So, I'm going to begin in verse 14 there. It says,
Now we exhort you brethren, warn them that are unruly,
comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak,
be patient toward all men, see that none render evil for evil unto any man,
but follow after that which is good, both among yourselves and to all men,
rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing in everything,
give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
So he's giving out this litany of things that, you know,
every one of these things could be a sermon, you know,
rejoicing evermore, praying without ceasing, giving thanks.
Why? Because this is all the will of God.
Then he goes on and adds that list in verse 19.
He says, quench not the spirit, despise not prophesying,
prove all things, hold fast that which is good.
And I want to focus in on that last one where it says in verse 22,
abstain from all appearance of evil.
And that's where I get the title of the sermon tonight,
the appearance of evil, the appearance of evil.
And really, I just want to give us some understanding.
What does he mean by that to abstain from the appearance of evil?
Of course, you know, most people probably understand this,
but we'll go through it anyway.
That appearance in this context means that the way something looks,
that's what he's saying.
He's saying abstain from looking like something evil is taking place.
You don't want to even have it said of you that what you're doing looks like.
It could be evil.
Okay, now it doesn't mean to avoid evil when it makes its appearance.
You know, it's not saying flee from fornication,
although you should do that.
That's not what he's saying here.
I believe what he's saying,
what he's trying to get across is that we should not even appear as though we are involved in evil.
We should abstain from all appearance of evil.
And of course, we could go through the Bible, several different passages here,
but go over to Acts chapter 27 just to give you a use of that word appearance.
Okay, to make you understand that this isn't him saying,
you know, when evil makes an appearance abstain from it.
What he's saying is don't appear to be doing that which is evil,
even if you know, even if you're not doing evil.
Somebody might misconstrue something you do or say as evil.
Don't let that happen.
Numbers 9, he says, on that day the tabernacle was reared up,
the cloud covered the tabernacle, namely the tent of the testimony,
and even there was upon the tabernacle as it were the appearance of fire.
So it wasn't actually fire, but it definitely looked like fire.
It says it was the appearance of fire until the morning.
And it says, so it was always the cloud covered by day
and the appearance of fire by night. First Samuel chapter 16 will be that in a couple weeks,
where God told Samuel, the Lord seeth not as man seeth, for man looketh on the outward,
what, appearance, the way he looks, the way something looks,
but the Lord looketh upon the heart.
Let me go over to Ezekiel, I won't take you there,
but he describes the appearance of the living creatures that came unto him.
So he's saying here, look, because often that word appearance could mean,
hey, I'm going to make a public appearance.
I'm going to show up somewhere and I'm going to manifest,
you know, in a way and be somewhere. He's not saying abstain from that.
He's saying abstain from looking like you're involved in evil.
It doesn't mean avoid evil when it makes an appearance.
I mean, it would be kind of foolish to avoid,
tell us, you know, to avoid sin and evil when tempted.
That's what he means here, because not that it's a foolish thing to do,
but because that's something that's just repeated over and over and over scripture.
He's saying, you know, fleeing from fornication, you know, abstain from drinking,
abstain from all these other things. Abstraining, you know,
it does it does say in this, of course,
in this in this text here to abstain or abstain from doing or enjoying something,
right? That's what he means by abstain. Abstain from the appearance of evil.
And what is it to abstain or abstinence?
It's to restrain yourself from doing something or enjoying something,
right? And it's not always a bad thing.
It's not always an evil thing that you're abstaining from.
You know, sometimes we just hold our peace as we see here in Acts chapter 27,
where Paul, you know, was on his journey to Rome in verse 13,
and when the south wind blew softly, supposing that they had obtained their purpose, losing thence,
they sailed close by Crete. Of course,
if you recall in the previous verses, Paul had told them, you know,
if we go on this journey, it's going to be at much loss.
You know, we're going to lose the lading of the ship,
so on and so forth, and he tried to implore them to stay in winter,
but they refused. They didn't listen to him and they pushed on.
And what we see here in this passage is Paul abstains from saying anything for quite some time.
When the ship was caught and they could not bear up the wind,
we let her drive and running under a certain island,
which is called Clada, we made much work to come by the boat.
So there's quite a bit of time going by, right? And Paul is just kind of like thinking,
I told you so. When they had taken ship, they used helps undergirding the ship,
and fearing lest they should fall into the quicksands, strake sail, and were so driven.
And we being exceedingly tossed with the tempest, the next day they lighted the ship,
and the third day. And then just look there towards the end of verse 20,
and there was neither sun nor stars in many days appeared.
And then look at verse 21, but after long abstinence, Paul stood forth in the midst of them and said,
Sir, so what was Paul doing this entire time? After he warned them, say,
hey, don't go on this trip. It's not going to end well for you.
It's going to be bad. And they went anyway. And then they get shipwrecked.
They're working on the ship. Then they get in the storm,
and it looks like they haven't seen the sun or the stars and the moon,
or the stars and the moon. And many days after that, after long abstinence,
Paul finally said something. So abstinence, to abstain from something,
is to restrain yourself from doing or enjoying something.
And it might not even be something sinful. It might just be, hey,
I'm just going to hold my peace. I'm not going to, Paul in this instance is like,
I'm not just going to stand up right now and tell you all I told you so.
I'm going to wait, and then eventually I will tell you that, which is what he did.
So this is a neutral example. You know, Paul didn't have to abstain, but he did.
But in 1 Thessalonians, Paul is telling us to abstain from all appearance of evil.
That is what we are to abstain from. And the Bible teaches us over and over to what?
Abstain from sin. Flee fornication, every sin that a man doeth without the body,
but he that commiteth fornication sinneth against his own body.
Look, that is abstinence. That's what the Bible teaches.
The Bible doesn't teach anything else, you know, besides abstinence and marriage.
Those, that natural drive that every one of us has as we grow into adult years,
you know, that is something that is to be, you know, satisfied only in marriage.
And outside of that, the only other option is abstinence.
That's what he's saying, to flee from fornication.
Another thing we should abstain from, another sin, would be of course alcohol, right?
He's saying, look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth color in the cup,
when it moveth itself aright. He said, don't even look at it, let alone drink it.
So we are to abstain from certain things, and what we're supposed to abstain from,
according to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, is not only evil itself,
but even the mere appearance of evil.
If something that we're doing or saying or some way that we're behaving
could be misunderstood or misconstrued as evil, we should abstain from that.
We do not only abstain from evil, but also from the appearance of it.
So what is he saying here when he says abstain from the appearance of evil?
What he's basically saying is don't do things that could be misunderstood
or things that could be perceived as evil. You should abstain from it.
And why is that? Well, one is because people assume the worst.
Oftentimes people, they see somebody and they will just assume the worst.
You know, an example would be, you know,
what if we saw a man and a woman enter into a hotel room together in the middle of the day?
People are probably going to assume the worst. They're not going to think,
oh, they're going in there to play a harmless game of Uno.
You know, they're going in there to just have, you know, to talk.
They're going to assume the worst because that's typically what goes on.
So we should abstain from that appearance.
What about if you saw a man run into a bank with a ski mask on?
Now with the whole COVID thing, you know, you might actually see that, right?
But typically if you saw a guy, you know, car pull up,
dude jumps out of the driver's seat, runs in with an empty bag and a ski mask on,
you probably would assume that he's not there to use the ATM.
That he's there to do some evil. That he's there to, you know, the engine's running,
the guy's looking, you know, checking his watch. Like, oh, he must be in a hurry.
Maybe he's got an important appointment he's got to get to.
He must, maybe he's going to see the dentist later or something.
They're just getting some money. Then he'd say there's a robbery taking place
because you would just look at the situation. You would look what's going on
and you would assume the worst and you would be right in many instances.
But in some instances, you know, there might not be sin taking place,
but if it looks like it, then we assume the worst. That's what people do.
So he's saying, look, abstain from all appearance of evil.
You don't want to even do things that might even be misconstrued as evil.
And why is that? Because people assume the worst.
And because our sinful behavior, or our, excuse me, rather, our unsinful behavior,
even when we say, hey, I'm not doing anything sinful.
You know, I know I'm doing this, but I'm not in sin.
There's nothing bad going on here.
But our unsinful behavior can become sinful if it becomes a stumbling block to another person.
Go over to 1 Corinthians chapter 8. And I talked about this a couple weeks ago in another sermon.
Where Paul in 1 Corinthians 8, you know, brings, you know,
goes on about this concerning sacrificing things unto idols.
Right? And he talks about the fact that if a saved believer,
you know, goes in and eats meat sacrificed to idols, it's nothing.
It doesn't matter. Because we understand that an idol is nothing.
That that meat, you know, is just meat.
But if a weaker brother, if somebody else sees that,
you know, that could be a stumbling block to them.
And then our unsinful behavior could become sinful.
Not because of what we're doing, but because of the way it's being perceived.
The appearance of evil. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 8 verse 1.
It says, now as touching things offered unto idols,
we know that we all have knowledge.
Look, we all understand that an idol is nothing, is what he says here.
That it means nothing. It's just a dead, dumb idol.
It's a piece of wood. It's just a block of marble that's been carved.
It's nothing, right? We understand an idol is nothing,
but notice what he said. He goes on and says, knowledge puffeth up.
You know, sometimes we think, well, it's not sinful.
I'm not involved in sin. I'm not doing anything bad.
You know, and then we get puffed up. And say, well,
other people should just figure this out for themselves.
They should understand, you know, what it is I'm doing.
That could be, you know, a potential reaction that we have.
You just blow it off. You just say, well, you know, that's not my problem.
Somebody else has a problem with it, that's their problem.
Because we understand, we have knowledge.
Well, if I'm here eating this meat sacrificed to an idol,
I don't care if it's a stumbling block for somebody else because I know it's nothing.
And that guy just needs to get on board with what I know.
It's too bad he doesn't know what I know.
Look, that's being puffed up. That's a puffed up attitude.
It says that charity edifieth.
You know, charity or love is more concerned with not causing somebody else to stumble
than just being puffed up. It says in verse 2,
if any man thinketh, think that he knoweth anything,
he knoweth nothing, yet as he ought to know,
but if any man love God, the same is known of him.
I mean, that's one way we could really tell if somebody loves God.
Is if they're, you know, this guy that's sacrificing
or eating meat to sacrifice unto idols,
and then somebody else, some weaker brother, is stumbling going,
I thought we didn't worship idols. Well, I'm not worshipping.
I'm just eating the meat.
And now we could tell how that guy who's eating,
how he reacts to that stumbling and another brother.
Does that guy, is that guy puffed up or does he have charity and love the Lord?
Is he more concerned about edifying that weak brother
or is he just going to get puffed up and say, well, you know what, buddy,
the meat's pretty good.
And when you figure it out, you can come have some too.
Look, the guy that loves God's going to say, whoa,
you know what, and this is what Paul goes on explaining.
We're going to look at it. I'm not going to eat any meat then.
I know I have every right. I know it's not sin for me to do this,
but it's the appearance of evil. It's causing my brother to sin.
I'm more concerned with edifying him. I have more love for him.
I have more love for God to help my fallen brother,
help him to not stumble than I do for just enjoying some meat.
For example, I could go take communion at a Catholic Church
because I like the taste. Although from what I hear,
it doesn't have any taste at all. I don't think I've ever had it to be honest.
In fact, I know I haven't. But could I go in there and do that?
Would it necessarily be, you know, sinful for me to do that?
I mean, maybe we could have that discussion,
but I could go in there and do that and say,
well, I know it's just a cracker.
I know this isn't going to turn into Jesus after I eat it.
Not that this isn't cannibalism here. This isn't literally going to turn into blood.
I know that. I have this knowledge.
But I guarantee you, if anybody in this room saw me go into a Catholic Church
and take communion, they'd probably stumble at that.
And what am I supposed to say? Well, you know what?
We know the Catholic Church is false. This transubstantiation is nothing.
You know what? I'm just there because, you know,
I wanted to see what it was like or whatever.
I like grape juice. I guess they give out wine there, though, right?
And it would be sinful, wouldn't it? Didn't think this example through very well, did I?
But you get what I'm trying to say, right?
You know what? Because I love the Brethren,
I'm not going to go do something sinful like that.
Or something un-sinful even. I should have just sticked to Paul's example, right?
Look at verse four. As concerning, therefore, the eating of those things which are sacrificed unto idols,
we know that an idol is nothing in the world. There is none other God but one.
For though there be that are called gods, where there in heaven or in earth,
as there be many gods and lords many,
but to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things,
and we in him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.
He's like, look, we understand who God and who God isn't. Who God is and who he isn't.
We understand that there's one Lord, these idols are nothing. We have that.
How be it, he says in verse seven, there is not in every man that knowledge.
For some with conscience of the idol, unto this hour, eat it as a thing offered unto an idol.
He's saying, look, there are some people that don't understand who the real God is.
And they, with conscience, understanding and thinking,
what he's saying is that they're thinking, this is God.
This idol, this thing made with man's hands, represents God.
This is God. I'm eating meat that's sacrificed unto a God or a Lord.
And their conscience being weak is defiled.
He's saying, look, if somebody gets saved out of that, out of idolatry,
and they say, man, I used to eat meat that was sacrificed to idols with a conscience.
I used to think that that was God.
But now there's this brother in the Lord,
there's somebody that I know that is claiming the name of Christ,
and they're eating that same meat I used to eat.
You know, their weak conscience, their conscience being weak is defiled.
He says, verse 8, but meat commendeth us not to God, for neither if we eat are we the better,
neither if we eat not are we the worse,
but take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to them that are weak.
Look, just because everything's okay for us to do,
you know, it doesn't mean it's necessarily the best things to do.
You know, all things are lawful for me,
but not all things edify. Not all things are going to be beneficial to my brother in Christ.
You know, eating things sacrificed makes no difference to those with understanding,
but can offend those who lack understanding.
Now, notice what happens here to this liberty that he has. Isn't that what he said?
He said, take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to them that are weak.
He's saying, look, you have, you can go eat the meat. You can go ahead and do whatever,
and look, I'm speaking in generalities tonight,
and you can all apply this however you want in your own lives.
You know, just because we have liberty to do things doesn't mean that's necessarily what we should be doing.
Especially if what we're doing is going to cause somebody else to stumble,
or to perceive what we're doing as evil.
He says in verse 10, for if any man seeth thee which has knowledge sit at meat in the idols temple,
shall not the conscience of him that which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols?
And through thy knowledge shall thy weak brother perish for whom Christ died?
But when ye sin so against the brethren.
Look what happened to his liberty. It became sin. He had this liberty.
He could go eat. He had knowledge. He understood, had understanding.
It had the appearance of evil.
But once that appearance of evil became a stumbling block to a weaker brother,
then it became sin unto him. You see that there?
He says, look, though I have knowledge of the through and through my knowledge of the weak brother perish for whom Christ died?
But when he sin so against the brethren and wound their weak conscience,
he sin against Christ. Therefore, if meat make my brother to offend,
I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend.
You know, and that's Paul showing you that he was a man that loved God.
Why? Because he had charity. He was more concerned with edifying his brother
than just exercising the liberty that he had through the knowledge that he had that an idol is nothing.
He said, look, I'd rather not eat meat at all if it's going to offend and wound my weaker brother's conscience.
So what the Bible is teaching us here is that, rather,
what it doesn't teach is that the weak, you know, should just get over it.
That's not the right attitude to have. Well, you know, it's none of their business.
Nobody needs to, I don't need to explain myself. People need to just get over it.
Whatever it is that's offending. That's not what the Bible teaches.
But what it actually teaches is that the strong, those that have the understanding,
those that have the knowledge, those that have the liberty, out of love are careful not to offend the weak
by doing something that could be perceived as evil.
Even though in and of itself it's not evil, it could be perceived that way and can cause somebody to stumble.
They say, you know what? Out of love, I'm just not going to, I'm going to be careful not to cause that to happen.
Paul cared more about the weak brother than he did his own convenience.
Why? Because he loved them. He said, well, it's easy.
It's, I'm used to it. You know, the meat's right there. It's simple.
It's not sin. It's not a big deal. But it is once it causes a weaker brother to stumble.
Go over to Romans chapter 14, Romans chapter 14.
Look, we don't want to put a stumbling block in the path of another brother, okay?
Now, I will say this. Some people have, some people, this probably would have tied in more with this morning sermon,
but I've also seen people who go looking for stumbling blocks.
I've seen that too. Where people who go and they start to watch everybody around them,
and they start to pick people apart.
And again, it's usually these people who don't have a lot else going on in their life.
A lot of times they're new in the Lord.
And they start to say, well, you know, this could be a stumbling block, or what about so-and-so?
Look, here's the thing. You know, we try not to put stumbling block in people's paths,
and the Bible commands us not to, and the Bible goes on and on about stumbling blocks.
I mean, look at Romans chapter 14, verse 13.
Let us not therefore judge one another anymore,
but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way.
We should avoid that. We should judge this rather, that we don't put a stumbling block,
that we don't create an occasion to fall in our brother's way.
We should avoid that. But let me just, let me just go ahead and break it to you now.
You're all going to do that to each other. Every single one of us, at some point, could potentially,
I guarantee you, we're all doing something that somebody else could look at and go and fall,
and say, well, that's a stumbling block to me.
You know, the great, and a great example of this would be, you know, the Christian that shows up to church,
you know, and then after church, he goes down to the end of the parking lot and starts smoking a cigarette.
Should he do that? No. Could that potentially be a stumbling block to another Christian? Sure.
But is that going to bring down the wrath of God in his life? Probably not.
You know, God is going to judge him. And look, there's different,
there's different levels of judgment that God brings into our life.
You know, and we all sin, every single one of us.
But it's not up for us to decide, you know,
how much we're going to chasten or somebody should be chastened for whatever stumbling block
or whatever sin they commit. You know,
a lot of times the way people go through, you know,
have the chastening or experience chastening is just through the loss of joy in their life.
Just for a day, they might do some stupid little sin.
Maybe they do something earlier on in the day they shouldn't have done.
And the joy of the Lord is gone the rest of the day. You know, sometimes your conscience is judgment enough.
God doesn't even have to do anything. And what I'm kind of going off on a little bit of a rabbit trail there,
what I'm trying to say is this, is that everyone is going to be a stumbling block to somebody.
In some way, shape, or form at some point in their life. Some more than others.
But it's not up to us to just, you know, then go on and say,
well, you know, there's this person's a stumbling block
because they're doing this, that, or the other thing.
And then insist that it be dealt with.
And I'm getting ahead of myself a little bit. But look at 1 John, go over to,
actually go over to Galatians. Over to Galatians.
The Bible says in 1 John chapter 2 verse 10,
He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there's none occasion of stumbling in him.
Now, you know, 1 John is one of those books that people think that,
you know, I almost thought about preaching in 1 John 3 tonight.
You know, because people read that and they think, oh, you can attain some sinless perfection.
You can't. That's not what the Bible's teaching there.
And John's not saying here that, you know, what he's giving out is an ideal.
You know, this is something to shoot for. We're not all going to, we're going to fall short of this.
He that loveth his brother abideth in the light. Look, do we always abide in the light?
We don't. A lot of times we find ourselves in darkness.
A lot of times we find ourselves causing occasion for somebody else to stumble.
That could happen.
Look at Galatians, that's why Paul is, you know, admonishing us not to do it.
Look, if it wasn't possible, why is Paul admonishing us not to do it?
Look at Galatians chapter 5 verse 13,
For brethren, ye have been called unto liberty, only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh,
but by love serve one another.
For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
Don't use your liberty in a way that would cause a brother to stumble.
And I'm preaching this because individuals are the people that have to take care,
take this carefulness upon themselves.
You know, people need to take this. This is something they have to be responsible for themselves.
Okay? Not just for the sake of the weak,
which is a pretty good reason to not be a stumbling block
and to not use your liberty as an occasion for the flesh.
I mean, we don't want to, we want to love and admonish the brethren
and not cause them to stumble, but not only because of the sake of the weak,
but so that they are not chastened of God.
You know, people can get involved. Maybe what they're doing isn't necessarily sinful,
but people who lack understanding can perceive it as evil.
God might just judge anyway. Because it's a stumbling block to somebody.
God might just go ahead and judge. Now, to what degree?
I don't know. That's between that person and God.
But God's chastening is the appropriate, is appropriate measure.
I'll say that. You know, if that happens to be the case,
where somebody, you know, puts themselves out there to be judged of God,
God decides how much they're judged. Not me, not you.
God does. God takes care of it. You know, the weak person,
you know, and perhaps as I said this morning, alluded to earlier,
the busybody, as I preached in this morning's sermon,
that person, the weak person, the weak brother who's offended,
who's stumbling, you know, they are offended.
You know, often what they do is they look to leadership.
They look to somebody to intervene.
They say, well, you know, what about this?
This is a stumbling block. Don't you think this is a stumbling block?
Shouldn't you do something about it?
No, I shouldn't. Because as I said this morning,
it's none of my business.
There's some things that are just none of my business.
That I just say, God deals with it. And you know what?
God's a lot better at dealing with it than I am.
The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
But often the people, you know,
what's worse is when it's not even the person that's offended.
Or how about this? Nobody's even offended,
but somebody comes up and says, well, somebody might be offended.
Shouldn't you do something about that?
No, I shouldn't. Because it's not my business.
And really what's going on is that person's being a busybody,
as I preached about this morning.
But often what happens is a lot of times these types,
these busybody types, the weak, the newer Christians,
a lot of times people who first get saved and get in church,
they, you know,
they get very zealous and they get a little self,
you know, overly righteous to become a little bit of a holier-than-thou type.
That type of person's out there. You see it.
And look, you have to have grace and patience with those people
and let them grow out of it.
But a lot of times they're the ones that maybe might bring this kind of thing up.
They start to look around a church and start to pick people apart
and start to bring up, raise questions that,
or bring up concerns that really weren't a concern to begin with.
Or, more importantly, aren't any of our business. Really isn't any of my concern.
Then they want to come to me and say, well, you need to deal with it.
No, I don't. God deals with it.
And I say, and that's where I leave it. Because, and here's the thing,
God will deal with it.
God will deal with people who do not abstain from the appearance of evil
and bring and cause other people to stumble, if that's what's going on.
God will deal with it.
Don't go to leadership and, you know, and people do this all the time.
They want to just, not just about this,
they want to just go and drag this person before the church
and have a sit down with this person
and this person needs chewed out. This person needs to be told they're wrong.
No, they don't.
Here's the thing, church discipline is limited.
You know that? Church discipline is extremely limited.
And here's the thing, I don't care to be a meddling individual.
I've sat under preachers like that in the past.
I've had a preacher take me aside and say, it's my job to meddle.
No, thank you. That's not the type of preacher I want to be,
because it's not biblical. It's not my job to meddle.
Oh, but you're the overseer of the flock. Yeah, to protect against wolves,
to protect against false doctrine,
not to get in people's business and everybody's life
and pick it apart and say, you know,
this isn't right or that's not right
and start to teach for doctrines the commandments of men.
That's not my job. And church discipline is very limited.
I went through that whole series. Get right or get out.
We went over all the sins of 1 Corinthians 5.
About the very specific sins that will actually get a person kicked out of church.
And of course, you know, there's Matthew 18, there's Romans chapter 16
and a few other places where you could turn to,
you know, if a brother, if someone's going around talking smack about somebody,
talking trash, you should be brought to that person.
If someone's offended, if they trespassed against their brother,
we know it. You grab two witnesses.
They don't hear them. Then you bring it for the church.
Those are very specific circumstances. If someone's sowing discord among the brethren,
if they're not, you know, if they're teaching things contrary to the doctrine,
then yeah, you deal with that on a case-by-case basis.
But look, it's not anybody's business to get up and start picking everybody else apart
and say, well, this potentially could be a stumbling block to somebody.
Look, maybe you just need to get busy with your own life
and quit worrying about everybody else, as I preached this morning.
Church discipline is limited and I don't care to meddle.
Go over to 1 Corinthians chapter 4 in the beginning. It's going to be a short one tonight.
Famous last words, right?
1 Corinthians chapter 14. He says,
I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons,
I warn you, for though you have 10,000 structures of Christ,
ye have not many fathers, for in Christ Jesus have begotten you through the gospel.
Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me.
I love Paul's approach when it comes to the ministry,
when it comes to dealing with people. He's not, you know,
a lot of times people say, well, the preacher is preaching at me.
And a lot of times, sometimes the preacher is preaching at you.
A lot of times the preacher is preaching to everybody,
you know. And if you stick around long enough,
I guarantee you some message is going to land in your lap.
You know, I'll tell you how it goes with me.
Sometimes I sit down to write a sermon. I have some topic in mind.
I really want to preach about this and I can't have, I can't even think about it.
Because this, this feels like I have to preach about this.
And I just feel impressed to write this sermon, to preach this.
And a lot of times I'll preach sermons. I'm just like, this is not going to help anybody.
I don't know why I'm even preaching this.
And then several people walk up and be like, that's exactly what I needed here.
That's exactly what I needed. I just say, well, it must be the Lord.
So what I'm saying is this, is that I don't preach these things,
just like Paul didn't write these things to shame people.
You know, I'm not interested in just embarrassing people,
okay? But I am interested in warning them.
I am interested as Paul, as my beloved sons, I warn you, as somebody that I love,
hey, I want to warn you. Look,
if you're going to be involved in something that could be a stumbling block to somebody else,
I'm not going to do anything about it. And it's really none of my business.
But God does judge. Because if somebody does stumble at that, then it is sin.
I believe we saw that earlier in 1 Corinthians 8.
That's what Paul does. He would rather warn out of love and lead by example, right?
Wherefore, I beseech you to be followers of me.
You know, he's saying, look, just do what I do.
Follow me as I follow Christ. That's his example.
That's what I would rather do. That's my approach.
That's how I would like to minister to people, is to not shame them,
but not fail to warn them either.
And warn them, and then just lead by example.
And not just be some overbearing preacher who just feels like he can just step out of bounds whenever he feels like it.
Because that's not right. And I don't see it in Scripture.
And think about this, you know, it's good that church discipline is limited.
Have you ever thought about that? I mean, some people, they think that every little thing,
they would prefer that every little sin and every little thing just got dealt with by the church.
You don't want that. First of all, the church would be empty.
Not just because nobody wants to hear that and deal with that,
but because everybody would have to, even the preacher, I'd have to get up and call myself in front of the church
and pronounce all my sins and say, well, Corbin, are you going to get it right?
Yeah, I'm going to get it right. And then the next day, do it again.
Because there isn't a just man upon the earth that sinneth not.
And every single one of us has sins that if somebody else knew about would be a stumbling block to somebody.
And here's the other, here's the other aspect of that is that if church, you know,
if we disciplined every little thing in the church, this was pointed out to me,
this is a thought that somebody pointed out to me, and I never really thought of this, but it's true.
You'd have a church full of fake people. That's what you'd have.
You'd have a church full of people who think that Christianity is about, you know,
having just this attaining this just sinless state of perfection as if that were possible.
And because nobody can, they would just come to church and put on a front like they are.
Think about that. If, if, you know, every single thing got dealt with by the church,
then that would mean in order to not be dealt with by the church, you couldn't do anything.
You following me? And here's the thing, nobody is going to be without sin.
So then you'd have to come to church and just be fake.
And who wants to, who wants that? It's not possible.
But people do it. People come into churches and they put up a front and they, you know,
they might be genuine to some degree, but a lot of times they put up a front and they're fake.
And those fake people, a lot of times what they end up doing is they start to pick everybody else apart
because they think that they are holier than somebody else.
And they bring up things that are none of their business and that it's in God's hands.
And then I, you know, and that is kind of the, you know,
the inspiration for the sermon is that then they bring it to someone like me,
somebody who's in a position of authority, and say, don't you think you should deal with that?
No, I don't. And here's why. Because it's not in my business.
It's out of my, it's out of my sphere of authority.
And that's it. And that's the way I like it.
That's why I prefer to have it. Because then I have people that I'm preaching to that are real.
Not perfect. I didn't say perfect. I said real. That I have faults that do things that all have to learn and grow.
And rather than just be some hard-nosed, meddling preacher who just wants to nail everybody to the wall
for every little thing, I can just warn people, love them, and lead by example.
That's what I'd rather do. But, you know, like I said, I will warn people.
I will say, look, what you're doing might not be sin.
But if it causes a brother to stumble, it is.
And you know what? That's where I leave it. That's where I just say, and that's it.
And that's all I have to say about it. And you can apply that,
every single person in this room can apply that to themselves in some way.
I'm sure. I'm speaking in generalities. And I leave it right there.
And I say, God judge. God can deal with it.
And you know what? And when I say that, you know, I say, well, I'm just gonna let God judge them.
I don't mean God bring the hammer down.
Because like I said earlier, God doesn't always bring the hammer down on people.
Sometimes our sin is enough punishment in and of itself.
I know there's time, you know, when I sin, whoa, yeah, I sin.
Believe it or not. Yeah, I'm sure that's a shock.
Right? When I do that sometimes, and I look for the chastening hand of God,
sometimes just that looking is enough.
Sometimes I just feel like, oh man, I sinned. You know, I said something.
I did something. I thought something. And I just go, and I feel bad.
And the joy is gone. I'm in a bad mood. I'm depressed.
And that in and of itself is the judgment of God.
God doesn't always just bring the hammer down on everybody.
Because if he did that, nobody would make it.
So don't come to, don't come to the preacher,
don't come to somebody who has, you know, the authority to exercise church discipline,
and expect them to bring the hammer down on people for every little thing.
Because quite frankly, a lot of things are out of our hands,
they're beyond our sphere of influence,
and the best that we can do is just warn people, and love them,
and be an example to them.
Let's go ahead and pray.