Self-Discipline In An Indulgent Day - [1 Corinthians 9:24-27]

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Well, this morning I have good news, I have bad news, and then I have good news. So here's the good news.
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Many of you, in light of the Gospel, because of what Christ Jesus has done personally for you, dying for your sins, raised from the dead for you, you've responded with ministry, with endurance, with perseverance, with love for the saints, an evangelistic heart.
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And I'm very, very pleased that that's your response, and really proud to be your pastor. The bad news is, some of you here haven't responded that way to the
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Gospel. You know plenty, and you just tend to be a Sunday Christian, and you take up the pew seats, and that's about all you do.
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The good news is, for those of you that are doing that second category, God loves repentance, and He often grants repentance through the preached
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Word. So let's turn our Bibles to 1 Corinthians 9, where Paul is going to see the
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Christian faith as a race, running the race. I wonder if you think about your life as a race, running to win the race that God has granted you.
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Of course, in light of who you are in Christ, because of what Christ has done, you're going to see
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Paul focus in on a very common metaphor, and that is a sports metaphor. I'm not a big poetry guy.
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I don't really like poetry very much, but since so much of the Bible is poetry, I've tried to learn how to read poetry.
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And so if you are a person who doesn't like sports, then
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I suggest you try to learn a little bit about sports, because the motif in Scripture oftentimes is a sports motif.
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You are running a Christian race. If you're a Christian, you're running the race. The question is, are you running fast?
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Are you running slow? Are you slow in your Christian walk? Are you staying in your lane?
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Christianity isn't for couch potatoes. Christianity isn't for we fitness people. I think there's only one thing in my mind worse than we fitness.
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It's people who on Facebook say, I've been injured on we fitness. That's about the worst thing.
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I've grown up in an environment in my Christian faith early on where religiosity was this.
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Lay back and let God. It was called pietism. I just lay back and let
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God do the work. And you're going to see in this passage here, Paul doesn't do that. He said, because of what
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God has done, I strive, I agonize, I try, I sweat, I toil, in the metaphor of my
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Christian life called the race. And if you ask yourself honestly, what is my ministry like in response to the
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Lord? I don't mean just underneath this building, this roof of this building, but in my life as a
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Christian, ministering to other people, loving the lost. Am I really running a race with endurance and with a sense of mission and a sense of striving?
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This is going to be a great passage because for many of you it will confirm this fact, that the gospel of Christ Jesus is worth burning out for and dying for.
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It's worth it. And you're going to see that there's a reward for those that by the Spirit's power practice self -control and discipline.
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The reward is going to be great for you. I think that's good news. But this passage is also going to really go after the
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Christian who says, I'm glad to be saved and maybe early on in my Christian faith
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I tried to excel for the Lord and I tried to burn out for the Lord, but now I'm kind of beyond that because I have other things that compete for my time.
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I'm all about career. I'm all about hobbies. I'm all about sports. I'm all about finances.
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I'm all about this, that or the other. Whatever it is, Christianity is good, especially on Sundays, especially in the community.
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But when it comes to all or nothing, Christianity is over here and we have new things competing for our affections.
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For the Christian, in response to God's magnanimous grace, sacrificial obedience brings great reward.
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That's 1 Corinthians 9, verses 24 -27. And again,
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Paul is going to use this great sports metaphor to spur Christians on to run the race and to look for the ultimate prize that God grants.
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And here's what Paul is going to do. He's going to use the Olympic Games and the Isthmus Games, which were going on close to Corinth, probably 10 miles away, 15 kilometers away.
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These games would happen every two years. And we think one of the times that Paul was there in 51 AD, this game went on.
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I remember it was 1984. I know the Cooleys were there as well. 1984, we had the
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Olympics come to Los Angeles. And it was a fascinating thing to be there during the
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Olympics in 1984. And even if you didn't like sports, everyone knew about the
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Olympics and how much it cost the athletes and what they had to do and the strive and the prize and everything else.
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They knew. And so you've got the culture of Corinth and they're surrounded by these games that everyone knew about, like the
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Olympics. And so Paul being there, maybe even he made some tents for some of the people who were the athletes in the games.
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We don't know, but it could have happened. Paul was immersed in the culture and he used the sports metaphor to say, you've got to run, you've got to race.
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You're in the Christian race and stop laying back and let God. Instead, trust
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God and get going. And so this passage is all about, in the context of Christian liberty, running the
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Christian life with self -control, self -discipline, with an eye towards reward.
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That's what this passage is all about. And it's going to be interesting because next week, wait till next week.
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I think that's bad to say maybe in a sermon. Today's okay, wait till next week. No, but next week you're going to see people, the
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Israelites, who didn't do what this passage is talking about. It's related. Sadly, there's a chapter break.
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Here in chapter 10, people who didn't run with self -discipline, who didn't run strenuously, who didn't run with self -control, they flamed out and actually lots of them got killed is what happened.
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So Paul tucks this in and he says, if you're going to say no to yourself when it comes to Christian liberty, you've got to have self -control, you've got to have self -discipline.
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There's times not to eat things, times to eat things. And he really develops this theme of reward for the runner who has self -discipline.
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And for me personally, as I said to the men in discipleship this morning, the gospel of Christ Jesus is worth burning out for.
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I've got one life to live. And here the king of the universe has condescendingly sacrificed his own life,
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Christ Jesus, for me personally, for my sins. And if you're a Christian, for your sins.
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And he has put the scepter out to you and said, you can come into my presence based on my son's work.
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The Father has said that. And for a king to do that at his own expense, it causes us to respond with gratitude, with obedience, with thankful sacrifice.
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So today is going to be very encouraging for some, and for others who just sit here week in and week out.
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Oh, if you're new, of course you don't have a ministry yet here at the church. But if you're new and have no desire for a ministry, or if you're old and have no desire for ministry, if you're an old
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Christian here and say, you know what, I'm just coasting. I just coast to the end, that's what I'm doing. It's just cruise control.
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Then frankly, this passage is going to blister you. This is one of those passages where if a church is struggling with size of the church and we don't have many seats, this is the kind of sermon that gets us more seats.
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And really, if you only come here on Sundays, and that's all you do because of whatever reason in your mind,
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I really want you to repent. I don't want you to leave. But if you won't repent, and God drives you away, so you go to another church where the standards aren't as biblical, so you feel better about yourself, well, this isn't my church anyway, and so God can do whatever
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He wants with His purchased possession. I want to be faithful to the text. This is one of those texts that drive you to say, if I didn't have the incarnate
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Savior, who could measure up? Who could do these things? You know, for the liberal that says,
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I want Jesus as my example, to me that's pretty bad news because if Jesus is my example,
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I fall woefully short. I need Jesus as example, yes, but I need
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Jesus as example and substitute for when I don't measure up. And for Paul, it's all or nothing.
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If you were around Paul, he would be like a huge boat, a huge steamboat, that you would be behind it and it would just suck you into the toe because Paul was all or nothing.
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It was really, you know what, this is not a game. If you really know about your sin and how bad it is and how your sin deserved hell, how you deserved hell, and then
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God saves you at his own expense. For Paul, this kind of coasting deal,
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I have other things to do, I have other priorities, my family, this, that, or the other. That's a different language.
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That's speaking in tongues to Paul. So Paul writes to the church of Corinth and he says, excuse me, because of Christ's grace, self -disciplined running, the metaphor of the
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Christian life, it's worth it. So run well. It's okay to forego your rights.
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You will never forego your rewards. Let's read chapter 9, verse 24 and following and find out, let me do it this way.
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Find out what the key verb is here. There's an imperative tucked into chapter 9, verses 24 through 27 that is the main verb.
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You want to do Bible study? One of the things you do is find the main verb. What is he saying to do? And in this particular case, he's telling us to do something.
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There's one verb in here that overrides everything and dominates the theological passage and exegetical passage.
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And you're going to see very quickly that what we don't recognize in, let me phrase it this way.
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In business, lazy people never succeed unless they inherit money,
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I guess. In sports, lazy people, men or women, never succeed.
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How much more when we run the Christian life that we ought not to be couch potatoes and Sunday only Christians because they never succeed any either.
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Why didn't you like Manny Ramirez? Maybe you liked him when he was winning. Many people don't like Manny Ramirez because he has all this potential, but he never runs out the base.
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He never tries as hard as he could try. On a much higher plane, a spiritual plane, making
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Christ's fame known in the context of Christian liberty through every avenue possible with sweat and toil,
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Paul says this in verse 24. See if you can spot the main verb. Do you not know that in a race all runners run, but only one receives the prize?
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So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self -control in all things.
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They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we, an imperishable.
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So I do not run aimlessly. I do not box as one beating the air, but I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others
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I myself should be disqualified. What is the command there?
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There's one and only one command in this context, and it's a present command that is ongoing. You're to keep doing this.
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It's continual. It's durative. Keep on doing this. And it's found in verse 24, and it's the word run.
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Run that you may obtain it. Run. Keep running.
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You start well, keep running. You're a brand new Christian, keep running. You're 85 years old, keep running.
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That's the spiritual metaphor of the Christian life. To run. Paul says to the Church of Galatians, you were running well.
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Paul says in Philippians 2, I did not run in vain. This idea that you're Christian life,
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Paul says, has many things, but here the context is, it's a race. You're running a race.
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Have you ever run a race before? I think I've only run three races in my life. I ran a 10K in Catalina, on Catalina Island.
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I ran a half marathon in Long Beach. I ran a marathon in San Diego. And I'll tell you what, to train for those races, laziness wasn't the issue, could not be the issue.
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Lack of control, self -control wasn't the issue. Indulgence wasn't the issue.
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Gluttony wasn't the issue. I had to self -sacrifice and to train.
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Actually, if you want to just have a little breather for a second, when I ran the 10K, here's a little unknown fact.
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I ran it and there was a couple movie stars racing it, and one guy came up to me and said, you ran pretty fast for running in basketball shoes, because I wasn't a runner,
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I didn't have any running shoes. I ran in basketball shoes. And he came up to me and he said, how could you run a race like that, with basketball shoes on?
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I said to Tom Cruise, I don't know. It's a true story. Isn't that special?
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We know, if you're in a race, train. How does anybody win the
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Olympics? They sacrifice what? Everything. The guy who was training Bruce Jenner years ago, he wanted to win the
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Olympic gold. He said, what will it cost me? And the trainer said, everything.
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And it cost him his wife and children and everything, and he won. Running a spiritual race.
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And Paul is the model. Of course Christ is the ultimate model, but Paul's the model.
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Remember Charles Barkley, the basketball player? I'm not no role model. Paul's the role model here. Let me give you for an outline this morning, six training tips, six training hints, on running your
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Christian life. Kind of a regimen. Six things that you need to be reminded of as you run in light of your position in Christ.
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Justification has taken place fully, freely, based on Christ's work, and in light of that sanctification, how do
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I run? I'm running. And for those of you that aren't running the Christian race, today's the day.
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As I said before, and I want to say it again, God often grants repentance through preaching.
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That is to say, you hear a message, and it convicts you, and then you respond rightly. God, that's true.
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I have other things more important in my life. I have hobbies. I have my career. I have money. I have power. I have kids.
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I have sports. I have Nintendo. I don't know what it is. School. By the way, WPI students, this is great for you.
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Because if you think you're going to put your Christianity on hold for four years while you get your degree, and then serve, or if you're in pharmacy school, and you say,
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I'm going to got my ministry later, Paul would just look at you saying, what are you doing?
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You've forgotten your Savior. Of course we have to have a job. Of course we have to go to school.
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But in light of that, Paul with this whole living that a Jew would think about, says it's one aim, one goal, one finish line.
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That's why we run. It's for the fame of Christ Jesus. So let me give you six
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P90X training tips for spiritual life. I won't do the yoga one, because maybe you'd think that was bad.
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May Bethlehem Bible Church, like Paul himself, run to win and arrive at the goal.
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Number one. First training tip for the Christian life, in light of your salvation, run your
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Christian life to win. Run to win. That's what
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Paul means in chapter 9, verse 24. You see there that first sentence? It's a question. It's a common question, isn't it, for Paul?
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He'd been there 18 months, and he had taught them all this. Do you not know? Meaning, you know. Do you not know that in a race, all runners run, but only one receives the prize.
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So run that you may obtain it. Run to win.
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Run to capture. Run to get the prize, the reward. Now let me say this up front.
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You're not competing against other Christians. I'm not trying to run, and my goal is to beat
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Gary, or to beat Tom, or to beat Dan. My goal is if I'm in a race, I run it to win.
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The competition isn't against each other. The determination that Paul is after is if you're in a race, you don't kind of, this is what we say in Nebraska, you don't lollygag.
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Do we know what that word is around here? Probably. Well, it was big in Nebraska. To hanker and to lollygag.
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Just because you're in the race, you don't win. Could there be a better prize than the glory of Christ Jesus?
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Like it or not, you have to take your spiritual life seriously. If you don't feel an urgency to serve, if you aren't tired in your ministry.
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Let me stop there. When was the last time you were tired because of gospel ministry? Exhausted.
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Couldn't sleep. Had to stay up late at night. That's the kind of thing Paul is talking about here. Of course, not to be saved, but in light of your salvation.
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And by the way, as I talk about all these things, you can think about Christ Jesus as He was setting
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His face towards the cross and sleeping in the boat, exhausted in gospel ministry.
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Think of one famous person in Christianity as a missionary who wasn't
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A. gospel -centered and B. who didn't run like they needed to win. Think of anyone.
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Think of Amy Carmichael. Think of Mary Schleser. Think of Elizabeth Elliott. Think of Adoniram Judson.
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Think of John Calvin. Think of anybody that you want to think about who you know that God, of course, gifted and equipped, but they with their own human responsibility.
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This is not hyper -Calvinism. God does it all. This is God's in charge of everything and He orchestrates the ends through the means and you're the means.
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But not one person that I can think of. I have a little section in my library. Biographies. Famous biographies.
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And I like to read biographies for a couple reasons. One, because I say to myself, that guy was a sinner just like me.
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And look what God did through him. And I also say, do you know what? That person burned out for the gospel.
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And Lord, that's a worthy life to burn out for the gospel. And when I'm on my deathbed, that'll make it a lot easier to die.
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You're in the race if you're a Christian. You're in the race. You've been given a number. Lowest possible effort.
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By the way, that's America. What can we do? At least it's a lot of entitlement in America.
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What's the least amount we can do to get by? See, that's not it for Paul. I need to have a ministry, so what can
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I do at the church that requires the least amount of effort? Interestingly, when you look at that word race there, do you not know that those who run in a race...
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Let me give you the Greek word for race or the equivalent of the Greek word. Stadion. Stadium.
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Greek 600 feet. One lap around. Running the race.
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That's where we get the word race. It's from stadium. And you can imagine, every two to three years, these races going on, the equivalent of an
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Olympic race going on at Corinth. So Paul uses that illustration. He could use an agricultural illustration.
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He could use military. Here he uses sports, because everyone knew. And by the way, during these sport games, do you think there was a lot of food offered to idols?
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And a lot of times, you would have to say, you know what, I could eat that food, but in light of having the Christian brother who's weak or stumble,
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I better say no. And if you ran a race back in those days and you won, you were just like people in the
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Olympics today. On the cover of Sports Illustrated, never have to work again a day in your life.
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Exalted. Rewarded. You're not running against other people, but you're running.
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I'd like to know, how fast are you running? Oh, you know, I'll run later. They used to say in seminary, and I know
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Steve and Harrington know this. They used to say, you know what, if you say to yourself,
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I'll study the Bible later, but in school I just have to do these Greek tests. That when the later comes, you never do it later.
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You're trying to put these habits down now early. And it's possible to finish well.
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The last chapter Paul ever wrote includes these words, for I am already being poured out as a drink offering and the time of my departure has come.
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I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.
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Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all who have loved
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His appearing. To all those who He could have said, run and run well.
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Listen to these words. Well, you know what, let's not listen to those words.
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All right, Christianity is not a spectator sport. So why don't you resolve today, Lord, help me to run well.
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Number two, the second cross -training tip, training hints for the
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Christian faith in the context of liberty. As Christians, number one, run to win.
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Number two, run with self -control. Run your Christian life with self -control. The first part of verse 25.
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And of course, runners have to have self -control, and if we're in the Christian life, we have to have self -control as well. The runner in the temporal world, we in the spiritual world.
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He says every athlete exercises self -control in all things. Self -restraint, self -control, strict training, strict diet.
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To me, our society is indulge, consume, gorge.
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Paul uses an athletic metaphor. And he says if you're striving for the glory of God and excellence, you've got to run with self -control.
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Remember, when I was growing up, I wanted to be able to jump higher. It's always a goal of mine in life to dunk a basketball.
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Boy, that's a pretty lofty goal. So I used to wear things around my ankles, and they were called ankle weights.
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Because then if I was at school, walking around in junior high with ankle weights on, and I took them off, I felt I would be better strengthening my muscles.
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Could it be that Christians today, with all their distractions, put on ankle weights that aren't helping them, that are hurting them and weighing them down?
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One historian back in the day said, I wish to win an Olympic victory, then here's what you should do.
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You have to submit to discipline, follow a strict diet, give up sweet cakes, train under compulsion, at a fixed hour, in heat or cold.
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This is a funny one. You must not drink cold water, nor wine, just whenever you feel like it.
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Sweat training, striving. Look at the word there, exercises, in your text. In English, exercise, compete.
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That's where we get the word agony. Agonizing.
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I wonder, do you agonize in your Christian faith? Is it agony, straining, toiling, one goal, winning the prize?
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Now, if you're not careful, you look at this passage and you think, you know what? Spiritual, it has nothing to do really with physical.
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And in one sense, you're right. This is a metaphor for the spiritual Christian race. But Paul isn't so naive, nor is he, if you want some big words, nor is he a neoplatonic dualist.
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This is just kind of fun, by the way, when you play Scrabble with people, a bunch of pagans, just throw out, you know, oh, that's
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Gnostic, that's neoplatonic dualism. You just kind of throw those out. You win every time.
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But if you think body bad, spirit good, this kind of dualistic thing, you're not thinking the right way.
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And there's a very real sense where Paul says, this is a spiritual race, but your body matters.
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Because the body God has given you is the instrument by which you perform spiritual activities.
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And so there's a very real sense where you say to yourself, do you know what? I have to be careful to take care of my body for many reasons.
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And you can go back into chapter 6, where Paul says, honor God with your what? Body. It's a sexual deal there.
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But even now, Paul is saying, there's a spiritual race that I'm in. But the spiritual race that I'm in,
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I have my own body to run it. And by the way, if you say to yourself,
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I want to run with excellence, I think you'll pay attention to your body. What you eat, what you don't eat, what your sleep is, exercise, and everything else.
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Because when you exercise and eat well, your body can perform better so that you're able to run the race better.
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You say, well, bodily exercises, you know, doesn't profit much compared to spiritual exercise.
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That's true, but it does still profit. The reason why I work out the way
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I work out is because I've got one shot at this. And when I overeat or eat poorly and don't rest well,
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I can't perform in my duties as well as I could. So what
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I don't want you to do is say, it's just a spiritual metaphor and I'll just do whatever I want with my body and just gorge myself with whatever
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I want. That's not the case. If you're going to run the
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Christian race and you've got the body you've got, you're supposed to take care of it. Spiritual, yes, but your body is not the enemy of your spiritual life.
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It's the instrument of that life. Number three, run to win, run with self -control, run with confidence.
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Run with confidence. Run knowing it's all going to be worth it. There's a prize.
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There's faithful reward. God is faithful to reward those who do things in honor of His Son with those motives.
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Verse 25b, they do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we, an imperishable.
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I forego pleasures now because later it's worth it. I say no to things that I could say yes to, but the race is going to be worth it.
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God will reward me that day. And I did some study on how people were given rewards back in those days during the
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Olympic and Ithmician Games. It's kind of hard to say. They gave wreaths out of parsley, sometimes of pine, pine cones, and when you really did a great job, you got a withered celery wreath.
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I could probably juice that. That's the fun thing about juicing. You can just juice celery that's all withered.
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It doesn't matter. I've juiced some gnarly carrots lately. Just juice them up.
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So the argument is, lesser to greater. Bruce Jenner did everything he could for a piece of gold, a gold medal.
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And what did it get him? Michael Phelps, how many Olympic golds does he have? On that day, on Judgment Day, the scales of God.
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Here Michael Phelps put all his gold medals and says in light of all the gold medals, light of the six world championships of Michael Jordan, puts them all seated right down there.
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Here's the scales of God. We'll not balance out anything. It's all in vain.
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It's all works righteousness. But if in fact you have been saved and then you run to win, there's a reward later.
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Of course God might bless you today, but the real reward is coming later. Beyond this passing age.
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A crown, 2 Timothy 4, that I read before, which will last forever. Instead of some dried up, limp, celery crown.
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By the way, somebody should make one of those crowns. Bring it in. Scott Walken is going to come up and model it for us.
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Pushing to the limit for the Gospel. And you know what?
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It would be right if we never got rewarded for it. Wouldn't it? Just God, for what you've done for me and how you've saved me and delivered me and given me
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Christ's righteousness and the hope of heaven. That's worth it. No reward in heaven would still be worth it.
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And yet, God in His mercy, He dangles out, yes, you can know about a reward.
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People say, well, it's impious to try to do things for a reward. No. If you're only doing it for a reward and not for the glory of God, okay,
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I see. But Paul is trying to motivate Christians by saying there's a reward from God.
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It's not made of laurel or pine or parsley. 1
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Peter calls it an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that doesn't fade away, reserved in heaven for you.
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So when you're serving and striving, you think future. You think with hope.
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God's not going to overlook those who have served, according to Hebrews 6. Okay, number four.
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We're moving right along. Number four, cross -training hint, how to run the
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Christian life. Number one, run to win. Number two, run with self -control. Number three, run knowing
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God's faithful to reward. Number four, run with purpose. Run deliberately.
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Have a plan. Look at verse 26. He uses two metaphors in sports, running and boxing.
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When I went to the Olympics in 1984, not as a participant, but as a spectator,
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I ordered two kinds of tickets. I ordered boxing and basketball. Boxing and basketball is what
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I wanted, and you just order tickets, and I think for the basketball games, I got Croatia versus Latvia or something like that.
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So I went to the booth, and I said, I'd like to exchange these in, and they said, yes, you could exchange them in, and I said,
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I'd like one of the American teams. It was the year we had Jordan and Patrick Ewan and Chris Mullen and Leon Wood and a bunch of other guys and Raymond Tisdale.
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What did you say? This is my sermon. Where's Michael Bartlett?
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Just kidding. It's a Michael Bartlett moment for a second. And so they said, oh, we have one ticket for the
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American game. I said, great. No, she said, matter of fact, there's two games open. She said, there are good seats too. I said, great.
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And so I walked into that first game that we were playing, and I walked down, and I kid you not, my seat was behind Bobby Knight, the coach.
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So there was Bobby Knight, there was Jordan right next to me. And so one time, Jordan stole the ball, went up for a dunk, and I stood up, and I went like this, like, yes, we're number one.
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Bad news is, I was supposed to be at work that day. It was one o 'clock in the afternoon. And on ABC, NBC, and CBS, it showed me going up like this.
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I'm number one. Sin's always going to find you out.
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I can tell you that right now. I was an unbeliever, of course. Now, can you imagine
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Michael Jordan when he got that ball, and he went down to the other end of the court and before he did like a little cradle jam, he just took the ball and kicked it up into the ceiling, one foot underneath the basket.
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You think, you've got to finish. We call that finishing. We call that not finishing, but you should finish.
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Paul says when you run, you just don't run around with a chicken like your head cut off, and when you box, you just don't start boxing the air.
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You ever see somebody that does that? They just start boxing up in the air indiscriminately. I've never really seen anybody do that, but if they did do that,
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I would send the ushers over. The ones that are packing heat ushers.
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Those particular ones. So look what Paul says. You can tell even by earlier in chapter 9 when he talked about purpose, and determination, and goal.
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He does the same thing here. I do not run aimlessly. That's the first example. Notice he's switched to first person now.
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Here is Paul the example again. Not the ultimate example. Chapter 11, verse 1. Christ the ultimate example.
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But here Paul has lived among them. And now he says, first person singular, I do not run aimlessly.
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There's a deliberation to my life. There's a purpose to my life. There's a purpose to ministry.
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And of course, we. But think about those Corinthians. They needed purpose. They needed goals and directions.
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Sauntering, meandering. Paul said you run to win, and you run with purpose.
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I could say it maybe this way, congregation. Busy isn't the answer. I just have to be busy. It's not just activity, but focused on the exaltation of Christ, the building up of the church, loving one another.
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And then he says another example here. I box in such a way as not beating the air.
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He's not a shadow boxer, just punching things. It could either mean shadow boxing or just missing the opponent by swinging wildly.
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He said that's not how I fight. Now when
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I was younger, I used to think goals for ministry were kind of dumb because God's sovereign. Mike, what are your one year goals?
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What are your five year goals? What are your ten year goals? I used to think that was just dumb. I changed my mind.
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Because we should be making goals for gospel ministry because it should be a deliberate planning of course open to God changing in His sovereign ways.
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God rerouting. But I have certain goals. And then when God says no, and God says something differently in terms of circumstances and opportunities, then we fall in line.
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You've got to aim for something or you'll be hitting nothing.
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I wonder if you ask yourself the question, the ministry that God has given me at Bethlehem Bible Church, there's a reason why
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I do it. There's a reason why you change the diapers in the nursery. And the reason is not only that the babies are dirty.
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Paul said in Philippians 3, I run in such a way not losing aim, forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead.
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I press on to the goal to win the prize which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
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Number five, how do you run your Christian life? Cross training tips. And again, these are very imperatively driven because that's the tone of Scripture here.
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Paul's already told them who they are in Christ in chapter 1, verses 1 -8. Number five, run without getting
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DQ'd. Without getting disqualified. Run to win. Run with self -control. Run knowing there's a reward.
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Run deliberately. And now run without getting disqualified. There's a lot at stake.
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I'm going to tell you this ahead of time so you'll get it. I believe in the perseverance of the saints. Do you?
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Preservation by God. Eternal security. However you want to parse that. I believe that if God gives you fate, it lasts till the end.
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How about that? Eternal life begins when you believe. But the way to get a persevering
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Christian to persevere is regularly through commands and exhortations that say you better be careful or you're going to lose it all.
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It doesn't mean you can lose it all. Is Paul going to say, you know what, if I don't run this race well, I'm going to lose my salvation? No. But God uses exhortations that seem like they're on the brink of I'm going to lose my salvation to get people to follow through all the way to the end.
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So in other words, how do we persevere? Well, God makes us persevere.
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But it's through a faith that knows that on each side there's a precipice and if I fall over here, it's going to be bad.
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So God says don't fall over here. So let's see how this fleshes itself out. Verse 27, But I discipline my body and keep it under control.
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It's interesting to see how the body and the spirit there's no bifurcation. I keep it under control lest after preaching to others,
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I myself should be disqualified. Now the ESV many times is a great translation.
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They botch it here. Let me read you the NAS which is better. But I discipline my body and instead of saying keep it under control, what's the
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ESV say? I make it what? A slave. And the word discipline is a fascinating sports term.
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It means to hit under the eye and give somebody a black and blue eye. Yesterday Micaiah was here getting ready to be babysat before the
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Christmas party and thankfully, well not thankfully, he injured himself. But when he injured himself, thankfully it wasn't bad and it was not during the time my kids were babysitting.
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It was while Bob and Nyada were still here. And he whacked himself on the head and the blood started to go down under his skin and pool on his eyelid.
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And I thought to myself, that's a good sermon illustration. That's 1 Corinthians 9.
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No. I made sure I went over and hugged him. Told Bob he should watch his kids in a better fashion.
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I have the spiritual gift of encouragement. Paul is not saying self -flagellation in a
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Roman Catholic way to be better pleasing to God. He's saying when it comes to discipline,
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I'm not punching in the air randomly. I'm basically punching myself as it were to be disciplined for the run, for the match.
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Whatever rigors I have to go through for an apostle, I'll go through it. And he's telling the
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Corinthians, whatever you have to go through. Imagine it's like a boxer who says, I need to know how to take body blows better.
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And he opens up his arms like this and other people come and punch him in the stomach over and over and over.
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So then when somebody really punches him in the stomach at a match, he'll be able to take it. Paul says, basically
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I give my body a black eye. I make it my slave. I subdue it.
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Body, get in line. Body, you don't run me. I always loved it when MacArthur would say, many times
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I go out to have dinner and I say no dessert for only one reason. Because I want to tell my body, you're not in charge.
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I own you. You don't run me. I run you. Now when he says that I might be disqualified,
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I think what he's saying is I'm going to control my life and my lifestyle so that whatever
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I do, none of these Corinthian false teachers could say, you know what, he doesn't practice what he preaches.
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He preaches a big game about God's grace, but he doesn't live it out. By the way, if you were disqualified back in the
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Olympic or Isthmian Games, you would lose your reward, but you wouldn't lose your citizenship.
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I think that's a fair way to think about this. If you're really a Christian, are you still going to heaven, even if you run a sloppy race?
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Yes. But you're going to lose your reward. So Paul says, I don't want to be disapproved.
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I don't want to run to lose. I don't want to be disqualified. I think it was 1972,
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Omaha, Nebraska, and I was on the swim team, and I swam 100 -yard fly, and I got fifth in the city, 100 -yard fly.
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Well, the reason why I got fifth in the city was there were only six entrants, and the sixth guy couldn't get his arms up and out of the water, and if you just slide your arms along during butterfly, you get disqualified.
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So I was fifth in the city, although what I didn't tell my friends at the time, but what I will tell you, because who wants a boasting pastor, is that the sixth guy got disqualified, and it was the only heat.
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Paul sees the Corinthians, and just now in chapter 10, he's going to say, you know what?
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These guys are getting disqualified by the thousands, 23 ,000, 24 ,000
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Israelites disqualified with sexual sin. And you just look back, and you see just the flotsam and the jetsam of all these people who were in the race, and they failed.
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And he says, Corinthians, don't run to lose. You're not just in the race. This is everything.
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One life to live. He says that's a dangerous position.
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And I'll tell you, I'll look you in the eye and say, it's a dangerous position to say, I'm a Christian, but I'm not running this to win.
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It's dangerous. This is not a good church to be in if you say, you know what? I just want to coast.
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I want you to be found out. Not by us, primarily, but found out by God. So you're just compelled out of gratitude to say, this is it.
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This is my life. You can do that if you're on staff, or you can do that if you're a mother.
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This has nothing to do with full -time ministry. You can coast if you're in ministry. You can burn out if you're not in ministry.
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Paul's not trying to say he's losing his salvation, but he wants to satisfy the Lord of glory. Paul says, forget your rights,
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Corinthians. Go after the imperishable reward. And lastly, but not leastly, we have to do this quickly, number six.
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Sixth cross -training tip or hint. Run to win. Run with self -control. Run knowing there's going to be a reward.
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Run with purpose. Run with discipline, so you don't get disqualified. And number six, run with a view towards Christ's race.
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Run with a view towards Christ's race. This is not found in 1 Corinthians. It's found in Philippians 2.
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So let's just look over to Philippians 2. I want you to see Paul, but more importantly, I want you to see Jesus in a way that's very similar,
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Philippians 2, to this obedience -reward pattern. Jesus is the one.
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For those of us that haven't run well and we need a representative, we see Him here.
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For those of us who have sinned and we need a Savior, we see Him here. And for those of us that need a good example of how
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God the Son runs a race, we see Him here. It's a good way to end a sermon looking at Christ Jesus and His life.
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Philippians 2, verse 1. So if there is any encouragement in Christ, you can just feel the pastoral heart ooze out here.
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Any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy. Complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.
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Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit. Boy, what a good context tie -in to the context of liberty in 1
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Corinthians 8, 9, and 10. But in humility, count others more significant than yourself.
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Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but to the interests of others. I want you to be harmonious in soul,
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Paul says. I want you to think the same thing. For what reason?
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Well, before I answer that, listen to the opposite of what Paul is after. Shirley MacLaine, quote,
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The most pleasurable journey you take is through yourself. The only sustaining love involvement is with yourself.
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When you look back on your life and try to figure out where you've been and where you're going, when you look at your work, your love affairs, your marriages, your children, your pain, your happiness, when you examine all that closely, what you really find out is that the only person you really love is yourself.
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And so Paul says, look out for the interests of others. You know what a microscope means? It's to look at something small.
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Scope. Scope it out. Small. Paul said, scope out the interests of others. And now look at Christ's example of humble service.
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Of strenuous running, I could say. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.
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This is an oceanic passage, as one man said. Verse 6,
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Though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself.
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How do you empty yourself? Here it's subtraction by addition. By the addition of taking the form of a servant.
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Subtraction. Saying no sometimes to the privileges of exercising divine deity.
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Always being divine, but sometimes saying no to using some of those privileges. By taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of man, and being found in human form.
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I mean, how humbling is that for God? Christ being the other -oriented servant,
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He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
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He emptied Himself by adding human flesh. He didn't give up any part of His true deity.
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His glory now veiled. But here's the good news.
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Remember Paul said, Run and there's going to be a great reward.
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Self -sacrifice. Pay off. Look at how God honored Christ Jesus.
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Verse 8, And being found in appearance of a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even the worst kind of death, even death on a cross.
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As one man said, Nail on a tree like vermin. Voluntarily.
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Deliberately. Therefore, here comes the exaltation. It's worth it. Therefore God has highly exalted
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Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, which is what name? Lord. Yahweh.
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So that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is
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Lord, to the glory of God the Father. He's our real example.
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Friends. Beloved. You're in a race. And the elders want to help you in this race any way we can.
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I wonder how this message will affect your Christmas holidays. I'm telling you this, the world is racing towards Christmas Day as the end all.
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And we with our minds can race towards it because it symbolizes for us everything and it shows the incarnation.
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For me, by the grace of God, I want to run this
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Christian race with a gospel focus to the day I die. Don't you?
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It'll be worth it. Let's pray. Father, thank
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You that we can rejoice in You, rejoice in the Lord, and again I say rejoice.
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It's so hard to do these things. Yet Christ is in our place. We have a great substitute, a great representative.
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Father, thank You for the promise that one day You'll transform our lowly body into a glorious body like Christ's.
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Father, I'd pray for Bethlehem Bible Church that You would help our citizenship be in heaven as we await a
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Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Help us to run well. And if there's anyone here who's not a
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Christian, Father, as they're running towards hell, I pray that You'd interrupt them and grant them repentance.
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Make them born again. Cause them to believe and save them from their sins.
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And Lord, because of that, what You've done for us, I pray that You'd help us to run with a view towards Christ and with a determined self -control.
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Father, I especially pray for the husbands today and the dads. I pray that You'd help them to be godly leaders in this very endeavor.
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I pray that You'd give them insight and wisdom. Pray for the college students here, graduate students.
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I pray that You'd help them run the race, not of academics, not of scholarships, but the gospel race.
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So many lost people around them in the dorms and other places. Grant them great freedom and liberty to run well.
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Father, for the moms, for our children, Father, You do great things.
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I pray that You'd help Bethlehem Bible Church. Doesn't matter about the land, doesn't matter about this building.
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Matters about honoring You in response to Christ Jesus to run well. May You be glorified as Bethlehem Bible Church does that very thing.