Watch your step

[0:00] I don't know whether Catherine's ever attempted to cross a desert.! And you've got to go carefully.

[0:33] Because it's a dangerous place. There are places where you can fall over or slip. There are holes and crevasses you can fall into. And of course there's no McDonald's that you can pop into if you get hungry or thirsty.

[0:50] So you have to walk carefully and with some determination. And so whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. That's from 1 John actually.

[1:02] But how can we get safely through the desert as these Israelites that we read in the beginning of here clearly don't, didn't. Most of them didn't. Actually if you come to this chapter there's a couple of things you notice.

[1:17] I think the first thing you notice, at least the first thing I noticed straight away when I read it. Starting to prepare for this evening. Was that he reprises, goes back over some of the topics that he's already covered.

[1:32] So he talks about sexual morality. And he talks about food offered to idols. And he talks about Christian freedom. And those were of course the topics that he'd been dealing with in chapters, well really from chapter 5 up to chapter 9.

[1:47] And he goes back over and in a sense draws the conclusion and summarises that. So that perhaps is the first thing we see. And yet even in that there's a new slant on it.

[1:59] And he's, as I said at the beginning, what he's going to do after this chapter is go on and talk about some of the problems which the church has when it meets together.

[2:13] When it comes together as a congregation, as an assembly. And he's starting to work towards that because he has this idea of participation.

[2:23] Which actually, I mean, I think links what has gone before and what is to come. Now participation in this chapter at least is largely food related.

[2:38] As we can see there's a lot of reference to food in here. And he says in verse 21 for instance. Sorry yes, I was going to just point out.

[2:48] I'm not a great one for sort of key text. You know, just having text. But I think it is worth just pointing out a couple of verses. So with regard to the looking back of what he's already talked about.

[3:00] He says, if you think you're standing firm, be careful that you don't fall. That's verse 12. And as far as there's lots about food here. We'll have a look in a minute. But just to, he says here in verse 21.

[3:13] 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. And he links these two ideas together as we'll see.

[3:27] By this idea of thankfulness. If I take part in the meal with thankfulness. Why am I denounced? Because of something I thank God for. Well I could stop there.

[3:38] Because basically that's what I want to say tonight. But I thought we'd unpack it in a little bit more detail. Well. So let's look at some of the moral issues that he deals with.

[3:52] And I say he's really going back to address the topics that he's covered in the last few chapters. But he takes an example here as we've seen.

[4:04] That example of the Exodus. Of course he's talking in the first part of chapter 10. About the events that happened when Moses led the Israelites all out of Egypt.

[4:18] And they crossed the Red Sea. He says they were baptised through the sea. They were baptised in the cloud. Perhaps it refers to the cloud that John Newton referred to.

[4:29] The cloud and the fire that led the people onward. They all ate the same spiritual food and spiritual drink. If you remember they got manna and quail.

[4:40] They were provided in the desert. No McDonald's so they had to eat something. And they needed water. And water came from a rock. When at one point when Moses struck the rock.

[4:53] And another time they found a spring. That the Lord led them to. And so they all did that. All the Israelites. Shared in those blessings.

[5:06] And yet. For most of them it didn't go well. And in fact as. Paul rather graphically. Even gore-ishly puts it.

[5:17] The Israelites bodies. Were scattered over the desert. Most of them didn't make it frankly. They fell as we say by the wayside.

[5:27] It's almost like one of those. Pictures we got so used to them now. They don't shock us anymore. When you see. Newsreel from the war zones. And there's a truck driving along the road.

[5:38] And you can just see dead bodies. On either side. I think. If I'd seen that. Perhaps I did see that. When I was young. And television was only just invented. And it shocked us.

[5:49] Now. I suppose it still shocks us. But. We've almost got used to it. But. It's a horrible thing really. And this is the image. That Paul has here. These Israelites. Their bodies were scattered.

[6:00] Across the desert. And. He tells us. Why is he. Why is he bothering to tell us. All these things. When he says.

[6:11] Those things happen to them. As examples. And were written down. As warnings to us. On whom the fulfillment. Of the ages come. So. We're supposed to learn. From something. From them. And.

[6:23] I don't want to go through. All the examples. That he gives in detail. But I thought I might just look at one of them. And. That's the reference to.

[6:36] Apparently. 23,000. In. In verse. Eight. Perhaps. Least well known of these. Events. Um.

[6:46] Now. As far as it can work out. This refers. In fact. To numbers. Um. 25, nine. Though actually. In numbers 25, nine. It says 24,000.

[6:58] Paul seems to have rounded it down. For some reason. But. I think the general opinion. Is this is the event. That he's referring to. And what is that event. Well. It's.

[7:08] Um. You may be familiar. With the story. Of the Moabite king. Balak. Who saw the. Israelites coming in. From the desert. Invading. His territory. And he hired a prophet.

[7:20] The prophet. Balaam. To curse. The people of God. To curse the Israelites. So that he would then be able to defeat them. Because he saw that with the blessing of the Lord. He wasn't going to be able to beat them.

[7:34] Um. But. Well. Balaam wanted the money. Wanted the fee. So he turned up. Uh. But trouble is. He wasn't able to do it. Whenever he tried. The Lord spoke to him. And he just wasn't able to do it.

[7:45] And he says. How can I curse those. Whom God has not cursed. How can I denounce those. Whom the Lord has not denounced. That's numbers 23. Eight. But. Balaam still wanted his fee.

[7:57] So he came up with an alternative scheme. And that was a scheme. That very nearly worked. It doesn't actually say. In numbers 25. That this was. Balaam's idea. But if you look at numbers 31.

[8:08] Verse 16. It does say. That it was Balaam. Who came up with this scheme. Originally. And what was the scheme. Well he suggested. That the Moabite women. Should seduce the Israelites.

[8:20] And get them to indulge. In pagan sacrifices. To the Baal. Baal Peor. For some reason. The Israelites. Always seem to have found. Moabite women.

[8:30] Particularly attractive. And several. Times through the. Old Testament. That was the case. Most times. It didn't end well. Although there was an exception.

[8:40] Of course. In the case of Ruth. There was a Moabitist. But. But generally speaking. It didn't end well. And this. This scheme of Balaam. In fact. Very nearly succeeded. He very nearly did.

[8:53] Turn the Lord's face. Entirely away. From the Israelites. The only drastic action. Saved the people. And there's a story. A graphic story. Again. Of a. A priest.

[9:04] Who ran his spear. Through the. A sinning. Israelite. And Moabite women. Only drastic action. Saved the people. And even then. He said it was a tremendous. Cost of life.

[9:14] 23 or 24,000 people. Died from the plague. So. Balaam and Balak. Very nearly. Got away with it. And certainly. They did a great deal.

[9:25] Of damage. To the people of God. And why? Because. The people were not. Careful. Did not watch their step. They were.

[9:36] Well. They. Simply did what the Lord. Had told them not to do. They weren't careful enough.

[9:49] And the point really. Of course. Paul is making here. In chapter 10. Is that. Even though. These people. Experienced. God's leading. First hand.

[10:00] And they did. He says. Our forefathers. Were all under the cloud. And they all. Passed through the sea. They were all. Baptized. If you like.

[10:10] Into Moses. In the sense. That they went through. The waters. Of the Red Sea. Even though. That was the case. They still.

[10:22] Failed to inherit. The blessings. That had been promised. And if that. Could happen to them. With all the blessings. They'd had. Then. It's a warning. To the Corinthian church.

[10:35] And equally. A warning to us. Today. So he says. If you think. That you are. Standing firm. As perhaps. The Israelites did. Make sure. That you don't trip up.

[10:47] There's always. A crevasse there. For you to fall into. But still. At the same time.

[10:58] There's no. Need to despair. Some of them.

[11:08] Did make it. Or at least. The next generation. Made it. In the end. The determination. Of God. To save people. Cannot be thwarted.

[11:19] But still. They still had to be careful. They still needed this warning. And.

[11:31] But. As Paul tells us. We don't need to despair. I think. Touches on what Phil. Was talking about this morning. Quoted that verse. Where it says. We are perplexed.

[11:42] But we're not. In despair. There. And. Paul says here. That. No temptation. Has seized you. Except what is common.

[11:52] To man. Temptations. That the Israelites. Faced. Pretty much the same. As we. As the Corinthians. Faced. Pretty much the same.

[12:02] As we face today. They may. May not. Directly have problems. With idolatry. But. Still pretty much. Same sort of thing. Putting things. In the place of God.

[12:13] Sexual temptations. Greed. Just general. Grumbling. So the temptations. Are pretty much the same. In the end. They all come down.

[12:24] To not trusting. God to do. What he's promised. And. But. He says. God is faithful. He won't. Let you be tempted.

[12:34] Beyond what you can bear. Says elsewhere. Doesn't it. Resist the devil. And he will. Free from. From you. The problem comes. And we don't. Resist. He says.

[12:45] If you do. Stand up. Then God is able. To save you. So when you are tempted. He was all. Provide a way out. So that you can stand up.

[12:56] Under it. So he's saying. Don't. We're not. We may be perplexed. But we don't despair. And. We do. We do. As. Phil was pointing out. This morning.

[13:07] It does. Move on. From Romans 7. To Romans 8. Where he says. That those who live by the spirit. Can put to death. The deeds. Of the.

[13:17] Of the flesh. So it's not a council of despair. But it is a warning for us. And again. We've. Been through it in some detail. So. Previous years. So I went. The previous week.

[13:27] So I won't. Reiterate them all in detail. So. But it is. A warning. To us. And yet.

[13:39] Also. Even here. Paul. Does. Again. Have this caveat. The one that we looked at. Really. Last week. When he says. We still want to be careful.

[13:50] Not to fall into legalism. We need. As we saw last week. To assert. Both. The freedom. That we have in Christ. But also.

[14:00] The need to use. That freedom. For the good of others. Well. I just. Wonder whether to put my slide up. From last week. But I didn't. I listed the. Implications of this. In some detail.

[14:11] Last week. Paul. Gave. We saw that Paul. Used a series. Of rather nice paradoxes. To make the point. But here. He just puts it. Quite plainly.

[14:22] And briefly. And succinctly. Where he says. Everything is permissible. But not everything. Is beneficial. Everything is permissible.

[14:33] But not everything. Is constructive. When we want to. In. Do something. We need to think. Is it. Not just.

[14:43] Are we free to do it. But is it going to help us. Now that may not always be a. You know. A good. An easy question to answer. Is sitting down.

[14:54] And watching the television. Watching some. Trashy television. Going to help you or not. Well. It might. Or it might not. If it. Inable you to relax. And unwind. Then it might be just doing that. If you can thank God for it.

[15:04] As he says later. Then perhaps. Perhaps it is. But. You need at least. To think about that. Is it constructive. Is it beneficial. And most importantly.

[15:16] Of all of course. Not just for me. But for the good of others. Is it beneficial. And constructive. To my fellow. Believers. So he says.

[15:27] Yes. Again. We do need to maintain. Freedom. But we mustn't fall. Into the. Sin of legalism. So.

[15:39] I mean. I thought I wouldn't. Go into. Too much. Say too much. About that. Because it is. Ground that we've. Covered in the previous. Weeks. I thought for the. Rest of the time. I don't think. We're actually going to. Take very long tonight. We might have a bit of.

[15:50] Time for. A bit of discussion. There's. I'd look at this issue. Of participation. And what are we going to. Participate in.

[16:00] Is the issue that. Paul. Raises here. Are we going to. Participate in the. Blessings of God. Or are we going to.

[16:11] Participate. In the world. In the worship of idols. And. Most of what Paul says. On this issue here. Is actually to do with food.

[16:23] And. It gets a bit more general. As he moves on. Through the. Through the letter. But. Here. I mean the Corinthians. Had raised the issue of food. Food offered to idols. So he says.

[16:34] Yeah. This is a good. Good way of looking at this. Idea of participation. So just let note.

[16:45] How much there is about food. In this chapter. First of all. In verses four and five. He talks about them. They all. Ate the same spiritual food.

[16:56] And drank the same spiritual drink. Sorry. It's three and four. Isn't it not? Four and five. Yeah. Three and four. Sorry. Putting it down. It's three and four. So.

[17:08] He talks about. Particularly notes. What the Israelites. Ate and drank. And then in sixteen to eighteen. He. Comes back to this issue. That he dealt with.

[17:20] Last time. Dealt with it previously. About. Idol feasts. Food offered to idols. But he also. Introduces. A theme. That he's going to pick up later.

[17:30] Which is the theme. Of the. Lord's Supper. He says. Which of these. Are you going to participate in. Are you going to eat the food. That's. Sacrificed to idols.

[17:41] In verse eighteen. Or are you going to drink. The cup of the Lord. In verse twenty one. Or you're going to. Eat at the Lord's table.

[17:53] And he's going to say a lot more. About if you're familiar at all. With. The later chapters of Corinthians. You'll know he says a great deal. About that. In. In one Corinthians. And then again.

[18:04] He comes back to the issue of food. Yet again. Towards the end. In verses twenty five. To thirty. So he's talking now. About. Things being.

[18:15] Permissible. But not beneficial. And he. Talks about saying. Food sold in the meat market. And he. Says. Okay. If. Unbeliever.

[18:26] Invites you to dinner. Should. Should you go. Notice he actually again. Says. Do you want to go. That's a good. Question. You might not have thought of. But that's what he says. Do you want to go.

[18:36] But if you do. Then don't get. Too hung up on it. Of course. That would have been more. A problem. Particularly for. Orthodox Jews. Than it. It. Is perhaps for us.

[18:49] But even among. You know. There have been cults. And groups of Christians. Even today. That say. We should not eat. With unbelievers. And Paul says. No it's fine. To go and eat. With unbelievers. And if.

[19:00] They stick some food. In front of you. Don't. You know. It's not very polite. To sort of poke at it. See what it was. He says. As long as they don't. Actually say. You know. I've offered this.

[19:11] You'll want to eat this. Because I've. Offered it to Athene. Or whatever. Then. It's not going to do. Any harm. But of course. If they do tell you that. Then you may need to. Think again.

[19:23] But there's a lot. About food here. And. And it goes right through. Really to verse. Well I said 30. Actually 31. Because then he says.

[19:33] Whether you eat or drink. Or whatever you do. Do it all for the glory of God. So a lot about food and drink. In this chapter. And. He obviously thinks. That's a good way. To introduce this.

[19:45] Idea of participation. And what's also. Rather neat. In verse 23. Says everything is permissible. He's obviously. Sort of kind of quoting.

[19:56] What the Corinthians. Have been saying. He turns. The Gnostic argument. On its head. In a sense. And see. What they were saying. Was that food. Is nothing to do. With spiritual issues.

[20:06] So it doesn't really matter. You can do. What you like. With food. And. And he says. Yeah. That's kind of true. But. What are you going to participate in.

[20:18] In a sense. That is true. That food. Food isn't. You know. It's for the body. And not. For the. Spirit. But. You're applying that argument. In entirely the wrong way.

[20:30] And of course. He makes the point. By. Talking about. The food. That was. They ate in the desert. And he calls it. Spiritual food.

[20:40] And spiritual drink. Now. It's perhaps not. Quite clear. Does he. Is he saying. That the manna. And the water. Itself. Was spiritual.

[20:51] Or is he saying. They're only pictures. Of the spiritual sustenance. That. That. That God gave them. And the argument. For saying.

[21:01] He means that. He says. They. They drunk from the spiritual rock. That accompanied them. And that rock. Was Christ. My. Suggestion. Is that in fact. He's.

[21:12] He's doing. Both really. He's saying. Yeah. They ate this. Food. This manna. Quail. The water. And it was. For them. It was spiritual sustenance.

[21:23] Because it was the provision. That came. From Christ. So that they could cross the desert. And maybe there's. Other sorts of spiritual food. As well involved. But I think.

[21:34] I would suggest. That's what he's saying there. That. This food was spiritual. Because it was the provision. That came from. Christ. For them to cross.

[21:45] The desert. And. And he makes. The pattern of the rock. That was struck by Moses. And the water came out. He says. Well really. That provision didn't come from that rock. It came from Christ himself.

[21:57] So the point is. That they ate. Spiritual food. If any food.

[22:08] Qualifies as spiritual. Then this did. And. What about the other blessings. The law of Moses. The leading cloud. The sign of baptism.

[22:19] In the escape. Across the Red Sea. When Pharaoh's. They got through. But Pharaoh's chariots. Were drowned. These in a sense. Are spiritual food too.

[22:30] Because they were things. That were provided. By God. To keep them alive. Yet. They all ate.

[22:40] And drank it. In the physical sense. But it. Didn't. Keep them alive. In fact. As. Paul says. Their bodies. Were scattered.

[22:51] Across the desert. They ate it. In the physical sense. But. They didn't. Participate. In it. Spiritually. And that's.

[23:02] Why he introduces. Here. That idea. Of the Lord's Supper. We're not. Just supposed. To eat it. We're supposed. To participate. In it. And.

[23:14] As was the case. For the Israelite. Sacrifices. So he says. That in verses. Sixteen to twenty. Twenty. It wasn't. Just a case. Of. You know. Fry up. A.

[23:25] Sheep. Some of it. Gets put on the altar. And we eat. The rest of it. Although. That was basically. What they did. But. When they. When they. At it. When the Levi.

[23:35] At it. And when it was. Sacrificed. To the. Lord. They were supposed to. It was supposed to. Mean something to them. They were supposed to. Take part in it. The. In a sense.

[23:47] It wasn't. Eating the. Lamb. That saved them. In the day. Of the Passover. It was the fact. That they. Took the blood. And put it on the. Doorframe. And said.

[23:58] This death. Applies to me. And. And if. When the Israelites. Had sacrifices. They were supposed to. Participate in it. It was supposed to. Mean. Something to them.

[24:09] And. One of the prophets. Says. Doesn't he. Do I delight. In the blood of lambs. You know. I'm not. Interested. In killing sheep. What I'm interested in. Is that.

[24:20] You. Give me. What I. What you should. And. So. Just as the. Israelites.

[24:30] At the. Manor. And the quails. And drank the. Water. And yet. It wasn't really. Spiritual food. For them. Because. In the end. It didn't keep them alive. So. You can say.

[24:41] The same thing. About. Paul says. Well. Paul says. The same thing. About the Lord's Supper. In. One. Corinthians 11. In the next chapter.

[24:52] In verse 20. He says. When you come together. It's not the Lord's Supper. You eat. You think it is. But you're not really. Eating the Lord's Supper. At all. You're not. Participating in it.

[25:06] And actually. To some extent. It's even true. That the same. Applies in reverse. And so. It's as if you go. To dinner. With an unbeliever. Well it is actually. Or you buy some.

[25:17] Food. Meat. At the local market. It is actually. Possible. That this meat. Has been offered. As an idle sacrifice. Or someone. It is unclean.

[25:28] In some other way. But. It might be. It might be richly. Unclean. Which as I say. Would have been a problem. For a strict Jew. Certainly. Remember. Peter had this problem.

[25:38] At Cornelius's house. The Lord had to send him. A vision. Before he'd go and eat. With Cornelius. But if you don't know. That it's been sacrificed. Then merely.

[25:50] Eating physical food. Is not going to do you. Any harm at all. He says. Anything without. Sold in the meat market. Without raising. Questions of conscience. For the earth is the Lord's. And everything in it.

[26:02] Not going to do you. Any harm. No. And do you remember. Jesus himself. Said something very similar. In Mark 7.

[26:14] 18 to 19. Jesus said. Are you so dull. Don't you see. That nothing that enters a man. From the outside. Can make him unclean. For it doesn't go into his heart.

[26:26] But into his stomach. And then out of his body. In saying this. Jesus declared. All foods unclean. All foods clean. Is the comment that Mark. Adds on the end.

[26:37] But. Yeah. Merely eating food. Is not really. Going to do you any harm. Even if it's food. That is richly unclean. But if you participate.

[26:48] In the sacrifice. Then that's a very different matter. Because he says. The sacrifice. Of.

[27:01] Offered to an idol. Sacrifices of pagans. Are offered to demons. Not to God. And I do not. Want you to be participants. With the demons. So he makes the distinction there.

[27:13] Between. Eating the food. And participating. In the sacrifice. And he says.

[27:24] Do the same thing. If you're out at this dinner party. And your host. Or somebody else. Says this is the food. That was sacrificed. Diana of the Ephesians. Or whatever. The local.

[27:35] God. Or goddess. Is. He says. Then. Well in that case. You better not eat it. Why is that? Because. Even if it has no significance.

[27:47] For you. It clearly does have significance. For the person. Who. Mentioned it. In his view.

[27:58] You will be an idolater. Even if not. In your own view. Even the appearance. Of evil. Should be avoided. As it will cause. The other person. To make an unjust judgment. Notice.

[28:09] Notice. He says that. In verses. Twenty. Nine. And thirty. Says. Why should. The other man's conscience. I mean. Not yours. For why should my freedom. Be judged by another's conscience. Why.

[28:23] Why should my. When I exercise. My freedom. Should it actually. Cause a problem. Of conscience. For somebody else. If I'm. Trying to avoid. Upsetting.

[28:34] Trying to avoid. Putting people. Obstacles in people's way. I have to worry. Not only about my own conscience. But the other man's conscience. Person who pointed this out. And so.

[28:47] But actually. Of course. He says that. You would actually. If you do that. You would actually. Be participating. In the idolatry. Yourself. Um. Because.

[28:59] You were. Not seeking. The good. Of others. So. In fact. If you. Did that. You would actually. Be participating. Yourself. In that sacrifice. Offered to the demons. So.

[29:15] This issue. Of. Participating. And not being. Participating. Not being. The same. As. Eating. I think. Is. An. An. Important. One. What.

[29:26] Makes. The spiritual. Food. Effective. For us. What. Made it. Ineffective. For the. Israelites.

[29:39] How. Can we. Eat. The Lord's. Supper. And yet. Not eat it. How. Can it. Be. All right. To eat. Food. Maybe. Unclean. From the meat. Market. But not.

[29:49] To eat it. If we know. Where it's come from. As it were. How.

[30:01] Do we know. If we're. Participating. Or. Merely. Eating. Now. This. I think. Is a. Quite. Complex. Question. And one. That. Actually. In many ways.

[30:11] He's going to expand. And. Work on. In the. Coming chapters. But actually. In this case. He gives a rather. Simple answer. In this chapter. He actually says.

[30:24] What is your attitude. While you're doing it. Are you grumbling. That's what happened. To the Israelites. Wasn't it. In verse 10. You know. All the other sins. Sins.

[30:34] That. He'd mentioned. Before that. You might have thought. That grumbling. Was the least of them. But no. Actually. Grumbling. Is the worst of them. Because.

[30:47] He's saying. You know. You're not. God has provided you. With this spiritual food. And you're not interested. You don't want it. You think it's. You know.

[30:57] You'd rather have. A big mac. It's. Don't. You want spiritual junk food. And he's saying. No. That's.

[31:09] Grumbling. At what God. Sets before you. Not eating your greens. If you like. Is. Exactly. How you.

[31:19] Fail. To participate. In the meal. Well. We can. Relate to that. Can't we. You know. If our. Child sits there. And refuses to eat. You know.

[31:30] Don't like. Cabbage. Don't like. That. Can't eat that. No. I don't want that. I want chocolate. You know. I want.

[31:43] Once. At a meal. With Miriam. And Harry. My. My daughter. Harry's my. Grandson. And. She actually. Gave him some chocolate. And he wouldn't eat it. She sort of stood up. And said. Child eat your chocolate.

[31:54] She was. I was. But yeah. He wouldn't even participate in that. But anyway. That's a bit of. A bit of. Daring. Yeah. You know. If the child is not participating.

[32:05] In the family meal. You know. The same. Is rejecting. What the. Family has put. What has been put. In front of him. And we could do that also.

[32:15] Couldn't we. We could go out with. Somebody else. And not. Participate. In that meal. We could eat it. But really. Be sitting there thinking. What am I doing here. Why am I. You know. Why am I here.

[32:27] And. And complain. And grumble. On the other hand. In verse 16. He says.

[32:39] Isn't the cup. Of what. The cup of wine. The cup of the blood. Of Jesus. The cup of the new covenant. No he doesn't say that. He says. Isn't the cup. Of thanksgiving.

[32:51] For which we give thanks. Of participation. In the blood of Christ. It's the giving thanks. That is. The. That enables us.

[33:03] To participate in it here. We give thanks to the Lord. For his provision. And then we are participating. In the meal. We give thanks to our host. Or the child says.

[33:14] Thank you. To his. Parents. For the meal. Set before him. And then he's participating in it. And we're participating in it. And that's what. Paul says here.

[33:25] Is we need to be doing. It's the cup of thanksgiving. And we need to give thanks. And that's the participation. In the blood of Christ. And of course. That also helps us.

[33:36] With the idle. Food offered to idle question. Who are we giving thanks. For. Or to rather. Sorry. Who are we giving thanks to. If.

[33:47] The host. Puts the meal before us. And we say. Thank you. You know. That's really nice. That's great. Then we're participating in it. But if the host says. Look this. This. I brought you this specially.

[33:59] It's straight from the temple of. Mithras. Then. They're giving. Then we're not going to participate in that. Because. Then we are.

[34:09] Giving thanks to the wrong person. We're giving thanks to the demon. Rather than the Lord. Who are we giving thanks to. Now it may seem strange.

[34:22] That thankfulness. A simple answer like that. Seems a. Very simple answer. To a. A very complex question. And. Perhaps in a sense it is. And I think as I say. This idea of participation.

[34:33] In the Lord's Supper. And so on. Certainly gets expanded. And worked on. In the. Following chapters. But. Still. That's the answer he gives here. Perhaps it's the basic. Simplest answer we can give.

[34:45] To participate in it. You have to be thankful. And perhaps we can just expand that a little bit. And say that thankfulness here. Is really faith in action. Isn't it. When the.

[34:57] Israelites were grumbling. They were saying. Well. You know. I don't really. It's not just not up to scratch. This stuff that. You know. That God has provided for us.

[35:08] It ain't going to work. It just won't. Won't cut it. It's just no good. That's what they were saying really. Wasn't it. They didn't have faith. That the provision that they needed. To get through the.

[35:20] That God had provided. To get through the desert. Was actually up to the task. And with the result. Of course. That for them it wasn't. They died in.

[35:31] In the transit. So it's really. Thankfulness is really. Putting your faith here. Into action. Isn't it. When you give thanks.

[35:42] For the cup. You're saying. Yeah. I thank you that. The blood of the covenant. Was shed for me. Not just. Abstractly. The questions.

[35:53] Not just. For. You know. For any. Any old people. But we give thanks. That the blood. Was shed for me. And in that sense.

[36:07] We participate in it. It's faith. Faith. Put into action. And saying yes. We are going to thank God. For what he's. Given us. The provision that we need. To make it through.

[36:17] Thank you.