May 08, 2022
What If I’m Right?
May 7 & 8, 2022
Primary Text: 1 Corinthians 9:19-23
Previous Teaching: What If I’m Wrong?
1) Idols Everywhere
Acts 17:16-18: While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, "What is this babbler trying to say?" Others remarked, "He seems to be advocating foreign gods." They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.
DQ 1) What are examples of idols in our culture?
DQ 2) What are Epicureanism and Stoicism?
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2) An Unknown God
Acts 17:22-23: Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.
DQ 3) Are there altars to “unknown gods” in our culture?
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3) The Dividing Line
Acts 17:30-32: "In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead." When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, "We want to hear you again on this subject."
DQ 4) What is the call of God to repentance for everyone? What is genuine repentance?
DQ 5) What keeps anyone from understanding and living in the truth?
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This Week’s Teachings
1) A Slave to Everyone
1 Corinthians 9:19: Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.
DQ 1) In what ways was Paul “free”? What restrained his freedom?
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2) Paul the Chameleon
1 Corinthians 9:20-22: To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak.
DQ 2) Why is adapting to the personal and cultural context important in presenting truth?
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3) Human Parameters
Genesis 1:27: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
Leviticus 18:20-22: Do not have sexual relations with your neighbor's wife and defile yourself with her. Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the LORD. Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.
Romans 1:24-27: Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
DQ 3) Why do humans spurn God’s plan with regard to sexual relations?
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4) All Things to Everyone
1 Corinthians 9:22-23: I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.
DQ 4) What does it mean to “become all things to all men”?
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