Though I
be free from all men, yet have I
made myself a servant unto all, that I
might win the more.
Unto the Jews I became as a Jew,
that I might win the Jews.
To them that are under the law, as
under the law, that I might win them
that are under the law.
To them that are without the law, as
without the law, being not without the law
to God, but under the law to Christ,
that I might win them that are without
the law.
To the weak I became as the weak,
that I might win the weak.
I have made all things to all men,
that I might by all means save some.
And this I do for the gospel's sake,
that I might be a partaker thereof with
you.
Know ye not that they which run and
race all run, but one receives the prize.
So run that you may obtain.
And every man that strives for mastery is
temperate in all things.
Now they do it to obtain a corruptible
crown, but we an incorruptible.
I therefore so run, not as uncertainly.
So fight I, not as one that beats
the air, but I keep my body under,
and bring it into subjection, lest that by
any means, when I have preached to others,
I myself should be a castaway.
Father, we ask for your wisdom and guidance
as we study your word.
It is our desire that we not be
conformed to this world, but be transformed by
the renewing of our minds.
And so we pray that you would do
just that.
Sanctify and cleanse us by the washing of
the water of your word.
And we pray that you by your spirit
would guide us in all truth.
Now, for we ask it in Jesus name
and all God's people agreed, saying, Amen, you
can be seated.
Paul has been building for the last couple
of chapters.
This theme of laying aside our liberties, renouncing
our rights for the sake of others, for
the sake of the kingdom, for the sake
of the gospel.
And as we come here to verse 19,
Paul makes very clear that he is a
free man, though I am free from all
men.
No one owned Paul.
He was a slave of no man.
He was a hireling to none.
And yet he says here that he had
made himself a slave unto all.
The Greek word that Paul chooses for servant
or slave here is the Greek word and
it means to make a slave or to
reduce to bondage.
This verse is therefore something of a paradox
at the surface.
Anyway, he says, though I am free, though
I am not a slave, I have made
myself a slave, a servant.
It's for this very reason that Paul would
identify himself on several occasions in his letters
as a bond servant, a doulas.
In Romans chapter one, verse one, he says,
Paul, a bond servant of Jesus Christ, called
to be an apostle, separated under the gospel
of God.
In Philippians chapter one, verse one, he says,
Paul and Timothy, the servants or the bond
servants of Jesus Christ to all the saints
in Christ Jesus, which are at Philippi.
In Titus chapter one, verse one, he says,
Paul, a bond servant of God, an apostle
of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of
God's elect and the acknowledging of the truth,
which is after godliness.
Paul called himself a bond servant of Christ,
but his service to Christ was evidenced by
his service to others within the body of
Christ.
But why did Paul, a free man, make
himself a slave?
Why would anyone put themselves in that position
in first Corinthians?
Actually, second Corinthians chapter four, verse five, he
says that he had made himself a doulas,
a servant for Jesus's sake, for the sake
of the Lord.
And here in verse 19, at the end
of the verse, he says, though I am
free of all men, yet I have made
myself a servant unto all.
Why that I may win the more that
I may win the more.
Now you might think that the position of
a servant would be the position of loss.
Not so we would think that to place
ourself in the position as a servant, a
bond servant, a slave would be to lose
everything.
But that is not how Paul looked at
it.
The culture of this world looks down upon
the servant, but the kingdom of God and
the economy of God's kingdom is wholly different
than our culture here in this world.
Remember the words that Jesus shared with his
disciples back in the gospel of Mark.
Listen, as I read from Mark chapter 10,
verse 42, Jesus called unto his disciples and
he said, you know that they which are
accounted to rule in this world over the
Gentiles, they exercise Lordship over them and their
great ones exercise authority upon them.
But so shall it not be among you
said Jesus to his disciples, but whosoever will
be great among you shall be your servant
and whosoever will be the chiefest shall be
the servant of all.
The reality is that if you want to
win in the kingdom of God, then we
ought to follow the example of Jesus and
remember the pattern of Paul to lay down
our lives, to take up our cross, to
sacrificially serve.
And in so doing, we win is what
Paul says here in this passage.
And he'll make very clear as we go
on, but just what does he mean by
winning?
Because winning was Paul's clear purpose.
If you were ever to ask Paul the
question, what is your aim?
What is it that you're doing, Paul?
The response would come without hesitation.
I am seeking to win, to win what?
To win people to Christ.
Five times in the first four verses here
in our study, Paul uses the word win.
And then in verse 21, he shows what
he means by that word.
When he says, I am made all things
to all men that I might by all
means save some.
He switches the words.
He uses the word save instead of win.
Paul was wholly dedicated to what the scriptures
call a wise work.
Proverbs 11 verse 30 there, Solomon says, he
that wins souls is wise.
And so the purpose of Paul's life was
to win souls.
And the purpose of your life will dictate
the pattern of your life.
If the purpose is winning souls, then the
activities, the orientation of your life will be
in line with that purpose.
You will change the way that you live
to be able to meet the purpose that
you have for your life.
And we're going to see in these remaining
verses in chapter nine, that Paul's pattern of
life was perfectly in line with this purpose.
He was endeavoring to win souls, doing that
wise work.
And so he says in verse 20, and
unto the Jews, I became as a Jew,
that I might win the Jews to them
that are under the law as under the
law, that I might win them that are
under the law.
Paul was prepared to modify his habits, to
adjust his lifestyle and to set aside his
preferences for the cause of the kingdom and
the salvation of others.
He was free in Christ.
He understood the great Liberty that he had
as a follower of Jesus, but he was
willing to deny himself certain liberties for the
opportunity to minister to as many people as
possible.
He was willing to lay aside his liberties
to renounce his rights, that he might see
the salvation of others.
Now in our day, one might say, Hey
man, this is who I am.
I don't change for anybody.
I mean, isn't that something of the motto
in America today?
I am who I am, and you got
to be who you are and I won't
change for anybody.
Really?
Is that really a reality in the lives
of people in our nation?
Because as I see it, it's just not.
It's amazing to me how many people will
modify their habits and adjust their lifestyles, set
aside their preferences for a temporal gain.
What do I mean?
Well, someone wants that promotion at work, and
so they will get up earlier than every
single person.
They'll come in before anybody else gets there.
They'll jump at every opportunity to do the
extra work.
They'll stay later than every single other employee
in that business so that they can get
that temporal promotion.
Or maybe the person wants a relationship with
that special someone, and so they'll alter their
appearance.
They'll pretend to like music that they really
don't like.
They'll shift their preferences to like long walks
on the beach and sappy romantic comedies.
You want to fit into that outfit, and
so you jog.
You tell people you like it, but you
really don't.
You jog yourself into the ground, cut out
every enjoyable delight, count calories like your life
depended upon it.
Why?
For a temporal endeavor.
So all this will do for a temporal
gain, an earthly gain that's not eternal.
Do you think that this goes unnoticed by
our Heavenly Father?
That we will do such things to serve
ourselves, but we'll not do so to serve
His kingdom?
Again, Paul was prepared to modify his habits,
adjust his lifestyle, set aside his preferences for
the cause of the kingdom and the salvation
of others.
Now, I don't want you to misunderstand the
Apostle Paul.
He was not some sort of slick politician
-like chameleon.
Who changed his mannerism depending upon which group
of people he was hanging out with at
that moment.
That's the very thing that Paul rebuked the
Apostle Peter for in the book of Galatians.
Peter was being kind of like that shifty
chameleon.
He would spend time with Gentiles, fellowshipping with
them, as long as there were no Jews
around.
But as soon as the Jews came around,
then he had to set them aside because,
well, you know, they're unclean Gentiles.
And he was only with the Jews.
And Paul rebuked this.
So Paul was not some sort of slick
politician.
Paul was not so dominated by political correctness
that he went to every possible length to
not offend.
He knew very well that the message he
had was an offensive message.
The message that we preach is offensive to
those who are perishing.
People who are still walking in their sin,
enjoying their sin, don't like the message of
the gospel.
They will be offended by it.
Paul knew that was the case.
He didn't craft the message in a way
so as to never offend anybody with that
message.
But he did seek to make sure that
his life was never a hindrance to the
message going forth.
And so Paul was a student of culture.
He knew that his brothers, the Jews, would
be offended by pork or other unclean foods.
So he would cut those things out of
his life so as to not lay a
stumbling block before them when he was in
their presence.
To the Jews, I became as a Jew
that I might win the Jews.
But then he says to those that are
under the law, I became as one under
the law that I might win those under
the law.
Well, aren't all Jews under the law?
Don't they all view themselves as being under
the law?
Well, some more than others.
Remember, before Paul was Paul the Apostle, he
was Saul the Pharisee.
And the Pharisees, they viewed themselves as separate
from the rest of the general Jewish population
because they were the ones who really, truly
adhered to all the law.
And not just all the law, all the
traditions and all the customs.
He knew that those who held to the
law with pharisaical zeal were bound to rights
and rituals and vows.
And as we see in the book of
Acts and in some of Paul's other letters,
he had no problem taking such vows to
show his devotion to the Lord.
In Acts chapter 18, when he was getting
ready to leave the city of Corinth to
go back to Jerusalem, it says that he
went to century and he shaved his head
because he had taken a vow.
He was returning back to Jerusalem and he
knew that that would give him an opportunity
or hope that that would give him an
opportunity to minister among his people.
Again, in Acts chapter 21, when he had
gone to Jerusalem the second time in his
ministry, it says that there were people there
that thought he was telling Jews to depart
from the law of Moses and to not
seek to follow the Lord and the law.
And so he was encouraged again to shave
his head in a vow.
And Paul did so.
Why?
So that by all means he might win
some.
Were such things required for him as a
Christian?
No.
Were they forbidden to him as a Christian?
No.
Would they open a door for the gospel?
No doubt they would.
And so Paul says it's something of a
gray area.
It's not forbidden.
It's not commanded.
But I will do this.
Why?
Because I want to win people to Christ,
to the Jew I became as a Jew,
to those that were under the law I
became as one under the law, that I
might win the more.
Well, not just the Jew or those under
the law now in verse 21, to them
that are without the law as without the
law being not without the law to God,
but under the law to Christ, that I
may win them that are without the law.
Paul was formerly a Pharisee.
He was a Jew by heritage and grew
up under all the rules and rights and
laws of Judaism.
It was certainly not difficult, therefore, for him
to identify culturally with Jewish Pharisees or with
Jews in general.
It would be like you identifying with Americans.
It's just not all that difficult for you
to do.
Now, it may have been constrictive to him
in some ways, having turned away from those
things.
It may have seen more foreign to him
as the years went on after his transformation
in Christ.
But I imagine it was relatively easy for
Paul to be a Jew unto the Jews
or to be as one under the law
to those that were under the law.
On the other hand, here in verse 21,
he says to those that are without the
law Gentiles.
To those Gentiles, I became like a Gentile
that I might win them.
You see, Paul was sensitive enough to be
culturally relevant and appropriate with those that he
ministered to.
Meat sacrificed to idols was no big deal
to the common Corinthian Gentile in the first
century.
And so if Paul went into the home
of a common Corinthian Gentile there in the
first century.
Where it was just no big deal that
the meat had been sacrificed to idols, you
would probably not have heard Paul ask the
question.
Wait a minute.
Hold on.
Has this been sacrificed to an idol?
Because, you know, not only the scriptures, but
also the church in Israel, they said, you
know, we shouldn't eat meat sacrificed to idols.
So if it is, I can't eat.
He would not have done that because he
was seeking to tear down any sort of
wall or barrier that would allow him to
be able to minister to those that he
was coming in contact with.
To be honest with you, I've always been
taken aback a bit by Peter's first words
to the Gentiles of Cornelius's house in Acts
chapter 10.
Do you remember that story?
Remember early in the spread of the gospel
throughout Jerusalem and Judea, Peter was one day
down by the sea at a house and
he sees this vision of basically like a
table coming before him with all kinds of
clean and unclean meats on it.
And God, a voice spoke to him.
He said, rise, Peter, kill and eat.
And he says, not so, Lord.
I've never eaten anything common or unclean.
Three times this happened.
The Lord tells him, don't call anything common
or unclean, which I have set apart or
sanctified.
And then right then he's met by some
people from Cornelius's house, a Gentile in Caesarea.
He goes up to Caesarea and Peter's very
first words, they kind of are staggering to
me when he comes into the house of
a Gentile to preach the gospel for the
very first time.
Acts chapter 10, verse 28, he said unto
them, you know how that it is an
unlawful thing for me, a Jew, to keep
company with you Gentiles.
I mean, could you imagine?
I think Peter really struggled with these kind
of things.
And he goes into the house of a
Gentile.
Could you imagine going over to the house
of a nonbeliever for dinner and you go
and you go, no, I just have to
tell you this is very, well, it's just
not really appropriate for me, a Christian to
partake of food with you, a heathen.
And we just would never do that.
Or I would hope that that wouldn't be
the case.
But there are some ways in which we
in the Western church today, we are building
walls that separate us from the rest of
the world, the world that God has told
us to go into and preach the gospel.
We build things up.
How so?
We have Christian music.
We don't want to listen to that secular
stuff because that's bad.
We can't identify, oh, you shouldn't listen to
that stuff.
It's Christian, it's holy.
We educate our kids in Christian schools, no
knock on Christian schools, but we just keep
separating ourselves more and more.
We want to have our own.
I mean, there's some churches today where they
have health fitness centers.
They have their own coffee shops and bookstores.
They have their own stores for people to
come and shop at because you don't want
to go out into the world because the
world is dangerous.
Stay away from all them heathens out there
in the world.
Well, wait a minute.
Didn't Jesus tell us to go into the
world?
Now, Paul makes it very clear that he
was not without the law before God.
To them that are without the law, I
became as one without the law that I
might win them.
However, he says parenthetically, I'm not without the
law before God, but I'm under the law
to Christ.
It's so very important to recognize that Paul
did not live with some sort of anything
goes mentality and ministering in a cross-cultural
context.
He makes very clear that he did not
live like a heathen or cast away righteous
living to gain an open door for the
gospel among other heathens.
He was still governed by God's law before
God.
If someone had said to Paul, Hey, Paul
here in Corinth, it's culturally acceptable to engage
in the prostitution of this great city.
Do you think Paul would have said, well,
it opens the door of the gospel for
me.
It's culturally acceptable.
Let's go.
No, it's forbidden by God.
He says, no, I can't live like that.
As someone said, Paul, join me.
I'm going up to the temple of Apollo
to offer a sacrifice.
There's no possible way that we could see
Paul doing those things.
He would certainly have rightly declined, but I
do believe we find a very important principle
for our lives and ministry here in this
verse.
We should always be guided by the ethical
standards of the kingdom of God in our
dealings here upon the earth.
We should always be guided by the ethical
standards of the kingdom of God in our
dealings here upon the earth.
And I think it's very, very important for
us to remember that our witness in this
world is worship.
The way we live in this world is
worship.
We're to do all as unto the Lord.
What we do here on a Sunday morning.
Sure.
As we sing praises to God, yes, that
is a part of worship, but that's not
worship in a whole the way we live
on a daily basis is to be worshiped
to God the way you drive on the
15 freeway.
Maybe we won't go there.
Paul continues verse 22 to the week I
became as the week that I might gain
the week.
I made all things to all men that
I might by all means save some.
The Jews, the zealous legalists, the Gentiles of
verses 20 and 21.
They are very clear.
But what does Paul mean by the week
here?
Well, first, let's say what he's not talking
about.
He is not talking about becoming morally weak
to reach the morally indigent of this world.
Paul did not loosen his moral standards so
that he could reach out to those who
have no moral standards.
Sadly, though, you might think that this is
the application of Paul's words by looking at
the witness of some who call themselves Christians
in our day.
Some have foolishly interpreted this passage in such
a way that they feel content to live
like a pagan, encouraging themselves by saying, well,
you know, I'm seeking to minister to other
pagans.
Nonsense.
That's not what this passage means in any
sense.
That person is morally indigent themselves.
And they need to repent.
We don't become like pagans so that we
can reach out to pagans.
We still need to walk in a way
that's honoring and glorifying to our God.
So that's clearly not what Paul is saying
when he says to the week I became
as the week.
But what does he mean?
Well, here at Calvary Chapel, we believe that
the best way to explain and interpret scripture
is with scripture.
And some people have used this verse as
a proof text for just going out and
living like the rest of the world, and
maybe someday I'll get an opportunity to share
my faith with them.
Well, they're passing the joint and guys, I
really want to tell you something.
It's not going to work.
And some people have used this as a
proof text for those kind of things.
But it's been said that a text without
a context is a pretext to a proof
text.
If you can figure that out, you let
me know later.
And so we want to look at this
in context.
What does Paul mean by the week when
he says to the week I became as
the week?
Well, go back to first Corinthians chapter eight
and look at verse four.
Remember the context as concerning, therefore, the eating
of things offered in sacrifice unto idols.
We know that an idol is nothing in
the world and that there is no other
God but one.
We know this.
Verse seven.
How be it?
There is not in every man that knowledge.
Not everybody has that knowledge.
For some with conscience of the idol unto
this hour, eat it as a thing offered
unto an idol and their conscience being what?
Weak.
Same Greek word.
Their conscience being weak is defiled.
But meat commends us not to God for
neither if we eat, are we the better?
Neither if we eat not are we the
worse.
But take heed, lest by any means this
liberty of yours become a stumbling block to
them that are weak.
For if any man see you, which have
knowledge, sit at meat in an idol's temple,
shall not the conscience of him which is
weak be emboldened to eat those things which
are offered to idols?
And through thy knowledge shall the weaker brother
perish for whom Christ died.
But when you sin against the brethren and
wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.
Wherefore, if meat makes my brother to stumble,
I will no flesh eat while the world
stands lest I make my brother to stumble.
The weak individual to whom Paul is referring
here is the one whose doctrinal knowledge and
understanding is weak.
And if they need the gospel and doctrine
brought to them slowly with ABCs, Paul was
strong enough to be able to do that,
to bring it down to a level where
they were.
This doesn't mean that we diminish the power
or strength of the gospel, but we're able
to bring it to people where they are
at.
If they've come from a background so spoiled
by religiosity and they need to be carefully
and tenderly carried along.
Again, Paul was strong enough to come down
to their level.
Ultimately, we need to be willing to start
where people are at.
Paul became as Jewish as was needed to
reach the Jews as Gentile as he could
to reach the Gentiles as weak as was
necessary to reach the week.
Why that I might by all means save
some.
Now, if you take that away, if you
take that purpose away from this passage, it
makes no sense.
The bottom line was reaching people for the
gospel to the Jews.
I became a Jew.
Why Paul?
Well, because, you know, I wanted to be
liked.
No.
To those that are without the law, I
became as one without the law.
Why?
Well, because I was afraid of them and
I didn't want any problems.
No.
Paul says, I did this that I might
bring them to salvation, that I might win
them.
Paul was prepared to cross the cultural gap
instead of asking them to cross the cultural
gap to him.
And so very important.
This means that we in our ministry are
to be incarnational and missional.
These are two big words in Christian circles
today.
The church needs to be incarnational and missional.
You say, what in the world does that
mean?
It means we need to be Christlike.
That's what it means.
Basically, we should be Christlike.
Aren't you thankful that God didn't say to
us, listen, find a way to get to
me.
And when you get here, we'll try and
sort out this whole sin problem that you
have.
I mean, isn't that the epitome of all
world religions?
Find a way to get to God and
then, you know, try and sort that whole
problem out.
But that's not Christianity.
No, no, that's not it at all.
God was incarnated as a man to accomplish
the mission for our salvation.
God became a man in the form of
Jesus Christ to accomplish the mission of our
salvation.
He is incarnational.
He is missional.
We should be the same, meaning that we
should be willing to step outside of our
cultural way of life to reach those that
have a different perspective, a different worldview, and
to speak in terms that they can grasp,
that they can understand.
Talking to a person who has no understanding
about the Bible, talking to them in terms
of justification and sanctification and, you know, being
wholly set apart and consecrated to the one
true God, and they're going to go, what
in the world, what language are you speaking?
He asks us, God does, to be incarnational,
to be missional.
Take some time this afternoon when you get
home after all the football games and such.
I commend you for being here.
I know there are things going on.
Take some time to read John chapter 4.
Great passage where we see this played out
in the life of our Lord.
As Jesus meets the woman at the well
in Samaria, it was forbidden for a Jewish
man to speak to a woman alone unless
it was his wife.
Even more so, Jews never had any dealings
with Samaritans.
And yet there in John chapter 4, this
woman comes out to the well near the
city of Sychar, and Jesus is there by
himself, and he says, would you give me
a drink?
And she wants to inform him that you've
done a great faux pas here.
You're a Jew.
You're not supposed to talk to me.
I'm a Samaritan woman.
Hello.
And then you watch the way that Jesus
ministers to her, ultimately to bring salvation to
her.
Paul's reasoning, verse 23, and this I do
for the gospel's sake, that I might be
a partaker thereof with you.
Paul was a bondservant of Christ.
He did what he did not for his
own sake, but for the sake of the
king, for the sake of his kingdom, and
for the sake of the message of that
kingdom.
This I do for the gospel's sake.
I will lay aside my liberties.
I will renounce my rights if it means
that I can bring the gospel to those
that don't know it, have not received it.
Now, if there's something in your heart today
that nods in agreement with this, then I
want you to consider, what would the world
look like if this was our purpose?
And I believe that biblically it is.
If we recognize this to be our purpose,
and we oriented our lives in such a
way to meet that purpose, what would be
the effect?
Could you imagine the impact if we in
this room today did that?
What if just half of the church here
at Calvary Chapel of Escondido, church about 600
adults, what if 300 of them said, I
am going to commit myself and my life
to winning souls.
And this year, just this year, I'm going
to seek to win just one person to
Christ and to disciple them to also win
another person to Christ.
If 300 of us said, I'm going to
commit myself to winning to just one person
and discipling them this year, then 300 would
win 300.
And then those 600 would win 600.
And those 1200 would win 1200.
And those 2400 going on, in 10 years,
you'd have over 300,000.
Now, there's a lot of people in America
today, a lot of Christians crying foul about
the shift of the culture in America.
And that's largely because the American church has
been more like a thermometer than a thermostat.
And we are not engaging our culture.
If we determined that, you know, we are
going to shift our whole lives to be
in line with this purpose.
He who saves souls is wise.
If we were going to do that, could
you imagine the shift of the culture just
in Escondido?
If we committed to doing that, just this
group here, if that started to happen in
the church in America today, I guarantee you,
CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, they'd all be freaking
out.
It'd be kind of cool to watch the
transformation that would take place.
You think the cultural slide is crazy right
now?
Could you imagine if the church engaged in
the culture in that way?
There would be like a cultural Haitian earthquake
in the United States of America.
We, who are a part of Calvary Chapel,
have been labeled evangelical Christians.
Did you know that you're an evangelical Christian?
Did you know that evangelical Christians, there's many
in the culture in America today that are
scared of evangelical Christians?
We are actually labeled in some circles as
extremists.
In the 2008 presidential campaign, there were many
people that were afraid of the evangelical vote
because we're narrow-minded and we're issue voters
and we're immovable on many subjects.
And so they're very fearful of that kind
of thing.
Do you even know what an evangelical Christian
is?
I want to read to you from Barna
Research their definition of born-again and evangelical
Christians.
A born-again Christian is defined as a
person who said that they have made a
personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still
important in their life today and who also
indicated that they believe when they die they
will go to heaven because they have confessed
their sins and accepted Jesus Christ as Savior.
That's a born-again Christian.
How many of you would identify with that
today?
Raise your hand.
I don't see as many hands as I
would hope.
Maybe we need to do an altar call
right now.
That's a born-again Christian.
Barna goes on.
Evangelicals meet the criteria of born-again plus
seven other conditions.
Those include saying that their faith is very
important in their life today, believing they have
a personal responsibility to share their religious beliefs
about Christ with non-Christians, believing that Satan
exists, believing that eternal salvation is possible only
through grace and not works, believing that Jesus
Christ lived a sinless life on earth, asserting
that the Bible is accurate in all that
it teaches, and describing God as the all
-knowing, all-powerful, perfect deity who created the
universe and still rules it today.
That's the description of an evangelical Christian.
I believe that's a good definition.
And so we have to wonder, are we
evangelical Christians?
If so, that means that we are Christians
who share our faith with people who don't
share our faith.
Now certainly you know some people who don't
share your faith.
Friends, family members, co-workers.
And I guarantee you probably just had at
least one person come to mind.
I want you to do something.
Close your eyes.
I want you to think about that person.
Someone's name, someone's face just popped into your
mind.
There they are.
While your eyes are closed, I want you
to ask the Lord to begin to work
in that person's heart.
By his spirit, evangelism starts by the spirit
of God.
Now here's the heavy one.
Ask the Lord to give you an opportunity
to share your faith with him this year.
Now open your eyes.
Write their name down.
Not on your bulletin.
You'll throw it away.
You probably have a blank page in the
back of your Bible.
It's called the soul page.
Okay, I made that up.
But write their name on it.
I challenge you.
Begin to pray that God by his spirit
will work in their life.
Begin to pray that God will give you
an opportunity to share it with them.
I guarantee you God will answer that prayer.
And then pray that God will equip you
to be able to minister to them and
disciple them.
Now you say, I cannot disciple someone.
Well, sign up for the school discipleship.
We'll equip you to do that.
Paul was willing to deny himself certain liberties,
certain pleasures, certain enjoyment, certain things.
He was willing to deny himself that he
might be able to better minister with those
that he was coming in contact with.
How was he able to deny himself?
Was he just stronger than the rest of
us?
No, he was also able to discipline himself.
Verse 24, moving from self-denial, we come
to self-discipline.
Knowing not that they which run in a
race all run, but one receives the prize.
So run that you may obtain the prize.
The Corinthians understood the concept of training for
an athletic event.
Throughout the ancient Greek and then Roman empires,
there were what were called the Panhellenic Games.
You've probably heard of the Olympic Games.
We still do those today.
They were restarted in the late 1800s.
But it was part of ancient Greek culture,
the games.
Just behind the Olympic Games were the Isthmian
Games.
And they took place in Corinth every other
year, the second and fourth year of the
Olympiad.
And so the people would gather there to
compete in these games.
They were named the Isthmian Games because the
isthmus that was there in the city of
Corinth.
The games ran from the 6th century BC
to the 4th century AD.
For a very long time, these games went
on.
And those athletes that would prepare for these
games would prepare for a 10-month period
of time.
And the last month of that rigorous training
took place in the city of Corinth, there
in their gymnasium, there in their fields.
And everybody had an opportunity to watch the
athletes preparing.
And many of those athletes were shown to
be disqualified, castaways in the training alone.
And then the games would come.
There are many different things that they would
compete with.
One was a race.
And Paul says, do you not know that
those that run a race, they all run,
but only one receives the prize.
They all train vigorously.
They all deny themselves.
They all discipline themselves.
But only one wins that prize on the
day.
You, church, he says, so run in a
way that you can win the prize.
Every man that strives, verse 25, for mastery
is temperate in all things.
Now they do it to obtain a corruptible
crown.
But we, an incorruptible crown.
Those who prepare for the opportunity to compete
at master's level athletics don't casually train.
Kind of, you know, two, maybe three times
a week.
They don't casually train.
They strive for the mastery of that sport.
The Greek word for strive there in verse
25 is agonizomai, from which we get our
English word agonize.
The inner drive that causes them to discipline
themselves, to govern nearly every aspect of their
lives.
When others are sleeping, they are awake training.
When others are indulging in the pleasures of
this life, they are denying themselves those same
pleasures and hungers of their body.
When others would quit, they press on.
They are determined.
They are disciplined.
They are controlled.
They are governed.
They are temperate, says Paul.
The sleep, diet, and exercise of an athlete
at that level, it's not determined by their
rights or their liberties.
It's determined by the rigorous training schedule, whether
they want to or not.
Now, they do it to obtain a corruptible
crown, says Paul.
The winner of the Isthmian Games was given
a braided pine crown.
How many of you would go, yeah, I'm
going to discipline myself for a braided pine
crown.
Right on.
Now, with that came some notoriety in the
culture, and they were often looked to as
a hero.
Sometimes they might even fashion a marble statue
of them, but it wasn't immortal, was it?
It was a corruptible crown.
Paul says we strive for an incorruptible crown.
We are in a race.
Many times that illustration is used in the
New Testament to speak of the walk that
we have as believers, the mission that we're
on.
We're in a race.
It's not a race against one another in
the body of Christ, but a race for
our king and for his kingdom.
Not a race where one wins, but one
in which all who pay the price of
careful training can win.
What do they win?
Well, what's the context of this passage?
They win souls.
Now, I know you can take this passage,
and many have, and they've used it to
preach great messages about how we win this
great, abundant life, and we win Christ.
Those things are all true.
There's other passages of Scripture that support the
fact that we win Christ, and we win
an inheritance that's incorruptible.
We win a crown of righteousness that does
not fade away.
But what's the context of the passage?
He who runs wins what?
He wins souls.
Five times he said, I want to win
Jews.
I want to win those that are under
the law.
I want to win Gentiles.
I want to win those who are whoever,
weak.
Every Christian runs his own race, says MacArthur,
enabling each one of us to be a
winner, winning souls to Christ.
He goes on to say, holding tightly to
our liberties and rights is a sure way
to lose the race of soul winning.
And so this being the case, we ought
to run in a way that we can
win the prize.
We already have immortality in Jesus Christ.
We've already been promised a crown of righteousness
to those who endure and press on.
When I read this last week, it cut
me to the heart, and I didn't want
to be the only one cut to the
heart.
So MacArthur says, the athlete's disciplined self-control
is a rebuke of the half-hearted, out
-of-shape Christians who do almost nothing to
prepare themselves to witness to the lost.
Ouch.
Let me read it again.
We'll tear it off slowly.
The athlete's disciplined self-control is a rebuke
of the half-hearted, out-of-shape Christians
who do almost nothing to prepare themselves to
witness to the lost, and consequently seldom do.
I didn't say it.
MacArthur did.
I just read it.
So you can write to him and tell
him I didn't like that quote.
Paul continues, verse 26, I therefore so run,
not as uncertainly, and so I fight, not
as one who beats the air.
He shifts from the illustration of running now
to the illustration of a fight, and he
says, I don't fight like a shadow boxer,
just kind of jumping around and rocky, you
know, that whole thing.
I'm engaged in the battle, he says, fighting
the good fight of faith.
But I keep my body under, and I
bring it into subjection, lest that by any
means, when I have preached to others, I
myself should be disqualified.
When Paul says, I keep my body under,
it literally means, in the Greek, to beat
black and blue, to hit under the eye.
Now, I have to say, many have wrongly
interpreted and used this verse for all sorts
of crazy self-mutilation and flagellation over the
years within the church.
That's not what it's saying at all, that
we should beat ourselves up physically.
Paul's saying, I put myself through the training
like an athlete so that I might be
able to successfully accomplish the mission.
I bring my body into subjection, which that
means is, I make my body my slave.
Now, most of us, we are slave to
our bodies.
The body says, eat, so we eat.
Our body says, eat more, so we eat
more.
Our body says, sleep, so we sleep.
Keep sleeping, we keep sleeping.
And if you've ever read the Screwtape Letters,
you know a great book by C.S.
Lewis.
And he shows these little devils in this
book about how, remind him that he's hungry.
Remind him that he's tired.
These devils talking about their client, you and
me.
Whenever he starts to think about spiritual things,
just remind him that it's really kind of
warm in here this morning.
Remind him that, oh man, I'm hungry right
now.
The enemy does a good job with our
flesh, doesn't he?
Paul endeavored to make his body his slave.
But we could spend weeks on that statement,
I think.
An athlete endeavoring to win could not allow
this manner of life.
And so Paul says we ought not either.
He runs when he would rather be resting.
He eats a balanced meal when he would
rather have a chocolate sundae.
He goes to bed when he would rather
stay up.
He gets up early when he would rather
sleep.
An athlete leads his body, he does not
follow it.
It is his slave and not the other
way around.
I believe that God, at least in my
life, and I'm quite sure for our church
as a whole, is speaking this very thing
to us.
We have been distracted by our flesh, by
our culture, emphasized by the enemy, no doubt,
to think that this life is all about
us.
That we were created just for the enjoyment
of the things of this life.
Now don't get me wrong, God has created
us, created so many wonderful things for us
to enjoy.
But ultimately the purpose is his pleasure, his
glorification, that he would be exalted among all
the peoples of this earth, which means that
we who already know him and exalt him
in our lives ought to endeavor to reach
those who don't know him, that his glory
and his exaltation would be extended.
And so we have to take the time
to question, are there things in my life,
Lord, that are hindering me from being the
best witness and worshiping you in that way?
Are there liberties that I'm holding on to
that perhaps you want me to lay aside
for the sake of the king, for the
sake of your kingdom, for the sake of
the gospel?
Are there rights that I need to renounce
that although they're available to me, perhaps they're
hindering me from being an effective witness in
the culture?
I think the church in America has been
hampered in their witness for the very fact
that we've forgotten that we are not here
to serve ourselves but serve God.
And so I'm praying that the Lord would
shake us up first, that he would start
with us.
At the end of Jeremiah chapter five, God
says to the prophet Jeremiah, the prophets prophesy
falsely, the priests bear rule by their own
strength and my people love to have it
so.
But what will you do in the end?
The question comes down to us.
How will we apply what God is speaking
to us?
It's very clear what he's saying to us.
I mean, we don't have to spend a
lot of time interpreting what he's saying here.
But we can, by his spirit, submit ourselves
to him and say, God, would you work
this into our lives today, this week, this
month, this year?
God, transform us that we would live more
for you than for ourselves.
I can't even imagine what would happen in
our nation if just half of the church
within Calvary Chapel, if we determined to do
that by the power of the spirit.
Remember, God chose 12 ordinary men, one of
them denied and departed, 10 of them afterwards,
God turned the world upside down.
Actually, I think he turned it right side
up, but the estimation of the people of
their day was, man, these Christians have turned
the world upside down.
I would love to hear Rachel Maddow on
MSNBC say, these Christians are turning the world
upside down.
Yes.
Amen.
And may it be that she would come
to the knowledge of the truth as well.
Let's stand and pray together.
Father, we certainly need your strength by your
spirit to do the things that we see
in your word.
And so we pray as we prepare to
go from here, that you would fill us
to overflowing with your spirit.
Empty us of anything that is hindering you
from having full control.
Take those things from us.
I know, Lord, that's a dangerous prayer for
us to pray.
But God, we want to be endeavoring to
bring forth your word into this dark world,
unhindered Lord, work that in my life, work
that into the lives of my brothers and
sisters here this morning, for we ask it
in Jesus name.
Amen.