All Things for the Gospel (I Corinthians 9:19-27)

First Corinthians 9, starting in verse 19.

Although I am free from all and not anyone's slave, I have made myself a slave to everyone in order to win more people.

To the Jews I became like a Jew to win Jews.

To those under the law, like one under the law, though I myself am not under the law, to win those under the law.

To those who are without the law, like one without the law, although I'm not without God's law, but under the law of Christ, to win those without the law.

To the weak I become weak in order to win the weak.

I become all things to all people, so that I may by every possible means save some.

Now I do this because of the gospel, so that I may share in the blessings.

Don't you know that the runners in a stadium all race, but only one receives the prize?

Run in such a way to win the prize.

Now everyone who competes exercises self-control in everything.

They do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable crown.

So I don't run like one who runs aimlessly or box like one beating the air.

Instead, I discipline my body and bring it under strict control, so that after preaching to others, I myself will not be disqualified.

Let's pray.

Lord, I thank you so much for this morning.

I thank you for your goodness and for your faithfulness.

I thank you for your word by which we can grow and learn more about you and grow closer to you.

I ask that you would fill me with your spirit to teach your word, and that you would fill hears with your spirit to rightly divide and discern.

Please be glorified and above all help us to grow more in your image.

In your name.

Amen.

Alright, go ahead and have a seat.

Thank you.

A little bit of context here, because we are going verse by verse, chapter by chapter through 1 Corinthians.

So, what on earth is going on in the Church of Corinth here?

Well, Paul has been writing to them on a number of different issues, but again, remember that this is all one big letter.

He didn't have chapter headings in his letter, although he probably could have by how long his sentences and books are.

But he continues forward, just verse by verse by verse, chapter by chapter through here, as one big long letter to be read to the church.

And so it is very evident here that the Church of Corinth has some growing to do.

And we see that number one, when he starts by addressing their different preferences of who, what camp they're in, what team they're on.

Are they Team Paul, Team Apollos, Team Cephas, Team Jesus, all these different things that they're dividing with that?

And he's like, stop it! Just Jesus, only Jesus is what matters with that.

And then he continues with how they're treating one another, and then he's addressing some of the sin issues that are happening there.

As Corinth is a large town, two ports, lots of people going through huge idolatry area there with temples, with temple prostitutions and things like that.

And so when we get to chapter 5 of this, he's saying, Stop it! And stop sinning.

We don't have a license to sin because we have accepted Jesus.

This does not mean, therefore, you can do what you want.

We are free to follow him, to surrender to him and have him be our Lord.

And then he continues on in chapter six with they're suing each other, they're taking each other to court with different things, and again he says, Stop it! Why you can't you handle these things together outside of the courts?

And then if not, in these matters, wouldn't it be better just to be wronged?

And that's where we start to really see him fleshing out that, like, guys, you're supposed to be a part of a body.

Supposed to be taking care of one another, supposed to be serving one another, giving preference to one another.

And then we see how that plays out as this acting of what do we do now as Christians in chapter 7, where it's like, what do I do uh if I am married?

Should I stay married?

Yeah.

If I'm not, should I not?

Maybe.

Uh how do you work through all these different things?

Ultimately, do what is best to be able to serve the Lord and to love others in that context.

And then uh he continues forward in chapter eight when he's talking about um issues of food sacrifice to idols, and you have two different camps there, because some people are like, it doesn't matter, you whatever you want.

And other people are like, well, I kind of used to worship these false gods by eating this food.

So that's kind of a problem for me.

And again, what he's saying is, well, it's true that you're not worshiping other gods by eating food, but if you're causing somebody to stumble, don't do it.

Take care of one another, love one another as the most important thing.

And then he continues forward in chapter 9, which it was amazing to see Pastor Ed here last week and have him be able to teach us in that and see that's like, look, I have these rights, I have a right to do this, but I'm not gonna do that and partake of my rich for the sake of the gospel.

And that is where we are here in the longest intro ever to verse 19.

He says in verse 19, although I am free from all and not anyone's slave, I've made myself a slave to everyone in order to win more people.

Now, in order to understand what's going on there, we need to hop back a couple verses into the previous uh chunk.

And so he starts in verse 16 of the same chapter.

If I preach the gospel, I have no reason to boast because I am compelled to preach, and woe to me if I don't preach the gospel, for if I do this willingly I have a reward, but if unwillingly, I'm entrusted with a commission.

What then is my reward?

To preach the gospel and offer it free of charge and make full use of my rights, and not make full use of my rights in the gospel.

We see this context here as like, what is his goal?

To preach the gospel.

That is his passion, that's his calling, that is what he's doing.

And he's saying, it's not a, hey, I'm gonna do God a favor by preaching the gospel.

It's like this is what I'm here for.

And this is my passion and my burden, so of course I would give up my rights in order to do that.

And he expands that in this passage throughout this whole passage.

So when he says in verse 19, although I am free from all and not anyone's slave, I've made myself a slave to everyone in order to win more people.

Here in our 21st century, we kind of go like, okay, whatever.

Imagine being in Corinth, which is a part of the Roman Empire, and being in a place where status matters, to where being in hierarchy in society matters so much.

And here, Paul, who is both uh Pharisee royalty to the Jews originally, and also a Roman citizen, saying, I am free from all, and I'm not anyone's slave, but I've made myself a slave to everyone in order to win more people.

That is offensive.

That's problematic and shocking at that point in time.

That we would look at that and go, yeah, of course, but the Corinthians would be like, wait, what?

That's crazy.

People, in order to become a Roman citizen, oftentimes, depending on where they were in the Roman Empire, would have to pay a large amount of money in order to get that citizenship.

Or they would have to do a large amount of service and military, or all these different things.

And so here, Paul, who was born into it based on where he was born, has that status, and he is yet calling himself a slave, even though he is free.

And that is repulsive to the society that he's talking to.

We've talked about this a few weeks ago, but a slave here is not in the slave mindset that we may understand it in our historical culture.

It is a servant, it is a person for hire.

So if you can't pay your bills, if you have no money, you need to feed your family, you need to go through all these things.

Uh, you, if you have no other means, you may find somebody who is wealthy and say, I will be your servant for this amount of time, for this amount of pay, and I will do anything that you say in order to do so, in order to pay that debt.

And that is an act of desperation in that society, of course, to be able to pay your bills, to be able to feed your family.

And here he's saying, Look, I am free from everyone.

And we see in the subset, the subtext from the book of Acts, that he's a Roman citizen, you know, things.

Yet he's saying, Look, I'm gonna make myself a servant to everyone in order to win more people.

What is his focus here?

Winning more people.

From verse 18, preaching the gospel.

That is more important than his own privileges and rights and status.

So you may know this, you may not, good thing to check out.

You may see in a bunch of news, you know, that the church is shrinking and all these different things.

It turns out the church is growing exponentially in the Southern Hemisphere.

So, South America, Africa, church is exploding.

It's mainly in the United States that it appears to be shrinking in that sense statistically.

Whether that's true or not, that's its own thing.

But with that, if I was in one of those places, or the church of growing in China as well, you hear this and they would be like, yes, absolutely, potentially.

Yeah, that totally makes sense.

I become you become a servant for the preaching of the gospel, I have been given life, or whatever.

In our current culture, this is also kind of offensive.

Because what he's saying is, I have my rights, I'm going to give up my rights for the gospel.

Is that a little bit cringy to hear that somebody's saying, I'm going to give up my rights, I'm going to give up my freedoms for the sake of the gospel?

That is antithetical to how our culture kind of works, and especially evangelical Christianity in the last few years, particularly.

That's definitely like a so we need to go, what Paul, what are you talking about here?

Because now we're really uncomfortable.

Like I said, I in previous weeks, I like to wait until at least two-thirds through the sermon before I offend people.

So I'm going to continue forward really quickly on this one.

So, continuing forward here, he has every freedom, he's made himself a slave to everyone in order to win more people.

What does this look like?

In verse 20.

To the Jews, I became like a Jew to win Jews, to those under the law, like the one under the law, though I myself am not under the law, to win those under the law.

So he's saying, in order to win those under the law, I was willing to submit myself to different things in order to make it easy to preach the gospel.

We don't know exactly what this is, but there's a few things that we see him do in that.

Number one, for those of you who have been in our home groups, we've been going through the book of Acts, which is awesome.

And as he is going to Jerusalem, he lands there in Jerusalem before he is arrested and ultimately makes his way to Rome near the end of the book.

And he lands there, and the church says, We're happy you're here.

This is awesome.

We've heard rumors that you're preaching contrary to Judaism and that you are not practicing this.

And so here's what we want you to do: go ahead and take these guys, take them to the temple, as they're fulfilling their vows, and you do so well, and pay for all of them out of your own pocket to show everybody that you are still a good Jewish boy in this sense.

And if I was in that case, I'd be like, ha ha, no, I'm not doing it.

Sorry.

But Paul actually does that, and ironically, that is the thing that actually gets him arrested because they think that he actually brought a Gentile into the temple, which is untrue.

But ultimately, in that moment, he is willing to submit himself to things that he has no need to do in order to be above reproach in that sense.

And so here, when he's talking about preaching the gospel, he's saying, look, if I'm with the Jews, I'm going to become like that.

He observed feasts.

We see that in the book of Acts.

And he was willing to go through those things.

And again, what's the purpose for that?

To win those under the gospel.

Now he clarifies here that I myself am not under the law.

So he's like, I don't have to do this, but if it's going to be for the furtherance of the gospel, I'm going to do this.

Continues forward in verse 20 to those who are without the law, like one without the law, though I am not without God's law, but under the law of Christ, to win those without the law.

So addressing the Gentiles again here, and then Corinth is a predominantly Gentile area here.

And he says, To those without the law, I'm going to function like one without the law, in order to win those.

So what does this look like?

We don't know for sure in this, but ultimately we see in Galatians chapter 2.

Galatians 2 · chapter mention

It's interesting when he's giving his story of how this went down.

He talks about how in Galatians 2, and it's the whole chapter basically, so go ahead and read that on your own, please.

But in paraphrase, he lands there and he goes to the disciples, and he is downloading with them and getting their feedback just to make sure that he did not run in vain in this sense.

But even Titus, who was with him, was not compelled to be circumcised.

Duh.

And he then says that there were people who were spying out his freedoms, who infiltrated their camp, spying out their freedom, they're bringing a false report saying Paul doesn't follow orthodoxy in that sense.

And when that happens, he says, We didn't stand up for, we didn't stand that for one moment.

But ultimately, it seems in that passage that he is ultimately experiencing and using some freedoms that he may not have as a former Pharisee, in that, whether that is fluid things, which we'll talk about next chapter, or other different items that he is doing, he's experiencing freedoms to where people are actually spying that out, going, I think he's doing the wrong thing, and reporting back to the Church of Galatia, to where he says, nuh.

And that's kind of the end of that.

I'm pretty sure it's in the text.

Go ahead and read it on your own.

Just like that.

But he makes a very important qualification here.

When he says, those without the law, like one without the law, although I am not without God's law, but under the law of Christ.

To win those without the law.

Nowhere here does he say sin is encouraged.

At no point does he go, well, yeah, I went with those under the law.

Everything goes with that.

I know that I just wrote chapter 5 in this same letter where I said, don't continue to sin, that grace may abound in that sense.

But here, I kind of didn't know that's crazy.

He continues and paraphrases or clarifies here that he does not condone sin for the purpose of trying to win people.

Which we'll talk about a little bit in a moment here, but ultimately, he's not without God's law, he is under the law of Christ.

He still is serving the Lord.

And there's a big uh distinction here because when somebody uh commits their life to Christ to follow Jesus, we are therefore not masterless in that sense.

According to the Bible, prior to following Jesus, we were slaves to sin.

To do what was ultimately wrong and destructive.

And then Jesus' substitutionary atonement, his sinless life, his death, paying the penalty of our sin upon himself, and then his resurrection, showing that that payment was accepted on our behalf, set us free from the law of sin and death, which we saw when we went through Romans for quite a bit of time.

We saw that in great detail.

And so sometimes you think, therefore, cool, I'm off the hook, we're good to go.

It's like, but then we are free to serve Jesus.

We're not free to do just whatever we want to do in that point in time.

It's it's free to follow him and to serve him.

And so here he's not saying, hey, when I'm hanging out with the Gentiles, I'm gonna do whatever I want in that sense.

He's not doing things that are contrary to God's law.

What on earth does the law of Christ mean?

Well, again in Galatians, it's interesting that in Galatians 6.2, he says, carry one another's burdens or bear one another's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

Another time that he uses that phrase.

So it's not only obeying and loving God, but also loving one another.

Have you heard the phrase, love God and obey him and love one another a few times in the past, like a few weeks, months, a couple years?

Good.

Awesome.

That is the crux of all of this.

So, why is he doing this?

To win those without the law.

Verse 22, to the weak I became weak in order to win the weak.

What does it mean, the weak?

A couple chapters ago in 1 Corinthians 8, he talked about those who have a weak conscience to where when they would see somebody eating food that was sacrificed to idols, those people who have a weak conscience who used to worship in that way, are stumbled and encouraged to do something that stumbles them and actually is an act of worship for them.

So those who are sensitive to that, because of their past experience in idolatry, he calls those people with weak consciences at that point.

And at that time he doesn't say, Therefore, forget those guys, they're only holding you back.

He actually says, your knowledge should be informed by your love for those people, not to cause them to stumble in what they used to sin in.

So, and here, to the week I became weak in order to win the weak.

And the last verse of chapter 8, uh, verse 13, he says, If food causes my brother or sister to fall, I'll never again eat meat so that I won't cause my brother or sister to fall.

Three different examples here to the Jews, to those not under the law, to the weak who are not under the law but still struggling in that sense, kind of covering all bases here.

He is being all things to all people in verse 22, so that I may by every possible means save some.

That is a really interesting verse to take out of context.

Verse 22.

I become all things to all people so that I may by every possible means save some.

What is he not talking about here?

License to do whatever you want.

How do I often hear this verse used?

License to do whatever you want.

So it's amazing, especially growing up in a college town with a lot of people who are very, very excited, young baby Christians, college students, really latched onto this verse for some really weird things, I noticed.

And you look at the context here, when he is being all things for all people, number one, it says here, so that I may by every possible means save some.

That's the goal.

But then number two, he is sacrificing for that.

He's actually giving up something for that.

He is not uh getting license and freedom for this.

He's not saying, I've become all things to my own gain.

And that's the challenge there.

Is this passage should motivate us to actually sacrifice for one another, to actually give up for one another, not begrudgingly, but because that's what love looks like as fueled by the Holy Spirit.

We'll talk about that more in a little bit.

But something that I think is interesting too here is that when we talk about these things, I mentioned this a couple weeks ago, but invariably, at that point in time, it becomes an issue of preference within churches.

Say, hey, well, in this case, because you said this, same thing with 1 Corinthians 12 through 14 and 1, I mean Romans 12 through 14 and 1 Corinthians 8, becomes, well, then therefore, this is my preference and what I really think you need to do as a church, and so therefore you need to do that.

And that's not what he's talking about here.

So, something that I think is interesting is that uh in Acts 15, we see the Gentiles have received the gospel, received salvation, received the Holy Spirit.

And then in Acts 15, they go back to Jerusalem and they're like, hey, that's cool, but they still need to become Jews.

They need to be circumcised, they need to follow the Jewish law.

And there's a big argument with that.

And uh Peter stands up and again in paraphrases like, I didn't give them the Holy Spirit, I didn't give them Jesus.

God decided to do that, take it up with him.

And so ultimately what they decided was to not compel these Gentile believers to follow Jewish practices.

Why am I bringing that up?

That seems random, but it's important here because if we're not careful, we can look at these passages and go, see, you need to follow the least common denominator.

Whatever somebody's preference is, anywhere, you need to be able to establish boundaries and safeguards and all those different things all the time.

No matter what, so that nobody is ever offended or possibly led astray or snatched up by the devil and carried off somehow surreptitiously.

But that's not what it says here.

And I think that Acts 15 is a great depiction of that because there, the church, the elders of Jerusalem there, with who are a lot of them apostles, actually go, you know what, we don't need to lay that burden on people.

So, all that to say, why am I bringing that up?

Because it takes wisdom, fueled by the Holy Spirit, to see where all those boundaries lay.

And so why would we get why would we get that way?

Why would we go, well, you really need to uh do what I want in this sense in order to be healthy?

Well, oftentimes that comes from hurt.

And it it basically we can go, in order to become, in order for things to be a safe place, it needs to fit all of my parameters in order for me to feel safe leaning in.

And so hear me that I'm not when here that I'm not making that statement as if we're saying those like people who have those things are doing the wrong thing.

That's not the case.

And sometimes they are right.

And we have healthy dialogue through these things, but ultimately, sometimes it can come from a place of hurt.

Sometimes they're just right.

That's why we actually, as a body, need to work through all of those things.

But ultimately, that's another thing that I've heard these passages talked about and used in a very interesting way, that he's not saying.

Ultimately, he's giving up his freedoms for the sake of the gospel.

Continuing back into verse 22, it's interesting that he says, I so that I may by every possible means save some.

He is casting the net as wide as possible so that he can save some.

So he knows that not everybody is going to respond.

Not everybody is going to commit to following Jesus as a result of this, but he wants to do whatever he can in order to cast the net as wide as possible so that as many fish as possible in metaphor can be brought in.

So, but it's it's encouraging in that sense because he knows he's not in control of the process.

This is not a um corporate strategy here, to where this is how we do it in order to do this, and then you get A, and then you get result B, and you have all these people.

It's not something ultimately we can control.

All we can do is cast the net or cast the seed or whatever uh Bible metaphor you want to use in that sense.

And ultimately, it's God who brings about salvation and brings about repentance, which is cool, because all that to say pressure's off.

Because when we get this far, it can be very easy to say, man, I need to give up my rights and my privileges in order to do this.

Because if I do that, if I give up my rights, then therefore God will bring about salvation.

It's like that may happen, but it doesn't mean it will happen in that sense.

And that also doesn't mean you wasted your time by loving other people if they don't respond.

So, continuing on, verse 13, 23, I do all of this because of the gospel so that I may share in the blessings.

What is our main topic here of why he does all this?

Gospel.

Gospel! Exactly, so that he may share in the blessings as well.

So he can partake in the fruit of that.

All of this is for the purpose of the gospel, which he is single-mindedly about.

Because again, you look at the church of Corinth, and it'd be very easy for them to go, I could totally use this to my advantage.

This could be perfect for setting up finally my I am of Paul camp or I am of Apollos camp.

And he's like, no, this is for the purpose of the gospel to save people.

So, verse 24.

Don't you know that the runners in a stadium all race, but only one receives the prize?

Run in such a way to win the prize.

Okay, Corinth has the Pan-Ithmian Games.

Thank you.

That's such a hard word to say.

Uh, Pan Ithmian Games, which is second only to the Olympic Games in scope.

So when we're like, okay, we're talking about sports, rule number one in the church, don't give sports metaphors, it goes over everyone's heads.

And Paul's doing it right here.

But they understand because this is a context that they live in here.

Don't you know that the runners in the stadium all race, but only one received the prize?

Run in such a way to win the prize.

I have a nephew who runs cross-country.

I think that's crazy.

Dude, literally, like, will be on vacation visiting us, and it's like, I have to get my 11 miles in today.

I don't know if I've run 11 miles in my whole life combined.

That is insane, and yet he does it to maintain that, to maintain that purpose and to keep that goal in view.

Their shoe budget, by the way.

Woo!

So, verse 25.

Now everyone who competes exercises self-control in everything.

They do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable crown.

So everyone who competes exercises self-control in everything.

Key phrase there, self-control.

Again, informs this whole passage.

It's very difficult to go.

I've become all things to all people, and this is my license to do this, with like, yeah, self-control.

I will get back to this and hammer this point home in a moment.

Self-control is a fruit of what?

Thank you.

Absolutely.

So this is something that, okay, I'm gonna spoil my own conclusion here.

That is, it should be something that is exciting to do when motivated by love, which is also a fruit of the spirit.

So, having that said, self-control sounds like I don't know about that because that's a little sketchy with that.

Athletes know that.

You need to actually work at something.

Take effort, resistance over time.

It is not something that you just wake up and go, hey, I'm good at this, and I don't have to work at it anymore ever again.

So, uh in parallel, one of those random little memes that I just that keeps popping up that I love to see uh as it pertains to music is when people say, Oh man, you're such a great musician, you have such a natural talent, what's your secret?

Practice.

Oh, so what you mean is that you have this innate ability that nobody else has?

It's practice.

So what you say is that's just something on a potato.

It's practice! So, having that said, if we buy into this thing that ultimately some people are good at things and some people are not good at things, it's like, and therefore they sit there and go, man, I just effortlessly.

Now they may have an innate skill that makes it easier.

I get that.

But practice is a part of that effort, discipline, self-control.

They do it to receive a perishable crown.

This crown is a victory wreath.

They would be very familiar with this idea of Stephanus' laurel wreath, given their context with that.

That plant wreath, you ever think about that?

That that's not gonna last forever?

I mean, at some point in time, well, I'll put it this way: I have a daughter who is amazing, and every leaf and plant that she finds is a priceless treasure.

And so we keep it until it dies.

And then it's, you touch it, and it goes, and then it's just a stick, which is somehow still a priceless treasure.

Uh and so with that in mind, even their victory wreath as part of these games is ultimately going to fall apart.

But the crown that we exercise and prepare for is imperishable.

Now, there's a couple different ways you go with this, because when we hear as Christians be a crown, we're like, crown, the crown of life, the crown of glory.

These things are eternal.

You know, there's also two passages, Philippians 4 1, and 1 Timothy 2, 19, that calls his crown people.

It's kind of interesting because we're sometimes we're conditioned to say, I'm doing this now to get my good thing later.

So that later I can get my shiny, imperishable crown.

And there's verses that support that.

There's also a couple of interesting verses here where he calls them my crown.

You people that I have actually poured into and shared the gospel with.

It's kind of cool to see that both sides is that there's value in things beyond just that.

That is also the people that he serves and ministers and gives the gospel to.

Verse 26, I don't run like those who run aimlessly or box like one beating the air.

And that's it's a great mental image, is that imagine somebody saying, I'm training for the Olympics.

And then they just like start just running erratically all over the place and be like, You look stupid.

Uh it doesn't quite work that way.

There is focus for that, there is goals for that.

Or box like one beating the air.

So, I didn't clear this with him yet, so hopefully this is okay.

Um, my son uh trains in Muay Thai, kickboxing, and it's uh fun to watch the progression over time of that, and how different things bring about different results in that sense.

Because they start you off with learning different combos that you're doing on a bag, which is good and it's important, it starts building that muscle memory.

And then they tell them you have to do all of these exercises during the week two that have nothing to do with that in order to build up strength.

And then comes the fun part because if you stop there, you get really good at punching a bag.

That's stationary.

And then he gets thrown into Fridays where he's sparring with 220-pound six foot two college students, which is amazing to see that, and suddenly it becomes a little more real how that plays out.

And that is where I have seen the growth happen the most.

Number one, because they're amazing and they basically adopted him.

Uh it's so cool to see that.

But also to see his skill continue to improve in that, because suddenly you have to take those little bits of information and actually work that out in real time with somebody who really wants to punch you in the face.

Very specific context.

Hopefully, you don't experience that at Costco.

So you don't run like one running aimlessly or box like one beating the air.

I don't know this for sure because I do not run, uh, but I'm also told that it also having running partners sure helps a lot for encouragement and pushing along and pushing forward.

So, again, not necessarily a solo sport in that.

Why am I making that whole point thing?

Because this discipline, this self-control, this life happens in a body.

We're continuing to see that happen.

You cannot give up your rights for somebody if there's no somebody there.

At that point in time, you're just kind of masochistic.

This can only happen within a church body, within a functioning group of people who care for one another, who love one another, and are looking to take care of one another as fueled by the Holy Spirit.

Is that scary?

Yes.

Is that messy?

Absolutely.

Is it good?

Yes, as well.

So, having that said, this discipline, this self-control, all happens in the context of a group of people who love Jesus and are following him and seek to push one another towards that goal.

So it doesn't happen in a bubble and it doesn't happen on live stream and it doesn't happen in isolation, even though stepping outside of those things is really scary to do.

So that's the encouragement with that is that this work and this effort for the sake of the gospel, for the sake of the kingdom, has to happen in a group.

Continuing forward, verse 27.

Instead, I discipline my body, I bring it under strict control so that after preaching to others, I myself will not be disqualified.

So he's not running around aimlessly, he's not boxing like one beating the air, he's disciplining his body and bringing it under strict control.

We have a friend who is a very fit person, sports nutritionist, all these different things.

And it wasn't even just about the fact that he like lifts really heavy things constantly.

He's like in his early 30s, and he's like, I need to go to bed by 8 p.m.

I need to get this much sleep in order for my body to heal and grow this much.

And I'm like, you're crazy.

But that it's there's discipline.

If you have a goal in mind, you will discipline yourself for that goal.

What's Paul's goal here?

The gospel and the salvation of others, which is cool to see in that.

What does Paul get out of that?

Well, actually, if we went back to the beginning, dipping into last week here, his reward is to preach the gospel and offer it free of charge.

In verse 16, if I preach the gospel, I have no reason to boast because I'm compelled to preach, but woe to me if I don't preach the gospel.

This is his passion, this is his burden.

This is not under compulsion.

So, that is very, very important to see here.

Because what we see here is giving up rights for the gospel, right?

We see self-control, we see discipline.

Those are really scary words.

And that's why those are things that need to be done under the work of the Holy Spirit.

And here's the because we read these things, it can very easily feel a little legalistic in those things, because that's that's the fear, is to go in those different ways.

Let me give you some distinctions.

If you're here and you want to do works to get to God, that is a problem.

You want to bridge the gap to God by working, sacrificing self-control, that's a problem.

If you are in relationship with God and He is calling you to go, to do, to strive, that's healthy.

And that is the big distinction in motivation with that.

Who is motivating that and what's the goal?

So that requires walking with the Savior.

What disqualifies here in verse 27?

So that I have to preach it to others, I myself will not be disqualified.

I think the best way of seeing this is in Matthew 13.

You have the parable of the soils.

Sower spreads the seed.

Indiscriminately.

Gives it out there.

First one doesn't even make it into the ground.

The birds eat it, taken away.

The person doesn't understand, doesn't receive, God.

The second one springs up quickly but has no roots.

And so distress and persecution chokes it out and kills it.

The sun beats down on it.

Seed three is good, is healthy, but the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of wealth, the desires for other things choke it out and it's unfruitful.

And then the fourth one, it lands in the good soil, it hears, and it understands, and it bears fruit.

So what can disqualify us is our lack of roots.

We see that in second soil.

What can disqualify us?

Our cares of the world, our deceitfulness of wealth, our desires for other things, lack of a focus on the prize, on the gold, lack of a motivation from the Savior by the Holy Spirit.

But what can keep us bearing fruit, good soil, hearing, understanding, abiding.

Cool.

It's so cool to see how he does this and how his motivation at this point is to bring people in to taste what he has tasted.

Because again, Paul is not uh his testimonies are really sketchy.

He used to kind of arrest and murder Christians.

By a show of hands, how many of you arrested and murdered Christians?

Please don't raise your hand.

Exactly.

We haven't experienced that in that sense.

And so now he has this zeal that he wants everyone to taste and see what he has tasted and seen and experienced that.

And that it's only happening through the Holy Spirit.

So this is my motivation, this is my encouragement here for what is our motivation in doing these things?

Our motivation is having our eyes fixed where they need to be.

Proper motivation and goals.

And the best way I can see that play out is in Hebrews 12, 1 through 2.

We lay aside every hindrance and sin that so easily ensnares us.

We run with endurance the race set before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith.

So if any of you hear anything in all of this, it's keep your eyes on Jesus, follow him, run with him.

He's the best running partner we can possibly have, and the best sparring partner you can possibly have in that sense.

There is refining in that, there is sacrifice in that.

But when it's motivated by the Holy Spirit, there is joy in that.

Let's pray.

Lord, I thank you so much for today.

I thank you that you're good, faithful, and holy, righteous.

I ask, Lord, that when we see in your word the call to practice self-control, to practice discipline, that we would not shy away from that, that we would not seek to muster that up on our own, but rather that we would burrow down into you and abide in you and bear fruit, fueled by the Holy Spirit and watered by that.

That we would flourish in you.

And that that would spread not only zeal for you, but joy for the salvation we have in you.

For those who have heard this and don't have that relationship with you, I ask, Lord, that by your spirit you would work on their hearts, that they would desire that, that they would desire to know you, that they would know the freedom that is to be had in you for the first time, and the peace and the joy that to be had in you.

Let us continue to be conformed to your image and be glorified.

In your name.

Amen.