Corinthian Barbeque

Prayer in Preparation for Worship:  God of light and truth, you are beyond our grasp of conceiving.  

Ephesus

Before the brightness of your presence the angels veil their faces.  With lowly reverence and adoring love we acclaim your glory and sing your praise, for you have shown us your truth and love in Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

Prayer of Confession:  Lord, through Your Son, You have given us a gift beyond our imagination, the promise of eternal life.  Because of that, we can know that our future is secure.  We can declare with the Apostle Paul that nothing will ever separate us from Your love.  In spite of that, Lord, we often do not live as if You had made our future certain.  We let worry and fear control us and miss the joy that You long to see overflow our lives.  Help us to live as people whose future is assured.  Help us to let Your joy fill us and overflow into our world.  In Jesus name we pray.  AMEN.

I Corinthians 8: Now I will write about meat that is sacrificed to idols. We know that “we all have knowledge.” Knowledge puffs you up with pride, but love builds up. ² If you think you know something, you do not yet know anything as you should. ³ But if any person loves God, that person is known by God. ⁴ So this is what I say about eating meat sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is really nothing in the world, and we know there is only one God. 

⁵ Even though there are things called gods, in heaven or on earth (and there are many “gods” and “lords”), ⁶ for us there is only one God—our Father. All things came from him, and we live for him. And there is only one Lord—Jesus Christ. All things were made through him, and we also were made through him.

⁷ But not all people know this. Some people are still so used to idols that when they eat meat, they still think of it as being sacrificed to an idol. Because their conscience is weak, when they eat it, they feel guilty. ⁸ But food will not bring us closer to God. Refusing to eat does not make us less pleasing to God, and eating does not make us better in God’s sight.

⁹ But be careful that your freedom does not cause those who are weak in faith to fall into sin. ¹⁰ Suppose one of you who has knowledge eats in an idol’s temple.^[a] Someone who is weak in faith might see you eating there and be encouraged to eat meat sacrificed to idols while thinking it is wrong to do so. ¹¹ This weak believer for whom Christ died is ruined because of your “knowledge.” ¹² When you sin against your brothers and sisters in Christ like this and cause them to do what they feel is wrong, you are also sinning against Christ. ¹³ So if the food I eat causes them to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again so that I will not cause any of them to sin.

To listen to the sermon from May 24-25, Click here.