1 Corinthians 9:19-27 Winning More

You're listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Mattawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsick preaches from his sermon series titled

First Corinthians, Sinful Church, Powerful Gospel. Let's listen in. Well, good morning and welcome to Recast Church.

As Ben said, I'm Don Filsick. I'm the lead pastor here, and I'm really glad we can be gathered together in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ this morning.

How many of you love him? You love him? I know it's early, but if you love Jesus Christ, let's hear it. I would love to point our attention to two of our core values that make up the acronym of our name.

I'd like to highlight two of those. Our name is an acronym, Replication, Community, Authenticity, Simplicity, and Truth.

That makes up the word Recast. We value all of those things, and it's good to highlight them from time to time, but there's two of those that really factor into the message this morning.

We place value on community and simplicity, and both of those are going to come to bear on the text.

We're a church that wants to be a blessing to the communities in which we've been planted. We've always sought to be a blessing to Matawan because this is the community where we meet, and I've always said it this way.

This is the way I define and describe community to those who want to know why that's one of our core values. We want

Matawan to be disappointed if we move. Like, if this church were to fold up and leave, we wouldn't want them to go, was there a church there at one point?

Like, I think there used to be a church that met there. We would want them to know that we were, like, there was something missing in the community because we were gone.

But wherever we come from, because I recognize that some of you have driven in, you don't live in Matawan, your kids don't go to school in Matawan, whatever it might be, we are called to bring the light of the gospel to the communities in which

God has planted us, amen? Wherever you are, whatever neighborhood, whatever subdivision, whatever community

God has put you in, it should be better because you live there. And a good place to start with this is just that straightforward commitment to being a blessing, to be a good neighbor, to be a good citizen, to be a positive influence for the cause of the gospel.

That's going to be a core message from this text this morning.

And then simplicity is another one of our core values that ties into the text this morning and it might not make sense right away and it does need some description, explanation.

Why are we a church that values simplicity? Well, we started Recast almost 15 years ago with the plan to have a church with minimal programming.

That's intentional. If you feel the lack of programming here, there's some intention behind that. We believe that everybody needs three things.

We kind of center and believe that our week ought to be formulated around these things, faith, community, and service.

So we gather together on Sunday morning to grow our faith together, to hear from God's word, to take it in, to believe it, to trust it, and to go out and live it.

And then we also believe that you ought to be growing in community. So you just heard Ben talk about community groups and those are not just a kind of tack on thing that's like, well, if you really want to take the next level, it's for all of us.

It's something that we believe all of us need to be growing in connection with one another. And as we tried an experiment a couple of years ago in isolation, we actually recognized the need to be together with others.

Amen? We need each other. And so community is part of how we're designed, how our faith grows in community, it grows in the soil of relationship.

And then the last thing is to grow in service. That being that God has given you an ability, something in you that can be a contribution to the body of Christ or to the community at large.

And so that's all part of that programming. And that decision of minimal programming is for the cause of having more margin in our lives to get to know our neighbors.

So that simplicity is serving an end. It's serving an end of getting to know neighbors, participating more out in the community, all for the cause of the gospel, all for the cause of the gospel, rather than filling up every corner of our schedule with church stuff.

How many of you know, any of you come from a past like mine, where every single hour in the evenings could have been taken up and an entire weekend could have been taken up with church activities?

Do you guys know what I'm talking about? We're trying to move away from that for the cause of the gospel.

We want to give some breathing room to get to know our neighbors, maybe to start a Bible study in your own subdivision or connect more deeply with other little league parents or whatever sports you're involved in or your kids are involved in.

In our text, Paul expresses a strategic intensity on the topic of winning those who do not yet believe or live the gospel.

I've been praying this week that some of Paul's intentionality, that some of his passion, that some of his focus might rub off on us this morning.

In our text, Paul shows that the opportunity to win others through the gospel should change and transform the way we think.

It should transform the way we respond to others and the way we focus our time and attention.

But I want to warn you, just, it really ought to be a kind of a disclaimer at the start of every sermon, if you take the text at face value and you understand the call to put it into practice and to apply it, you will have some things that need to change in your life.

You know what I'm talking about? There's going to be some conviction this morning. There's going to be some things that need to change in our lives in order to come in line by faith and demonstration of faith that we believe these things to be true.

I don't believe that there are any of us who will not come under some conviction as we see the passionate call from the

Apostle Paul to run hard, to train hard for the cause of proclaiming the truth to others.

He shows us what a man looks like when he understands his primary calling to win as many as he can for the cause of Jesus Christ.

Our mission statement as a church is to worship him and find more worshipers for his name.

This passage will help us all diagnose how we're doing at that mission ourselves. So, let's open our

Bibles or your scripture journals or your devices to 1 Corinthians chapter 9. And we're going to start in verse 19.

So what you need to remember is 1 Corinthians 9, 19, and then we're going to read to the end of the chapter there.

So please follow along, recast God's holy word, precious, direct, convicting.

For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all that I might win more of them.

To the Jew, I became as a Jew in order to win Jews. To those under the law, I became as one under the law, though not being myself under the law that I might win those under the law.

To those outside the law, I became as one outside the law, not being outside the law of God, but under the law of Christ, that I might win those outside the law.

To the weak, I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people that by all means

I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel that I may share with them in its blessings.

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.

Every athlete exercises self -control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.

So I do not run aimlessly. I do not box as one beating the air, but I discipline my body and I keep it under control lest after preaching to others

I myself should be disqualified. Let's pray as the band comes to lead us.

Father we're just got done reading a text that can often be used as a sledgehammer like a two by four upside the head like a big

Bible thumping kind of message. That I think all of us could walk away from here just feeling like oh man

I'm terrible I'm not sharing the gospel with anybody and just allow our feelings to get in the way of the very practical things that you desire to do in us and through us.

Father I pray that you would make us gospel people. It's starting even just with the enthusiasm with which we sing this song a recognition of what we deserved that eternal condemnation was our lot.

It was our destiny. It was the direction that our lives would naturally carry us without your intervention and you intervene through the blood of your son

Jesus Christ to ransom us, to reconcile us, to draw us in, to adopt us into your family.

That that good news is the very message that we have to offer to a world that is just completely casting about and flailing for anything in the darkness.

Just anything that they can grab a hold of and we have the words of life father make us a people who speak them readily, boldly, directly and that we would live such a way that we are focused on an attempt to get a hearing by our neighbors, family members, and our co -workers and those who do not yet know the glory of the salvation that is available through your son.

Would you empower us and strengthen us and inflame our hearts this morning with a passion for this glorious gospel and may that light us up in our singing father with enthusiasm and gladness for what you have done for us.

I ask that you would receive this as worship now in Jesus' name. Amen. All right yeah you can go to be seated but I do ask that you please refine your place in 1st

Corinthians 9 verses 19 through 27 if you lost your spot or you shut down your device reopen that so that you've got that on your lap in front of you so you can reference that and see that the things that I'm talking about are coming from God's Word and if at any time during the message you need to get up and get more coffee or juice or donut holes while supplies last back there.

Restrooms are out the barn doors down the hallway on the left -hand side if you need those. You're not gonna distract me if you got to get up during the message.

I'm gonna start right where I left off last week. We are made to be more focused than we are.

That's kind of where we landed last week and that's where we're gonna pick up this week. It doesn't take much to distract us from the most important things right?

We get caught up in making a life for ourself. We get caught up into pet projects that can last months if not years.

We can get diluted by saying yes to everything while not doing anything really well right?

You guys know what I'm talking about? You know how distracting life can really get? I think we all do and to be quite honest

I believe that the church in America is currently sinking in a swamp that's created by our own lack of focus on the main thing.

That's my opinion but that's what I think is happening and that's what we see going on in the culture around us.

The culture is certainly sinking but I think the church has lost her focus. We are here running this race for one primary reason.

It isn't a race to the death for the purpose of gaining a bunch of stuff. It isn't a race to the end for the purpose of a legacy with buildings named after us.

God forbid that it's a push to the end so that people will spend an hour sitting in rows in front of our casket trying to think of nice things to say about us.

And is that what we're living for? Is that where we're going? Is that the end to which we hope to have lived our lives?

We are here church to win more.

We are here to win more, more people, more worshipers for his name. More redeemed people who will go on into eternity with us.

This may have been said so often and with such flippancy or maybe even with such like force that it's quite possible that it rings hollow to you this morning.

That you've heard it used like a bludgeon. That has been a tool that Satan has used to make you walk away from message like this with guilt rather than with motivation.

And the goal this morning is motivation church. What Christ and what God through the Spirit wants to do in us is to motivate us this morning to get back on track with that which matters most.

Does that make sense? Where what Satan desires is for you to kind of slump over in your chair and think bad thoughts about missed opportunities and how

I just never quite get it and I never quite take those opportunities and oh I'm I'm a really bad

Christian. You walk away you're guilty for about an hour and then you get lunch and everything's good, right?

And then we go on so the next time that the topic is on sharing our faith with the lost and then we feel guilty again and it's a cycle repeats and we get over it and this is about motivation church.

What God desires to do in us is a radical thing this morning. So let's allow

Paul's words to redefine for us the central purpose that God has for all of us.

We are taking up space, right? We have mass so we take up space. We eat food. We turn oxygen into CO2.

We are living beings because he has more for us to do. That's why when you become a Christian he doesn't just like translate you into heaven.

Why did he leave you here? He has a race for each one of us to run and running this race well looks like proclaiming his glory to any and all that will listen to your voice.

Any and all that will pay attention to your life. Our outline this morning is just two simple movements in the text.

The first is the sacrifice of a gospel life verses 19 through 23. Sacrifice of a gospel life.

The second is discipline of a gospel life verses 24 through 27. So we're looking at sacrifice and discipline all for the cause of the gospel this morning.

In context, Paul has been talking about giving up rights out of love for others and for the cause of the gospel.

That's where we're at in this chunk of 1st Corinthians. And here he doubles down on surrendering himself in order to win a variety of different types of people.

We're getting kind of a little bit of Paul's MO here. The way that he ruled, the way that he thought about life, the things that he planned for.

And we begin with the sacrifice of a gospel life verses 19 through 23. Here Paul begins by reiterating that he is both free, he is indeed free, while willingly adopting the position of a servant to all.

Just like he established that he has the right to eat meat sacrificed to idols a couple weeks ago while refusing to eat any meat out of love.

And just like he has the well -established freedom that we talked about last week to ask for financial support from the churches to which he ministered while he asked for none.

He said, I have the right to do these things, I choose not to. And here he says, I'm free, I don't have any constraints on me, nobody's my boss.

And that's a good starting point for all of us to consider. There is not some group of people that are going to force you to serve others.

There is not some external force that will bend your knees in worship. There is nobody who's going to force you to open your mouth and proclaim the glory of Jesus Christ to your neighbors, to your friends, to your co -workers.

I'm not going to be able to do that. Your spouse isn't going to be able to do that. Your parents aren't going to be able to do that. Your kids aren't going to be able to do that.

It's going to come from the Spirit of God convicting you about what you're called to do this morning. And this seems like it might be a timely message because how many of you would raise your hand and say,

I'm going to see some family that don't know Jesus in just a few days. Like we're about to enter this holiday season where we have an opportunity.

The world is a little curious. There's a lot more discussion centered on this. There's a lot more opportunities at least for discussion centered on this.

And I don't think it's by any chance that we happen to be hitting this part of 1st Corinthians as we enter into this season right now.

It's timely message. But Paul says, I wasn't owned by any people. No people group owned me.

I wasn't a slave to people. And that makes his willing servitude, his willing service of them all the more impressive, all the more potent.

He made himself a servant of all that he might win. You see that word multiple times here, that he might win more of them.

Paul isn't owned by any person or any people group. He does frequently, by the way, refer to himself as being owned.

He refers to him as a slave. A slave of who? Christ. He would call himself at the opening of many of his letters, he identifies him as a servant or a slave of Jesus Christ.

Owned by God, owned by Jesus, but otherwise not owned by anyone. And in verse 19, he's clearly speaking about ministering under the direct control of a human master.

He does indeed dance to the beat of God's drum, but he does not dance to the beat of any human master.

But he has willingly, this is a calling church, willingly placed himself under all for the purpose of winning more.

Placed himself under others. This is the seeds of the word sacrifice in my first point. The sacrifice of a gospel -centered life starts with placing ourselves in a position of thinking about others, in the purpose of serving others.

To see our purpose in the great scope of the gospel, that is the only way by which people can be saved from their sins.

See that as our focus, as our finish line, as our goal, as the bullseye of the target.

Paul does this with an eye on the prize of winning more of them, and that needs some explanation. Win to what?

Win them to his opinion, win them to his argument, win them to his team, win them as in like dominate over them and victorious and carrying the trophy over them, like they're his subjects now, he won them.

The word win occurs five times in these first four verses, and yet it isn't until we get down to verse 22 that we see something else inserted there in parallel to where every place else we see the word win.

In verse 22 he inserts a new word there that helps us to understand what he's meant by winning all the time. To win some, according to verse 22, is placed equal with save some.

Oh, that kind of winning. To win some means to see them connected vitally to the sacrificial work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

To see them brought into the life of Christ, to see them walking with him in a gospel life of loving obedience to what he's going to call here in just a moment the law of Christ.

To see their life submitted to him, not to Paul, but to Christ. Paul has placed himself as a servant of all in order to save some, he says.

In verse 20 through 22, he fills out what that servanthood looked like. He wasn't becoming everyone's butler.

He wasn't folding and ironing clothes for everyone. Not that kind of servant. His service takes the form of giving up his own preferences and his own desires.

How many of you think Paul had some preferences? How many of you think he had some opinions? How many of you think he had the way he wanted to roll, the foods he wanted to eat, and the foods he didn't want to eat, and the people he wanted to spend time with, and people that he didn't quite like being around?

Paul had all of those preferences, and yet his service takes the position of giving up his own preferences and desires to work in various contexts for the gospel.

To intentionally go out of his way to interact with people that he might not naturally have interacted with, and to interact with them in a winsome way.

Paul says he became as a Jew in order to win Jews. He became as one under the law that he might win those under the law.

Two distinct people groups that have some overlap. So there's the Jews, and then there's those under the law who would have been

Jewish converts. But Paul was raised a Jew, so it's really interesting he says, I acted like a

Jew. Weren't you Paul? You were a Jew. He understood the law and knew what it meant to be under the law, as he had spent most of his formative years under the law studying

Torah under the renowned teacher Gamaliel. He was a Jew among Jews. So for him to say he became as a

Jew, or like a Jew, shows how much he considered himself to be something other than a

Jew after he encountered Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ erased his identity and changed him and transformed him into something new and different.

Paul did not identify himself any longer as a religious Jew. He wasn't a law abider who tacked on Jesus too.

He saw the encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, his conversion story, as a game changer, an identity changer.

He had a conversion, a complete and utter transformation. And when one meets Jesus, one has a change in identity, amen?

He changes us for his glory and for his honor. The things that we loved before, we don't love any longer.

The things that we desired before, we don't desire any longer. We want to please him.

We want to bring honor and glory to him. But Paul clearly felt comfortable working with Jews in a way that would make them more comfortable around him.

He did whatever he could to remove any hurdles from them receiving the gospel. He didn't want to be the hindrance, personally.

Are you getting what I'm saying? Now, if there's gonna be a hindrance, he wanted to be the message, but not himself. He didn't want his lifestyle and the things that he did.

And the same goes for the way that Paul rolled with those under the law, he says. Again, the reason for those two categories is to cover those

Gentiles who had converted to Judaism religiously. Some who practiced the Jewish faith were not of Jewish descent.

You need to recognize, too, one thing that's fundamental when we're talking about Jewishness is that Jewish is an ethnicity, and Jewish is a religion.

You understand that? And not all Jews religiously are Jews ethnically.

Some Gentiles have converted to Judaism, and that's what he's referring to here when he talks about those who are under the law.

People who have willingly adopted and chosen a Jewish lifestyle. And as we consider

Paul behaving as, acting as though he is what he is not, it would be worth talking about what he's doing here.

Is Paul play -acting? Have any of you ever thought, like, is he a hypocrite in this passage? Is he a chameleon, just kind of going around, just acting a part?

Has that crossed any of your minds? It's crossed my mind when I've read this. What exactly is Paul doing here?

Is he deceiving people? Is he watering down the message of the gospel to just make it like, okay, well,

I'm just like you, and we can hang out, and here's the gospel. Is he being a chameleon?

In our culture, it might be helpful to speak of this in terms we can understand as positive, because I think this is a positive trait in Paul.

And Scripture seems to indicate that it's something that we ought to aspire to as well. And I think we have a category for this when we think about it.

It might make sense. We might say that someone has a high social IQ. Have you guys heard that phrase before? High social intelligence?

You guys are giving me blank stares. Has anybody heard that phrase? Social IQ? What we mean by that when we say that, and it's kind of a business term, and somebody's written a book about it and all kinds of stuff about the ability to have kind of like, there's intelligence and IQ, and then there's social

IQ, and it's the ability emotionally to connect with people on a level that they understand. And some people really do well at relating to a variety of people, moving in and out of context, and being able to just make everybody comfortable with them pretty early.

Somebody with a high social IQ makes a good salesman, for example. I think all of us do that to some degree, right?

You recognize that you talk different around your family, then you talk around your co -workers, then you talk with your next -door neighbor, then you talk with your coach, then you talk...right?

Am I right about that? We all do that. Some of us are better at it than others, but all of us understand what it means to have...I

catch myself using different vocabulary around different people. No, not bad words, you guys, but I do use different vocabulary around different people.

I find myself joking with some and be more serious with others. Why? Because I know people.

Because when I get to know you, I can recognize whether you appreciate a good joke or not. Maybe you just don't think

I'm funny. I don't know. But I think we can all understand this in a generic sense of being one way around some people while being a different way around others, and that doesn't mean we're duplicitous or deceptive or hypocritical.

It means that we're relationally attuned, right? We have a bit of a social

IQ when we do that. And I believe it would be wise to see this as a strength and give

Paul and Scripture to the benefit of the doubt here that he's not at all saying, be fake to everybody.

Paul's not encouraging us to trick people into the kingdom. He is not at all for editing the message for sure.

He is speaking here of the gray area issues where we are free and we can we can give up some of our preferences or our desires for the cause of the gospel.

I truly believe he is here making a case for us to remove as many unnecessary hurdles as possible to the message for the sake of the lost.

When it comes to becoming one under the law to win those under the law, we know that Paul, for example, went into the temple after he was a

Christian. He went back to Jerusalem. He had gone on some of his missionary trips. Apparently at some point he had taken a

Nazarite vow. He shaved his head to fulfill that vow. He went back into the temple to give the sacrifice that was the final offering at the end of a

Nazarite vow. Paul would quite likely keep holy days. He would likely eat what was offered to him in various homes.

He would not do things to cause undue offense. He didn't take cheesy potatoes with ham to the

Jewish potlucks, for example. He wasn't insensitive that way. Are you getting what I'm saying?

I mean that's a kind of an example of it. And yet Paul also shows a strong ability to stand on the truth.

Against a law -based view of appeasing God, he wouldn't go that far. If somebody actually was implying that by keeping the law you were okay with God, he would tackle that.

He would take that on. He didn't act like the law was sufficient for salvation when he was among Jews. Not at all.

An example of that is found in Galatians 2 .3 where it says he refused to allow Titus to be circumcised.

Titus, a Gentile who joined his ministry and was traveling around with him, and he said he wouldn't allow

Titus to be circumcised, particularly because the Jews were demanding it for his justification.

They were demanding it in a way of saying Titus isn't okay with God because he's not circumcised.

And he was like, no, then we're not going to do it. If that's your understanding, if your understanding is to think that by doing this then we're okay with God, then

I won't stand for that. So do you see there's limitations to how far he would go in the cause of becoming all things to all people?

Paul would seek to avoid undue offense while standing on the truth, and if the truth offended, well that's okay.

If the truth offends, that's okay. But make sure you're doing everything you can to get to the truth. Make sure you're allowing the central thing to be the central thing.

And we find that Paul did not see himself as being under the law, which is kind of surprising as a former

Jew, but merely willing to live at points like one under the law. Here we find a distinction about being under the law and being under the law of Christ as he expresses in verse 21.

Paul can say within just two verses, I am not under the law, but I am under the law of Christ.

I'm not under the law, like think Old Testament Torah. I don't live according to the law any longer, but I'm under the law of Christ.

What's he saying? Paul saw that salvation through Jesus changed his relationship toward law, and particularly toward the

Mosaic law in a fundamental way. The Mosaic law is no longer his master, but instead

Christ Jesus is his master. The law is not, he's not under the law, he's under Christ.

Certainly Christ, many of you know that Christ reiterates much of the law. So where Christ emphasizes that and says this is how my father desires for you to live, well there we go.

Do those things. And even under the law of Christ, he enhanced a lot of that law to get to the heart, right?

That's what he's doing in the Sermon on the Mount. It's not just don't murder, but don't hate. Murder comes from hate.

Let's nip that in the bud. Let's get back to the heart of the matter. And so Christ is his master.

And so he doesn't follow the law as one who does so for salvation. His relationship toward the law of Moses is one of using it merely as a tool to reach more

Jews. That's what his relationship is to the Mosaic law now. And in his practice throughout his letters, we find that this had its limitations.

Paul was quick to address any Jew who thought that acceptance by God came through works of the law. Salvation comes by grace through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, not by works lest any man should boast,

Paul says. But Paul also would become as one outside the law in order to reach the lawless ones.

Now this is where, again, you got to understand the limitations. As Paul's saying, I became a thief to thieves so that I might win some thieves.

Did he become a drug dealer when among drug dealers? Or was he an adulterer among adulterers to win adulterers?

Of course not. No. But he exercised freedoms when among the Gentiles. He would take the cheesy potatoes and ham to a

Gentile potluck. Oh, amen. He would go to their homes when invited, unlike the

Jews, who would never set foot in a filthy Gentile's house. And when it came to gray area issues, he would use all at his disposal for the intention of winning the lost.

Well, I've got a little illustration, and I don't love illustrations, and I don't use myself very often, and it's certainly not intentional to make me a hero.

It's just kind of like a past story from our church history, and occasionally I like to share these kinds of stories.

But when Lynn and I first moved to Matawan, we bought a house in the Brownstone neighborhood, just kind of on the north side of Matawan.

We lived there for six, seven years. We started to connect right away with the next -door neighbors, young family, over backyard conversations.

And eventually, the first time I was ever in his home, he invited me to come watch a Red Wings game. So, big time

Red Wings fan, rabid Red Wings fan. As a matter of fact, when I went over there, he was decked out head -to -toe in Red Wings gear.

I think he maybe even had a hockey stick with him, like while he's walking around pacing, watching the game. It was a big one.

And I know nothing about hockey. I mean, I know so little that I think I got there somewhere in the first quarter, okay?

So, some of you got it. So, I do know that much about hockey, okay?

But I'm just not a big hockey fan. I know it, and I can watch it, but not my cup of tea. I would never just go tune in to a hockey game.

Football, basketball, yeah. Hockey's just never been it. But when I walked in, everyone had a beer in their hands, and immediately,

I was offered one. And I was given a choice right away, right away as a Christian. What kind of, what am

I gonna do? Am I gonna take a stand? And is this my opportunity to kind of convey, like, we just don't drink, right?

I had the freedom to say, no thanks. And maybe that would have, you know, who knows what that would have done. Maybe he would have just gone, like, awesome stand, bro.

I don't know. Hang out, watch the game. I accepted the offer, and despite having spent the last five years on staff at a church that required me to skip alcohol all the way, like, and I agreed to that.

That was part of the process of becoming a pastor there. So, I just agreed with it. And I said, well, as long as I'm here,

I won't drink. And I didn't. But months later, after that man had accepted Christ at Recaf's church service, he had started to come to church.

He accepted Christ. A couple months later, his wife, standing in the kitchen with my wife, accepted

Jesus Christ as her Savior. Glory to God. His work, not ours. But that man would point back to that game as the time when he decided to come to church at Recaf's because, and I'm paraphrasing, you were the first real pastor

I had ever met. Never imagined I would sit and have a beer with a pastor, and that made me curious about your church.

Now, I'm not at all making a case for beer -based evangelism. That would make a funny title for a book, right?

Okay? But I think that's a good example of becoming all things to all people that some may be saved.

Paul would do things among the Jews that would offend the Gentiles. He would do things among the Gentiles that would offend the

Jews. And none of it was due to Paul having a weak moral conscience or no values in himself.

Instead, it was Paul reading the situation so to create the least offense possible for the cause of winning more.

Do you see how sacrificially intentional Paul was being here in this text? Do you see his focus in the way he lived his life?

Do you see that the source of his focus comes from a heart? A heart that beats and desires and burns with passion to see more and more come into the gospel of Jesus Christ.

His heart burned to see more won, to see more saved, to see more rescued from the fire and the darkness.

Now, I've been asked down the years by people who, you know, kind of maybe come in the doors and are kind of checking things out and are a little unsure about where we stand and ask the question, are you a seeker -sensitive church?

My answer to that depends on what you mean by seeker -sensitive. We are not doing at all what we do on a weekly basis to please people.

It's not our goal. Certainly not what we set out to do, but rather we are doing what we do week in and week out to glorify

God while removing as many traditions as we can for the cause of the gospel.

Removing as many traditions that can get in the way of people. I don't wear a suit up here like I did at my previous church because I do not want fancy clothes to cloud the fact that we are welcoming to all.

I don't preach my political opinions because I don't want my political leanings to make this a one -party church.

We do all kinds of things to try to make people more comfortable. We even have donut holes and coffee on Sunday morning.

The seats are padded, amen? You know, we do some things to try to make people comfortable, but we do not alter the message of the

Word at all to make people more comfortable. If the person walks away ticked off at a service from recast,

I hope it is because the Word of God ruffled their feathers. I hope it's because something that they heard here has been abrasive to them, but not for undue cause.

God forbid that something off -putting to the lost that would walk through these doors is something that doesn't even matter.

You know what I'm saying? I mean, people can be petty. They can leave for whatever reason they want, but man, I hope that we are removing as much as possible the hurdles that would get in the way of the message.

And that is corporately, but that's also individually. It's something for us to all consider in our own lives.

In verse 22, Paul says that he became weak, that he might win the weak. And this category differs a bit according to the way that Paul has been using the word weak all throughout this portion of 1

Corinthians. It differs, and it helps to snap into focus, that the winning extends even to those who are among the brothers with a weak view of their gospel freedoms.

This is the way Paul has been using the word weak all throughout the passage is for believers who have a weak conscience, who don't recognize the freedoms that they have in Jesus.

So to become weak to win the weak looks like avoiding certain freedoms that weaker brothers and sisters in the church struggled with.

This is a subtle nod to the reality that all of it is gospel ministry. All ministry is gospel ministry.

What do the Jews need? The gospel. What do the Gentiles need?

What do the weak Christians need? What do you need? The gospel.

We all need the gospel. Paul will adjust his own preferences in any way so that he can gain a hearing for the good news of Jesus Christ.

I believe that Paul is navigating life much different than many of us, much different than many of us.

I'm convicted by this passage. Who are we intentionally interacting with for the cause of the gospel?

Where are we flexing our preferences in order to get a hearing for Jesus? How many of us don't even interact routinely with unbelievers at all?

Possible that some of us can't think of the last time we had a real conversation with an unbeliever.

Paul is doing all of this cautious, intentional flexing for the sake of the gospel because his mind is filled with future visions of sharing together with many, many, many those that he has won the blessings of life in Christ eternally.

He sees a glorious future on the basis of his sharing now. It's indeed a life of sacrifice that would give up preferences for the cause of the gospel.

It's a life of service that is strategically intentional in the way we interact with each other and with others out in the world.

It is a gospel life that is always looking to manufacture goodwill toward others that blossoms into the opportunity to proclaim the good news that Jesus has died to atone for our sins.

The second section of this text applies to this to the average life, the average person in the church, lest we think that this lifestyle is merely one zealous man's version of the

Christian life. Paul the apostle, of course, the called one, the one who is the professional minister.

Of course, pastors are supposed to do this. Of course, disciples and apostles are supposed to do this. But what about all of us?

Paul broadens it and raises the stakes in this second section, the discipline of a gospel life.

Verses 24 through 27 are an extended metaphor from the games. Corinth was host to an every two -year

Roman athletic competition called the Ismian games. An athletic metaphor was apt for this community because they were host to a large -scale athletic competition.

In a race, he says, all the runners run. Gee, thanks

Paul. Riveting insight. Wow, who would have thought?

In a race, the runners run. This is a bit obvious and so is what comes next. Are you ready for it?

Buckle up. Only one receives the prize. Only one winner in a race.

Who knew? Thanks Paul, now I understand how races work. But really, he's got a point.

He goes straight to application. Run in a way that you might obtain that prize.

Run as if you want to finish first. Run like that. Run like that.

This is about the way we run, not fundamentally about the destination. If you wanted to start a new cult that is super cutthroat and the main tenet is that only one person will ever get to heaven, this is your passage.

This is the passage that you could build a cult off of. You talk about taking things out of context. Run like only one is going to win the prize.

Only one person on the whole planet? I better get busy. Of course, that's not the point.

Seriously, I don't believe that Paul is speaking here about the limited nature of rewards at all, but rather the effort we are called to into the race.

He's concerned about the effort that we're exerting in this life. The actual push into these things that Paul and the

Word of God is calling us to. The finish line is available for all who are in the race, right? Everybody's going to finish.

Many, many, many, many, many, many people are going to run. How many people run the Boston Marathon each year? I could have looked it up.

I didn't. I just put many, many, many in there. A lot of people run the Boston Marathon. That's probably, that's a low bar for research, really.

Sorry. I did do some research this week. There's a lot. There's a lot of people running. But we know that one elite, well -trained, hardcore, crazy disciplined runner is going to be the first one across the finish line.

There's gonna be one, and he's gonna just like crush it, and everyone's jaw is gonna drop, and it's gonna be amazing.

Many finishers, one winner. Here it is, church.

Run like that guy! Run like him! Get after it!

Go for it! With the gospel, run like him! Run like you want to win!

You guys hearing it? When it comes to the gospel ministry, run like the guy who's gonna get first.

At least look like you want it. Run like that guy.

Live with that kind of focus, says Paul. Not merely to finish the race, but to gain the reward.

All athletes train hard, he says. Everybody that's in that race is gonna be training hard. They're gonna stand by strict diet, strict training, strict social practices.

Everybody's got their little, you know, what is it, what are they, car blowdown the night before the race? Everybody's got their own, you know, they're doing interval training, they're running up hills, they're doing all kinds of stuff depending on what the race is.

And everybody's got their, their tried and true methods, but they are, they are disciplining themselves. And all that self -control and discipline goes into hopes that they will receive the prize, the

Stephanos in Greek, the victor's crown. A Stephanos was a crown woven with like olive branches or something.

It was always made out of foliage and it would wither and it would eventually rot. I occasionally hear about an

Olympic gold medal winner finding their medals in a chest tucked away in the closet. You guys ever read those kind of articles or see some report about that and they're like, oh yeah,

I forgot, I want a, I want a gold. All earthly rewards are gonna fade. Anybody besides me have a box of high school treasures from your more athletic days?

Mine's in a tote in the garage. I haven't opened it in years. Who knows what's in there. I'm sure there's less in there than I remember in my mind.

You know, as you get older, the history kind of gets aggrandized and yeah,

I was first in states. Nah, not even close. Coach had put me in.

Some of you got that. Verse 25 reminds us that we are working for eternal rewards, not things that are gonna fade away, not things that are getting tucked away in a tote in the, kept in the garage and moved from place to place for no apparent reason.

Jesus told us to store up our treasures in heaven where things don't decay. And all of this is in the context of living a life intentional for the gospel.

We must run like we want to win. We must live for imperishable eternal rewards and not for the mere trinkets of gold and silver and cars and houses or whatever corruptible things are tempting, that you're tempted to put as your finish line.

What's your finish line? Paul refused to run around.

He says, I refuse to run around aimlessly like a drunken sailor. He took the tangents.

He fixed his eyes on the finish line and refused to be shaken off course. Running, running, running, day by day, week by week, months, hours, decades, focused on the finish line.

So many things in our lives feel like worthy finish lines, right? But they are false, perishable targets.

Run the right direction? That's probably pretty important in a race. Run to Christ.

Run the right direction, enlisting others to run the race with you.

Paul continues on with the illustration, adding boxing to the mix. Don't flail your arms in the ring. But discipline your actions to land blows in the ring of life.

Paul concludes this discipline by landing those blows in a weird place on his own face. He's disciplining himself in order for the cause of finishing well.

The phrase discipline my body has a more picturesque meaning in Greek. It means, it's a word for blackened, blackening someone's eye.

And he says, I blacken my own eyes and attempts to keep myself under control. He was passionate to get to the end and receive his rewards and fought the fight of self -discipline to live efficiently, focused on the gospel for his

Lord and Master. And yet the Apostle Paul himself shines a much -needed humility to close out this text.

He acknowledges that it takes effort to keep himself on the raceway toward the prize. If it took Paul effort, do you think it's gonna take us some effort?

It is. He acknowledges that it takes effort to keep himself moving. He has to take disciplined measures.

He who preached to many could arrive at that great judgment mentioned back in chapter 3. The judgment seat of Christ is our future judgment.

It's where rewards are given out. It's not where condemnation and eternal life is determined.

That's determined at the cross, right? If you have Christ as your Savior, this is not about Paul losing his salvation.

This is absolutely about Paul not receiving a reward, just like on that day. You can go back and read 1st

Corinthians 3 if there's any confusion about this. Some will build on the foundation of Christ. Christ is the foundation of your life if you belong to him.

He's the foundation. Every action and everything that you're doing is building on that foundation. It says some will build with gold and silver and precious stones with a motive to honor him and to bring glory to him and with a focus toward bringing more in.

And those who build like that, there's gonna be a reward for them. That passage tells us. And then others are gonna build with straw, hay, and wood, things that are burned.

And when the testing fire of judgment comes, it says some will have nothing to show except as though they have the scent of smoke on them.

But they enter eternity with him, lacking rewards. Some will work with shoddy work.

And Paul says, I don't want to be disqualified from receiving the prize. So two questions for us all to consider this morning as we wrap this up.

The first is really fundamental. Are you running the race? Are you in the race? Either you need to be saved, that is you need to be won over to Christ, and that's kind of like how you're entered into the race, or you are called to be winning others.

One of those is true of everybody in this room. But there may be some here this morning that are not yet on the pathway of salvation.

And I would love to talk with you this morning about how you can start a restored relationship with God through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, his

Son. And I'll be standing out in the lobby. If you'd like to talk to me, please come up and grab my ear.

If you don't physically grab my ear, I mean just that figuratively, but come and talk with me.

And I would just pray for boldness for you. Pray for boldness every week for anybody who needs to have a conversation about their eternal destiny.

Today might be a day where we could talk about that, and then you could get in the race.

And then for those who are entered in the race, you have already been embraced by the love of Jesus, you recognize what he's done for you on the cross, you've received his forgiveness, and you have his redemption over your life.

Then the question becomes, how are you running? How are you running? Are we running aimlessly?

I dare say that if we're honest, we spend days, weeks, months, and sometimes years running aimlessly. We box the air with little to no resistance to our training at all.

And Paul is calling us all to a radically intentional living. Not for eternal life, but for eternal rewards.

Not for merely our own benefit, but if we take this call seriously to become all things to all that some may be one.

Church, if we take this seriously, some will be saved. But you hear what

I said? If we take this call seriously, some will be saved.

And it'll be our voices that are calling them out of the darkness. It'll be our voices used by God to declare the glory and the supremacy of Christ.

It'll be our voices that are the ones who they hear beckoning them out of the darkness, out of the destiny that is dark and terrifying.

To the side of Jesus who loves them and gave himself up for them.

We grab this message and we run with it. Some will be saved.

How intentional is your life in the service of the lost around you? I'm gonna guess that all of us have some work to do.

Encourage us all to get running. Let's come to the tables this morning and take the cracker and the juice to remember his sacrifice for us.

We do this as a word picture given to us by our Lord, to remember that he has secured the finish line for us.

He cried from the cross, it is finished. While our hope is placed in Jesus for our rescue, we are equally called to the good works he has for us in this life as we run this race with our eyes fixed on him.

So take assessment this week, church. Are you running aimlessly? Are you swinging wild punches in the air?

Let's narrow our focus down to the proclamation of the glorious good news expressed in this communion this morning.

His body broken for us, his blood shed for us. Father, I thank you so much for this call, convicting to me, and I'm confident that by the power of your

Spirit it's convicting to others as well. Father, I do pray for fruit. I pray for direct fruit from this message, that some might enter into this holiday season with boldness, that some are gonna see unsafe friends and unsafe family that they haven't seen in a while and have an opportunity to talk about football and turkey and other things.

I pray that you would help us seize those opportunities that we have to declare your glory, to speak with subtle but gentle ways in a winsome way to a world that is living in the darkness.

Father, I thank you for the sacrifice of Christ. I thank you that we have unity in this body, that we're about to get up and go to these tables and take that cracker that reminds us of his body broken for us, and that cup of juice that reminds us of his blood shed for us.

I pray that you would be with everybody here who gets up and participates in this, to do so with humility, to do so in recognition that we are not worthy of this sacrifice, but it's only because of your great love poured out on us that we have hope and that we have unity in this body, and it's in Jesus' name that I pray.