank you for the strength and confidence that it gives. Please now cause your Holy Spirit to take your word and to apply it to our hearts. In Christ's name, we pray Amen. Hearts In Christ's name, we pray Amen. Well, I'd like us to go all the way back to the beginning, when we first began this series in 1 Corinthians, to our theme. Maybe you see it every week, but I haven't been here very recently, so I just want to revisit it. Witnesses in a watching world, how God's wisdom and power give us the confidence to live faithfully for the sake of Jesus and his gospel.

Speaker 1: 1:28

Corinth, you might remember, is that city where there was a hill that was over it and on the top of the hill there was a temple to Artemis, who was the goddess of sexuality and sensuality, and indeed her presence just cast a pall over the entire city. Everything was affected by her. So, for example, last Friday I decided to go to Fresh Market and see if I could find a steak that I could afford to grill, which is getting harder these days and I went there and there was this great steak on sale and I looked down on it and it said premium first cut New York strip steak. And I got to thinking, as I tore the label off, I'm looking for an illustration for the folks at Westtown that you know, if we were in Corinth when I looked down there, I would have seen premium first cut Aphrodite strip steak. I mean, she was over everything. Would I have bought that steak if it said Aphrodite's name on it? And bear in mind that I wouldn't have a choice, like at a fresh market, to look over and see what else is there.

Speaker 1: 2:42

Just about everything had been touched and had been polluted by our presence, including the meats that you would buy in the marketplace. And it's not that different for us, is it? Sometimes I don't know if I'm right or not, but I tend to blame the media. They hover over us like a temple on the top of a mountain and it seems to me that everything you read is polluted. I mean, just in terms of marriage and the beauty of it and the purpose of it, it's all spoiled. We can't even work out what it means to be male and female anymore. I mean what it means to be male and female anymore. I mean everything has got polluted. And so how do you live with confidence, with freedom, without fear, in a city like Corinth or in a culture like ours? And what Paul wants us to understand is that we're to live not with fear but with freedom.

Speaker 1: 3:43

In the last three chapters he's been focusing on this. The last time I was here we were in chapter seven and he was talking about getting married and he said now, as a concession, not as a command, I wish that all were as I am, that is, single, and he tells us the benefits of being single and how it helps us to be able to serve the Lord. But then he says each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and of another, for he who is called as a bondservant is a freed man of the Lord. Paul says when I come to think about getting married or not getting married, you have to understand I'm a freed man. Those are choices that the Lord leaves for me to make.

Speaker 1: 4:29

And then in the very next chapter, in chapter 8, now he's talking about the food. He said food will not commend us to God. We're no worse off if we do not eat and no better off if we do. And then he applies it to himself, because some of them have been criticizing him that he would eat meats in the market that may have been dedicated to Aphrodite. And he says am I not free? Do we not have the right to eat and drink? And so Paul is pretty bold here. And he says you know, I want you to stand in your freedom and I want you to live in your freedom, and I want you to live in your freedom.

Speaker 1: 5:06

And then in the next chapter here he comes back at us again, and this time the question is whether he, as a minister of the gospel, who spends all his time sharing the gospel, is. Can he be paid by the people who he goes to so that he can keep on doing this? And he says the Lord commanded those who proclaim the gospel that they should give their living by the gospel. But then he does something remarkable. Then he says, however, yet I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make use of my right in the gospel, for though I am free from charge, so as not to make use of my right in the gospel, for though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant of all. Yes, I have every right to get paid, says Paul. But if I go into a situation where the people can't help pay me, then I won't ask for payment. I'll work with my hands. I'm making tents. If I go into a situation and the pagans are looking at me and saying, hey, let's see if he's in this for the money, I won't take any money, he said.

Speaker 1: 6:15

I am so free. I am so free that I'm willing to give away my freedom if it will be a blessing to others. It'd be a bit like you know your mom or dad tells you you can't do something. And well, you know you're still on an allowance and you haven't made it to the right age yet, so that's the end of it. But if you were really free, you would look at mom and dad and say mom and dad, I don't know if you are trusting me enough, but I know you love me and so I want you to know I'm going to go with what you say to me. That is, in the end, what it means to be truly free.

Speaker 1: 7:08

And so his principle in all this, his point, is this that I'm free. No one is going to tell me what to do. No, not really. I am free. But true freedom says I am free to bless you and to help you.

Speaker 1: 7:25

So his first point is that there is a freedom in Christ, and this is in inverted commas in your Bibles, which means he's quoting something the Corinthians say. The Corinthians say all things are lawful. And Paul basically agrees and says yes, I'm with you. Now, obviously they didn't mean that I can break the Ten Commandments, and that doesn't matter. But what they were saying is that in anything in which God has not given us a command, all things are lawful. But now here comes Paul to give us this wonderful principle All things are lawful, he says in quotes, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful, but not all things build up. Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor.

Speaker 1: 8:19

In other words, paul is saying, saying here's my new identity. I am free in Christ. That's who I am. I'm forgiven. I don't live under the condemnation of the law anymore. I live under God's grace. I am free in Christ. That is absolutely now who I am. The power of sin has been broken in my life. I'm freed from sin legally, but also, to a great extent, spiritually. Yeah, I still struggle with it. Yeah, it can still put me on the mat sometimes, but basically I'm living my life in the freedom of Christ and doing what he wants me to do. My life in the freedom of Christ and doing what he wants me to do. But here's the thing because I am free, I want to use this freedom which Christ has given to me. I want to use this freedom to turn around and to serve you and to build you up. Freedom, true freedom, leads to love.

Speaker 1: 9:31

Now, there are a couple of things that we have to say about that, however, because if you're a people pleaser. And you hear the pastor say well, you know that means you must do whatever anybody thinks you should do to build them up is not quite right. I notice that you're having elections for elders now and that's not why I included this illustration. It was in there even before, but I remember there was a man in our congregation. His name was Ray and he was always helping around the buildings and in the church and outside in the yards and helping people who were in need. And he was doing such a good job of being such a servant in the church that the church decided to reward him and nominated him to be an elder. And when I went to him and said, ray, you've been nominated to be an elder, a holy horror struck his face and he said Pastor, no, I'll do anything around the church, I'll go to anyone's house and help them, just don't ask me to be an elder. And he's right, wasn't he?

Speaker 1: 10:41

Our freedom, the way in which we love and build up, is according to our gifts and according to the graces that God gives to us. And there is a time, says Paul, when you must insist on your freedom and not back down on any circumstances. The Galatian church. When he was writing to them, there were some Jewish Christians who'd come down from Jerusalem and they said to the Galatians you know, you Gentile Christians were so glad that you accepted the Lord and all your sins are forgiven. But here's the thing, you know, you need to start keeping all the Old Testament laws, like we do. And Paul got really upset about that, because he understood that to be compromising the gospel. It's Christ plus nothing, folks. And not only did he realize that they were compromising the gospel, but, for the sake of the Galatians, they're telling the Galatian guys you know, you need to go get circumcised. And Paul says don't you dare put that burden on them. They are free. And so he comes right out to the Galatians in a situation like that, where the gospel is being compromised and others are being burdened, and he says for freedom, christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit yourself to a yoke of slavery.

Speaker 1: 12:06

Do you know who I am? I'm forgiven. Do you know who I am? I am free in Christ. Do you know who I am? I'm a son of God. Do you know who I am? I'm a daughter of the king. So guess what? Because he who was rich became poor so that I who was poor might become rich in him and in his righteousness, because that is what he has done for me and that is who I am. Therefore, for the first time in my life, I feel and I find myself free to give away my life to you and to others. See, my identity is not in what I have, not in who I am and what I am. My identity is who I am in Christ and I am free in Christ. And for the first time, therefore, says Paul, I'm free to give away myself to you and to love you. And yes, selfishness still digs in upon me. Of course it does, but he's broken the power of sin in my life. He's broken the power of selfishness in my life, though I can still do both and still struggle with them, but now I am free, and I'm free in such a way that I want to bless you and help you.

Speaker 1: 13:36

There are things in Westtown, you know, that might bother you a little bit. I don't know what they are. First service, I came up with the idea that all latecomers have to sit in the front row. You could say, westtown, I'm free in Christ, I'm not sitting on that front row. Of course you would be right, but that's not really the point, is it? Westtown is wonderful because here people know they've been forgiven of their sins. Westtown is wonderful because they know that here we're not living under the law and the condemnation of it. We're living under grace and in the power of the Holy Spirit and therefore we are free to give away our lives to each other, to bless each other and to build one another up.

Speaker 1: 14:29

So that's Paul's first principle Living in a culture where it's easy to be fearful and not know what you can do and not do is that I am in Christ, I'm free, but I'm also free to give away my life. But then he goes back to Psalm 24 and he makes a quote, and the quote is this the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. God made all things good that's what we believe and God made all things good for our good, to bless us as those who are made in his image. That's what we believe. And therefore Paul is saying when you get nervous about what you can do and what you can't do and all of that stuff that's not clearly written out in scripture, start with the principle, not that the stake says on it prime Artemis strip steak. Start with the principle. Start first here. This steak was made by God. This steak is good and this steak unless you're a vegetarian is good for me. That's where I start and that's where I will begin, because God made all things good.

Speaker 1: 16:01

And from that starting point that God made all things good, he still doesn't abdicate the fact that the human beings are able to make all pollute everything, even a steak, or marriage, or having kids, or raising kids, kids, or being male and female. I mean we can mess up everything. But because somebody can mess something up and because everybody tends to mess everything up, doesn't mean that I don't begin with the fact that the earth belongs to the Lord and he made all things good and that I truly live that and that I truly believe that. And so Paul is saying basically, look, if somebody messed up the meat, so to speak, by dedicating it to Artemius, that's their problem, that's not my problem. And guess what? That's no problem for the meat itself either, because the Lord made it. And so he comes right out and he says eat whatever is sold in the meat market, without raising any questions on the grounds of conscience, for the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. And then he says now, if one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you're disposed to go, and you go to your non-Christian's house and you see that steak and you know that it's a prime, first cut Artemis strip steak and you look at it and you look at your neighbor. Don't say to your neighbor, by the way, that steak was, you know, used in the sacrifice to Artemius, I don't think I can eat it.

Speaker 1: 17:48

Now Paul says listen, if one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you're disposed to go eat whatever is set before you without raising any questions, on the grounds of confidence, of conscience, live boldly, live confidently, knowing that the God who made you made all things good and gave it to you to enjoy. And there was an old hymn some of you who are almost as old as me can remember it. This is my father's world, and though the wrong seems off so strong, god is the ruler. Yet the battle is not done. Jesus, who died, shall be satisfied and heaven and earth be one. Know that he made it good, but know that he's also still in charge. See, that's where we get nervous, because we don't realize, seeing everything in Corinth, overwhelmed by this goddess, that God is still in charge. Dare to believe that, dare to live boldly, dare to live freely, when everybody else in the media is in an absolute panic, because God is in charge. I'll just give you one example.

Speaker 1: 19:14

Have you ever heard of the Malthusian principle? It came up by this guy called Malthus, I think his name was. It sounds close enough anyway. Came up by this guy called Malthus I think his name was. It sounds close enough anyway. And what he basically says was that you know, the world's population is multiplying exponentially, generation after generation. Before long, the world's population is going to be this huge, but, on the other hand, the world's production of food is pretty linear and therefore the production of food is going to be out of all proportion to the number of people in the world. And everybody used to panic. I can't even remember thinking myself yeah, that makes sense, that doesn't look good, does it? Well, I'm here to tell you, god's in charge of his world. Okay, china is paying people to have kids now. The growth of agriculture, the green revolution, has been exponential and the growth rate of the world is not going like this anymore. It is actually leveling off. There's even some talk that it may have declined last year.

Speaker 1: 20:26

God is in charge. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. I'm going to live my life responsibly. I'm going to live my life with proper understanding about how I should be living my life, but I'm going to live it in freedom and I'm going to live it in confidence. And I'm going to live it in confidence because I believe in God. And it's as simple as that, says Paul.

Speaker 1: 20:50

And then he comes back on one more thing. He says, however, if let's say, you invite now your Christian friend over, your Christian friend over, and you're about to serve dinner and you take out your prime artemis steak and you put it on the table and your Christian brother or sister says, oh, I can't eat, that my conscience won't allow me to eat, that I'm going to get heartburn if I eat that, paul says don't violate their conscience, you're free. Here's what he comes up and he says but if someone says to you, this has been offered in sacrifice, then do not eat it for the sake of the one who informed you, for the sake of conscience I don't mean your conscience, but his. So, once again, we're so free in Christ that we're free even to give away our freedom if he's going to love and build someone else. I mean, how hard is it to say you don't like the steak, okay, I'll put on some pasta for you.

Speaker 1: 22:01

Well, there's one more principle, however, that Paul brings up, and I love this one. And he says he's going back and he's asserting his freedom now. For why should my liberty be determined by someone else's conscience? If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks? Do you give thanks before a meal? It's a great thing to do. You don't have to do it. It's a matter of Christian freedom, right? There's no way where you're commanded you have to do it. But the principle it's again from Psalm 24. When I went back to look at it, I discovered that this is not just a Christian tradition that's been going on forever, but that it actually goes back into and among the children of Israel before Christ, that they would look at this verse in Psalm 24 and they would give thanks before a meal. And it's perfect if you think about it.

Speaker 1: 23:03

Freedom is tied to thankfulness. So if I come to a meal and I pour a glass of wine and I can raise a glass of wine and I can thank the Lord for it, then I'm free to have it. But if I pour the glass of wine and I raise it and I realize that you know what I'm an alcoholic, this thing got a hook inside of me. I can't give thanks for it. Therefore, I won't have it. And that's true of everything.

Speaker 1: 23:36

You're about to make the biggest purchase of your life. You're about to purchase a house. You think it's perfect for you, you think you can afford it, you think it's the right size, you think it's going to serve your family. Well, if you can go to sign that mortgage which is no fun, signing enough but say, lord, thank you for giving this to me, you know it's good. But if you go to sign it and you can't give thanks because you know what You're thinking, I want everybody to know how well I did last year. Look at this house I'm about to buy. If you can't give thanks to God for it, then you're no longer free. You've been taken captive.

Speaker 1: 24:23

And so this is this beautiful principle on Paul's part, and that, in whatever it is that I am receiving from the Lord, if I can give thanks, then it's good and then I am free. So I'm free in Christ, but I'm free, therefore, to love you because of all he's done for me. I am free in Christ because God is good and he made all things and he's in charge of all things, and I am free in Christ because I can give thanks for all things. And if I can't give thanks for them, I know I'm getting off track. And then he just ends very simply with the goal of the whole thing. And the goal of the whole thing, he says, is this thing. And the goal of the whole thing, he says, is this so, whatever you eat or drink or whatever you do, do to the glory of God. Listen, that's awesome. Whatever it is that we're doing, if we can say Lord, take the light off me and reflect it back onto you so that others can see how great you are. You know, you may be confident that, in the midst of this world where everything is so messed up and polluted, you know you can be sure, you can live without fear, you can live in freedom, because you know that you're doing it for God's glory.

Speaker 1: 25:43

I don't like to quote celebrities, I don't know anything about them, but I just did. You see the story this past week about Scotty Schiffler. I thought it was just magnificent. The first thing I you know I don't play golf, but I do tend to if I'm bored enough to check in on the masters once a year. But earlier in the week I saw where he said my wife is about to give birth any day. And he said and if she gives birth, I'm out of here, I'm finished with the masters. The most important thing for me is to help her and to bless her. I'm free to play the masters or not, folks. Well, what I want to do is bless her and be there for her.

Speaker 1: 26:31

And then she didn't have the baby yet and he went on to win the masters. He had um, I checked on it 9.59 million viewers and he just won 3.6 million dollars. Can you imagine how that would mess with my head If Sunday morning, I preached to 9.59 million people and I got paid $3.6 million for it? I mean I'd be the most arrogant person around, wouldn't you? And what does he do? He goes back and he finds his caddy and he says to his caddy here come you, help me win this thing. Man, you and I are going to walk up into the clubhouse together. And after he walked up in the clubhouse with him. That's love, right. That's building him up, right.

Speaker 1: 27:27

And after that he gets interviewed and here's what he says, quote my identity is secure forever. Brackets, doesn't matter whether I win the Masters or not, although I work awfully hard to win it. My identity is secure forever. And then he says I have been given a gift of this talent and I use it for God's glory. That's pretty much it. End of quote. See, that's it, isn't it. That's it perfectly.

Speaker 1: 28:06

I'm not going to be defined by how much money I make. That's going to take me captive. I'm not going to be defined by how popular I am in high school. That's already filling me with fear. I'm not going to be defined by all these things. I am who, I am in Christ and I am free and I am forgiven. And I am so free and I'm so forgiven that, the Lord being my helper, I'm going to take it and I'm going to use it and I'm going to try and bless you up and build you up.

Speaker 1: 28:40

And then Paul says it's contagious. Here's how he ends the whole passage. He says be imitators of me as I am of Christ. Paul is saying look when I realize what Christ did for me, that he forgave me of all of my sins, that he who was rich became poor so that I, who am poor, might become rich. When I realize how he served me and loved me and laid down his life for me for the first time, paul didn't matter anymore. Now I just wanted to go share the good news with everybody and give it away and build them up.

Speaker 1: 29:17

And Paul says in the same way in which Christ's love for me was so contagious, I want you to look at me and to find it to be contagious in your life, so that you'll go and do the same thing. And what we discover is that we start becoming a blessing to our husband or to our wife or to our kids, or to our parents or to our coworkers or whatever. But as we live in freedom, not fear, as we live sure that this is God's world as we live with thankfulness for all that he has given to us, then we throw out fear and we live for the glory of God to just say look how good he has been to me. He's forgiven me. That's who I am. My name is forgiven. Look how good he has been to me. He's forgiven me. That's who I am.

Speaker 1: 30:11

My name is forgiven. Look how good he has been to me. Can I tell you about him, please, and help build you up one another here this morning? You don't know what it means to be forgiven yet. This is your moment. Okay, just come to the Lord and say take away all my sins, take away all my fears. Help me to understand that you're in charge. Teach me now to start living my life in thankfulness to you and out of gratitude for all that you have done. Lord, we give you our thanks and we seek in all things to bring you the glory for what you have done.