https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/My-Conscience.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n\tby Jeffrey W. Hamilton<\/p>\n\t
Text: I Corinthians 4:1-5<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I. Defining your conscience<\/p>\n
A. A part of every human is an awareness of what he should do in various situations<\/p>\n
B. Your conscience does not determine what is right or wrong<\/p>\n
1. That is what judgment is for.<\/p>\n
2. Righteous judgment is done by God’s wisdom – Proverb 8:12-17<\/p>\n 3. What I think doesn’t determine right or wrong. Right or wrong is\ndetermined by God – I Corinthians 4:4\n
4. God’s judgments are always right – Psalms 119:137<\/p>\n
C. Then what is your conscience?<\/p>\n 1. It is the satisfaction when we know we did what is right and the guilt when\nwe realize that we did wrong\n 2. Our conscience, then, tell us whether our actions line up with our\njudgments or not\n
II. But sometimes we make mistakes in judgment<\/p>\n
A. Paul once thought he should work against Christ – Acts 26:9<\/p>\n
1. Why? Because he was raised in the Jewish religion – Philippians 3:4-6<\/p>\n
2. Paul’s reasoning was wrong but he was unaware of it at the time<\/p>\n
3. And so he could say he had a good conscience – Acts 23:1<\/p>\n
4. Even though he now believed differently than what he once believed.<\/p>\n
B. Paul’s conscience worked, but the information it worked with was flawed<\/p>\n
1. Just because something feels right, it doesn’t mean it is right<\/p>\n 2. True happiness is when your conscience doesn’t approve of things that are\ncondemned by God – Romans 14:22\n C. Paul learned that just because he had a good conscience it didn’t mean he was\nright – I Corinthians 4:4\n D. When we learn the wrong standard, it impacts how we perceive everything – Titus\n1:13-16\n
1. Our awareness of right becomes broken<\/p>\n
III. Sometimes it is our conscience that is broken<\/p>\n A. When we repeatedly do wrong, over time our conscience stops bothering us. We\nstop feeling guilty for doing wrong – I Timothy 4:2\n B. When God isn’t in a person’s life, even the basic sense of morality becomes\ncorrupted – Ephesians 4:17-19\n 1. There is nothing to pull the conscience back into alignment with the truth\nor fix the broken conscience.\n
2. This is why societies have collapsed into chaos – Romans 1:28-32<\/p>\n
IV. We should strive to live with a good conscience<\/p>\n
A. We should desire to conduct our lives with honor – Hebrews 13:18<\/p>\n
B. This assumes our conscience is in tune with the will of God – I Peter 3:15-17<\/p>\n
C. We don’t want to lose both the truth and our conscience – I Timothy 1:19<\/p>\n
V. How do I gain a good conscience?<\/p>\n A. The writer of Hebrews draws a parallel to the cleansing of the people on the day\nof Atonement – Hebrews 10:19-22\n
B. Under the Old Law – Leviticus 16:3-6, 11,14-16, 23-24, 29-30<\/p>\n C. Under the New Law, Jesus’ death on the cross is our atoning sacrifice and we are\nmade clean by his blood – Hebrews 9:12\n
D. And it is through baptism that I join Jesus in his death – Romans 6:3-7<\/p>\n
E. Leaving the past behind, I move on to reach for glory – Philippians 3:13-14<\/p>\n
F. How about you?<\/p>\n
1. Is your conscience bothering you?<\/p>\n
2. Then it is time to get a fix for the problem<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: I Corinthians 4:1-5 I. Defining your conscience A. A part of every human is an awareness of what he should do in various situations B. Your conscience does not determine what is right or wrong 1. That is what judgment is for. 2. Righteous judgment is done by God’s wisdom – Proverb 8:12-17 3. What…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[119,32],"tags":[810,410,38,36],"class_list":["post-39649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audio","category-sermon","tag-conscience","tag-judgment","tag-morality","tag-reasoning"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":57768,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/keeping-a-pure-conscience\/","url_meta":{"origin":39649,"position":0},"title":"Keeping a Pure Conscience","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 9, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Sean P. Cavender While standing trial before Felix, the apostle Paul stated that he had strived to live with a pure conscience before God and men (Acts 24:16). This should be the goal of each and every child of God--living life with a pure conscience (I Timothy 1:5,19). The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":62050,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-conscience-as-a-guide\/","url_meta":{"origin":39649,"position":1},"title":"The Conscience as a Guide","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 27, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Acts 22:22-23:5 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Teaching the difference between right and wrong \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Young children have no knowledge of good and evil - Deuteronomy 1:39 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As a result, they are not very concerned with matters of right and wrong. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a02.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Mom and Dad handle those issues and let you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sermon"","block_context":{"text":"Sermon","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/sermon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":39253,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-sin-trouble-us\/","url_meta":{"origin":39649,"position":2},"title":"Does Sin Trouble Us?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 9, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Warfel","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":92783,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-cleaning-the-conscience-by-jesus-blood-come-before-any-obedience\/","url_meta":{"origin":39649,"position":3},"title":"Does Cleaning the Conscience by Jesus’ Blood Come Before Any Obedience?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 24, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Hebrews 9:14 says that He \"offered Himself without spot to God,\" and this was to \"purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.\" Does Jesus purge our conscience before we hear the gospel, believe it, repent of sins, and are baptized in His\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":67018,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wrong-is-always-wrong\/","url_meta":{"origin":39649,"position":4},"title":"Wrong Is Always Wrong","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 14, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Richard Thetford In a period of loose and sagging morals, Satan provides many rationalizations for improper behavior. Those who would live faithful Christian lives must not be ignorant of Satan's devices. Paul said, \"...Lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices.\" Wrong\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12297,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-you-discuss-gut-feelings\/","url_meta":{"origin":39649,"position":5},"title":"Can you discuss “gut feelings?”","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 16, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: We have been having some great discussions at Bible study about gut feelings; for example, when some say I have a gut feeling about that person, but we have never met that person. I got a gut feeling about the boy my daughter is dating, or I got a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39649\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}