I’ll Flee Away, O glory, I’ll Flee Away!

Read: 1 Corinthians 10: 14-22

We all go to a Chinese church, so you know as well as I do that meals are a big deal. After youth group we’d go to McDonald’s, have a bite to eat. Not that we needed to have a bite to eat, but it is a symbol of our friendship, our association, and more importantly, our brotherly and sisterly statuses as members of the Church. For some random kid to just sit next to us would be quite awkward.

One of the most powerful symbols in Christianity is the communion table. At WCAC, the communion table says, “This do in remembrance of me”, and it is true that communion is a time of remembering what Christ did on the cross. But it is also a symbol of unity. In the earliest days of Christianity, because churches were largely in the large cities, the municipal bishop (or senior pastor, if you will) would bless many loaves of bread and quite a bit of wine. Then messengers would then take most of the bread and wine to all the other churches in the city. The idea was powerful, because even though we are many churches, by eating from the same bread and wine, we affirm our oneness.

We have to remember that Corinth was like Las Vegas at the time. There were even signposts at the time directing interested men to local prostitution dens, in case they were wondering. Thus, Paul makes it a big deal to maintain the church’s holiness and purity. So big a deal it is that he says (vs. 21) that you can’t “drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too.” For someone to not even care about holiness or purity is like consorting with the devil himself!

A few weeks ago you guys had a “Dating Seminar”, and it’s important because the world has its definition of dating. The world says that dating is like love. What’s love? This oogly-gushy nice feeling you get when boy meets girl. And this is the type of love that is continually perpetrated by companies like Disney. Thus, we need to remember not to be a part of this shallow love!

My most memorable days at WCAC were spent with the junior highers, because they have many surprises. One in particular sticks out. I think it was during a praise night that we held outside. In the middle of it, Rev. Ben told everyone that if they need someone to pray for them for anything, go to a counselor, or whatever. Now, in my experience, nobody ever came up to me to ask for prayer, so I was going to head to the kitchen to grab a cup of water.

But unexpectedly a junior higher pulled me aside. “I’m dating someone,” the junior higher told me, “and I’m wondering if you can pray about the fact that I don’t think it’s the right thing to do now.” The prayer request almost blew me away! This person understood what Paul was getting at. We need to distinguish between what is good and not. Whatever is not good we should avoid! If I remember correctly, this was the only personal request the junior higher ever gave me. For the rest of the time I was at WCAC, the requests were all about others, friends, siblings, etc.

So, maybe some of you need to flee away from something that’s bad, but you’re having trouble letting it go. Those of you signed up with a prayer partner, maybe share with your prayer partner that thing which you need to flee away from. Spend some time praying honestly about it.