Jump Start # 3488

1 Corinthians 10:31 “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

  For the past ten years, our congregation has developed a theme for the year. This is much more than just a cute or catchy phrase that we come up with. We produce a detailed booklet that everyone gets at the first of the year. Our theme becomes the backbone of all that we do for that year. Our meetings, VBS, summer series, and even our adult classes are wrapped around the theme for the year. Multiple times throughout the year that theme is developed in sermons. Our folks will mention the theme in prayers and even conversations. A lot of thought, prayer and energy goes into building just the right theme.

This year our theme is “Bringing the Best.” I love that expression. It’s built upon two major concepts. First, God has always given us the best. From daily blessings, to His grace, His word, and especially, His Son, God has demonstrated that He has always brought the best. The very nature of God reminds us that He is the Best. Elijah proved that when the prophets of Baal saw that their god Baal did not exist. He could not stop a famine and he could not bring fire to a sacrifice. The prophets mocked the idea of cutting an image out of wood and calling it a god. The lifeless god could not hear. The lifeless god could not speak. The lifeless god  could not move. Those gods were useless, worthless and powerless.

Our God is so different. He created a beautiful world that is fascinating, complex and wonderful. God’s holiness lifts man’s eyes to what is good and right. God’s power sent fire from Heaven, closed the mouths of lions, opened prison doors and parted rivers and seas. God is simply the best. Who can we liken to God, Isaiah asked. Who is equal to God?

The other aspect about Bringing the Best is that God expected His people to bring their best. None of this shoddy, pitiful looking lamb for a sacrifice. Don’t offer the diseased. Don’t bring a crippled lamb. Unblemished, is what God called for. The priests were to be cleansed before they could stand before the Lord. No one unclean was permitted in the presence of the Lord. Bring the best!

And, it’s that spirit and the nature of our God, that leads us to our theme of “Bringing the best.” Here are some applications of that:

Bring the best when it comes to worship: Anticipate worship. Psalms 100 talks about shouting joyfully to the Lord as one enters the gates to worship God. Get to bed early on Saturday night. You want to bring the best to God. Get down to the church house early on Sunday, you want to bring the best to God. If you are serving, get those songs picked out, go over the Powerpoint one more time, think about what you want to pray. Anticipate. Prepare. Bring the best to the Lord.

Bring the best when it comes to our work in the kingdom. Make those handouts sharp and readable. Check your spelling. Put a smile on your face as you greet one another. Be happy to be in the presence of one another. When you talk to others about the Lord or your place of worship, be positive, inviting and upbeat. Bring the best.

Bring the best when you lead your family. Don’t allow work to drain all your energies so your family only gets the left overs of your heart. Take moments and turn off electronics and have fun. Really talk. Lower the nets and have some really deep conversations.

Bring the best of your generosity. It’s not the amount but the heart that really matters. Find ways to help others. God has been very generous towards you. Be like the Lord. Bring your best. There are so many ways and so many people that need help.

Bring the best attitude towards life. Our times are negative, angry, complaining and mean. Don’t be that way. Don’t get caught up in talking people down. Get that chip off your shoulder and stop being a victim. You are a child of God that is Heaven Bound. Be that light that Jesus wants you to be. Put your judgmental radar gun away. You don’t need it. Be forgiving. Look for the good. Be thankful. Be kind. Be tender-hearted. Be the reason someone smiles.

The world is falling apart. We are not. The world thrives on drama. We don’t. The world can’t see beyond today. We can.

This is the year that you Bring the Best to the Lord. You are not trying to be the best in the brotherhood. You are simply trying to be your best. Improve. Study. Grow. Learn. Talk to others. Observe. Ask. God has being giving His best for a long, long time. It’s time we gave the Lord our best!

Bringing the Best…

Roger

Jump Start #1831

1 Corinthians 10:31 “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

The background to our verse today involves eating meats that were sacrificed to idols. It’s hard for us in this country to understand, relate or see what the big deal is with all of this. It was for those early Christians. It wasn’t the meat that was the issue, it was what all it represented. If you ate meat that had been sacrificed to an idol, are you condoning, endorsing and even approving of idol worship? This was a concern in the book of Romans. It is the basis of two different chapters in Corinthians.

In the context of our verse, Paul gives some specific guidelines about what to do and what not to do. The issue wasn’t digesting idol meat, but what all of this would do to one’s conscience. Would this kill your influence? Would this create guilt within your heart? Would you be ashamed if others knew about this? So many layers of issues and questions.

There are a few thoughts that come from this for us:

First, Paul dealt with the practical aspect of living our faith. He didn’t teach theories and ideas, but how to live faithfully every day. Simple things, such as how to buy your meat or what to ask or not ask when eating at someone’s home, are what we find here. This is a lesson for us preachers. We can be so generic that people do not see any practical value of what we are saying. They need to be shown how to live every day. How easy it would be to assume that these Corinthians were adults, they don’t need to be told. The Holy Spirit felt otherwise. Nor, did the Spirit conclude, they have faith, they will figure it out. Our issues are not eating meats, but modesty, social drinking, honesty, ethics, being a servant. Make it plain and simple, preacher. Years ago, preachers were referred to as “sky pilots.” I was called that in my early days of preaching. I have no idea why or where that came from. But on this point, we need to come out of the clouds and make God’s word useful, practical, and livable.

Second, so often, we ask the wrong question. What we ask is, “What’s wrong with this?” We assume that someone has to prove that it is wrong before we will stop doing what we are doing. Show me that it’s a sin. Or, more bluntly, “Will I go to Hell, if I do this?” Our verse today says “do all to the glory of God.” What we ought to ask instead is, “What’s right with it?” Or, “Will I go to Heaven if I do this?” There are some things that may not be “wrong,” but there certainly isn’t much “right” about them either. Do all to the glory of God. Glory carries the idea of honor or praise. Do what God would want. Do what shines goodness upon God. Doing all to the glory of God is not the same thing as, “I like to do it,” or, “It makes me happy.” Self is not in the equation here. It’s about God. Asking, “Is it right,” carries the idea of thinking about God. Goodness, not shame and guilt, are found in glorifying God. What this meant for the Corinthians was eating meats was not a matter of preference but something to consider in relationship with God. Glorify God was the heart of the matter.

If we asked that more often, it would help us with our walk with the Lord.

• A marriage grows sour. Neither person in the marriage are happy anymore. They act like roommates in a college dorm, who tolerate each other but can’t wait for the semester to end so they can get away from each other. The thoughts that dance through their minds and the words that they are told by co-workers is that you need to be happy. Staying married isn’t accomplishing that. Divorce—that fills the mind. Instead of working on the marriage, now the thoughts turn to working out the details of being alone. Find a new place. Split the furniture. More and more this sounds good. More and more there is an eagerness for this. Never once, in all of this, does the thought, will our divorce glorify God? Will it honor Him? Will He be proud of what we are doing? Those thoughts never enter the picture. It’s all about self. What will this do to the church? What will this do to our influence? Where is God in all of this? Are we asking the right questions?

• A person is discouraged with how things are going down at the church. He is tired of the type of preaching that is done. He doesn’t like the class topics that are taught. His spirit becomes stale and sour. He begins to see problems and faults everywhere. He picks at petty things. The members get on his nerve. He starts pulling away—from people and from attending. He finds some radical websites that appeal to his sour mood. He feeds on wrong information. He gets excited about doing things differently. Soon, he’s reaching out to others that he feels are like him. They make plans to leave and start their own church. It will be different. It will not have any old traditionalists among them. Young rebels. Young, free-thinkers. Those who are not afraid to push the outer limits and even pass through those outer limits. Why, not? And so, they meet one Sunday in one of their homes. It’s exciting. No elders. No one fussing about the rules. Doing things that they were never allowed to do before. Word catches on. Others join them. And, in all of this, no one thinks about doing all for the glory of God. Their thoughts are religious freedom. Breaking away. Doing what we always wanted. Just like the divorce story above, self dominates their actions. It’s not about pleasing God. It’s not about doing what God wants. It’s not about unity, being one mind and one heart as God desires. Is God glorified by division? Is God honored by those who want to ignore His teaching? Are the right questions being asked?

The Corinthian meat eating issue wouldn’t be pretty today. There would be some who would shout, “You can’t tell me what to eat.” Paul did. Others would say, “I have a right to eat anything that I feel like.” Paul didn’t agree with that. Some would even be so bold as to proclaim, “If you don’t like it, you can just go somewhere else.” No God in any of that. No glorifying. No honor. Nothing but selfishness.

Do all to the glory of God puts God at the forefront of our decisions. Will God like this? Will God be honored? Will God be made to look good before others?

Paul ended the eighth chapter of Corinthians by declaring that if eating meats caused another to stumble, he would never eat meat again. Could you do that? Would you do that, for someone else? Or, would you say, “It’s their problem, not mine.” Paul had God in his eyes. How could he glorify God by walking on the feelings and the heart of another Christian?

God first. God always. Even before the things that I want. That spirit would certainly change things in many congregations today. It starts with each of us. Don’t wait for others. Glorify God. Do it now. Do it with your choices today.

Roger

Jump Start # 1787

1 Corinthians 10:31 “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

Eating meats—nothing to do with diet or health, but everything to do with faith. The culture of the first century world brought many clashes between believers and the pagan community that they were no longer following. Simple things as going to the market to buy food, now became a question of “what is right and what is wrong.” Meats were often first sacrificed to the pagan gods before they were sold in the markets. A person could purchase meat that had been offered to a specific god. This was more than a personal preference, such as supporting your favorite team, it was thought that there were special powers connected to certain gods. This became a huge problem for those new Christians. Should they eat those meats?

Two chapters in Corinthians, chapter 8 and chapter 10, and a chapter in Romans addresses this problem. It was more than just a personal preference, it effected how others viewed them and how they viewed others. Simply having a meal became a big deal. Would one be condemned because he ate something he shouldn’t have? If one didn’t eat certain foods, why could others? So many layers of issues. So many problems. Finger pointing, guilty conscience and not knowing what to do prompted God to give some very practical instructions that are found in 1 Corinthians 10.

• Don’t ask, but if you know, don’t eat. That takes care of meats sacrificed to idols
• Don’t be a part of idolatry
• Don’t do just what you feel like, think about others
• Just because you have a right, doesn’t make it right

Our verse, near the end of this section, sums up these principles, “whatever you do, do all for the glory of God.” Don’t do what you want. Don’t do what others want. Do things with the mindset of God. We should always do things for the glory of God. These words are similar to what the Colossians were told, “whatever you do, in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus” (3:17). Honor God by what we do.

All of this takes me to a show I watched recently about Ernest Hemingway, the American author. He tops the lists as one of the greatest authors in America. His life, however, wasn’t so great. A drunk, immoral, profane, arrogant and troubled with dark thoughts, he came from a family of suicides and that was his choice as well. His writings were impressive. His life wasn’t. Rich, famous, but a lost soul that was tormented with depression and addictions. I’ve had Hemingway stuck on my mind for a while. What if he had become a Christian? What if Hemingway wrote books about Christ and our walk with Him? What if Hemingway wrote these Jump Starts? My first thought to that is he would not have been rich and famous and few would have read his writings. People are not interested in that, especially today. But just think what great good he could have done for the Lord, had he poured his talents and energy into the kingdom. What if he used his abilities for Christ. What if, as Paul said in our verse today, Hemingway did all for the glory of God? Wouldn’t that have been amazing!

But doesn’t that principle stand with us today? All throughout the kingdom we have men and women who have gotten advanced degrees and have years of experience in all kinds of areas. We have some who are brilliant writers. There are some who are gifted in knowing how to market and publicize things. There are those who are wonderful teachers. There are those who are gifted in music. Others have a flare for the drawing and painting. Talented and gifted people fill the kingdom of God. Yet, are we utilizing those talents in the kingdom? Do we pull from those who know how to come up with a great phrase, make it look attractive and promote it? Do we use them to help advertise a Gospel meeting? Those that are so gifted in music, are they using their talents to write fresh hymns? How about turning some of the artsy folks loose in the church buildings and make things brighter and more attractive?

Are we doing all for the glory of God with our talents and abilities? We spend years in college learning how to do things, we spend a lifetime using that knowledge to build a career, but do we ever use those talents for the kingdom? Just about every congregation I know is full of amazingly talented people. Is all this ability being used only on the secular world? Take something as simple as a sermon CD or a printed tract. Put a little color and a snappy picture on the front, and it is amazing how it will grab attention. The clothing manufacture, Tommy Hilfiger, once said that he could have two identical shirts side by side on a rack, same shirt, same color, same price, and the one that had his Hilfiger logo on it will out sell the other one every time. Just a simple logo. Marketing. He understood it and used it.

We need to open the barn doors and allow talented brethren to use their abilities to enhance the kingdom of God. Putting a picture on a sermon CD isn’t going to bring down the forces of evil, but it may be just the thing that makes a person stop, look at it, and pick it up and then listen to it. Isn’t that the overall purpose anyway? The same with a printed track. Make it attractive. Make it readable. So often, most of this all falls to the preacher. He is busy writing, preaching and teaching. Many do not have the skill set nor the vision to do these things. This is where a church works like a team. Someone writes the material and someone else puts it together, makes it attractive and promotes it. There are people who use Facebook every day in their jobs. Imagine if they used those talents to help the church?

Imagine Hemingway being a Christian and writing Jump Starts. Imagine you, doing what you do so well, using that for the kingdom of God. Whatever you do, do for the glory of God—is more than a statement about what we eat, it’s a statement of life. Use your talents for the kingdom. Suggest things. Offer to help. Make some samples and show them to the elders. Work as a team player.

Just imagine…

Roger

Jump Start # 1511

1 Corinthians 10:31 “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

  Last week, my wife and I spent a week in California. We got connected with a group that volunteers to put flowers on the floats for the Rose Parade. It has always been my wife’s dream to go to the Rose Parade. We watch it every year on TV. So this was a once in a life time, dream come true for us. We were up close with about ten floats and actually worked on four of them. Sticking flowers on a float seems pretty simple and fun but we soon found out that it often meant getting up before five in the morning and working all day. Some of our volunteers worked all through the night. Every surface must be covered with something natural. That means gluing beans, rice, or seeds to the surface. The professional designers tell the volunteers what to do. Some floats, like the City of L.A., that I worked on, had trees that had to be wrapped in long green leaves. There was one occasion, when I was standing on a little space with my left foot, my right foot was dangling in air, my left hand was against the side of the float and I was reaching behind one of those trees with a long green leaf to wrap the back side of it. The leaf was covered with glue. My hand was covered with glue. Whatever I touched pulled off things that had already been put on. Gluing isn’t my favorite thing to do. I discovered something at that moment. Standing on one foot, braced by one hand, with the other hand holding a long gluey leaf, my nose itched. Not a good time for that. The thought came to me, why are we putting these things on the back side of this tree? No one would see it. We were present when the judges came by. I watched them. None of the judges climbed up on the float to see if the back side of things were decorated. It was so hard doing this, that I wanted to just leave it. The professional decorators would have none of that. Every inch, and every spot had to be covered. Even those spots that no one would ever see. Details. Those folks really do sweat the small stuff.

That brings us to our verse today. The Corinthian church, much like the Roman church, was inside out about what to do concerning eating meat that had been sacrificed to idols. The church was torn on this. On one side, idols were fake. They were nothing. So eating meats was not condoning a false practice. But on the other side, buying and eating things dedicated in a false religion seems like you are going along with it. In the Roman church, this became a point of judging and pointing fingers at each other. Paul told them to stop that. Here in the Corinthian church, Paul gave some practical ways to deal with this subject. Eat, and don’t ask questions. If told that it came from idols, don’t eat it.

Paul sums up these thoughts with our verse. Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. I like that. Give it your best. Put God before all things. Sweat the small stuff. Go out of your way to do things right. There are many applications to this, especially in our worship.

For the preacher, chase those rabbits in your study. You may never use those things you research but chase them down. Look at maps when reading about those O.T. battles and travels. Understand customs, look up words and how they were used, find the answers to your questions as you read. Study and study and learn and know what you are talking about. There will be a depth that you may not reach in the sermon, but you certainly reach it in you study and research.

For those who participate in worship, sweat the details. The song leader needs to run through his songs before he stands up to sing. This means he must have his selection made and be ready before he enters the church building. Giving God the glory kills the attitude of just “winging it.” For those who will be leading the church in prayer, give some thought to what you are going to say. Put your all into it.

But our verse isn’t limited to just worship. In fact, the context doesn’t involve worship at all. So, give God your glory in all that you do. When talking with others, make it the best. This will help you from talking about others in ways that is not kind nor productive. In hospitality, make your home warm and welcoming to others. If invited, bring a gift to show your appreciation or write a thank you card afterwards. Live with prayer on your lips. Live with hope in your heart. Live with joy and thanksgiving. You are blessed. You are forgiven. You are Heaven bound. Don’t brag. Don’t be offensive. Don’t draw attention to you. Don’t live as if you are the center of the universe. Give glory to God. Instead of just saying, “Isn’t this a nice day,” say, “Isn’t this a great day the Lord has made.” Include the Lord in your conversation. Be thoughtful of others. That’s the point here to the Corinthians. Don’t use your rights to hurt someone else. Don’t offend someone else. Paul said a couple of chapters earlier, still on this same subject, that if eating meats offended another Christian, he would never eat meats again. He put his fellow Christian above his right and choice to eat meats. He gave God the glory.

I have heard some say in a very mean manner, “you are sitting in my seat.” That rude tone certainly isn’t bringing glory to anyone. First, there are no assigned seats in church. This isn’t a ballgame. Second, when a person says this, they come across bossy and very unfriendly. Third, sit somewhere else. Most places have plenty of seating in the front. It’s a great place to sit. Take a chill-pill, take a deep breath, you won’t pass out if you have to sit somewhere else. Thoughtless statements like these are the very reasons some never come back. This fuels the feelings that the church is cold and unfriendly. Give God the glory, even when it comes to finding a place to sit in the church house.

To give God the glory, one must be thoughtful of God and mindful of others. Giving God the glory means doing the little things that no one may notice, but it’s the right thing to do. Give God the glory.

Give God the glory, even when you have sticky fingers and are standing on one foot.

Roger