Others Before Self

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I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 9.
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We're going to remain standing for the reading of God's Word.
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And we're going to be reading a rather lengthy section, verses 1 to 18, as we look at the subject of others before self.
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Others before self.
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1 Corinthians chapter 9 and verse 1.
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Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are not you my workmanship in the Lord? If to others I'm not an apostle, at least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
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This is my defense to those who would examine me.
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Do we not have the right to eat and drink? Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas? Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living? Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? Or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk? Do I say these things on human authority? Does not the law say the same? For it is written in the law of Moses, you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.
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Is it for oxen that God is concerned? Does he not speak entirely for our sake? It was written for our sake because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop.
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If we've sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? If others share this rightful claim on you, do we not even more? Nevertheless, we've not made use of this right, that we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.
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Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings in the same way the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel? But I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision.
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For I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting.
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For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting, for necessity is laid upon me.
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Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel.
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For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward, but if not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship.
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What then is my reward? That in my preaching, I may present the gospel free of charge so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.
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Father of mercies, I thank you for your word.
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And now as I seek to preach it, I pray that you would keep me from error.
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Lord, I am a fallible man.
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I am capable of preaching error, and I want nothing more at this moment than to be kept from that.
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I pray that you would, by your mercy, speak through me by the power of your spirit that believers would be encouraged and drawn closer to you, that they would be challenged on setting others before themselves.
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And Lord God, that we would recognize that the greatest example of this is Christ, who set us before himself in going to the cross.
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And Lord God, if there be those here who do not know Christ, and certainly there must be, I pray that they would recognize him today, as beautiful as he is, that they would be drawn to him and saved.
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And it's in his name we pray.
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Amen.
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Please be seated.
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Last week, the world celebrated.
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It celebrated the successful rescue of 12 young boys and their coach who had spent over two weeks in a flooded cave in Thailand.
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Many of us watched as the amazing rescue attempts were made.
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The boys were trapped by water in two and a half miles of cave underneath the earth.
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And a team of experts worked diligently for days to bring them to safety, and they did.
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However, during the amazing rescue effort, one of the rescuers, a former Thai Navy SEAL, I believe his name is pronounced Saman Gunan, I may be pronouncing that wrong, but he was supplying the boys with needed oxygen, and he brought the tanks in for them.
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And on his way out of the cave, he lost consciousness due to his own lack of oxygen, and he died.
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His dive partner was unable to revive him.
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To the team of boys and to the world, he is rightly seen as a hero, the hero of Thum Lung Cave.
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And he is a good example of a person who was willing to put others before self.
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Well, today we are looking at 1 Corinthians chapter 9.
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And we have been going through this book verse by verse.
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And for those of you who haven't been with us, just a very quick rundown.
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The Apostle Paul is addressing a church that has problems in many areas.
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But one of the greatest problems of the Corinthian church was its spiritual pride.
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They took pride in their leaders.
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Some say I am of Paul, others say I'm of Apollos, some say I'm of Cephas.
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They took pride in their gifts, which we're going to see later in the book.
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They took pride in many areas, and yet Paul said, I can't even speak to you as spiritual people, but I speak to you as carnal, because you're behaving like people of the flesh.
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And one of the issues that they had in the church was an unwillingness to yield to others in the area of freedom.
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In 1 Corinthians chapter 8, Paul deals with this directly, because he makes the point that some of them were eating meat that was sacrificed to idols.
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And in eating the meat sacrificed to idols, Paul says, I understand that you all know that those idols are nothing.
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I understand that you know that those idols represent a God that doesn't exist because idols are false gods.
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And I understand that you know that that meat is not really harmed because those idols don't really exist.
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But there are some people in the church who came out of that idolatry.
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There are some people in the church who came out of that, and they don't experience the same freedom as you.
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And how dare you flaunt your freedom before them and encourage them to violate their conscience? And in thus saying, Paul's point was simply this, we ought to be willing to put the other person before ourselves, even in the area of freedom, if it means causing them to stumble.
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When we get to chapter 9, that is still the context.
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And this is important because there are some people and even some commentators, I have realized, believe that chapter 9 is an excursus.
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That simply means it's taking an aside or going a different direction.
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I don't believe that's the case.
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In fact, one of the worst things that ever happened was when we put chapter divisions in the Bible.
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Because by putting chapter divisions in the Bible, what we did was we created artificial distinctions in the Bible's words.
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And artificial starts and stops.
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Now, I know it makes it easy for us because I can tell you to go to John 1, verse 6, and we're all going to be in the same place.
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But the problem with having chapter and verse divisions is it creates artificial divisions in the words of Paul that aren't there.
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Remember, he wrote chapter 9 on the heels of chapter 8, not ever knowing that either would exist.
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So chapter 9 is not divorced from the context of chapter 8.
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In fact, I'm going to argue in this message that he's not changing the subject at all, but he's continuing the same subject here.
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He's simply going to use himself as an example.
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What is the overarching argument? In the event that you are faced with the chance to put someone else's needs before your own, you should.
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If you're faced with the issue of someone else's convictions and they limit your own, let them be limited.
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In fact, let's read the last part of chapter 8 and right into chapter 9, and we'll see the connection.
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Verse 11 of chapter 8, he says, And so by your knowledge, this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom you died, or for whom Christ died, thus sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience.
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When it is weak, you sin against Christ.
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Verse 13.
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Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat lest I make my brother stumble.
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Chapter 9, verse 1.
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Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are not you my workmanship in the Lord? If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
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What's the freedom Paul's talking about in verse 1? I believe in this context, it's the freedom to do what he will in the Lord.
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It's the freedom in this context to eat what he wants in the Lord, because that's the context of eating meat offered to idols.
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Paul says in verse 13, I'm not going to cause my brother to stumble.
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Am I not free? The answer, of course, is implied.
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Yes, I'm free.
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I'm free to eat whatever I want.
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I'm an apostle.
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Does not my apostleship designate me as having a role in the church that is particular and important? Yes, it does.
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So if anyone's free, Paul's free.
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Paul has a certain particular place in the church.
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He has a relationship with the church that's a special calling from Christ.
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In fact, he says, what's the mark of his apostleship? I've seen Jesus Christ.
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Remember, not everybody had.
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Most of the Corinthians had never seen Christ.
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Most of the Corinthians didn't see him before he died, didn't see him after the resurrection.
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They, like we, are going on faith.
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Here comes Paul into town, and he says, I've seen the resurrected Jesus.
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And Paul's apostleship is different than the other 12.
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Remember, there were 12, and then Judas died, and then another took Judas's place.
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Matthias took Judas's place.
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And those 12 were set aside with a specific designation that they had been with Christ from the beginning, that they had followed Christ from the beginning.
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Paul didn't have that designation.
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Paul had a different designation.
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He said, I was as one who was born, when? Out of season, right? I'm the apostle that was born out of season.
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So what's Paul's designation? I saw Christ.
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I didn't see a vision.
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I saw him.
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I didn't have a dream.
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I saw him on the road to Damascus.
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I saw Jesus Christ, and he called me as an apostle.
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Paul had a very special, very specific, distinct calling from the Lord.
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And thus, his apologetic is this.
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If anyone is an apostle to you, it's me, because I'm the one who brought you the message in the first place.
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You wouldn't even have known about Christ if it weren't for me coming to you and bringing you the gospel.
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He's not bragging.
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He's simply saying, if anyone should recognize my apostleship, it's you.
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And that's why he said in verse 3, this is my my defense.
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The defense of my apostleship is you.
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You are the seal of my apostleship.
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You represent the truth of everything that I'm proclaiming because you exist as a church.
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And again, some people think chapter 9 is Paul defending his apostleship.
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I don't think it is.
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He is here saying that he's making a defense.
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But again, we're going to see in a moment, Paul is making an example.
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He's using himself as he's making an argument.
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He's using himself as the example.
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And he says, I'm an apostle.
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I'm free.
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You know it because you're a church and you exist because I brought you the gospel.
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That's my defense of my apostleship.
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But that's not the argument he's making.
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The argument he's making begins in verse 4.
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He says, do we not have the right to eat and drink? Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas? Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living? So up until this point, Paul said, I'm free.
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I'm an apostle.
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If anyone should recognize that, it should be you, the church that I established in the Lord.
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And now he asks three questions.
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Do we not have the right to eat and drink? Who's the we? In context, who's the we? In this particular context, it's him and the apostles.
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Do we not have the right to eat and drink? Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife? And are we the only ones who have the right to not work for a living? Paul is outlining three freedoms that he has.
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The three freedoms is this, the right to eat and drink, the right to be married, and the right to refrain from external labor.
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And he outlines those three freedoms.
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The first one might not make a lot of sense to us.
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He says, do I not have the right? Do we not have the right to eat and drink? Now, we just talked about meat offered to idols.
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And some people think here he's talking about, do we not have the right to eat meat offered idols? Could be, but I don't think that's the point here.
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The point Paul is making is, do we not have the right to eat and drink? Or another way of saying that, do we not have the right to be supported by the church, to eat and drink on behalf of what the church provides? In fact, the believers Bible commentary says it just that way.
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It says, are we not entitled to be supported by the church? And then he goes on to say, do we not have the right to take along a believing wife? And some of you have a Bible, if you have a King James, it says, take along a sister wife.
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That is not a reference to Mormonism or any kind of polygamist thing.
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Sister wife is a phrase that simply identified the fact that the woman would be a believer.
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Right? No one who is a believer has a right to marry an unbeliever according to scripture.
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We're to be married in yoked in the same faith.
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Right? So he's saying here, don't I have the right not only for myself to be supported, but also if I, to bring my wife along and have her supported as well.
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Look at the other apostles.
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They have wives.
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Even Peter had a wife.
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We know Peter had a wife.
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How do we know that? Because in Mark chapter two, Jesus healed his mother-in-law.
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And I'll tell you, you don't get a mother-in-law without a wife.
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So we know Peter was married.
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In fact, that kind of flies in the face of Roman Catholic dogma, which says that the Pope is in the seat of Peter and that the Pope is the descendant of the apostolic authority of Peter.
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And yet is an unmarried man.
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So as are all the priests.
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And yet the Bible says that the elder or the bishop is to be the husband of one wife.
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It's dogma, not doctrine, not Bible doctrine, but here Paul is talking about support.
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And then he says, or is it only Barnabas and I, who have no right to refrain from working for a living? I don't know why he mentions Barnabas here only to say this, perhaps Barnabas followed Paul's example.
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Because the whole point is this, just in case you're missing it, the whole point is this.
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Paul had the right to be supported by the Corinthian church and he wasn't taking that right.
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He had the right to receive from them his financial support and he wasn't taking it.
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Does this make sense? I see some confused faces.
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Paul says we have the right to eat and drink, we have the right to bring along a believing wife, we have the right not to work for a living.
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That's not saying ministers don't work for a living, that's talking about external labors.
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I know I've all heard the jokes, pastors work one day a week, ha ha.
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Right? And then it's only a half day.
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But the argument Paul is making here is that the right he has is the right to support.
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The right he has is the right to be supported.
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And yet what does he say? I didn't take that right.
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In fact, in Acts chapter 20, he says, you yourselves know that these hands ministered to my needs and to the needs of others.
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I supported myself.
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And I believe Barnabas did too.
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And I think that's why Paul mentions himself and Barnabas.
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Are we the only ones who don't have the right to not work for a living? Are we the only ones who have a right to be supported by the church? And ultimately, Paul's making the case that he has every right to be supported by the church.
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In fact, he uses an illustration, verse 7.
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He says, who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard without eating any of the fruit? Who tends a flock without getting some of the milk? Three examples here, a soldier, a farmer, and a shepherd.
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He said a soldier is not going to go to war on his own expense.
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He's going to expect for his weaponry.
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He's going to expect that his food, he's going to expect that his armor, he's going to expect that his travel is paid for.
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In fact, you ever think about the fact, can you imagine if the United States Army said, okay, we're recruiting army veterans or we're recruiting army soldiers.
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We're going to bring you in and we want everybody to bring their own ammunition.
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We want everybody to buy their own M14.
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Everybody has to get their own knife.
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Everybody has to get their own, and then we, you got to call Continental Airlines, if that's even still around, and get you a plane ticket.
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Because we're going to fly you over there to fight, but it's all on you.
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Doesn't make sense, right? Certainly not.
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And that's the example Paul is giving here.
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He says no soldier goes to war at his own expense.
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And no farmer is going to grow his field and then give it away or sell it all.
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He's going to keep back what he needs for himself.
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He's going to have a portion of it that's for himself.
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Likewise, the shepherd who's milking, he's not going to take that milk and give it all away or sell it all.
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He's going to keep back what he needs for himself.
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The logical deduction is this.
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Those who labor in whatever field they're in should be expected to be supported in that field.
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That's the logical deduction.
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And again, the issue here is ministry.
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And I want to say this.
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If this is your first time visiting with and you think that I'm appealing for a paycheck, I promise I'm not.
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If anyone would ever think that of me, this is because we talked on Wednesday night about ministry and pay and ministry.
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You know, this is an odd thing to talk about as a minister.
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Because there are people who believe that ministers who are paid are wrong for doing so.
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In fact, one person I saw online, I went and did some research.
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One person said any minister who takes a paycheck for preaching is no better than a mercenary or a prostitute.
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And I took a little issue with that because our family is supported through the church.
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And Paul says that that's actually right.
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In fact, he says he's not taking a right that he's owed for a specific reason.
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And we're going to get to that reason in a minute.
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But the point is this.
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It's right that Paul would have.
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It would have been right for him, too.
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And then he says he goes on in verse 8 to make his case from Scripture, because he's made his case from logic.
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He said, if you look at a soldier, you look at a farmer, you look at a shepherd, all of those men, they get their wage by what they do.
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Makes sense that a minister would who ministers as his full time labor would get his wage by what he does.
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But now he uses the Scripture as the as the ultimate authority.
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Verse 8.
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Do I say these things on human authority? No.
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The word no isn't there, but it's implied.
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Do I say these things on human authority? Does not the law, that being the law of Moses or the Scripture, does not the law say the same? For it is written in the law of Moses, you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.
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That is Deuteronomy 25 and 4.
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By the way, if you want to just make note of that, he's quoting directly from the law that says you don't muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.
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That's basically saying this.
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Whenever the the ox was used as a harvesting tool, they wouldn't put a muzzle over its mouth, but they would allow it to eat as it was harvesting, because that would keep it going.
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That would keep it almost like putting gas in the tractor.
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That's keeping the animal moving forward, and it would munch as it did the harvest.
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So it did the work.
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It shared in the benefit.
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And then he asks this question, is it for oxen that God is concerned? Now, one might could make the argument that God does care about oxen, because God does care about animals.
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The Bible talks about mistreatment of animals, how to sell and procure animals, and the proper way to do so.
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But in this point, Paul is saying in this particular text, God is not concerned about oxen, but he's concerned about us.
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He's concerned about his people.
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I want to say this, and if you're an animal lover, don't get offended.
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People are more important than animals.
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Animals have value.
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God put animals here, but there's only one creation in all the universe that has the image of God, and it ain't your puppy.
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I love my puppy.
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Well, I don't even have a puppy, but you may love your, but that's fine.
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This is God's point.
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He gave this scripture, not so much concerning about oxen, but concerning his ministers, that they would understand that they're to be taken care of.
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So he goes on in verse 11 to say this, if we have sown, that means he and the apostles, if we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much that we reap material things from you? The obvious answer, again rhetorical question is, no, it's not too much.
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If others share this rightful claim on you, do we not even more? Who are the others? Well, it's obvious that some in Corinthian church were being supported by the church, and rightfully so.
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Probably the elders in the church were being supported by the church, and rightfully so.
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If others have this claim, do we not even more? The answer of course is yes.
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Nevertheless, end of verse 12, nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.
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Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple? Again, another scriptural example.
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And those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offering.
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In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.
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Clear as day.
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Paul says, those who it is their work to proclaim the gospel, 1st Timothy 5, 17, those who labor in preaching and teaching are to have their living through the gospel.
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It's logical, it's scriptural, Paul says.
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Yet, he didn't exercise it.
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Yet, he didn't do it.
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Verse 15, but I made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision, for I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting.
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Paul says, I have every right, every right to be supported.
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In fact, if anybody has a right to be supported, I as the apostle who God used to found this church, more than anyone would have the right to be supported.
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But I make no use of this right.
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Why? So that no one could rob me of my ground for boasting.
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Now, what is his ground for boasting? That's actually a difficult question.
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I sat on that for a while.
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During the week as I'm preparing to preach, I spend the first few days of the week reading the text and reading commentaries and listening to ministers and spending time in the text before I sit down and write.
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This was actually the part that I had the most difficult with, because he says, he says, I don't want to be robbed of my ground for boasting.
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But then in the very next verse, he says, for if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting.
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So it's not his preaching that is his ground for boasting.
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One commentator writer said, or commentator, I guess you could say this, one commentator said his ground for boasting was his working with his own hands.
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Paul was proud of himself because he supported himself with his own hands.
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I didn't, I don't, I don't get down with that.
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I don't dig that.
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I didn't like that answer because it doesn't make sense to me because Paul's not proud of himself for working.
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I don't think.
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I reached this conclusion.
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The only place that Paul talks about having any boasting at all is in Jesus Christ.
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In fact, we know that, right? We know that the Bible tells us that we, the Bible actually tells us in Galatians 6, 4, 6, 14, far be it for me to boast in anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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So here's what I believe Paul meant.
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I believe that some would say if Paul were taking support from the church, they would claim that he was doing it for the money.
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And if they claim that he was doing it for the money, then he would be, they would be claiming that he didn't have Christ.
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They would be claiming that he was a false teacher, that he was a charlatan, that he was like a modern day prophet for profit.
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And Paul said, I'm not going to let anybody rob me of who I know I am in Christ.
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I'm not going to let anybody rob me of my position.
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I know who I am in Christ and no one, I would rather die than someone believe I was a false teacher.
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I would rather die than someone believe that I'm not representing my Lord.
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Because he goes on to say, if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting.
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He goes on to say, woe to me if I preach not the gospel.
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For if I do this of my own will, I have my reward.
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But if I, if not of my own will, I am entrusted with a stewardship.
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And I'm actually going to preach on this next week.
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I'm going to go into verses, I'm going to break down verses 16 to 18 more, more completely next week, because we're going to look at what it means to have a stewardship from God, a calling from God.
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And Paul's calling was to preach.
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And he says, woe to me if I preach not.
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But then verse 18, he says, what then is my reward that in my preaching, I may present the gospel free of charge.
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So as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.
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The whole argument from verses 1 to verse 18 is this.
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I have a right.
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But because I know that that right may cause some to believe that I am a false teacher, may cause some to doubt who I am in Jesus Christ.
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I have the right to be supported, but because I know that that right may cause some to stumble, I am not going to exercise that right.
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Now you see how it ties into chapter eight, because in chapter eight, he said you ought not eat meat offered to idols if it's going to cause someone to stumble.
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And somebody may stand up and say, but I have the freedom to do this.
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I have the freedom to exercise my liberty.
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And Paul says, I have the freedom to get support from you, but I'm not doing it.
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You see, Paul's expressing his freedom and his willingness to set aside his freedom for the sake of someone else.
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He's demonstrating his willingness to put others before himself.
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Do you realize that that simple phrase, others before self, that simple phrase is the foundation of Christian ethics? The phrase others before self can really be at the heart of almost every issue that happens in the church.
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Are we willing to sacrifice our own pride, our own desires, our own whims and wishes on the altar of someone else's need? The problem is we often are not.
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Paul tells us in Philippians to do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others as more significant than yourselves.
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Every church I have ever seen that has ever divided and fallen has fallen because people were unwilling to count others as more significant than themselves.
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Every time I've seen somebody be divided in a family or divided in a friendship, it is because one or the other or both were not willing to count others before themselves.
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They couldn't sacrifice their pride.
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They couldn't sacrifice their want.
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They couldn't sacrifice their wishes.
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They couldn't sacrifice their freedom on behalf of someone else.
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And because they at that moment were more important than them.
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Rather than being built up, the relationship, the church or the family was destroyed.
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Others before self is the heart of Christian ethics.
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In fact, it's the heart of what Christ did early this morning.
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When we start our service, we always start with a call to worship.
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And I had this morning as the call to worship Philippians 2.
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You know what the point of Philippians 2 is? Christ, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.
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Doesn't mean he wasn't equal with God.
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It means that he didn't count that equality as something to hold on to, but rather he made himself nothing.
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He came to the earth in the form of man and he went to death, even death on a cross, which is a humiliating death.
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Why did he do it? Because God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that everyone who believes in him will not perish, but will have everlasting life.
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He did it because he put others before himself.
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And thus it is the heart of Christian ethics to follow our Savior.
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Over the years, I've talked to people about the subject of joy.
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In fact, I've oftentimes been in counseling sessions and conversations with folks and the subject of joy will come up.
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Maybe a person is experiencing some low point in their life or maybe they've experienced some kind of trauma or maybe they're just having a bout of some kind of depression or something.
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And we talk about the subject of joy.
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Joy is different than happiness.
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You know that, right? Happiness is based on happenings.
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It sort of comes and goes.
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If I go home today and my house is flooded because a pipe burst, I'm not going to be really happy when I walk through the door.
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But joy, as it is defined, is a settled state of contentment, confidence and hope.
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A settled state of contentment, confidence and hope.
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And years ago, I heard a minister say this, and I've always liked it, and I wanted to end with this today because he said this, he said, if you really want to experience joy, just take the word joy and take those three letters and understand this.
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It stands for Jesus first, others second, and you last.
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Because if you can prioritize your life that way, even if you go home to a flooded house, even if life brings its inevitable trials, even when things are difficult, Jesus will be first.
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Others will be before you.
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And that's the secret to Christian ethics and ultimately to Christian joy.
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Let's pray.
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Father, I thank you for your word.
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I thank you for the promise of joy which comes in knowing Christ.
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And Lord, the way that we experience that joy is loving him and loving others.
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The greatest commandment is this, that we love the Lord, our God, with all our heart, our soul, our mind and our strength, and we love our neighbor as ourself.
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Lord, may we obey the scripture today.
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May we understand the call to count others more significant than ourselves.
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May we see the example of Christ on the cross as one who was willing to go and die for us.
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May we see the example of the Apostle Paul, who, though he had every right to take something, did not take that right, but gave it up on behalf of the Corinthians.
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God, may we understand your call to us to put others before self.
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Lord, may it be again in areas where we don't.
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Lord, may we repent.
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May we repent of pride.
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May we repent of selfish ambition.
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May we repent of putting ourselves first and Christ a distant second and others a far third.
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But Lord, may we put Christ first.
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May we put others second.
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And may we understand ourselves last of all.
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For your word tells us, he who is last will ultimately be first.
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We thank you, Father, for the promises that you've give us in your scripture.
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May we trust in them today in Jesus name.
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Amen.