Take your Bibles, please, and open to 1 Corinthians 10. We'll have the New Testament reading. The New Testament reading is 1 Corinthians 10, verse 23, through chapter 11, verse 1. 1 Corinthians 10, 23 through 11, 1. Please follow along silently as I read out loud. All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful, but not all things build up. Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience. For the earth is the Lord and the fullness thereof. If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience. But if someone says to you, this has been offered in sacrifice, then do not eat it for the sake of the one who informed you and for the sake of conscience. I do not mean your conscience, but his. For why should my liberty be determined by someone else's conscience if I partake with thankfulness? Why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks? So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God. Just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many that they may be saved. Imitate me just as I also imitate Christ. This is God's word. Let's pray. And Father, we thank you for that word. And even as it calls us. To righteousness. Even as it transforms us from. Who we are to what you want us to be. Even as it. Marks us out. As your children. We pray father now that as we come before that very word. that we would bow before your will as it's represented in your word, that we would not try to shape and fashion the word of God to our own way, our own thinking, help us to submit. And Father, make us more loving. Make us more like Christ, even as we are more like Paul. I ask, Father, that you would help me to be accurate in my representation of this text. And I ask that your Spirit would work through me, despite of me, through the Word. However He may, Father, transform our hearts. In Jesus' name, Amen. You notice We come to chapter 10 and we approach a topic that we've already approached. I didn't know what to call this message. So I started with, meet offered to idols redux, was one thought. And I settled just about 30 minutes ago on meet offered to idols part do. This is in some ways a sequel, but there is a difference between 8 and 10. If you look back at chapter 8, chapter 8 is essentially talking about what happens when you go into an idol feast. This feast is specifically there in honor of the idol. In fact, it's probably even held within the walls of an idol temple. When it comes to chapter 10, he's addressing something very similar. It's meat offered to idols once again, but it's meat that would have been sold in a common marketplace. Nobody quite knows whether this meat was specifically marked out as idol meat or not idol meat. We get a good picture. One of the difficult things that we have when it comes to Deciphering what a first century Greek Roman province looks like is that they situated these Roman cities and these Greco-Roman cities, meaning a Roman province that was of Greek culture, they situated these strategically, which meant that these places were always going to be used, right? And what ends up happening is that as we go through the years, archaeologists will uncover one layer and another layer and another layer, and they're not sure if the stones of this city are from 1000 AD, 400 BC, or if they're actually from the time of the Book of Acts and the Book of 1 Corinthians. they really don't know a lot of times a lot of times they do know but a lot of times they simply don't know what we don't have very often is a city that is just frozen in time where you can go into Corinth and just look and see this is what Corinth was we know exactly what a Roman province of Greek culture was like except as it relates to this And it's not Corinth. Paul writes this in the middle of the first century, right? A sister city to Corinth was a Roman province that you're probably familiar with his name. It was called Pompeii. And Pompeii suffered, oh, about 20, 25 years after Paul writes this letter. Pompeii suffers one of the most profound tragedies that has ever befallen an ancient city, and that is the volcano of Vesuvius erupts and megatons of ash come falling down onto Pompeii in a matter of minutes. covers Pompeii up, literally freezes people in time. And as you have probably seen the photos, maybe some of you have even been there, that in Pompeii you have cities functioning and city streets functioning as they would have on a normal day because when people were covered they were killed. Not instantly, but pretty close to instantly, their bodies were buried and the voids that grew within the ash where their bodies decayed are able then to be recovered. And they can see how people lived in the first century. One of the things that comes up is one of these meat markets. This meat market that they found in Pompeii had full skeleton of sheep and lamb throughout the entire thing, and it shared a common wall and a doorway with a pagan temple where they supposed the meat would have come directly from the sacrifices. Some people thought that perhaps the sheep would not have been complete temple sacrifices for the simple fact that they were all intact. Entire skeletons are found in these hollows. and other people have posited that priests can only eat so much. So of course when people bring sheep in, they're gonna take a portion from some of the sheep, but some of the sheep, if there's an overwhelming number, are going to end up whole. But what we find in Pompeii then is a picture of what was going on probably in Corinth also. And that is that these marketplaces are attached to pagan temples and they would literally offer sheep in the front of the temple, butcher them, and take their carcasses out to the back of the temple and sell the meat there. And it was a way for the temple to raise money and continue to perpetuate itself. So chapter 10 then, speaking of idols, is speaking of that marketplace meat. This is what verse 23 says. All things are lawful, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful, but not all things build up. Now we've seen this slogan before, right? In chapter six, verse 12, when Paul's talking about fornication and the fact that we should not join ourselves as Christians to temple prostitutes, he says that everything is lawful, but not everything is helpful. In chapter six, the contrast is striking because he says, all things are lawful, but I'm not gonna be brought, I'm not gonna be enslaved to anything. And the contrast is pretty stark because he uses the word for lawful, he uses the word exousia, which means authority. But then when he says, I won't be enslaved to anything, he uses that same word, that same root of that word. So he's making a play on words deliberately there. that here I am thinking that I am in charge, that I have authority, but what ultimately will happen if I succumb to all of the liberties that are around me is that eventually I'm going to be enslaved. It's going to have authority over me. And so we have the play on words in chapter six, all things are lawful. all things are not helpful, all things are lawful, but I won't be enslaved by anything. When we come to chapter 10, we have the same slogan, all things are lawful. We have the same correction, all things are not helpful. Now he gives a specific application because he says all things are lawful. And how are they not helpful? Because not everything that is lawful builds and he literally uses a word, a root word that means house. It's like building of a house. Not everything builds the house. It's as if in chapter 10, he's saying, congratulations, you have exercised your authority and done absolutely nothing for Christ or the body of Christ. You have exercised your authority that you have, you've exercised your right, but in exercising your right, you've done absolutely nothing to build the body of Christ. You've done nothing out of love. And then in verse 24, he gives the perfect illustration of what love, what that kind of love should look like. Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. Any good negotiators out there? Yeah, there's no negotiation in Paul. It's not a matter of Paul saying, I'm not going to negotiate, I'm not going to compromise. No. When you negotiate, what are you trying to get? You're trying to get the best deal you can get for yourself. I just want to let you know, up front, I'm a horrible negotiator. Terrible. I really feel bad for the other person, you know. No, no, no. You take it. In business, we're told, you know, you start at a certain level and you work your way to what you really want, but make sure you get yours. Making deals, get what you want. Make sure you don't compromise on that. And whatever you do, make sure that no one ever takes advantage of you. And maybe, maybe even, you don't want them to know, even if they may have won a little bit here, you had to give a little more than you wanted, don't let them know that. It's a really, really Silly kind of thing, I think, but it gets people what they want. And this is how we're told to negotiate. I mean, what happens if you come into conflict with a brother in Christ and he walks away with the lion's share and you walk away with pittance? Then what? Paul says, let no one seek his own good but the good of his neighbor. I want you to notice something about that. Note the universality of the imperative. The imperative is there, let no one seek his own good. Let no one seek his own good. Christian, don't seek your own good. particularly when it comes into issues of the conscience of other people. Don't seek to assert your own good. I'm going to get what I need to get. And if they're just not mature enough as Christians to see it, that's their problem. God will take care of it. The imperative here is universal. The apostle commands no exceptions. And then the next verse, what follows, is how this works out. He states the principle, let no one seek his own good but the good of his neighbor, and in verse 25 he says, eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience. Now notice, in this, he's talked a lot about those who have a strong conscience and a weak conscience. He doesn't specifically say who this is, but it would really only matter in this case to those who have a certain sensitivity to eating meat offered to idols, wouldn't it? Because if I don't have a sensitivity about meat offered to idols, then it really wouldn't matter when he says, eat whatever is sold in the meat market, because guess what? I was gonna eat that anyway. Do you see that? Essentially, what Paul is doing is he's keeping us from being enslaved to the conscience of the most sensitive person in the group. Because sometimes that can happen, right? Whoever has the most sensitive conscience, and it might be the strong conscience, it might be a weak conscience, but if it's the most sensitive conscience, all of a sudden, everybody is bound to that. And essentially, in this case, what Paul says is, he gives a direct command, so it is no longer a matter of conscience. And he says, if it's sold in the meat market, Don't ask any questions. Eat it. Now the word conscience sometimes indicates just a simple internal moral guide, right? It's that thing that sends up the red flags in our minds while we're thinking of stuff. While we consider what we ought to do and what we ought not to do, red flags go up and we say, you know what? I don't think I should do that. And sometimes we don't necessarily have a good reason for it. It just doesn't feel right. It seems that sometimes Paul uses the word conscience that way. In fact, in Romans chapter 2, when he talks about how God is revealed in our conscience, that the truth of God is revealed in our conscience, I think that's the way Paul is using it in Romans. I don't think that's how Paul is using that word conscience here in 1 Corinthians. And I think the best way to understand this is to take the root of that word conscience. It's not always a good thing to do that. We don't want to engage in the root fallacy, but I think in this case it actually applies. Because the word con, of course, means with. The word science means knowledge. And so, and it's actually the same thing, synodesis in the Greek language means with, and it's one of the words, oida is one of the words for knowing something or knowledge. So we have these two words that match up exactly, and they don't always just mean with knowledge. Sometimes, like I said, Paul uses them differently. But here, I think Paul is using them in that kind of purest form. The idea here is the idea of having a self-aware knowledge of what you're doing. In chapter 8, some could be led to participate in something, in the eating of meat that is offered in the temple, in a temple ceremony, and eating that meat. And they could be led to do that, even though it's not technically wrong, because idols, as Paul said, are nothing, right? But they don't know that idols are nothing. Some people understand that idols are nothing, but some people who are in Christ yet think that these idols still mean something and they still have the vestiges of their superstition that are guiding them. And so when he says that we do something for conscience sake, there are some people whose conscience, whose knowledge, whose self-awareness says, I'm going to eat this because I know that this is nothing. There are other people who don't have that same self-awareness and say, I'm going to eat this even though I think I might be doing something wrong. I would put it this way as an illustration. I know that some of you are allergic to shellfish. I can think of few other harsh lots in life to have to carry. I had a friend when I was growing up who was allergic to shellfish, but he and his brothers would go crab netting once a year. Well, they would go more often, but they would go crab netting once a year where he would eat all the crab he could until he was ready to throw up. And as soon as he was eating, his brother would take him and they would drive directly to Wilcox Hospital. Not a good idea. I don't recommend it. He's still alive today. Something worked. But think about this. You eat something that says crab on it. And you see that wonderfully, that stringy, flaky meat inside there, and it's got that little hint of orange on the outside. And it's not actually crab, it's imitation crab. Now you know that imitation crab is basically fish cake, right? In a different form, it's kamaboko. It has fish in it, it doesn't have any crab in it. One person takes that and eats that. Two people who are allergic to crab might eat that imitation crab. One person says, I know that there's no crab in here. It's imitation crab. It's basically fish, bone fish, and he eats it because he knows he's not allergic to it. The other person takes it and doesn't understand that it's imitation crab, and he's afraid to say anything and make a scene, and he says, you know what? I got my EpiPen with me. Time to go to town. And he eats it. But he eats it without knowledge. The other person eats it with knowledge. I think that this is the way Paul is using the word conscience here, with knowledge. You understand that what you're doing has absolutely no spiritual bearing, but the problem is there is a person there who, if he eats that meat offered to idols, does so without knowledge. and thus there is a spiritual reality behind it. He's violated what he thinks is wrong. Whatever in the marketplace, he says, is fine to eat with knowledge, with conscience. Well, what knowledge is it? What knowledge does he want us to have? What knowledge is he evoking to say, listen, you can eat whatever you find in there. Well, for that, he quotes Psalm 24. Look at verse 26. He says, Furthermore, Paul makes this parenthetical address in verses 27 through 29a. So we usually hear people say that 28 through 29a is something that needs to be wrestled with. What I think is that he puts a little parenthetical that says, in this circumstance, act this way. And at the end of verse 29, he returns back to the theme of 26 and 27. Excuse me, it is 27. If the unbelievers invite you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any questions on ground of conscience. Okay, so here's one for the homebodies because in verse 27, he says, you don't have to go if you don't want to. So if you're a homebody, you can say, no, I don't wanna go. You don't have to go, but you can if you want to go. And when you're there, you can eat whatever is placed before you because you're aware of the reality that the earth is the Lord's and everything in it is the Lord's, okay? Here's the parenthetical, but if someone says to you, this has been offered in a sacrifice, then do not eat it for the sake of the one who informed you and for the sake of conscience, okay? Once again, the sake of that knowledge. He doesn't have that knowledge. I do not mean your conscience, but his, okay? He doesn't have the same understanding that you do. Obviously, you try and correct his conscience, but obviously at that point, at that moment, is not the time. And so we have verse either 28 and 29a or 27 through 29a, depending on how you divide it up, as this parenthetical scenario where someone comes to you and says, this bothers me. We shouldn't eat this meat offered to idols. And so you don't eat it. Now it's interesting that the blessing that Jews would place over their food was based on what is written in verse 26, Psalm 24. They would bless all their food. They would thank God for whatever food they received because the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. It's the passage that they literally allude to when asked why they pray before their meals. However, in the Mishnah, and you remember that the Mishnah, when we went through Matthew, we talked a lot about the Mishnah. The Mishnah is a series of Jewish interpretations and Jewish kind of laws that were oral laws. It wasn't codified until about 200 years after Christ, about 150 years to 200 years after Paul writes this, They finally write down all of these oral laws, but it supposedly and purportedly reflects a tradition that would have been existent in the time that Paul is writing here. And the Mishnah says this. And by the way, the Mishnah has all of these clever sayings in it that rabbis would pass on. And it talks about different dialogues that this rabbi had with this rabbi. And they ultimately come to conclusions about how we should think about stuff. And some of it is very clever. In this case, it's clever, but there's also some double entendre in what he says, because the rabbi, when asked about meat that's offered to idols, if in other ways it's kosher, they didn't have the rabbinic blessing that needed to be pronounced over stuff back then, if in other ways it didn't violate the Torah, they said, can we eat this meat? The response from the rabbi in the Mishnah was, sure, you can eat anything that is going into the idol, but don't eat anything that is coming out of the idol. The point was that if it's going to go be blessed by an idol, you can eat it. If it's already been blessed by an idol, you need to treat it as if the idol had defecated it. And that's the way they viewed. In those terms, think about what Paul is saying. This meat has already been offered to idols, and what does Paul tell them? Just don't ask. Some people have referred to this section as Paul in his least Jewish form. Now, verse 29b, For why should my liberty be determined by someone else's conscience? And remember that this connects all the way back to verses 25 and 26 because of the parenthesis. Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any questions on the ground of good conscience. What is the conscience? For the earth is the Lord and the fullness thereof. For why should my liberty be determined by someone else's conscience? If I partake with thankfulness, that's the blessing of Psalm 24. If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks? So Psalm 24 is quoted in verse 26, and it's the basis, as I said, for Jews blessing their food. And Paul says, if I understand this, if I do this with conscience, with knowledge, why should anybody slander me because of it? In other words, if I go down there and I eat of this food, please understand that God allows it. No one can go and see me eating of this food, eating of this food, of this meat that I bought in the marketplace and say, ah, Paul has completely violated God's law because Paul has explained to us that the earth is the Lord's and it's fullness. So verse 31 says, so whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Just as in chapter six, we had the warning to those who were tempted with fornication, verse six ended with the exhortation, so glorify God in your body, right? So he's addressing directly the instrument used for fornication, your body. So now also, Paul concludes this section, glorify God in your eating and drinking. Even in this mundane building block of life, we've come to understand that all of life is sacred. Then he says in verse 32, give no offense to Jews or Greeks or to the church of God, just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many that they may be saved. Now folks, when you look at that, do you see Paul's motivation? Isn't it clear? Paul's motivation is the glory of God in the gospel. And what is the ultimate manifestation of the glory of God in the gospel? It's seeing people saved. And then if that isn't enough, Paul says, just to be sure we get the point, And in this, imitate me. Chapter 11, verse 1. Imitate me as I imitate Christ. That's what this passage means. That's what it's talking about. But I want us to, just by way of application, to ask ourselves two questions. Because these two questions, I think, are central to Paul's understanding of the situation, and they're also central to us understanding what Paul is telling us. And the first question is to ask yourself in every situation to remind yourself Why am I here? Why am I here? How many of you were, I was gonna say forced, how many of you got to read the Odyssey when you were in high school or in college? That's the story of Odysseus and his travels from the Trojan War, the war with Troy. Remember, Odysseus was the guy who came up with the scheme of the Trojan horse. Troy was a, Troy was a city, a massive city, and they were a city that was committed to the worship of Poseidon. Poseidon was the god of the ocean, He was the God of earthquakes, and he was the God of everything equestrian. So Odysseus comes up with the scheme that they're going to fashion out of their ships a giant offering, a giant horse, because Poseidon is the God of horses, and they're going to leave it as an oblation and a gift to the Trojans. And of course, you know how that story goes. From there, it's really not that far from where they think Troy was to where the island of Ithaca was. Ithaca was where Odysseus came from. It really would have been, I think, about a week or two journey sailing, as some people have guessed, maybe even less. And yet to go the distance, Odysseus takes 10 years. And you remember the story. There are two places in particular that eat up eight years of his 10-year journey to go a two-week journey. Those two places centered around two different female characters. One is Circe and one is Calypso. Circe, also known as the Sea Witch. Both places, both of these seductresses use the exact same tactic. One, he's there for an entire year. He's an entire year. The other, he's there for seven years and isn't even aware that a day has passed. What did they do? They got him to forget why he was going home. They got him to forget why he was going home. His home was not very far away. And the reason that he was going home was because at home was the wife that he loved dearly. Her name was Penelope. but also he had a son, a son who was born just before he went to war. In other words, he got to see his son, and then for the next 10 years of war, didn't get to see him, and then the next 10 years of journeying back, didn't get to see him. Telemachus was his name. The only way that Odysseus gets out of these two places is that one time Hermes and I think another time Zeus has to come and remind him, Odysseus, do you remember why you are traveling? And it snaps him out of it. It snaps him out of his fog. And then he continues on back to Ithaca, back to Penelope, back to Telemachus. Folks, as we journey through this life, do we not often forget what our journey is all about? Don't we? Don't we forget? It's about comfort. Oh, if I could just get a better house, if I could just make a little more money, if I could just do this, if I could just get my favorite thing. That's what this life is about. Why are you here? Why are you here? If we don't know If we don't know what we are doing, then we're wasting our time. Odysseus wasted his time while the wife of his youth grew old and his son grew up without him. And it didn't have to happen. If we forget what we are doing here, then we're wasting our time on the charms of sea nymphs and witches, and we're forgetting our purpose. That's why Paul says, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Do you understand that? These building blocks of life, I have to have food to survive. Now granted, I could go a long time without food and probably still survive pretty well. But at some point I have to eat. I have to eat. I have to drink. And those very building blocks of life ought to remind you every time, I was gonna say every time the glass comes to your mouth, but every time the water bottle comes to your mouth. or the, what are those things called? Hydroflask. Every time the hydroflask comes to your mouth, it should remind you why it is that you are actually here. If we sway from that purpose, then we are wasting our time on the charms of this world and her evil prince. Ask yourself what your purpose is. Ask yourself why you're here, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Now, once you've determined what your purpose is, once you remember what your purpose is, you need to remember secondly and ask this question, what is our mission here? We know what our purpose is. It's to bring glory to God. What is our mission? How is it that we are supposed to carry out the purpose? How are you to carry out this purpose? How does God want us to accomplish His glory? Look back at verse 32. Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the Church of God. Look back at verse 24, let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. What are we doing? We're supposed to love one another. How do you carry out the purpose to glorify God? The purpose to glorify God is carried out in the mission that you will love your neighbor. If we don't love our neighbor, we cannot glorify God. You remember the words of Christ, right? If someone says that he loves his neighbor and hates his brother, he's a... If someone says he loves God and hates his brother, he's a liar. You can't do it. You cannot carry out the purposes of God if you don't love one another. And how does that happen? Verse 23 tells us very clearly how that happens. Verse 23 says, all things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful, but not all things edify or build up. So what is your attitude? What is your orientation as it relates to your brothers and sisters in Christ? When I look at you, what should my goal for our relationship to be? What should my goal for our relationship be? Sorry, threw an extra preposition in there. What should it be? The goal for my relationship to you is so that I can build you up. That's the goal. I'm supposed to be here building you. Now, you may look at me as I stand up here on a platform and say, well, Kahu, that's easy for you. That's your job. Your goal, as it relates to me, is to build me up. The person next to you who is a follower of Christ, your goal as it relates to them is to build them up. Parents, your goal to your children is to build them up. Children, if you're a follower of Christ, your goal towards each other and to your parents is to build them up. Do you get the point? The point is to edify. And what happens, folks, if my brother in Christ walks away from this interaction and they get the lion's share? Then you know what? Then God has been glorified through you. And praise the Lord. But what if I walk away and I get nothing out of this deal? All I get is restriction and heartache out of this deal. Well, praise the Lord. God is glorified in you. There's a second part to our mission as we express love for our neighbor. Because we can look around in here and have a pretty solid estimation that the people sitting next to us are followers of Christ, right? But we're going to leave these doors, get into our cars, and step out into a world where we have absolutely no idea. And we're going to step into a world where in some cases we do have an absolute idea that these people are not followers of Christ. Well, how do I follow this command to love How do I accomplish this mission to love for a person who doesn't even love my Lord? What does Paul say? What does Paul say his goal is? He says in verse 33, just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, so that they may be saved. Oh, God help the Christian. God help the Christian who looks upon the unbelievers who are waiting your tables, who are bagging your groceries and simply see them as a means to convenience for you, right? Why are you here? What's the mission? in the life of the unbelievers that vastly outnumber us out there. The mission is the glory of God in their salvation. Folks, can we remember that? Can we remember that? When somebody cuts you off in traffic, Can we remember that when somebody speaks harshly to you in person? Can we remember that when somebody comes up and slanders a brother or sister in Christ? That your goal isn't to defend the brother or sister in Christ. The goal isn't to trash the brother and sister in Christ. The goal isn't even to be an advocate of the unbeliever. The goal is what? To see that person come to Christ. And who cares? Who cares what their political affiliation is? They need Christ. Nothing, there's nothing in this about making yourself happy or making yourself fulfilled. It is the glory of God, the glory of God, and as our only means to glorifying Him, the salvation Of others, C.S. Lewis says this, the glory of God and as our only means to glorifying him, the salvation of human souls is the real business of life. Paul concludes then with two illustrations wrapped into one. Two illustrations wrapped into one. The best illustration he saves for last. He says, the first illustration of how you ought to edify your brothers and seek the souls of the lost is me. Imitate me, right? Now is this indicative of Paul's life? When we read through the book of Acts, is that what Paul was about? Or did Paul go around seeking comfort? I mean, Paul was a tent maker, right? Maybe he made his tent extra cushy. No. You see through the book of Acts that Paul is stoned in places where he goes. He's accosted. We see already in the book of 1 Corinthians that even though he has a right to make all kinds of money off of these people because they're supposed to support the one who's preaching the gospel, even though he has all that right, he doesn't take anything from them at all. And Paul says, imitate me. My goal is not my comfort. My goal is the glory of God and the edification of the saints and the salvation of sinners. Isn't that what we see in his life? Isn't that a great illustration? I would put that illustration right there at the top of people who we should emulate, the Apostle Paul. And Apostle Paul puts himself near the top, but he doesn't put himself at the top, does he? Because he says, be an imitator of me as I am of Christ. The second illustration he uses for us to follow is Christ. We've already seen that here in 1 Corinthians once again, that Christ gave everything, right? Christ gave everything. The Son of Man didn't have a pillow where He could rest His head. He wandered through the land like a vagabond. He didn't have a home that at least is ever mentioned. He gave Himself to the edification of those who followed Him, of His disciples, and He gave Himself to the salvation of those who didn't. And when I say He gave Himself, He didn't merely give His time. He didn't merely give His effort. But folks, I'm sure your mind is already headed straight to the cross. Jesus gave His life. What an illustration for us. What an illustration of how we ought to live the injunction to love. Paul's life is seen in the proclamation of the gospel, Christ's life. Follow these illustrations. We need to follow this injunction. We need to follow when it comes to issues of conscience that we lay ourselves down for our brothers and lay ourselves down just like Christ did. Let's pray. Father, we come before you as those who frequently fail. as sinners who are in need of your grace for salvation. We're also in need of your grace for sanctification. We ask Lord that, we ask Lord that you would help us to love the way we're supposed to. And we ask Father that you would help us in this process of building up our brothers and sisters in Christ that we would make ourselves lovable. Make it easy for them to love us. May we build the body of Christ by edifying the saints. May we build the body of Christ by evangelizing the lost. Not for our glory, not for the glory of this church. but that your excellence would be manifest. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.