Caution Flags

Show Notes

August 27, 2026 | Cory O'Hara walks through 1 Corinthians 10:1–13, highlighting three caution flags for following Christ: confusing being around Him with abiding in Him, growing comfortable with sin, and allowing confidence to become carelessness. Through Israel's example and Paul's warnings to the Corinthians, he encourages students to rely on God's faithfulness, resist temptation, and seek accountability.

What is The Vue?

Bellevue Baptist Church College Ministry

Amen, thank you, worship team, appreciate you guys. All right, if you're brand new, I just want you to know at midweeks with us on Thursday nights, we like to open up the Bible together and we take about 25 minutes and we just walk through the word and see what we learn in the text, try to understand what it meant for the original audience and the original author, and we try to find out how that applies to us today. How does it apply to 2026 believers? And so if you got your Bible, open up to 1 Corinthians 10. That's where we're gonna be tonight, 1 Corinthians 10. The title of today's message is Caution Flags. Caution Flags, and the whole concept is rooted in some warnings that Paul is giving the Corinthians. I'm gonna be honest with you though, before I can just drop us into 1 Corinthians 10, we've gotta hear some context of what's going on in the Corinthian church. So I wanna give you some POV of what it's like to be in the city of Corinth in first century AD. So this is what it is. The church of, or the city of Corinth was like a melting pot of people from all types of social, economic, and religious backgrounds. So I'm gonna show you a picture on the screen real quick. This is a drawing of what Corinth would have been like at that time. And although there was a layer of wealthy upper-class citizens, much of the community was made up of former slaves from Rome who moved there to create a better life. And Rome had pushed many of these newly freed men and women toward Corinth. And the city was booming big time. The Roman laws and culture still dominated much of the Corinth city, but as people from various backgrounds continued to pour into the city, the culture began to evolve, come alive. And with that came all sorts of immorality. The city of Corinth we read about in Paul's letter was undoubtedly the Las Vegas of the first century, okay? Lot of different kind of people come to town, but at the same time, there's all kind of different right and wrongs that people believed and lived by. As the culture leaned further into this moral relativism kind of state where people did what was right in their own eyes, the church began to blossom. And that is the Corinthian church. That's who Paul is writing to here. It was full of Jews and Greeks. It was full of slaves and free men and women. It was full of wealthy and poor people. All functioned together as one body, the church. In many ways, the blending of this beautiful picture of what heaven's gonna look like one day with every tribe, nation, language, and people represented, worshiping side by side is a great picture of what the Corinthian church was looking like, but at the same time, unfortunately, the church was plagued with some very unheavenly habits. They were struggling in some pretty big areas in the church. I love how Gordon Fee describes Paul's effort to write to the Corinthian church. Just listen to this quote. It's two sentences, it's so good. He says, although they were the Christian church in Corinth, an inordinate amount of Corinth was yet in them. He says, emerging in a number of attitudes and behaviors that required radical surgery without killing the patient. I love the way he says it. He's like, we're gonna have to really tackle some heavy issues without killing the person along the journey. And so that's what this letter's attempting to do. And as we jump into 1 Corinthians chapter 10, that's the picture we're painted here is that Paul is trying to help caution, flag, course correct the Corinthian church on their journey with the Lord. So I wanna read the first few verses with you. It starts in verse one, all the way through verse five. It says this, Paul's writing to them. He says, now, I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and they all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. Great picture of the gospel, even in the Old Testament. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them since they were struck down in the wilderness. Who is this talking about? Anybody know? Y'all said it like you're whispering, like we're in the library. Give me an answer. Who is this talking about? Israelites, that's right, Israel. Paul's reminding the Corinthians about Israel when they escaped out of Egypt and were headed to the land of Canaan. And Israel had witnessed some incredible moments at the hand of God. They experienced firsthand the 10 plagues that set them free out of Egypt. They miraculously crossed the Red Sea on dry ground. They followed a giant cloud in the sky and a pillar of fire by night that was literally their personal little Google Maps on where to go in the wilderness. They came under the tutelage of Moses who went up on the mountain and would come down and be like, here's what God said. They ate the Old Testament Chick-fil-A, manna and quail every day. And they even drank from a rock that the water would miraculously flow out of when they were thirsty in the wilderness. They were experiencing the power of God. They had a front row seat. They were sitting in the splash zone of the best Shamu show in town. But here's the problem. Despite their front row seats, all of these amazing moments, they still didn't experience the Lord in the way that God had intended for them. If you're taking notes today, here's your big idea number one is this. Paul is telling them, be careful not to confuse being around Christ for abiding with Christ. Don't confuse being around Christ for abiding with Christ. This is what he's telling the Corinthians. You see, for Israel, despite all the work that God had been working and moving in their midst, they still struggled with disbelief and disobedience with God. The point, to the point where these people missed out on God's plan for their life. A whole generation of them missed out on fulfilling God's promise to enter the promised land of Canaan because of their disbelief and their disobedience despite their front row seat to all that God was doing. Despite them walking under the cloud, under the leadership of Moses, they still missed out on what God had planned for them. How many of you guys have ever seen a picture of this dolphin jumping out of the water? You ever seen this kind of photo before? Yeah. It's on every, probably like six-year-old's coloring book. Okay, that's what it looks like. I'm 33 years old and I've never seen a dolphin jump out of the water, okay? I'm convinced, I don't know if it's real. Most of the time when I see a dolphin, it looks like this right here. That's what it looks like, okay? That's all I see. And my wife's like, that's a shark. You know, that's a shark. I know it's a shark. And I'm like, no babe, it's a dolphin for sure. Well, last week I was at the beach, Orange Beach. We're doing that redneck beach vacation to the Gulf Shores. Okay, it was a good time. And I took my family, here's Rebecca real quick. I call her Reba and that's our son, little Oliver. And we were sitting at the edge of the beach, looking out. Now I'm telling y'all, we saw Bigfoot. I'm gonna show you this video, check it out. Not the guy, the dolphin in the background, okay? For the record. See that dolphin jumping? I'm here to let y'all know, it's real, okay? It's real. Dolphins are now S tier animals in my book. Like they're in the top 10. That was pretty amazing. But at the same time, although I was sharing the same beach with Reba and Oliver, I need you to know, my whole family was blown away by this. This made it in the group chat, all right? It was a big deal for us that day. One person could give a rip. And that's the little guy named Oliver. He was standing on the same beach, next to the same water, seeing the same dolphin and he could care less. All he wanted to do was play with his monster trucks in the sand. Boys, let's go, all right? But what I wanna show you is that, it's a silly illustration, but he's not like, we were standing in the same spot, experiencing the same thing. But our takeaway was totally different. He didn't care. He didn't change his perspective for dolphins for life, okay? For me and Reba. We may get a dolphin one day, all right? I just wanna let you know. We're in. But here's what I wanna show you is, this is the picture is that for you and for the Corinthians, it could be the same story. That you could be sitting in the same seat next to someone and have a radically different experience with the Lord. Because your posture is filled with disbelief or disobedience. You can sing the same songs and have a different experience. You can be around children, you can be around church, around Christians, around biblical content, and have a totally different experience person next to you because your heart is just around it, but you're not abiding with Christ. Does that make sense? And if we're not careful, we can run the risk of confusing being around things like this, for actually being someone who's abiding with Christ. And that's the call to action that we see in these first few verses.

is that just being around it is not the solution. Just taking a sample from that lady at the Costco checkout is not the same thing as buying the box, taking it home and cooking it. Those are two different experiences. And sometimes we can settle for the sample platter when the Lord's trying to give us the buffet. And Israel missed out on God's plans because they were around it, but they weren't abiding with Him. And so I just say to our view ministry tonight, don't settle with just being around Christ. Be someone who chooses to abide with Christ, to walk with Him, to believe Him, to obey Him, to delight in Him, to wake up in the morning and say, God, I'm desperate for you, to go bed at night, instead of spending the whole time scrolling, take a moment and just say, God, I'm grateful for this today, I'm thankful for this today, I'm praying for this tomorrow, I'm anxious about this tomorrow, just abiding with Him, being honest with Him and walking with Him. Being around Him is not enough. Abiding with Him is the key. I could preach more on this, even from the New Testament across what Jesus says in John 14, 15 and 16, but I'm gonna park it here for now and just say, be careful not to confuse being around Christ for abiding with Christ, okay? Second thing is this, it comes out of six through 11, let's put this on the screen for us. Paul says, now these things took place as what? That was beautiful, you guys are great, okay? There's another one coming later, so just be ready to say it even better next time, okay? Don't blame, he says, be careful, and now these things took place as examples for us so that we will not desire evil things as they did. Don't become idolaters as some of them were, as it is written, these people sat down to eat and drink and got up to party, this is a verse from the Old Testament, we'll go to this in a second, and let us not commit sexual immorality as some of them did. And in a single day, 23,000 people died, that's another passage that he's reflecting to in Numbers. Let us not test Christ as some of them did and were destroyed by snakes, another text found in Numbers. And then don't grumble as some of them did and were killed by the destroyer, also seen in Numbers 14 and 16. These things happened to them as what? You guys are killing it today, all right, perfect. Examples, and they were written for our instruction on whom the ends of the ages have come. I wanna show you this, if you're taking notes, here's the next thing today is this is, be careful not to get comfortable with the sin that culture approves. Be careful not to get comfortable with the sin that culture approves. In that verse, we gotta go there, but I wanna just highlight it. In that verse a moment ago, he highlights four different sins that Israel struggled with. I wanna put these on the screen for you. Idolatry, this is found in Exodus 32, one through six. It's when Moses went up on Mount Sinai and Israel built what? A golden calf. They just came out of Egypt. They saw all these things and they're building a calf to worship. Oh, that was my son, I'm so sorry, okay. And they began worshiping it. And even after everything they had seen God do, they allowed the worship practices of the cultures around them to replace their exclusive devotion to God. Second thing is sexual morality. This is in Numbers 25. Israelite men, it literally says we're sleeping with tons of Moabite women, just sleeping around with all kind of folks. And God was so fed up with it because their sexual morality had led them not just to compromise sexuality, but also their spirituality. They were worshiping these foreign gods because of it. And so God brings down the wrath of God on these men who were fornicating. And then he also says, testing God. This is in Numbers 21. When they began to be impatient with the Lord in the wilderness and started questioning, should we go back to Egypt? Did you really say this? They started grumbling against God as well. They grumbled against Moses, against the Lord's decisions. This revealed a lack of trust that Israel had with the Lord. They'd seen, remember, they were sitting front row for all these amazing things. Yet they still struggled because the culture around them had dragged them into these temptations and sins that they continue to struggle with even after they left Egypt. And I say this to say that unfortunately, this church in Corinth was riddled with these same exact habits. If you read through 1 Corinthians, you'll find these four sins, temptations, riddled throughout the book or the letter written to the Corinthian church. They lived in a community that was plagued by idolatry. They couldn't even go to the market to buy meat because all the meat they bought was supplied from some butchering of an animal at an altar to false worship. Same thing is true of sexual morality. The church, my goodness, they had treated sex and marriage with such fluidity and fornication. If you read through Corinthians, you'll see the nitty gritty of it. It is real bad. The church was dealing with it. The believers, it would be like people in this room coming to church, but they're dealing with like sleeping around all over the place. They were like leaders in the church. How did they get to this point? Their purity had been compromised. And I could go on and on about how they tested the Lord and grumbled against the Lord in so many ways. These issues that faced Israel are the same issues and patterns that the Corinthians struggled with as well. And so here's the takeaway. Here's the caution flag for you. Gen Z has grown up in a modern day Corinth. You guys have grown up in a culture that has had all kind of temptations and sins at your front door. Today I was at the RSO fair. And Chris was out there with us as well. And he was talking to a guy, saw a guy who's walking around with one of the boosts and gave him condoms and Plan B packets. Because sex is treated so casually amongst your generation. You're the generation that you've grown up in a culture where if you were to take any kind of stance against the LGBTQ team movement, I mean, you were gonna be labeled a bigot. If you're a part of the Gen Z generation, I mean, you're someone who grew up with a smartphone and to touch your hand for your whole childhood was Snapchat and TikTok and Twitch where you were exposed to all the corners of the internet. You're the generation that FanDuel and DraftKings is targeting every sports event, you know? You're the generation, maybe not you at the table, but your peers are sitting at the lunch table, they're junior and senior of high school. And they're talking about the season of euphoria. And I'm not mad, I'm not casting stones. Hear me, no shame, I'm not mad at anybody. I'm not trying to cast guilt or shame. If you walk out of here feeling like, oh, you know, that's not the goal. I'm highlighting you have been inundated with so much worldly unholiness amongst your generation specifically, just because of what you've grown up in and how arrogant of us to think that none of those things have warped or shaped our soul and our heart in a way that is ungodly and unholy. And that is not to say that you should walk out of here with your head down. You may be someone who says, yeah, I've made beaucoups of mistakes. And when you talk about the stuff that the Corinthian church dealt with, that's me, I deal with it. Please don't feel shame. The Lord is so kind and so gracious to remove all of that guilt. He's so gracious to forgive all of those mistakes and carve a new path where you get to walk in his design and plans for your life. But for the church, I'm just telling you, it's not okay to get comfortable and complacent with the sins that our culture says is okay. That is not right. And it's on you and it's on me to be guarded, to ask ourselves always, do an internal audit. Where in my life have I allowed my heart or my soul to snuggle up to the sin that society says is safe? Where have I allowed that to happen? Some of you are walking around today feeling shame and guilt. I know it. And that's not what Paul's trying to hit here is trying to condemn. No, dude, no. He's saying caution flag. If this is where you're at, there's change that can come. There's victory that can be had. There's forgiveness that can be experienced. There's the debt of sin that can be washed white as clean. I wasn't gonna share this, but I'm going to. In college, I remember walking into my college years thinking I'm not gonna make the same mistakes as some of my peers. I'm gonna do it different than them. I'm gonna be stronger than them. I'm gonna be better than them. How foolish of me to think that, but I did. That's what I thought. I'm not gonna make the same mistakes as some of my peers.

And I remember, in my latter years of college, there's one mistake, I say one mistake, there's a couple mistakes that I could say, but one mistake that really had a moment on my life that I just missed. I made a big mistake, just a mistake. I remember going to my dad and saying, dad, why didn't you say something to me? What was I thinking? I felt so much guilt and shame from that for a while until eventually I realized that mistake, that sin has been washed away at my salvation. My past, present, and future has been made clean. But at the same time, I had a heart as well that said, I no longer wanna walk in that. And that's the heartbeat of what the Corinthians are getting at is, hey, it doesn't matter where your starting point is. It's all good. You're welcome and safe in this spot. But at the same time, the destination is gonna look different than where we are today. And so we're gonna fight against being complacent with the sin that culture says is okay. Does that make sense? The last piece that Paul hits on here in this text is 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 12 and 13. It's so good. This is like the grand finale. Check it out right here. So whoever, let me recap real quick. He said, Israel made a lot of mistakes. They struggled and they missed on God's plan and promises. Be careful not to think that you can be around Christ and mistake that for just abiding with Christ. That's not it. And he also says, be careful not to just come from sin, complacent with sin. Israel did that in Corinthian church. Y'all are starting to do that. So he's called those two things out and he's saying, now, what do you do though? You feel this heart to change? What do you do? This is who says, whoever thinks he stands must be careful not to fall. That feels like this should be printed on a pillow or something. It's just, that's a good verse. It's a good verse. Whoever thinks he stands must be careful not to fall. No temptation has come upon you except what is common to humanity. And he's saying like, hey, listen, your sin struggle is not an anomaly. Like I know Gen Z growing up in Corinth, hey, you're not different than the Corinthian church. They dealt with the same stuff. You get it? You know what I mean? Like you're not like, it's not nothing new under the sun. Your challenges are similar to the same things that other people have dealt with. But God is what? Faithful, amen. God is faithful. He's like, yeah, no temptations come upon you except what has come to humanity. But listen, God is faithful. And you'd be like, how's he faithful? Tell me how. I got it for you. Paul gives him a promise, a twofold promise. God is faithful. He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation, he will also provide a way out so that you may be able to bear it. Two promises he gives him in that text. He says, God's gonna supply the power to overcome the temptation and he's gonna supply the escape route to get out of that temptation. What a promise. He's gonna provide the power and the escape when it comes to temptation. Paul is giving them a great promise to cling to. He's encouraging the church that continues to fall, pray to the temptation of sin, that they don't have to let that be their story. You can come out victorious over sin. You also can escape the temptations of sin. It's not from your strength though, it's from the God who is faithful. If you're taking notes, here's your third point, wrap up point. Last one is this, is that be careful not to let your confidence lead to carelessness. A minute ago, I thought I was gonna be stronger than my friends. That's overconfidence inquiry. That's so foolish. We can get that way though. Some of you guys have walked into this season, you've left your parents nest and you're rocking and doing the adult thing and you think I got this, I don't need help. And what I'm telling you is you desperately need help. You know what I'm saying? Like you need the Lord. You desperately need the Lord. If you think you're strong, be, what does he say? Be careful, whoever thinks he stands must be careful not to fall. The Lord is the one who supplies your strength to overcome the temptations of sin and to escape the bondage of sin. For Christmas, my mama got me Alexander Hamilton's biography by Ron Chernow. Anybody read this before? You have? For real? I don't know if I'll finish it. I'm trying, it's pretty big. Definitely the biggest book I've ever picked up, all right? I'm like 250 pages in, it's a good read. But I started reading because I started listening to, I went to see Hamilton, the play. You ever heard of it? Yeah, yeah, me and you, we can talk about it afterwards. Okay, I love it, yeah. Love it, okay. Ron Chernow wrote Alexander Hamilton's biography. It's phenomenal. It's so good. Lin-Manuel, who wrote Hamilton, the play, was on the beach watching dolphins jump, I'm sure, okay, when he was reading the biography, and he was like, how is there nobody written an art piece like on this, like telling this story? So then he wrote Hamilton. Who has listened to Hamilton's soundtrack from beginning to end? All right, well, if you ever travel with me on a road trip, that's what you're gonna listen to. I just want you to know, it's every time. It's so good, and if you have not, I would like to convince you, I'd like to take you to lunch and spend an hour talking about why you should watch Hamilton, listen to it, it's phenomenal, okay? I'll get you the book, all right? But in Hamilton, he's a guy, I'll give you his story, who I think really captures the caution flag that Paul writes to the Corinthians here. This is what it says. Hamilton was one of the most brilliant men in America, and by his early 30s, he had helped win a revolution. He helped write the Constitution. He authored much of the Federalist Papers. It's such a cool story. And he became the first Secretary of the Treasury. He was like the right-hand man of George Washington, like all the things. He had the most incredible story. It's so cool. But in 1791, while his wife and children were away, a young married woman named Maria Reynolds showed up asking Hamilton for financial help. And Hamilton went to her home to give her money, and instead of walking away from temptation, he began an affair with her. Ron Chernow makes this observation in the book, and he writes this. He says, it is baffling that Hamilton, having worked to achieve such a spotless reputation as Treasury Secretary, did not see that he was now courting danger. That's what sin does. It sneaks in, the enemy tempts and tricks you in your weak spot. And Hamilton, it's a cool story, but it's a sad moment. He was literally on the trajectory of like President of the United States. And he got robbed of what was to come because he had fell prey to sexual immorality, adultery. And I'm telling you, we can look to Israel, we can look to the Corinthians, we can look to the Hamiltons of the world, and that story is on repeat. And I'm begging this room to be careful, to be careful not to confuse being around Christ for abiding with Christ, to be careful not to confuse and get complacent with sin that culture says is okay. And be careful not to be overconfident in yourself so that you find yourself making careless mistakes that ultimately could hijack and rob God's plans, purposes, and designs for your life. Now, praise God, His grace abounds, or sin abounds, grace abounds even more, hallelujah. But at the same time though, our choices do have consequences. And then on this side of eternity, the decisions you make as a follower of Jesus are gonna have huge ramifications for the next 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 years from now based off the decision you make today. It doesn't mean you gotta score 36 on the ACT every day, okay? But it does mean that you ought to make it your mission to say, Lord, what do you want from me? How can I believe and trust you well? And how can I live to obey and live out the mission, plan, desires, and purpose you have for my life? Be careful, view students, because God's got big plans for you. And the enemy has one goal, steal, kill, and destroy. And the last thing I want is for the targets to land on you. So be careful in this season, be smart this season. If you're someone in the room today who says, dude, I'm struggling with this, then in just a moment, in a little bit, I'm gonna ask the band to come back up for us. In just a moment, we're gonna sing one more song and then we're gonna go to some small groups in a moment. In that season there, you may find someone you connect with, that you're close with, or maybe a leader you trust. At some point before you leave tonight, just take them aside for a moment, just you and them.

and you ain't gotta share the deepest, darkest secrets. I'm not asking that. I'm just asking you to say, hey, I'm struggling in this one little area that I'm working through. Could you pray for me? Could you text me? Could we stay accountable to one another? Let's talk through it. Maybe ask them. How do they make it a priority to battle and work against the temptation the enemy's got in front of them? That's my challenge to you tonight. Don't walk away from here with just good notes. Walk away from here with some good next steps of how you're gonna be careful this week, all right? Let me pray for us, and then we're gonna sing one more song. Father, thank you so much for 1 Corinthians 10. What a joy it is to open the Word together again. My prayer, Lord, is this, is that every student would be encouraged to be careful this week. They would choose to walk in purity and holiness. They choose to make it their mission to abide with you, to wrestle against sin and temptation, and to choose, Lord, every day to try to obey and believe what you've commanded them. We pray this in your name, amen. Amen.