WEBVTT 00:00:01.280 --> 00:00:06.480 The sermon text reading for today is 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verses 14 through 22. 00:00:07.679 --> 00:00:11.599 You can find this passage in the Sanctuary Bible on page 1742. 00:00:13.119 --> 00:00:14.960 Please listen as I read God's Word. 00:00:17.199 --> 00:00:20.480 Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. 00:00:21.359 --> 00:00:22.960 I speak to sensible people. 00:00:23.359 --> 00:00:24.960 Judge for yourselves what I say. 00:00:26.160 --> 00:00:31.359 Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? 00:00:32.479 --> 00:00:36.320 And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? 00:00:37.759 --> 00:00:44.000 Because there is one loaf, we who are many are one body, for we all share the one loaf. 00:00:45.439 --> 00:00:47.359 Consider the people of Israel. 00:00:48.399 --> 00:00:51.920 Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar? 00:00:53.119 --> 00:00:58.640 Do I mean then that food sacrificed to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? 00:00:59.920 --> 00:01:04.560 No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God. 00:01:05.040 --> 00:01:08.159 And I do not want you to be participants with demons. 00:01:09.200 --> 00:01:12.799 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons, too. 00:01:13.519 --> 00:01:17.840 You cannot have a part in both the Lord's table and the table of demons. 00:01:19.040 --> 00:01:22.079 Are we trying to arouse the Lord's jealousy? 00:01:23.359 --> 00:01:25.040 Are we stronger than he? 00:01:26.319 --> 00:01:27.519 Here ends the reading. 00:01:36.319 --> 00:01:43.599 If I have not yet had the chance to meet you, my name is John, and I get to serve as the lead pastor here at Elmwood. 00:01:44.079 --> 00:01:46.239 Grateful to be together with you this morning. 00:01:46.560 --> 00:01:50.400 I don't know where you come from this morning or this week, all of you. 00:01:50.640 --> 00:02:02.719 Some of you have come out of great weeks, some of you have come out of difficulty, and uh no matter where you come from this morning and no matter what you're carrying with you, uh, we know that uh you're not here by accident. 00:02:02.879 --> 00:02:11.680 And so we uh trust God that he is going to speak to each one of us here this morning in the right way, and so we trust him for that. 00:02:11.840 --> 00:02:22.159 Uh if you are newer to Elmwood, uh whether this is your first time here or whether you are new-ish to Elmwood, uh, I want to invite you to something coming up in just a few Sundays called the Welcome Party. 00:02:22.319 --> 00:02:27.759 So on Sunday, June 7th, it's going to be right back in the fireside room, back through those uh glass doors there. 00:02:27.919 --> 00:02:33.360 It's just a chance to connect with other people who are new to Elmwood and learn about some next steps and ways to get connected. 00:02:33.439 --> 00:02:44.080 And so if you are newer to Elmwood, we'd love for you to join us and meet some other folks who are newer to Elmwood and uh some of our ministry leaders and others here at the church. 00:02:45.919 --> 00:02:50.800 With that, let me invite you to join me in a word of prayer as we come to these verses today. 00:02:59.840 --> 00:03:05.360 God, especially with a passage like this, we come to you confessing that we need your help. 00:03:08.159 --> 00:03:18.080 Sometimes there's things that we come across in the Bible that feel so foreign to us, and sometimes it uh feels difficult to understand. 00:03:18.240 --> 00:03:21.840 And so, God, we ask that you would be our teacher this morning. 00:03:22.800 --> 00:03:30.560 I ask God that you would take these words that I have prepared and that you would cause them to land on good soil. 00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:43.680 Lord, I ask that you would help all of us here to leave today, not just understanding what this passage says, but responding with a heart of gratitude for what you've done for us in Jesus. 00:03:45.520 --> 00:03:48.080 God provide each one of us here today exactly what we need. 00:03:49.280 --> 00:03:50.960 And as always, we look to you for these things. 00:03:51.919 --> 00:03:53.039 Pray this in Jesus' name. 00:03:53.680 --> 00:03:54.319 Amen. 00:03:56.319 --> 00:04:01.439 Uh we have been in a series of messages going through the letter that we call 1 Corinthians. 00:04:01.520 --> 00:04:05.520 We have today and next week, and then we'll be taking a break for the summer. 00:04:05.680 --> 00:04:18.319 I'm taking a eight-week sabbatical this summer, so I'll be gone, and we'll be going on to some other message series during the summer, and then we'll come back to pick up in chapter 11 at some point in the future. 00:04:18.480 --> 00:04:35.199 But we've been in this series looking at this letter that we call 1 Corinthians, and it's a letter where the man named Paul, who planted or established this church community in the city of Corinth, he's writing letters back and forth with them to address a number of problems that exist in this church community. 00:04:35.600 --> 00:04:42.000 If you spend any time reading this book, you pretty quickly realize that this is kind of a messed-up church. 00:04:42.399 --> 00:04:56.720 They're wrestling with and dealing with all sorts of different things, and Paul is writing to them in order to help them see how the good news about Jesus is what changes and transforms those different areas of their life. 00:04:56.959 --> 00:05:20.319 So he's showing them how the good news is the solution to all of these different problems that they face, whether it's uh sin or idolatry or whatever the problems are that they face, he points them to Jesus and how seeing and truly believing the good news of the gospel, of who Jesus is and what he's done for us, is the answer, is how they can experience life transformation and life change. 00:05:20.480 --> 00:05:22.879 So that's what this letter is really about. 00:05:23.680 --> 00:05:27.680 And we have been in this section in chapters eight through ten. 00:05:28.160 --> 00:05:45.920 And uh, in this part of the letter, chapters eight through ten form one sort of unit in the letter, and it's here that uh he's been talking about some things that to us can feel culturally foreign, but as we've been seeing and as we'll see today, are very relevant to our modern context as well. 00:05:46.399 --> 00:06:00.720 So, what I want to do today is I want to look at this passage you heard read and try and pull back some of the layers to get to sort of the the heart or the core of what Paul is talking about and addressing within this church community. 00:06:00.879 --> 00:06:10.319 So, on the surface, as we have been talking about, what we see is that what Paul's addressing is this that they are consuming food sacrificed to idols. 00:06:10.480 --> 00:06:17.680 This is where it feels really weird and foreign to us, because we just don't have this type of thing in our cultural environment, at least in the same way. 00:06:17.839 --> 00:06:25.360 But some of those who were members of the Church of Corinth were going to participate in what are called idol feasts. 00:06:25.600 --> 00:06:45.360 So, what happened was there were these banquets that would take place in these temples to other gods, the gods of the Roman Empire, and these Corinthians were going to banquets that were hosted inside of those temples, and they were consuming food that had been offered in sacrifice to the gods of that temple. 00:06:45.600 --> 00:06:51.360 And so Paul is writing to them in this section of the letter saying, guys, you can't do this. 00:06:51.759 --> 00:06:55.920 You must not participate in these idol feasts. 00:06:56.000 --> 00:07:06.000 Not because the food is bad, you know, not because the meat is undercooked or doesn't taste good, but because in doing so, they are participating in idolatry. 00:07:06.160 --> 00:07:07.519 And so this is the second level down. 00:07:07.680 --> 00:07:13.199 So on the surface, he's talking about food sacrifice to idols, but that's not really the main issue. 00:07:13.439 --> 00:07:27.360 Beneath the surface of that is the issue of idolatry, where he's saying you cannot be present and participate in this kind of thing without having a share in what is actually happening. 00:07:28.319 --> 00:07:43.279 He says that by participating in these idol feasts and consuming of this food that's been sacrificed to idols, he says that they are actually joining in and participating in the idolatry that's taking place in that temple. 00:07:43.600 --> 00:07:51.120 So they're eating food that's offered in sacrifice to idols, but underneath that is what's really happening is idolatry. 00:07:51.279 --> 00:08:00.240 But we can go one level deeper, and this is what we see in our passage today, where Paul tells us that in idolatry, their allegiance is divided. 00:08:01.519 --> 00:08:06.800 In their idolatry, their allegiance, their loyalty is being divided. 00:08:07.759 --> 00:08:18.959 So, Paul, as we look at these verses, what we see today is that he wants the Corinthians and he wants us to see the allegiance dividing power of idolatry. 00:08:19.600 --> 00:08:23.040 The allegiance dividing power of idolatry. 00:08:23.120 --> 00:08:26.959 That's what we're going to spend our time thinking about and exploring today. 00:08:27.439 --> 00:08:48.080 And I think the place we need to start as we come to a passage like this that can feel so culturally foreign to us with maybe ideas or practices that don't make any sense to us is I think it's it's helpful for us to sort of pull back a little bit and begin by looking at the the principle that is behind Paul's thinking here. 00:08:48.320 --> 00:08:55.679 Okay, and that principle is this God demands and he deserves our total allegiance. 00:08:56.159 --> 00:09:10.399 Now, Paul doesn't explicitly say those words in this passage, but he doesn't have to, because we know that Paul was he was thoroughly steeped in the Hebrew Bible, which is what we call the Old Testament. 00:09:10.639 --> 00:09:23.600 And because the Old Testament is steeped with this idea that God both demands and deserves our total allegiance, we know that this is something that was just in Paul's mind, in sort of in the background as he was writing this. 00:09:24.080 --> 00:09:33.919 Now, this is uh this idea that God both demands and deserves our allegiance and our loyalty is something that is uh it's all over the entire Bible. 00:09:34.159 --> 00:09:44.080 But there's uh one place I want to bring you to uh briefly to show you uh maybe the clearest and most well-known example of this, and then we actually find it in the Ten Commandments. 00:09:44.320 --> 00:10:02.320 So the Ten Commandments are found in the book of Exodus, and it's in the book of Exodus we see that God uh delivered his people from slavery in Egypt, he brought them to Mount Sinai in the wilderness, and he brought them there so that he could enter into a covenant relationship with them. 00:10:02.559 --> 00:10:06.159 He entered into a covenant partnership with them. 00:10:06.559 --> 00:10:25.679 And at Mount Sinai, he entered that relationship, he committed himself to them, and then the expectation on the other side of that was that they would express their exclusive loyalty only to him. 00:10:26.240 --> 00:10:28.720 And we see this in commandment number one. 00:10:29.039 --> 00:10:36.559 Okay, you don't have to read far in the Ten Commandments to find this, where the first commandment is, you shall have no other gods before me. 00:10:37.919 --> 00:10:47.840 Now, in the ancient world, it was normal and it was even expected that you would offer sacrifices to multiple different gods for multiple different reasons. 00:10:48.080 --> 00:10:52.720 So each city and each region had its own set of gods or deities. 00:10:52.960 --> 00:11:03.679 There were gods for work and for different areas of vocation, and gods for things like fertility and for wealth and for gods of war and gods of, you know, for just about everything. 00:11:03.840 --> 00:11:09.759 And so this was this was the cultural and religious air that the people breathed. 00:11:09.919 --> 00:11:18.480 And so it was just expected, it was normal that everyone offered sacrifices to numerous different gods depending on what you wanted to get from those gods. 00:11:18.960 --> 00:11:20.879 So that was the world that they lived in. 00:11:21.120 --> 00:11:34.000 No one in the ancient world had just one God, but Yahweh, the God of the Bible, demanded the exclusive allegiance of those who were in relationship with him. 00:11:34.320 --> 00:11:39.440 He said, You will have no other gods besides me. 00:11:41.600 --> 00:11:49.519 Not only did he demand their exclusive worship and allegiance, he also, the Bible says, deserves it. 00:11:52.000 --> 00:11:58.879 The Bible says that God created us not because he was lonely or in need of something from us. 00:11:59.120 --> 00:12:10.080 You know, it's not like God was caught up in a kind of cosmic boredom and he, you know, felt like he'd, you know, needed some affirmation, and so he'd create some people that would, you know, worship him and say nice things. 00:12:10.399 --> 00:12:34.480 No, the Bible says God did not create us because he needed something or because he was lonely or because he was bored, but it was out of the overflow of his triune love that he created us so that we could share in the goodness of his created world and to have part of and to share in the very life and love of the triune God, Father, Son, and Spirit that has existed for all of eternity. 00:12:34.639 --> 00:12:36.559 That is why God created us. 00:12:36.720 --> 00:12:50.480 And the Bible, the whole story of the Bible shows us time and time again that he is loving, and that he is compassionate, and that he is kind and he is generous, and he is good, and he is just and he is faithful. 00:12:50.799 --> 00:13:10.320 And every single story you come across in the Bible, I guess some of them are confusing, some of them it can be difficult maybe to see this, but every single one of the stories we come across in the Bible tells us another reason why he is worthy, why he deserves our allegiance, and why he deserves our loyalty. 00:13:10.480 --> 00:13:12.799 Every single story tells us. 00:13:13.840 --> 00:13:27.600 So not only does he demand our worship, because he created us and we belong to him and he owns us, not only does he demand our worship, the Bible also says that he deserves it. 00:13:28.080 --> 00:13:43.279 And that's the that's the principle that sort of is is underneath the surface of what Paul is writing here, and it's with that in mind that we can understand why Paul is so concerned about the idolatry of those who are in the city of Corinth. 00:13:44.879 --> 00:13:48.639 And it's because idolatry divides our allegiance. 00:13:49.840 --> 00:13:51.600 That's what idolatry does. 00:13:53.360 --> 00:13:55.600 Idolatry divides our allegiance. 00:13:55.679 --> 00:13:58.559 Uh, we see this in these uh verses here. 00:13:58.720 --> 00:14:00.960 Let me look into this with you. 00:14:01.120 --> 00:14:05.360 So this passage that you heard read this morning is uh it falls into two parts. 00:14:05.600 --> 00:14:10.159 There's verses 14 to 17, and then verses 18 through 21. 00:14:10.240 --> 00:14:16.480 And there's a word, maybe you were you heard this as the text was being read, there's a word that is repeated uh many times. 00:14:16.639 --> 00:14:22.240 I think it's five in these verses, and it's a word that ties it all together, and it's the word participation. 00:14:23.279 --> 00:14:28.639 Participation is the word that is repeated throughout this. 00:14:28.879 --> 00:14:38.399 And what Paul is doing in these two sort of uh sets of verses here is he's comparing, he's making a comparison between two different meals. 00:14:38.720 --> 00:14:39.679 Did you hear that? 00:14:40.080 --> 00:14:41.120 When it was read? 00:14:41.279 --> 00:14:46.320 So in verse 16 and 17, he says this. 00:14:47.120 --> 00:14:52.960 He says, Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? 00:14:53.279 --> 00:14:58.159 And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? 00:14:58.480 --> 00:15:04.879 Because there is one loaf, we who are many are one body, for we all share one loaf. 00:15:05.120 --> 00:15:06.080 So here's what he's doing. 00:15:06.159 --> 00:15:18.799 He's he's pointing us to the Lord's table or to the communion meal, which we have to remember was uh in the first entry world, it was not a small little cup of juice and a cracker, it was a full meal. 00:15:18.960 --> 00:15:21.039 It was based on the Passover meal. 00:15:21.279 --> 00:15:28.720 And so he points to the Lord's table or to this communion meal, and he says, At this meal, food and drink are consumed. 00:15:29.679 --> 00:15:35.759 And the result of that consumption of food and drink is that there's participation that happens. 00:15:36.000 --> 00:15:38.399 He says there's participation with Christ. 00:15:38.559 --> 00:15:42.399 He says, When you drink the cup, you're participating in the blood of Christ. 00:15:42.639 --> 00:15:46.879 When you eat the bread, you're participating in the body of Christ. 00:15:47.120 --> 00:15:52.639 So food and drink are consumed, and the result of that is participation. 00:15:53.759 --> 00:16:15.600 Then in verse 20, he describes a different meal, and he's talking about the these idol feasts that these Corinthians were participating in, and he says this in verse 20: the sacrifices of pagans, that is, those who are not Jewish, who don't worship the God of the Jewish people, the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God. 00:16:15.759 --> 00:16:19.039 And I do not want you to be participants with demons. 00:16:19.279 --> 00:16:22.720 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too. 00:16:22.879 --> 00:16:27.759 You cannot have a part in both the Lord's table and the table of demons. 00:16:29.120 --> 00:16:34.799 So he points to a different meal, which is the idol feast that they're participating in. 00:16:35.039 --> 00:16:38.879 And notice he says that the same exact things are true of both of these meals. 00:16:39.039 --> 00:16:46.639 On the one hand, the Lord's table, he says, food and drink are consumed, participation is the result, and he says, the same is true with these idol feasts. 00:16:47.360 --> 00:16:53.360 Food and drink is consumed, and the result is participation, but the object is different. 00:16:53.919 --> 00:17:04.079 They're not participating in or being joined to uh God or Christ, they're being uh joined to uh demons, he says. 00:17:04.240 --> 00:17:06.960 Uh uh demonic spiritual forces. 00:17:07.119 --> 00:17:16.000 Uh uh What is what is this word, this word participation that he uses? 00:17:16.079 --> 00:17:20.000 It says you have participation with Christ, you have participation with with these demons. 00:17:20.160 --> 00:17:21.519 Uh what does that even mean? 00:17:22.480 --> 00:17:27.440 Uh let me just uh do my best to try and uh uh get to the root of this. 00:17:27.519 --> 00:17:40.640 Uh the Greek word that is underneath that English translation of the word participation, which the NIV does a great job of translating the same word with the same English word, so you can see that this is the same thing he's talking about. 00:17:40.799 --> 00:17:41.119 Okay. 00:17:41.599 --> 00:17:46.799 So the Greek word underneath the English word participation is a word that some of you have have heard of before. 00:17:46.880 --> 00:17:48.319 It's the Greek word koinania. 00:17:49.039 --> 00:17:54.000 And this is a word that uh it sort of its generic sense, it means fellowship. 00:17:54.240 --> 00:18:05.839 And so sometimes in the Bible you'll you'll see this translated as fellowship, and that's a good translation, except for the fact that most of us think of like surface-level social gatherings when we hear the word fellowship. 00:18:06.000 --> 00:18:06.319 Okay? 00:18:06.480 --> 00:18:15.839 And for those of us who maybe grew up in the church, we think of, well, fellowship is like when you get together and there's cookies and there's tea and there's things like this, and you just kind of hang out with people. 00:18:16.000 --> 00:18:24.240 And it's a sort of surface-level social interaction, and that's sort of what comes to our minds when we think of fellowship, but it's so much deeper than that. 00:18:24.720 --> 00:18:28.640 So uh let me just try and put some uh visuals to this. 00:18:28.720 --> 00:18:40.480 Uh when you go to the state fair, if you're a state fair person, and you go to the state fair, you are there in that same space with like a million people all at the same time. 00:18:40.799 --> 00:18:44.720 And there is no koinania that you share with those people. 00:18:45.119 --> 00:18:45.440 Okay? 00:18:46.160 --> 00:18:52.559 You're in close proximity to all these people, but the only thing you share is a love for large crowds and overpriced food. 00:18:52.640 --> 00:18:52.960 Okay? 00:18:53.119 --> 00:18:54.400 That's all the state fair is. 00:18:54.640 --> 00:18:56.799 Kidding, it's better than whatever. 00:18:57.359 --> 00:19:05.599 I've offended all the state fair people, so there's no koinania at the state fair. 00:19:06.319 --> 00:19:22.480 But on the other hand, think about it like this the relationships that are forged when you take a road trip across the country with friends from high school, in that road trip environment, koinania happens. 00:19:23.440 --> 00:19:26.160 I want to show you a picture from uh when I did this. 00:19:26.319 --> 00:19:29.920 This uh goes way back into the you know the annals of John's life. 00:19:30.079 --> 00:19:32.079 You could see what I was like in high school, okay? 00:19:32.240 --> 00:19:38.559 Uh so I took a road trip with some of my friends and we left at like five in the morning. 00:19:38.799 --> 00:19:42.880 So it was miserable, everyone was tired, I took the first shift of driving. 00:19:43.039 --> 00:19:46.400 So we're driving, and everyone else in the car is sleeping. 00:19:46.559 --> 00:19:49.359 And so, what did high school me think was a good idea? 00:19:49.519 --> 00:19:51.279 Was to take this picture. 00:19:53.359 --> 00:19:54.799 All three of us are sleeping. 00:19:54.880 --> 00:19:56.240 We're not, because I had to take the picture. 00:19:56.400 --> 00:19:58.079 I close my eyes for a second, okay? 00:19:58.240 --> 00:20:02.400 We were in Iowa, so even if I drove off the road, we wouldn't have hit anything, anyways. 00:20:02.640 --> 00:20:08.640 So it's not like it was all that unsafe, but that's the kind of stuff uh high school me did. 00:20:08.720 --> 00:20:13.599 And those dudes who are sleeping in the car, some of those guys I still talk to and hang out with. 00:20:13.839 --> 00:20:22.720 There's a kind of uh bond, uh a relationship, a partnership that you experience through an experience like that. 00:20:22.880 --> 00:20:25.119 Or think about college roommates. 00:20:25.440 --> 00:20:35.680 The people that you uh get to be college roommates with, some of you either do now or will one day still vacation with those college roommates 10 years after the fact. 00:20:35.839 --> 00:20:38.240 That's koinania that you have with them. 00:20:39.039 --> 00:20:48.880 Think about someone who was by your side the entire time through a crisis, who is with you, maybe when others weren't. 00:20:49.200 --> 00:20:54.960 You share a bond with that person, a kind of fellowship, a koinanea with that person. 00:20:55.599 --> 00:20:58.160 So that's really what is at the heart of this. 00:20:58.400 --> 00:21:00.480 It's it's a relational connection. 00:21:00.640 --> 00:21:05.599 It's more than just we occupy the same space, it's a it's a kind of partnership. 00:21:06.000 --> 00:21:07.680 A bond is created between you. 00:21:07.759 --> 00:21:08.960 That's what koinanea is. 00:21:09.119 --> 00:21:15.039 And the Bible says we were designed for, we were created for koinanea with God. 00:21:16.079 --> 00:21:23.200 We were designed for relationship, for that level of intimacy and fellowship with Him. 00:21:23.359 --> 00:21:34.480 And what Paul is trying to help these Corinthians see here is that by participating in idolatry, they are offering themselves in koinonia to demons. 00:21:36.480 --> 00:21:47.599 By offering themselves, by participating in idolatry, they are offering themselves willingly in a kind of fellowship and participation with that which is opposed to God. 00:21:48.400 --> 00:21:51.599 That's what he says is taking place here. 00:21:53.039 --> 00:22:01.680 And he says, You share fellowship with Christ when you participate in this meal, when you participate in this kind of thing, you Share participation. 00:22:02.799 --> 00:22:09.039 You're forging participation with demonic spiritual forces by participating in this kind of idolatry. 00:22:13.279 --> 00:22:22.319 He makes it very clear that they cannot share in the table of the Lord and the table of demons at the same time. 00:22:23.039 --> 00:22:24.319 You can't have both. 00:22:25.920 --> 00:22:29.200 And this idolatry is dividing their allegiance. 00:22:29.440 --> 00:22:32.880 He's saying, you're not just being you're not loyal to me. 00:22:33.839 --> 00:22:39.680 You're becoming loyal to these things over here instead of me. 00:22:42.400 --> 00:22:51.440 God demands and he deserves our total allegiance, and idolatry divides that allegiance. 00:22:53.200 --> 00:23:06.480 And this is why Paul is so spend so much time trying to address this with this church in Corinth, because by participating in idolatry, they are sabotaging the very thing for which they were created. 00:23:06.960 --> 00:23:17.200 They were created for fellowship and for relationship with God, and they are forging relationship with something else through this idolatry, and he won't let them do it. 00:23:20.720 --> 00:23:30.720 What's important for us to remember as we read this is that what Paul talks about here with this food sacrifice to idols, this is one example of idolatry. 00:23:30.880 --> 00:23:31.200 Okay? 00:23:31.519 --> 00:23:44.240 Keep this in mind, because if you're like me, your instinct, when you read a passage about eating food that's been sacrificed to an idol in a temple, you're like, next page, please, what does this have to do with me? 00:23:44.400 --> 00:23:45.680 I don't feel tempted to do that. 00:23:45.759 --> 00:23:47.119 This has nothing to do with me. 00:23:47.359 --> 00:23:50.480 And so it feels like this is sort of irrelevant for us. 00:23:51.599 --> 00:23:55.519 But the reality is that it is not irrelevant for us. 00:23:56.400 --> 00:24:03.440 If you've been around Elmwood for just about any length of time, you know that we talk about idolatry uh somewhat regularly. 00:24:03.839 --> 00:24:09.279 And uh we we we try to come back to sort of the heart and the essence of what idolatry actually is. 00:24:09.440 --> 00:24:32.799 Because in the modern Western world, we tend to immediately dismiss the idea that like we ever commit idolatry because we've sort of narrowly defined it as, well, it's when you bow down to statues that are idols, or it's when you, you know, like them, you you go to these feasts, you know, or it's when you use a Ouija board, or it's when you do tarot cards or whatever the thing is that you might associate with that, and we think, well, I don't do that. 00:24:32.960 --> 00:24:37.680 So therefore, idolatry isn't a thing that is important for me, it's not a thing that I need to think about. 00:24:38.000 --> 00:24:51.039 But what we regularly try to do is come back to the essence of what idolatry is and be reminded that idolatry is not first about, you know, offering ourselves in, you know, prostrating ourselves before little statues. 00:24:51.279 --> 00:24:55.839 It's treasuring anything in creation above the creator. 00:24:56.160 --> 00:24:58.400 That's the heart of what idolatry is. 00:24:58.720 --> 00:25:04.640 So uh idolatry is not first a matter of our behavior, it's first a matter of our heart. 00:25:04.960 --> 00:25:10.720 Sin and idolatry cannot narrowly be defined as when you do bad things. 00:25:11.119 --> 00:25:16.400 Idolatry is first a matter of misplaced worship, misplaced affection. 00:25:16.480 --> 00:25:23.759 It's looking to something that is not God to provide for you what only God can and is designed to provide for you. 00:25:23.920 --> 00:25:25.200 And that's what idolatry is. 00:25:25.279 --> 00:25:32.400 And if that's what idolatry is, it means that this whole conversation about what Paul says here is not off the table for us. 00:25:32.640 --> 00:25:34.960 It's not irrelevant for us. 00:25:37.200 --> 00:25:43.839 The connection that I think uh this helps us make in the modern world is this. 00:25:44.559 --> 00:25:53.119 When we choose idolatry, we allow the allegiance dividing influence of demonic forces into our lives. 00:25:54.880 --> 00:26:03.039 Now, you may be thinking to yourself, uh, that's some good pastoral hyperbole right there. 00:26:03.839 --> 00:26:04.480 You know? 00:26:04.960 --> 00:26:08.480 Uh you may think that when Paul writes this, you're like, man, just calm down. 00:26:08.720 --> 00:26:10.319 Everything's gonna be fine. 00:26:10.480 --> 00:26:11.680 It's not as bad as you think. 00:26:11.920 --> 00:26:15.599 Like, just don't make this into a bigger thing than it is. 00:26:17.519 --> 00:26:24.160 I I would like to make the case, just like very briefly, that I'm not making this out to be something bigger than it is. 00:26:24.319 --> 00:26:35.359 I promise you, it is every time I stand up here, I fight against making things bigger than they need to be, because that's how you can get a point across, but it often isn't helpful. 00:26:35.599 --> 00:26:38.559 Okay, so I don't want to make this to be a bigger thing than it is. 00:26:38.720 --> 00:26:44.799 I just think the text makes us realize that this is a bigger thing than we oftentimes think it is. 00:26:46.480 --> 00:27:01.519 The Bible says that there is a spiritual dimension to our world that we cannot see with our naked eyes, but that is as real as the material things that we are able to see. 00:27:01.759 --> 00:27:06.319 And within that spiritual world, there are spiritual beings that exist. 00:27:08.000 --> 00:27:18.720 And some of those spiritual beings have rebelled against God, live in opposition to God and to his purposes, and the Bible names those spiritual beings. 00:27:19.359 --> 00:27:22.400 It says that those spiritual beings are called demons. 00:27:22.720 --> 00:27:30.400 And we see all throughout the Bible, we see in the ministry of Jesus, he's uh sort of driving back these demonic spiritual forces. 00:27:34.000 --> 00:27:43.920 These demons, as they're called in the Bible, are in the most literal sense of the word, they are anti-Christ, meaning they are against Christ. 00:27:44.079 --> 00:27:48.720 They are against God, they are against his purposes in the world, they are against you. 00:27:49.440 --> 00:27:58.000 If you belong to God, even if you're here today and you're not a follower of Jesus, those demonic spiritual forces would love to keep you from knowing the one who created you. 00:27:58.240 --> 00:28:02.720 They would love to ruin your life and to shipwreck you. 00:28:03.759 --> 00:28:09.759 Those demonic spiritual forces have some amount of influence in our world, the Bible says. 00:28:10.240 --> 00:28:19.599 And what Paul is getting at here is that when we choose idolatry, we surrender to those, to that demonic influence. 00:28:21.039 --> 00:28:35.839 When we choose idolatry, our allegiance with God and other things is divided, it's fractured, and in doing so, we give ourselves in a kind of partnership with that which opposes God. 00:28:36.160 --> 00:28:38.960 That's what's taking place when we commit idolatry. 00:28:39.200 --> 00:28:42.640 And so this is no small thing that he is getting at here. 00:28:42.720 --> 00:28:48.480 So just think about this uh the example of the idolatry of approval. 00:28:48.640 --> 00:28:54.319 Okay, this is one of those uh very ubiquitous. 00:28:54.400 --> 00:28:55.519 It's it's it's everywhere. 00:28:55.680 --> 00:28:57.440 The idolatry of approval. 00:28:58.400 --> 00:28:58.720 Right? 00:28:58.880 --> 00:29:06.319 We are hardwired by God to desire people to see us and to know us and to affirm us. 00:29:06.559 --> 00:29:08.240 It's built into us by God. 00:29:08.400 --> 00:29:16.960 And we are designed so that God is the one whose voice over us is supposed to have the final say in what we actually believe is true about us. 00:29:17.680 --> 00:29:26.000 But so often we find ourselves because God's voice maybe doesn't feel as we don't often feel it in the same way we feel when someone else says something nice about us. 00:29:26.079 --> 00:29:32.960 We end up looking to other people and to other places for that sense and that source of approval. 00:29:34.720 --> 00:29:41.680 And the evil one wants nothing more than for you to treasure human approval over God's. 00:29:43.839 --> 00:30:08.960 Those demonic spiritual forces want nothing more than for you to doubt his love for you, and to doubt his affection for you, and to doubt the affirmation that he has spoken over you in Christ, they want nothing more than to lead you to question what God has spoken and to question what God has made clear. 00:30:13.119 --> 00:30:40.480 Paul is saying here that when we feel the pull of the idolatry of approval, and you could enter any other form of idolatry here, okay, there's idolatry of money and possessions and security and safety and approval and politics and pleasure, and there's all sorts of other things where we look to those things to provide for us, but only God can. 00:30:40.559 --> 00:30:57.599 And Paul is saying that anytime we look to something besides God, any time we commit idolatry, we can be certain that that pull we feel is demonically inspired. 00:30:58.400 --> 00:31:06.240 That there are demonic spiritual forces that would love to lead you away from the one who loves you, that would love to lead you away from Christ. 00:31:10.880 --> 00:31:27.440 If we take what Paul says seriously, it means that when we idolize something like approval or whatever else it is, we are allowing that allegiance, dividing influence of those demonic spiritual forces to be at work in our lives. 00:31:28.160 --> 00:31:32.079 We give them room to take up residence. 00:31:34.079 --> 00:31:40.799 When we feast at the table of idolatry, whatever brand of idolatry you find yourself most drawn to. 00:31:42.079 --> 00:31:47.200 When we feast at the table of idolatry, we surrender to something that is by nature demonic. 00:31:47.440 --> 00:31:51.440 It is opposed to God and his purposes in the world. 00:31:52.160 --> 00:31:58.640 We give ourselves in koinonia to those things that are opposed to God. 00:31:59.359 --> 00:32:02.000 That's what idolatry is, that's what idolatry does. 00:32:02.160 --> 00:32:06.079 And the scary part about this whole thing is that this stuff is so subtle, isn't it? 00:32:07.119 --> 00:32:26.000 You know, when we think of uh our interaction with things that we would consider maybe demonic, you know, you may have in your mind, like you think of the exorcism movie, and like, well, people's heads are gonna spin around and furniture is gonna fly across the room and lights are gonna turn on and off by themselves, and you think like, well, that's what demonic activity looks like. 00:32:26.559 --> 00:32:44.480 And Paul is saying, do you realize that when you give your affections to something or someone besides God, that is a demonically inspired thing that you're doing, and you're participating in something that is by nature opposed to God and his ways in the world and his plan for you? 00:32:47.839 --> 00:32:49.599 It's not just the crazy stuff. 00:32:53.119 --> 00:32:54.799 So, what do we do with all this? 00:32:55.519 --> 00:33:00.799 Uh the answer that Paul gives us here in verse 14 is pretty clear. 00:33:01.200 --> 00:33:03.200 He says, flee from idolatry. 00:33:04.960 --> 00:33:06.160 Flee from it. 00:33:09.279 --> 00:33:12.160 Pretty much no one flees from something that's good. 00:33:13.680 --> 00:33:18.799 You flee from things that are dangerous, you flee from things that will threaten you. 00:33:19.839 --> 00:33:21.839 And Paul's telling us, flee from this. 00:33:21.920 --> 00:33:27.759 You have to recognize the danger that exists in giving yourself to these things. 00:33:29.279 --> 00:33:33.359 We must take it seriously and we must flee from it. 00:33:33.519 --> 00:33:36.240 And as we do so, there's there's two sides to that. 00:33:36.799 --> 00:33:41.039 So the first side is that we flee from idolatry. 00:33:41.519 --> 00:33:43.440 Okay, obviously, he says it here. 00:33:43.599 --> 00:33:44.640 Flee from it. 00:33:44.880 --> 00:34:05.839 And what that means is that we need to continually become the kinds of people who are vigilant, the kinds of people who are thoughtful and honest about ourselves and about our motives and about the condition of our hearts and the things that our hearts are drawn to, and the degree to which we love those things. 00:34:06.240 --> 00:34:17.119 We have to be the kinds of people who do the hard work, and it is hard work of identifying idolatry where it exists in our lives, not if it exists in our lives. 00:34:17.920 --> 00:34:29.039 We have to identify it, we have to uproot it, we have to kill it, we have to fight it at any time we see it, and at any cost, we must fight against it because it will ruin us. 00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:32.880 And so we have to be people who flee from idolatry. 00:34:33.039 --> 00:34:41.599 We have to be the kind of people that will be willing to ask ourselves questions like In what ways is my loyalty divided? 00:34:43.039 --> 00:34:45.920 What are the things that I love too much? 00:34:48.079 --> 00:34:55.679 In what areas do I feel most tempted to find what I need in the creation rather than the creator? 00:34:57.039 --> 00:35:02.400 So, yes, we have to flee from idolatry, but this is not a this is not a just flee from something. 00:35:02.559 --> 00:35:06.000 The other side of this is that we flee towards something as well. 00:35:06.159 --> 00:35:10.079 We flee from idolatry and we flee to Christ. 00:35:11.360 --> 00:35:24.639 We flee towards the one who is worthy of our allegiance to Christ, the one who is worthy of our loyalty, our undivided loyalty, because he remained loyal to us. 00:35:26.719 --> 00:35:46.719 In the last part of his life, Jesus, he was with his disciples, and they very sort of arrogantly and ignorantly, especially Peter in this situation, opened their mouths and said, you know, Peter says, Well, if everyone else deserts you, I never will, Jesus. 00:35:46.960 --> 00:35:48.159 I will die with you. 00:35:48.320 --> 00:35:50.320 I will die for you if I have to. 00:35:50.800 --> 00:35:57.599 And then at the very first sign of the slightest bit of opposition, some little servant girl is like, Hey, aren't you, weren't you with Jesus? 00:35:57.679 --> 00:35:59.119 And he's like, I don't know the man. 00:35:59.280 --> 00:36:03.519 And you're like, okay, so where was where was that, Peter? 00:36:03.599 --> 00:36:09.280 You know, where was all the enthusiasm you had just like a few verses ago when you said that you would die with him? 00:36:10.880 --> 00:36:17.920 At his moment of greatest need, Jesus' own disciples, the one who spent three years in the flesh with him, they all disowned him. 00:36:18.880 --> 00:36:22.960 They promised their loyalty to him, and they failed. 00:36:23.199 --> 00:36:24.559 They were not loyal to him. 00:36:24.880 --> 00:36:26.320 They were not faithful to him. 00:36:26.559 --> 00:36:29.679 And in spite of that, Jesus was still faithful to them. 00:36:30.639 --> 00:36:38.159 Jesus went all the way to the cross and he suffered and he died for people just like Peter. 00:36:39.679 --> 00:36:42.639 Four people just like the rest of the disciples. 00:36:43.519 --> 00:36:49.679 Four people just like us whose loyalties are so divided, and we may want to do the right thing. 00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:58.960 And by God's grace, so many of us do want to do the right thing, and we still find ourselves pulled into the trap of idolatry. 00:36:59.119 --> 00:37:03.119 We find ourselves loving things that we shouldn't love or loving them too much. 00:37:05.039 --> 00:37:14.320 The good news is that in spite of our sin and in spite of our unfaithfulness and our disloyalty, he remains loyal to us. 00:37:14.719 --> 00:37:16.000 He remained faithful. 00:37:16.239 --> 00:37:22.000 And at the cross, we see that God is unwaveringly loyal to us. 00:37:23.760 --> 00:37:25.679 He's unwaveringly loyal to us. 00:37:25.840 --> 00:37:31.519 And so the response is not only to flee from idolatry, but to flee to him. 00:37:33.280 --> 00:37:43.519 Flee to Christ, find refuge in him, find forgiveness, not just for your past idolatry and sin, but for the idolatry and the sin that you will commit in the future. 00:37:48.079 --> 00:37:49.280 Flee from idolatry. 00:37:50.719 --> 00:37:53.440 Flee from free flee to Christ. 00:37:57.280 --> 00:38:07.920 One of the ways that we can respond to Paul's instruction to flee from idolatry and to flee to Christ is what we do each week here at Elmwood is we come to the communion table. 00:38:08.239 --> 00:38:12.639 And we get to share in the very meal that Peter, Paul, who wrote this book? 00:38:12.960 --> 00:38:13.519 Paul. 00:38:15.440 --> 00:38:18.400 We get to share in the very meal that Paul was talking about here. 00:38:19.199 --> 00:38:25.199 And it's in participating in this meal that we get to share a kind of fellowship and union and koinania with Christ. 00:38:25.840 --> 00:38:28.239 So we're going to come to the communion table now. 00:38:28.480 --> 00:38:32.639 I invite you to take a few moments of silence for confession and reflection. 00:38:32.719 --> 00:38:44.400 And if you're here today and you've never made a decision to follow Jesus, why not make today the day that you choose to follow Him and get to experience life together with Him? 00:38:45.280 --> 00:38:51.039 But take a few moments of silence and confession, and then we will come remember Christ at the communion table.