This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you back to Day 3, 1 Corinthians chapter 10. These are some
interesting verses we're going to read today. Most people, as they read these
the first time through, they think, "What do they have to do with what we just
read about temptation?

" But a closer look shows you they have everything to do with what influences
your life and the direction that you go in life. In fact, as I read these
verses, 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verses 14 to 22, I want you to listen for how
often Paul uses the word "participate" or "become a part of" or "be together in.
" That's the key word in this passage.

1 Corinthians 10, 14 to 22, "Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. I
speak to sensible people. Judge for yourselves what I say.

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? Because there is one loaf, we who are many are one body, for we all
partake of the one loaf.

Consider the people of Israel. Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate
in the altar? Do I mean that a sacrifice offered to an idol is anything or that
an idol is anything?

No. But the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God. And I do not
want you to be participants with demons.

You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too. You can't have a
part in both the Lord's table and the table of demons. Are we trying to arouse
the Lord's jealousy?

Are we stronger than he? In these verses, Paul is talking about what influences
our lives. And the key word, it all revolves around this word "participate.

" You noticed I just read the cup is a participation in the blood of Christ.
He's talking about the Lord's Supper here. He says the people of Israel
participate in the sacrifices of the altar.

He encourages them not to participate with demons in what they eat. And he says
you can't have a part, participate, part, in both the Lord's table and the cup
of demons. What is he talking about here?

Well, this word "participate" is the Greek word koinonia. Those of you who have
heard a number of sermons have heard that word before. Koinonia is the Greek
word for fellowship.

It's the relationship that we have with God and with each other. It's the
connection that we have. These are verses about the power of fellowship, of
influence, of connection in your life.

And the principle is this. It's a powerful principle of life. And you cannot
violate this principle as much as you might try.

The principle is this. Fellowship equals influence. Fellowship equals influence.

Who you fellowship with is going to be the greatest influence in your life. Now
we often use the word fellowship to describe Christian relationships. But he's
not talking about just Christian relationships here.

Fellowship can also be with those who are going a different direction.
Fellowship simply means I'm going in the same direction as somebody else. I'm
doing the things that they do, all the things that they do.

I'm in agreement with them. I'm living my life in connected agreement with them.
And one of the key decisions I've got to make in my life, that you have to make
in your life is who am I participating with?

Who am I fellowshiping with? Because fellowship equals influence. We tell
ourselves that our greatest influence comes from what we think.

We like to be sort of prideful about that. Well, if I think it, I'm going to do
it. But that's not true of us.

If you look at human nature, if you look at any study, the truth of the matter
is we are most influenced by who we choose to fellowship with. You tend to think
like the people that you spend the most time with. You tend to talk like the
people that you spend the most time with.

We take on the habits of the people that we fellowship the most with. That's
just the way that life works. That's the way that human beings work.

We are relational beings. We're not just logical beings. We are most and
foremost relational beings made to live in connection to God and in connection
to people who are following God.

And if I live disconnected with God, connected with some idea of an idol that I
have, whether it be materialism or fame or anything else, if I live disconnected
from God's people, just living with other people who are living life based on
their own selfishness, I'm going to become like what I'm thinking. I'm going to
become like who I'm living with. Paul's very clear about this.

He says to participate is to become a part of what other people are doing. So as
believers, he says, we participate in fellowship with Jesus when we take the
Lord's Supper. We're not just going through a ritual.

We're connecting with Jesus in that moment. And you can sense it. If you sat in
a church or in a small group and as you take the Lord's Supper, you eat the
bread together, you drink the juice together.

And as you do this, you're remembering Jesus, but you're also connecting with
Jesus. You sense your relationship with him and that has an influence on you.
Taking the Lord's Supper influences your life for good and for God because
you're in connection with him.

Because of that, Paul says as believers in Jesus, we're not to participate in
fellowship with demons through pagan sacrifices. What does this mean? What does
this mean today?

The word pagan means it's about self and it's about sin. Pagan is all about
selfishness. Life is centered on me.

So I make up gods that are required to please me. That's what idols are. And
they used to be these little stone statues that people made up.

And if I put a little hunk of meat in front of that stone statue, then my flocks
have to do well. If I put a little piece of wheat in front of that stone statue,
then my harvest has to be good. I've made a sacrifice to the statue, so now it
has to do what I tell it to do.

It's a god that you can control. As Paul writes about this, he says there's more
than a false idol going on here. There's something behind why people do this.

He says what's behind it is demons. The sacrifices of pagans are offered to
demons. Now what's a demon?

A demon is one of those angels of light who fell from heaven with Satan. So
demons are carriers of Satan's message, which is the same as it's always been.
Satan's message is if you do this, you can be like God.

You can get all the power. You can get all the pride. You can get all the
position that you want in life, all the pleasure you want.

You can be like God. So in the old days, the idols were named things like Baal
or Artemis or Diana. Today they're named materialism or fame or comfort.

It's the same thing. It's the same thing. So to participate, to participate, to
be a part of living that kind of life that thinks if only I do this, I'll be
rich.

If only I do this, I'll be more successful than my neighbor. If only I do this,
my pride will be appealed to. It may be a business meeting that you're going to
where this is the direction of life.

It may be a sales meeting that you're going to. It may be some kind of a church
meeting that you're going to. It may be just a gathering of neighbors, a group
of guys that get together for breakfast, whoever it is.

If the core of that meeting, if the direction of that meeting, if what everybody
is buying into in that meeting is if I do this, my selfish needs will be met
better than anybody else's. I'll win. You'll lose.

Paul says don't participate in that. Stay away from that. Why?

The third thing he says about this, first he talks about the Lord's table. He
says that's where you want to live. He talks about the demon's table, selfish,
and he says that's not where you want to live.

The third thing he says is you can't participate in both at the same time. This
idea that I can come to church on Sunday and serve the Lord and then on Monday I
can have some totally different way of thinking that says if only I do this,
I'll get all my selfish needs met. I'll tip my hat to God on Sunday and then
I'll find my way of getting what I want on Monday.

It doesn't work, Paul says. You can't participate in both at the same time.
Jesus said it this way, you can't serve God and money.

It just doesn't work. So how does this fellowship in life work? How does it
really work itself out in everyday life?

Let me tell you two unhealthy ways of dealing with this participation, this
fellowship, this issue that I am most influenced by who I fellowship with. Two
unhealthy ways of dealing with this are complete isolation from the world or
full immersion in the world. There are some people who because of this truth,
they believe in complete isolation from the world.

They think it's not just a matter of participation or fellowship but any kind of
contact. So I can't have contact with anybody in the world. Well, Jesus didn't
teach that.

Jesus said I want you to be the light of the world, I want you to be salt in the
world. So he's not talking about contact, he's not talking about any kind of
relationship, he's talking about fellowship, going in the same direction as
somebody else. Be careful of complete isolation and also be careful of full
immersion in the world.

This idea that I'm free in Jesus so I can participate with anyone I want doing
anything I want. You're never going to reach someone for faith in Jesus by fully
participating in all that they do apart from Jesus. There's this false thought
somehow that especially guys have this.

If I can say the same words, swear words, I can make the same jokes, I can be
involved in the same actions even if they might be wrong. I love the Lord and
they need to see that I'm just a normal human being like they are. I don't want
them to think that Christians are judgmental.

Well, I understand that and I understand the reason for that thinking. But by
going down that road, you cause them to think something far worse. You cause
them to think that Christians are no different, we're just the same.

Why would they be attracted to Jesus if you're just the same as they are? All
you've got is everything they've got except you've got to go to church on the
weekends. Why become a believer if it makes no difference?

So Jesus said be in the world, love the people in the world, be connected, but
don't be of the world. Don't be somebody who's doing all the same things the
world does because you're a different person now. What is healthy participation
fellowship?

It's I love everyone, I serve everyone and I fellowship with those who are going
the same direction as I am because I understand the power of the influence of
fellowship. It's like you're sitting in a boat and if you're sitting in a boat
and you all have an oar, if we're rowing in the same direction, we can make
progress. But if we're sitting in a boat and we're rowing in different
directions, it doesn't make sense.

The person that I'm saying I'm having fellowship with and they're going in a
different direction, they're going to get mad at me, I'm going to get mad at
them, we won't move anywhere or more likely I'm going to get tired, I'm going to
stop fighting and I'm going to go along just on the ride with them for a while
and then I might just start rowing with them because the truth of the matter is
when it comes to fellowship we tend to go to the lowest common denominator. If
you get one person in a room who's really living for Christ, they can bring up
the tide of everybody in that room. But if you get one person in a fellowship
group who's really living for themselves, it tends to cause everybody to lower
themselves to that standard.

Well they can get away with it, maybe I should too. So Jesus says, Paul says
when he's talking about Jesus and who Jesus is in our lives, that you
participate, you fellowship with those who are going the same direction as you
because you understand the power of that influence in your life, the power of
spiritually what's going on through the fellowship in your life, the choices
you're making. Let's pray right now for God's wisdom in those choices.

Jesus, I need your wisdom, we need your wisdom. We don't want to stand off from
the world, we don't want to act as if we've got something and no one else has it
and we don't want you to have it, we want to be like to the world, we want to be
salt to the world, we want to be your love in the world and just like you were
involved in the world around you, we want to be involved. But Lord, we don't
want to fellowship with the things of the world, selfishness and sin and pride.

So Lord, help us to see the dividing line in our own hearts. Help us to see that
place where we cross over that line and help us to not even get close to it.
Help us to realize and to admit in our own hearts the power of fellowship and
who we're fellowshiping with.

And if there's a choice I need to make, a change I need to make, show that to me
right now Jesus, I pray, in your name, amen. Tomorrow, Paul is going to talk
together with us about how mature believers begin to see the freedom that they
have in Christ.