What Happens to a Church When Christ is Not Center “God was not pleased with most of them” 1 Corinthians 10

What Happens to a Church When Christ is Not Center

“God was not pleased with most of them”

1 Corinthians 10

Those who followed Moses saw spiritual and supernatural things

“Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them”

Is your life pleasing the Lord?

If you look at life like a game where you are just playing for yourself

If you are testing God for the limits of His grace

If you grumble and complain

Than you may be like those who followed Moses

And the Corinthians who followed Paul

Life is not a “Game” it is reality with eternal consequences

God wrote the rules and we should not take God’s Word as a suggestion

Life is best lived pleasing God

When our life pleases the Lord the lost see the benefit of being saved

The saving of souls is more important than the gains of this world

“God was not pleased with most of them”

1 Corinthians 10

Imagine seeing the things Moses saw.

Imagine being with Moses and

seeing the cloud of protection…

Passing through the sea

Eating manna

Drinking water from the rock

Spiritual and supernatural experiences.

1 Corinthians 10 warns us not to be ignorant

of the fact those who followed Moses and

experienced great spiritual and supernatural things…

“Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them”

“Not pleased with most of them.”

Those words challenge me.

Paul had the same concern for the Church at Corinth.

Most of them did not please the Lord.

Paul gives three examples from

those who followed Moses…

"The people sat down to eat and drink

and got up to indulge in pagan revelry."     

Pagan revelry, revelry means “play”,

to sport as a boy or child

The point is living as if “life is a game”…

 Like little children we eat, drink and go out to play.

Children make their own rules and strategies.

Life becomes what you can get…

 “Eat drink and be merry for tomorrow you die.”

Accepting God is like getting

another super power in your game…

Where God and the Church are just a

part of the game you are playing.

The Church at Corinth ate and drank of the Lord’s table,

communion, in an unworthy manner

of private parties and drunkenness.

Paul rebuked them and

refers to Numbers 25: 1 and 9…

  

We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did —

and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died.

Becoming a Christian was a

game of finding pleasure in life.

The second example… 

We should not test the Lord,

as some of them did.

The Children of Israel tempted God many times,

but the example Paul uses in Numbers 21:5,6,

 where they challenged God and Moses their

leader concerning bringing them out of Egypt.

The Church at Corinth did not want to leave

the practices of the worldly Corinthian life style.

They tested God to see how

much they could get away with.

The third example…

And do not grumble, as some of them did.

Murmuring, complaining and grumbling

were common among Moses’

followers, Numbers 14:1-5;16:1-35.

Each example lead to death.

Paul than says…

These things happened to them as examples

and were written down as warnings for us,

 on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.

So, if you think you are standing firm,

be careful that you don't fall!

So if you think you are standing firm.

You and I may not be like Moses’ followers or the Corinthians,

but we, too, should make sure we are not

like the “many” and be careful that we don’t fall.

Paul says…

"Everything is permissible"-but not everything is beneficial.

"Everything is permissible"-but not everything is constructive.

Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.

Let’s get down to what matters.

 

Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.

Paul says it this way…

For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many,

so that they may be saved.

Life is not a “Game”,

 it is reality with eternal consequences.

God wrote the rules.

 We should not take God’s Word as a suggestion.

Life is best lived pleasing God.

When our life pleases the Lord,

the lost see the benefit of being saved.

The saving of souls is more important

than the gains of this world.

Scripture Reading

1 Corinthians 10 NIV

10:1 For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. 2 They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 They all ate the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.   5 Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert.

6 Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. 7 Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: "The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry."   8 We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did — and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. 9 We should not test the Lord, as some of them did — and were killed by snakes. 10 And do not grumble, as some of them did — and were killed by the destroying angel.

11 These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. 12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall! 13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

14 Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. 15 I speak to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. 16 Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? 17 Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.

18 Consider the people of Israel: Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar? 19 Do I mean then that a sacrifice offered to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20 No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord's table and the table of demons. 22 Are we trying to arouse the Lord's jealousy? Are we stronger than he?

23 "Everything is permissible"-but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible"-but not everything is constructive. 24 Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.

25 Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, 26 for, "The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it."  

27 If some unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience. 28 But if anyone says to you, "This has been offered in sacrifice," then do not eat it, both for the sake of the man who told you and for conscience' sake— 29 the other man's conscience, I mean, not yours. For why should my freedom be judged by another's conscience? 30 If I take part in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of something I thank God for?

31 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. 32 Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God— 33 even as I try to please everybody in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.