Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / November 27, 2022 | 1 Corinthians - All Things to All People

Transcript

November 27, 2022 | 1 Corinthians - All Things to All People · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hello! How are you doing this morning?
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Good to see you.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Did you have a nice Thanksgiving?
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: All of you look about five pounds heavier than you did last week.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Just kidding, not you, Todd.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: You always look.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: So we are, as you can see, in 1 Corinthians, even though the preacher has changed this week.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: We've still got this book, so we're in good shape.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: So open it up to 1 Corinthians 9 on your cell phone, or if you're still old-fashioned, use paper, books, stuff, you know.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: We do that.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, this is more spiritual, if you actually, you know.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: So I get to talk about something that's so appropriate and fitting.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: Has there ever been a sports time like this sport?
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we are so full of sports this week.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: KU K-State last night.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: How about and I don't know about you, but I was uh I was so proud of both teams for KU having a team that could you know effectively compete.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I know it sounds bad.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry if you're a K-State, KU, if you're a KU fan, but come on, let's just be honest, shall we?
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: It was just great to have a game that went back and forth and so forth.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then you got the World Cup going on, that's exciting.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: USA versus Iran this Tuesday.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um you got college basketball, sorry, KU about getting spanked the other day, but it's got to happen to everybody sometime.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: And college, you know, anyway, and um and so this morning we we get to look at one of Fall Paul's four uh you know sports podcasts.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Paul has four passages in his writings that are uh athletic passages, and this is the most famous one.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Uh there's one in, you know, a few books later where he says uh that everybody in the Christian life, Christians, ought to go to the gym.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: He uses the word gym, gymnasium.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: He says you need to exercise yourself for the purpose of godliness.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: There's another one in Timothy where he says if you're going to win the race, you've got to compete according to the rules.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: No steroids.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: So compete according to the rules.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: And then the last one, just before he died, 2 Timothy 4, he says, I have fought the good fight.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: So, boxing.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: I have finished the course, running, and those are the two pictures in our text this morning.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: And henceforth there's laid up for me a crown of righteousness in heaven.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: So, but this is the fourth and most famous one.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: And in 1 Corinthians 9, 24 to 27, uh, this is the Christian Standard Bible, Paul says, Don't you know that the runners in a stadium all race, but only one receives the prize?
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Run in such a way to win the prize.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now, um so he goes, That means are we in a competition?
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: Only one of us is going to win the prize.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, no, back in those days there were no team sports.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: There was no team basketball, they there was no team sports in Paul's day, believe it or not.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: No soccer, no basketball, no football, nothing like that.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: It was all individual sports.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: And and also uh there was only one winner.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't have a gold, silver, and bronze.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, they didn't give gold at all.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: They gave uh in the Olympic Games or they gave uh a wreath.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, take a look.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Here's so Greece had four different sort of Olympic Games.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: Over here to the west of Corinth, you have Olympia, and that was the what games?
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: The oldest of all, every four years, the Olympic Games, okay?
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and then Corinth and Delphi uh had games every two years, and so Corinth, they had them right outside Corinth, what was a little town called Isthmia, I-S-T-H-M-I-A, because Corinth is on an can you say it with me, an Ithmeth.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: So not easy to say, but that means a land bridge.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: So they called it the Isthmian Games every two years.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so Paul's talking about, and what happens is they would just give, they just give one prize to one winner, okay?
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: And and it wasn't gold, it was a wreath.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um at least they gave like uh at Olympia, I think it was a I think it was palm wreath for your head.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: And another one they gave a pine wreath.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Corinthians, that was the worst.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: They gave a dried celery wreath.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: So anyway, but they probably you know, they prized that.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, you win that, that was, and it was your life because your hometown was going to build a statue to you.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: That's how famous you would then become.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: You did not have to pay taxes the rest of your life.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's like the best deal.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Dick.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and you got you got best seats for the rest of your life at any other games and so forth.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: So, anyway, so one person uh in each race would win that.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: By the way, they had uh ten races at Corinth.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh four were track and field.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: They had uh running races and long jump and javelin and uh disc and I think discus.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, yeah, I've seen I've seen those guys on that Greek urns.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: And then they had two equestrian ones, by the way.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: And women and men, by the way, could compete in these.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: And uh equestrians were, you know, horses, horse racing and horse, you know, stuff, and also chariot race, war chariot races.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, there's an etching over there in Olympia of a woman etched in who won the war chariot horse race at one time.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: And there's also etched the names of other winners, like one woman who won the 200-meter dash and so forth.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: So you have the two equestrians, then there are two very physical ones, there's boxing and wrestling.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the boxing was especially brutal because you kept going for four hours if nobody gave in, you know, and you could you strapped your hands and you could put lead and or iron in there.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: And if the other guy, you know, didn't put up his finger to signal he was giving in, you know, kept going until you knocked him out.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: Or he even died.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: There's there is there's another inscription uh of a boxer who said, I went into the ring.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: He, or no, he went, Ephemious, he went into the ring announcing he would either win the wreath or die.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: Here's where he died at age 35.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: So, I'm not sure he's a good example for us, but um so anyway, and then okay, so that's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: So the two, two more, get this in the Olympics.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: They had singing and poetry reading.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, I'm in, I'm there, I'm there.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I can finally compete.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: So, by the way, Nero once came down and competed in singing and had rules.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: It went on for three hours and he wouldn't let anybody leave the stadium, no matter if they needed to use the bathroom or having a baby.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: So a number of women started pretending like they're having babies anyway, so they'd get carried out.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: People jumped and got crippled, jumping off the back of the stadium.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: His singing was so bad.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, I'm this is all extra, but anyway, so they have these races, they have these Olympics, and it's clear that Paul, whether or not he was a sports fanatic, like Hank and I are, um, he he he loved this and he went, even though the Isthmian games were dedicated to the god Poseidon, you know, and they had a temple to Poseidon nearby there, he went to these games, it appears, and he watched them and said, only one wins.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get back to the text, Jim.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: Don't you know that the runners all race, but only one receives the prize?
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: Run is such a way to win the prize.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: Now everyone who competes exercises self-control, key word there, in everything.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: They do it to receive a perishable crown.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: What was their crown?
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: A celery wreath, yeah.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: But we an imperishable crown, so I don't run like one who runs aimlessly or box like one beating the air.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, I've discipline my body, I bring it under strict control so that after preaching to others, I myself will not be disqualified.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: Famous passage, what does it mean?
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: We'll get to that, but I've realized as Connor's been preaching the last few weeks, this sports thing, and I've I've given a talk on this to athletes and uh, you know, high school and other stuff, I never put it in context.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: I just thought, oh, these are great four verses about sports.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I didn't realize why it is sitting here in the context at chapters eight through ten of freedom.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: Of freedom.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna have to go, we're gonna have to talk about freedom because that's what Paul's talking about.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: One more time, one last look.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: This is Corinth.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: This is Corinth today.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: You can see that it's quite a major town up there on the Isthmus, just southeast of there would be the little town of Isthmia, where where they held the games.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: And you can see if you look carefully, the blue strip, that's the canal uh between the Ionian and Aegean Sea.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: If you go up to the right, you find Athens, you go down to the left, you find Olympia.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: So this is where Paul is.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's a super cosmopolitan city, it's a sin city, some people call it, but that's where he lived.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: So but Paul drops this sports podcast into a whole section on, of all things, freedom.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: Freedom is under attack in our world today, according to everybody, but especially to the group called the Freedom House.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: And they point out that at the end of World War II in 1946, out of about 200 countries in the world, there were only 12 free countries in the world.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: Only 12 free countries.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: But then there was an explosion of freedom in the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: So that just 30 years ago, in the early 90s, out of the 200 nations of the world approximately, 100 and over 120, 122 countries could be called free.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: Their governments in Africa and other places had given up tyranny, you know, uh uh stopped killing anybody who rebelled against the government or throwing them in prison, uh, no more rigged elections and so forth.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: It was just a wonderful, wonderful thing.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden, starting 16 years ago, the world's turned back the other direction.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, just 60 countries in the last year have increased their repression, increased their tyranny, increased their persecution of people who disagree.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: So that today, three-quarters of the world's population lives in countries that are more restricted and less free than they were just a year or two ago.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: The picture you see in front of you is the latest picture by Freedom House, where the green countries, of course, are free countries, Australia, US, uh, Brazil, so forth.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: But uh the yellow countries are partly free, partly free, but there are restrictions, you know, uh by the government.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: You lose your job if you if uh but the purple countries, and you can see, of course, that's China and Russia, which is now, you know, since 1990, you know, gone back strongly away from freedom, so forth.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: So we live in uh in a day when freedom is under threat.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: And and and sensing that, I'm I imagine a number of you, when you prayed over your Thanksgiving meal a couple days ago, you thank the Lord that we live in a free country.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: We have Lady Liberty in the New York Harbor, and we are known for our freedom.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: But Paul, after talking about freedom, says to the Corinthians, and he says to us, there's a more important freedom than physical or bodily freedom.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, in fact, the soul zone and others who've been imprisoned by tyrannical government say, you know what?
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: If you are free in your mind and heart and soul, if you have internal freedom, they can't imprison you.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: You are truly free.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul says, you know what?
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, external freedom is important, social and political freedom is important, but there's a far more important freedom because most of the world lies under the spell and under the tyranny of the four-headed monster of sin, and the law, which locks people into sin, and death, which is the result of sin, and the devil, which, you know, is our master.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: And they're they're they're in bondage eternal, their mind and their heart and their soul, and this is forever, and so it's far more important that you realize that God looked down.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: Christ looked down from heaven, he saw that we were in bondage, mankind was in bondage, so he came down, he died on the cross for our sins into that moment.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: To all believe on him, he sets them free internally, forever from the foreheaded monster of sin and the law, death and the devil.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: Thank God for that, right?
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, Man, celebrate that freedom.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: Hold on to that freedom, prize that freedom.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I can hear in the notes, as I'm sure you can, of the end of Le Miz, where they're singing and you're crying.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: Do you hear the people sing, singing the song of angry men?
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: It is the song, it is the music of a people who will not be enslaved again.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: And that's Christians.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: We will never be enslaved the way we were beforehand.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: And you should rejoice.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now, here's the funny thing.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, so let's just one last time, let's put down a stake for freedom.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: All right?
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: And that Paul says, starting with Jesus, you said the truth will set you free, and if the sun sets you free, you'll be free indeed.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: This New Testament tells us we are free.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: You've been set free from sin if you if you're a Christian.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: You live as people who are free.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's for freedom that Christ has set us free.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: Stand firm, don't let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: Can you say amen?
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: Can you say I'm free?
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, now this book turns around, it swivels around in the stool.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: Paul looks in the camera and says, Uh, but I got something to tell you.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes, sometimes, though you need to live free and enjoy your freedom, sometimes.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: You need to be free enough to give up your freedom temporarily, to curb your freedom, to put limits on your freedom.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: And that's chapters 8, 9, and 10 of Corinthians.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's grown up stuff.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: The whole book of Galatians says live free.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: You were born free, so live free and stay free, Galatians says.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: Well, false 2 Corinthians, you know what?
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: You guys in this cosmopolitan town, your liberty is turned into license.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: You are so used to living the way you wanted it, want to live.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: You clutch your clinch your freedom.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: You don't love freedom, you not only love it, you clinch it, and you won't let it go.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: And you get into arguments and churches splitting because you're all going, well, I'm free, and I'm free, and I have this right, and I have that right.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul says, sometimes, out of love for Christ and for others, and out of wisdom in your own life, you need to curb your freedom.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, uh the sermon Connor preached this last Sunday started off chapter 9, verse 1.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: Am I not free?
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: But Paul says, I don't know what we avail myself of this right.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, it was about money.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: It was about, am I not free to expect, you know, for you to take care of me, room and board when I come, like every other preacher or every other evangelist.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: So that's that's where Paul, that's where the apostle goes with us.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden we have, as you can see down in this picture at the bottom, all of a sudden he says, I'm calling on you to be mature Christians, godly Christians, grown-up Christians, wise Christians, and to hold two things in tension.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, my right to do whatever I want in Jesus Christ, my freedoms, right?
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: Grab hold.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not telling you to let that go, but on the other hand, you need to hold, in the other hand, the fact that if you're a mature Christian, you will sometimes be willing to curb your freedom out of love for other people.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: And that's that's that's Paul's point.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: And and Paul's Paul says uh, you know, in chapters 8 and 9, he says, I do it.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: I do it.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I'm working, by the way, I gave uh you know this is Corinth, this is the main street, and there's Temple of Aphrodite up there, this is the marketplace.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: And one of those shops off to the right there on the main street was the shop where Paul and Priscilla and Aquila uh, you know, made tents and did other leather goods.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I decided maybe the name of the shop was the perfect tents.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: Get it past tense, perfect tense, president, the perfect tense.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: Come on, come on, that's cool.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: So, anyway, so Paul's going, you know what, that's why I work six hours a day, eight hours a day.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I'm doing leather goods shop and selling the stuff that I make and so forth.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: And when they come to the Istmian games, those thousands of people need places to stay.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: So they get a tent, they rent a tent, they buy a tent, I sell them those tents, and that way, you I'm not asking you for money to support me, to give me room and board, and so forth.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: So, so Paul says, I've given up that right.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: So, um, anyway, so before that, though, in chapter eight, let's remind ourselves of where he starts.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: He starts this with disputes in the church that are splitting the church over air gray matters, we call them.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: Things that are not clearly spoken of in the Bible as right or wrong.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: Back then, what was the biggie in Corinth?
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: It was when I go into the marketplace, you know, they have regular food, regular meat, the cheaper meat in Corinth in those days were either pork or fish, right?
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: They're close to the water.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: Pork or fish, the more expensive meats were chicken and they had deer and they had lamb and so forth, more expensive.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: But, you know, so they go there, there's the meat market, but then they have, you know, another, they have discount meats.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: And those are meats that have been sitting out on plates in front of idols for an hour or two.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: Or who knows, maybe more.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: If you've been to India and you see all the flies on the meats in front of the idols, a little bit gross.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: Those meats are gonna be really discounted.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: So, and so, uh, and so some people are buying and they're eating those meats.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: Some Christians in the church.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, I can't believe you're doing that.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: Can't believe you'd eat those meats and it's sitting over there.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: I saw that meat.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: That was sitting in front of that terrible idol and so forth.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then the and then the other Christians going, oh, give me a break.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know, sitting in front of that idol, that idol is no more alive than the table on which I'm eating this food right now.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter at all.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: What you expect Paul to say in 1 Corinthians 8.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna say, I'm right.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: I promise, I'm right on this.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna exp you expect Paul to say, you know what you need to do?
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: You need to stay completely away from any of those things like that.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: You shouldn't get close to the edge.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: You should, you should, you should refuse to eat those meats, you should never do anything like that.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: Stay away from the gray, stay away from the black, live completely in the white.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's what you expect.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: Certainly what you heard when you were growing up, I did.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's not meat-offered idols anymore.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: When I was growing up, it was dancing, it was drinking, listening to the beatles, it was uh, you know, stuff like that.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, wearing dresses above the knee.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh well, actually in our church, it was wearing pedal pushers, and women couldn't, you know, needed to wear dresses and have long hair.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: You're doing good.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um so and then now today it's changed, you know, some of the things, it's still alcohol, you know, but it's now gambling and it's lottery, buying lottery tickets and tattoos, and oh, especially politics, political views, right?
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: Churches don't divide over political views, would they?
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: So a year ago I'd have said masked or something.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: But um, these are things about which the Bible doesn't speak, but uh over which Christians divide.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: You look at me like, I am I I don't I don't know about that stuff, really?
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: Come on, give me a break.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: So uh and and Paul's point in 1 Corinthians 8 is you know what?
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, mature Christians realize it's no big deal that they're free to do these things, but mature Christians also curb their freedoms.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: They curb their freedoms for the sake of Christ, for the sake of others, especially.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes because they know themselves very well, and it's he says, is it profitable or not profitable?
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes they know, you know what, that thing's gonna hook me.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: That thing's gonna put me under bondage again, so I can't do that.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: So that's that's chapter eight.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so then um by the way, shall I just mention that we all know people who who love their rights and freedoms so much that they're not a that they clinch them with a tight hand?
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: I mean it starts early.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, mommy says, uh, how come you shoved your little brother down and just wrench that toy out of his hand?
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: And of course the answer comes back, because I had it first.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: It was mine.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: I had the right.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: Why didn't you give up your seat on the subway to that woman who had a baby in her arms?
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because, come on, that was my seat.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: I had every right to keep it.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: Why, why at that party, that holiday party, did you correct your husband in front of everyone and embarrass him?
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: Because he got the story wrong.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: It happened two years ago, not last year.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: Honey, why didn't you come out of your room and greet the people who came over?
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, it's my house.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm free to do whatever I want to do in my house.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, buddy, how come you talk to your wife that way?
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: That just mean.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: Hey.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: When she's wrong, I have the freedom, I have every right to shut her up.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: Some people are fettered.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: To their freedoms.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: They wouldn't relinquish them for a minute.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: Paul loves his freedom too.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's one of his favorite words, but in Corinth, he sees a church that's fracturing over freedoms and rights.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so, again, I'll just summarize.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: This sports package is right in the midst of a section where he says, listen, yes, you're free, but you need to balance that with the need to be mature enough to occasionally curb your freedoms out of love.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: Can you say amen to that?
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: So there's the two points.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, cherish your freedom.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, limit your freedom.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: Be free enough to limit your freedom for the sake of Christ or others.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: And chapter when he moves to chapter 9, what he does is he talks about income.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, Connor talked about ministers, ministry, and income.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, he proves from the Old Testament that he has every freedom and he has every right to expect them to take care of his room and board and, you know, give him a stipend or something.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: On the other hand, he suddenly in verse 15, after proving the thing, he says, Well, I've actually proved this for one and only one purpose, to let you know that I've chosen to refuse that right.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: This is why I don't take anything from it.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: You try to give me something, this is why I always say, nope.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: Only pay I'm gonna take is you join me on the Jesus trade.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the only pay I'm gonna take is you be with me in this thing.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: I refuse to take anything because he says, Yeah, I've got every freedom to do it, but you know what?
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna curb my freedom for the sake of the gospel, for the sake of Jesus Christ, and for the sake of other people.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why he says, I work every day selling leather goods in the market.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, Listen, I do not want you for a moment, I don't want anybody for a moment to think that I am doing this job of evangelism and preaching because it's my income-producing career.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's my livelihood.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's my job, it's my chosen job.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's not my chosen job, says you don't understand.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: I used to have a career, I used to have a good paying job, and that job was being an anti-missionary.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: That job was making Christians bleed and busting up churches.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: But one day I was on the road, Damascus Road, and Christ opened up heaven and he threw me, he'd zapped me off my horse, and then he said, I'm setting you free and I'm making you my slave at the same time, and for the rest of your breathing days, I am commissioning you to go to the whole world and tell my story to the nations.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: So Paul says, I got no choice.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: This is not a job.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: This is my commission.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: This is who I am, this is my life.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm free.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't want anybody to think I'm doing this for a job or for income, because I'm not.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: And when I'm in Corinth here, where I know that's how people are gonna react, this cosmopolitan city, I can hear them already saying, I don't leave, don't believe in this Jesus thing.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: The only reason that preacher is talking this way is he wants to put his hand in your wallet.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: By the way, it's exactly what Prince Philip in the show of the crown said to his wife, the queen, you know, when Billy Graham came to London.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: And she kept inviting him over.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, She just wants your money.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: You know, he's he's just he's he's a scam.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: And eventually he changed his mind.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: He came to faith, we believe.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: His wife certainly did.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: She was one of Billy Graham's favorite people, but you know, that's what people say.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul said, I'm I'm not even, I'm gonna choose to limit my freedom because what's far more important to me is people joining Jesus Christ.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so he ends in verse in verse 18.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: He says, What's my reward then?
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's to preach the gospel and offer it free of charge.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: The free gospel, freely received, and not make full use of my rights in the gospel.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: See how that fits in?
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: Although I am free from all, there it is, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, and not anyone's slave, I have made myself a slave to everyone in order to win more people.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's the keep keep keep phrase there.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'm free, but I make myself a slave to win as many as possible.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: And just to be clear now, in our text, this is our text, Connor gave me 19 to 27.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you gotta do it.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: So in 20 and 21, 22 and 23, he lists four groups to which he accommodates himself.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's the best word for it, and to which he fits in, becomes like them, okay?
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: Out of a desire to win them.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: First group, the Jews.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: To the Jews, he's speaking about Orthodox Jews.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: He used to be one of them, the curls and everything, to win Jews.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: Second group, to those under the law.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's you go, well, those are Jews too.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it includes Gentile proselytes, it includes people who are Torah worshippers who are Jews, but they're not Orthodox, okay?
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: But he becomes like them if he needs to to win them.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: Group number three, to those who are without the law.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: Who's that?
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: You, me, Gentiles, right?
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: Pagans, like one without the law.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: Though I'm not without God's law, but under the law of Christ to win those without the law.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: Group number four to the weak.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: Well, hold it.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: These are Christians.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: He's just been talking about them.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: So when he talks about winning the week, he says, in order to win the week, you know what he's talking about.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: He's not talking about winning them to Christ now.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: He's talking about winning them to unity and to love.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so all of a sudden you realize he's talking about something bigger than even evangelism.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: He's talking about love.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: He's saying every single person in Corinth or in the world, because these four groups cover everybody.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: No matter who it is in front of me at that particularly time, particular time, I accommodate myself to them out of love.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because I am, and he he says this clearly in this uh section, he says, because I seek everyone's good.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: And what's the good?
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: What's the very best thing for most of the world?
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's not having a fresh set of clothes or a warm meal.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: The best thing is giving them internal freedom, delivering them from sin and the law and death and the devil so they can live forever with eternal life.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's the very best thing.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why three out of these four things are all about winning them to Jesus Christ and about evangelism.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: I can hear.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: Paul's calling us.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: He's saying, You gonna do that?
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: You can do that?
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: That was an important point that Jim said.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: Don't miss that point.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: I do that because I totally forgot what I'm talking about.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: It had to do with that third down last night.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um so so Paul says, you know, the bigger, the bigger thing, this is really all about love.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: Loving the person who's in front of me at any particular time, whoever it is, Jew, Gentile, in, out of the law, whatever, loving that person so much that I seek their best good.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: What's their best?
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: What's the best thing for this person right now?
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it certainly isn't to put them down for disagreeing with me about alcohol.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: The best thing for a person is generally for me to accommodate myself to them in a loving way.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: Now, let's be clear about this.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: Paul is not talking about accommodating himself theologically.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say to the Hindu, I become a Hindu.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: Paul's not a person who went into Antioch and said, Peter, I got no problems with you no longer eating with Gentiles because they're not circumcised.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: No, he blasts them.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: We don't accommodate ourselves theologically.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: We don't mess around with the gospel.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: We don't suddenly, in order to hopefully to convert a Muslim, you know, start becoming Muslim and dress like that and go to the, you know, and go to the mosque every day and pray and do Ramadan.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that's not what we know.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: You don't accommodate yourself theologically.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: Nor do you accommodate yourself morally.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: Paul did not become an adulterer to win adulterers.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't become an LGBTQ in order to win LGBTQ.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there are certain things the Bible does speak clearly about.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: And so Paul didn't, and when he's witnessing to an adulterer, he doesn't say, oh, you know, it really doesn't matter.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: That's no big deal.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: To each his own, to each his own.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: Different strokes for different foes.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: Paul never accommodated himself morally.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't suddenly go, you know what, I've decided it's not that bad a deal, you Corinthians, if you sleep with your mother-in-law.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, no.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: There are certain things that are obvious that are against clear body, but he accommodated himself how?
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: He accommodated himself behaviorally.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: So he's there on Mars Hill.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the Athenians, they're talking some trash philosophy.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: What does Paul do?
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: He he gets into the philosophy, talks to them philosophically in order to present the gospel to them.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: And and when when he's down with the Jews and they say, you know what, uh, this guy you've brought, this this this Jewish guy you've brought from uh Timothy that you brought from up north and in Turkey, he need he needs to be circumcised.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever, of course he's circumcised.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: He accommodates himself behaviorally.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: If the only place to witness to that person is in a bar, you go to the bar.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: Because the Bible doesn't say you can't walk into a bar, even though that's on the list.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that's part of the nasty nine or the dirty dozen, you know.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what Paul says I'm gonna do in order that I may win people.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna throw in weak people there too, because I don't need to win them to Christ, but I need to win them to some kind of a unity because the church is fracturing, and so out of love, I'm gonna look at them and I'm not gonna flaunt my freedom in front of them, and I'm not going to taunt them.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna be gracious.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: But bottom line, do I have time?
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: Let me tell.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: So, bottom line is it's what an amazing strategy to win lost people.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm down at seminary.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: This is were we ever at seminary?
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's so long ago.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: So they had an evangelism week at seminary years ago, and we had to go to sessions and so forth.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'm looking through this brochure.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: I see a session about a ranch with horses, and it's an evangelism session.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I go up to that classroom, there's about 20 of us, and this guy, big guy, stands up, is introduced.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: Bob Foster is his name.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: And he tells a story.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: He was the businessman, a very successful businessman in Southern California.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then suddenly, you know, the president of the navigators or whatever comes to see him and leads him to Christ.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: And he goes, Man, I need to witness people, but he's not comfortable with all of the ways that navigators or others witness.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so he comes up with this idea.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the kind of people I've been hanging around are super rich, and these are people that never go to church and they never hear the gospel or anything else.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm gonna do is is I've always wanted to be a rancher, you know, always wanted to have horses, so he buys this property out west of Colorado Springs.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: Calls it Lost Valley Ranch.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: The first year he's got it, it nearly burns down and so forth.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_00: But he's determined that what he's gonna do is he's gonna witness to him.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so, and he says, and today, you know, we've got all millionaires who come in, it's gonna cost them thousands and thousands per person each week, and back then that was a lot of money.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: But he says, I get to talk to those people, I say, uh, Mr.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: Foster, exactly how do you do that?
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: Do you give them four spiritual loss?
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: No, he says, actually, the best way I do is I hire college students and students just out of college.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I not only teach them how to be the best hoteliers possible, because it's a five-star hotel we have in these cabins and this food and everything, I not only teach them that, I teach them my philosophy.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: And it's the first Corinthians 9 philosophy.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's that philosophy that you will accommodate yourself in every possible way to even the worst of your clients.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: You will love them, you'll get to know them, you'll play with their children, whatever they want, you will get for them, you will always be gracious, you will walk around them as if you were Jesus Christ Himself, so that they will come to me and ask me, where did you?
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: I've never seen 20-year-olds like this before.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_00: Most 20-year-olds that I know live for themselves.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, and that happens.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, then at the end of the week, when I take everybody out for a morning breakfast miles away overlooking the ranch, and I tell them my story of coming to Christ, and I say, and that's why all of these kids act the way they do, and why you've been coming to me and asking me about them.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: They are gracious this way because their savior was gracious this way.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: He came down to earth and accommodated himself in every possible way to save us and to save you.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, every single week we see wealthy business people come to Christ.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know up here the next year, I come up here to Topeka Bible Church, and I find out there are Topeka people and Topeka.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: I know all about Lost Valley Ranch and been going out there, and so we uh as a church, our youth group goes out there, and Care Prairville goes out there.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, that's the point.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's the kind of thing we're talking about here.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: I just had to throw that story in.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: I I didn't tell it first service, you you know.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_00: So either you're lucky or you're mad.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: So, but that's that's Paul's point here, okay?
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_00: Accommodating himself, and now we get to our passage.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: So, why then does he start talking about sports and athletics?
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: Because listen to me carefully.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: Because Paul and his Savior are looking for certain kinds of people.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: They're desperately looking for Christians who will say no to their own freedoms occasionally, who will curb their own pleasures and their own desires and put themselves out for lost people and other people out of love to accommodate themselves.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: But you know what?
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's often not easy.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_00: No pain, no gain.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: You've got to say no to yourself.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why Paul now says in verses 24 to 27, don't you know that the runners in the stadium all race, but only one receives the prize?
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_00: Run in such a way to win the prize.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_00: I don't mean compete with each other, you know, be better than your husband or wife, so you know, the the agony of defeat can be felt by them and not you.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's not that.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_00: No, the main point he's the point he's making here is I want you to know there are no participation prizes in heaven.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_00: Just entering the race as a Christian and just you can't run nonchalantly around the track, playing video games the whole way, or doing whatever you feel like doing and expect that somehow you're going to end up with a reward.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_00: That's just not gonna happen.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_00: You can't please yourself.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, do you have the freedom?
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_00: Of course you've got the freedom.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_00: There's no athlete.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_00: The Isthmian Games athletes all started exactly 10 months before the games.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_00: We read about this, and they stopped eating, stopped eating the foods they were eating.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_00: They started getting up early in the morning, they started exercising themselves.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_00: For 10 months, they said no to themselves.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_00: You can bet the World Cup athletes are the same way.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_00: Earlier this year, I now follow Premier League Soccer, it's Hunter's fault.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_00: He got me into Manchester City.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I follow this really closely, and there was an article about them earlier this year, Manchester City being the best team in the world.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_00: Turns out that their athletes, their soccer players, run an average of two miles farther than everyone else's do during games.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_00: They discipline themselves, they run seven to nine miles a game instead of five miles a game.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so the winning team in the World Cup, the winning teams will oftentimes be those that are able to just keep running when the other team says, I'll take this play off.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's what it takes.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so Paul, Paul's first says in verse 24, Christian, you need to run to win.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: God is looking for winners.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_00: God is looking for victors, you're looking for champion Christians, and you can be a champion Christian, but you need to put out.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: You need to, you need to try because God's not just going to give you a participation prize in heaven for simply being a Christian, simply being in the game.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_00: So run in such a way that you may win.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_00: So uh second half of the verse says, only one receives the prize, run in such a way to receive the prize.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_00: Every one of us who runs in the way he now describes is going to receive a well done, thou good and faithful servant from God.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: Bench Lombardi's statement is still true.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_00: Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing, right?
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_00: And um, so that's how we that's how we get the award.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_00: Can I stop and just say for just a second, a number of you are saying, Oh, I don't care about rewards.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_00: I just want to, I'll be happy just being in heaven.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, can you imagine how that hurts the Jesus who started his ministry telling not only his disciples, but everyone else, please lay up treasure in heaven?
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I don't care about laying up treasure in heaven.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just glad to get in there.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_00: I don't care if I'm a pauper for eternity.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine how the Lord feels?
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_00: Who says, you know, I've really I'm looking for people that I can honor, and I would love to honor each and every one of you.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'd love to be able to say, Well done, thou good and faithful servant.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_00: Iterate the joy of your Lord.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_00: You've been faithful in a few things.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'll give you many things to be faithful in.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I don't I don't care about that.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_00: I just I just care about being there.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry, I had to get that off my chest.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_00: Every time you start talking about rewards, there are people that come up after the service going, you know what?
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_00: I I just don't care about those things.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_00: I just care about getting to heaven.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that makes Jesus happy.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_00: That really thrills Paul.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's that's good.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they talked about rewards at least two, three dozen times in the New Testament, but nah, yeah, no.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_00: You're too humble for that.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_00: So anyway, I'm sorry.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, I'm getting getting a little catty here.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_00: So uh first point is run to win, be a champion.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_00: And second point, verse five, is that self-discipline wins.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_00: What wins?
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_00: Self-discipline.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_00: Let me say it again.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_00: Self-control wins, self-discipline wins.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's winning the battle with your body every morning when you get up, in a sense, it's you versus your body.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_00: Question is who's gonna rule that day, right?
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh one one uh British author that I just love, whose books I've read and so forth, he says, every morning when I wake up, I say, good morning, body.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, then the fight begins.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, three times a day that body's gonna dictate to me, it's gonna say it's time to eat now.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_00: But three times a day I'm gonna say to my body, it's time to pray now.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't care what it says.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_00: He says it's a battle of self-discipline.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_00: Harry Truman, by the way, was the one who said in his study of all the great women and men of history, he said the first battle that they ever won, the first great victory that enemy ever won, was the battle over themselves.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_00: The battle of self-discipline, the battle of self-control, the battle of saying no to themselves.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul says, You want to know how to win the award, how to win God's well-done, good and faithful servant?
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_00: You can't do it without self-discipline.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_00: There's gonna be nobody who gets to heaven and goes, the award?
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_00: Awards?
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_00: God, how did that happen?
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have a clue.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_00: I was just, you know, just going through life, doing it at whatever I wanted to do, watching as much TV as possible.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_00: I never put myself out for anybody.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's not gonna happen.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_00: So, um, so Paul's just really blunt about this.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_00: He just says, uh, you've got to run in such a way.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now, everyone who competes, he says exercise of self-discipline in everything.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_00: They do it to receive a perishable crown.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_00: Here's a picture etched.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_00: It says itzmiya on it.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_00: That's the Istmian games.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_00: And here's here's the celery crown, folks.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the only way that crown isn't perishing is if you etch it into stone.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, we haven't been able to find any of those lying around.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_00: But you know what?
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, Paul says it's an imperishable crown that God wants to give you.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_00: And then he says, so I I discipline my body.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I now, by the way, I I have to say, I cannot read this nowadays, since I've started gaining weight, by thinking of food.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_00: I just can't.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_00: And Melan and I talk to, those of us, by the way, in the group of those who who hate the fact that we're gaining weight, you know, we send each other little encouraging words like, if it tastes good, spit it out.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then they re- then they reply and they go, eat all you want, but don't swallow.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and then we write back and we go, you know, eat through your nose.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_00: It'll it'll save your teeth as well, and then you won't be able to eat as much.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then they write back, well, do the nerd diet.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_00: Eat as much as you as much as you want on any day that doesn't include the letter N, E, R, or D.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_00: And and think about that for a minute, and and you'll starve to death.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_00: So anyway, uh, but but you know, it is a discipline issue, isn't it?
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_00: So much of life is a discipline.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_00: I know it's a dirty D, is it just a kind of a dirty, nasty word.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's just uh it's just a horrible ten-letter word, but it's the word that's that's really important, discipline.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_00: Discipline.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_00: So um, and I'm if I could mention a friend of uh I have a brother who's who's a wrestling coach for much of his life, and he had a friend named Dan Russell, who was a famous Greco-Roman wrestler.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_00: He we was involved in young life.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_00: He was a youth pastor out in Colorado Springs, you know, some years back.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_00: And um and he he he said, you know, for 20 years, he had trained and exercised for four to six hours every day, six days a week.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_00: And when he got to the Olympics, he said that would be 61,000 hours in my life.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_00: I've done it.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_00: He won the gold at the Olympics.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_00: Outspoken Christian, he won the gold.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: When interviewed later, he said this the feeling of winning Olympic gold, as great as it is, will be gone within the week.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_00: He says I won many international tournaments, and I know that this is true.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_00: After a week, nobody really cares to hear about it anymore.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_00: But when I look at what God has to offer, an eternity of gold, I realize God's reward is so much greater than any that the world that the world can give.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_00: And he's exactly right.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's an imperishable reward.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_00: And the final point here is in the last verse, he mentions disqualified.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_00: There's not very many people anymore, but there are some people that go disqualified, he's gonna go to hell.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_00: He's worried he's gonna go to hell.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_00: Paul's scared he's gonna go to hell.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_00: But but he's not.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_00: This is being disqualified, disapproved for the for the prize.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_00: The word is disapproved adokamas in Greek.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the Paul, remember, who wrote, it is not for him who runs, who goes to heaven.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_00: It is it is God's mercy.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_00: And and who also wrote, Nothing can separate us from the love of God.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_00: Paul was not living his life scared he was gonna go to hell if he misbehaved.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_00: No, but he was scared that he needed to finish well, or he might lose the price.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_00: Howard Hendricks used to say, Don't make a junkyard of your old age.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking here about finishing well.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_00: God's approval requires finishing well.
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't it heartbreaking when someone whose books you've read or you've been listening to on the radio, some Christian leader, you find out and they've they've blown it, and you know that when they go up to heaven now, instead of hearing, Well done, thou good and faithful servant, they're gonna be disapproved, they're gonna get a kick in the butt, they're gonna say, You know what, you know what damage you did to my cause by what you did, Lord, spare each and every TVCer who knows Jesus Christ from casting shame on the cause of Christ, finishing poorly, and thereby being disqualified from hearing God's Well done, thou good and faithful servant.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_00: Because the testing, you know, the real tests don't happen at the beginning when you're strong and young and just became a Christian.
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_00: It happens at the end, right?
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_00: The end of the race when you're tired and you feel like giving up.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_00: So let me close with two things.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_00: It was uh mid-60s, uh it was early 60s, I think, uh, when they had that movie come out about the Lion Elsa.
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_00: It was called Born Free.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_00: Did you ever hear about it?
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then then uh Andy Williams was, you know, born free.
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_00: Help me, Hank.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_00: As free as the wind blows.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_00: As free as the grass grows, you know, born free to follow your heart, something like that.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then the next uh stanza is uh live free, and then the last stanza is stay free.
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_00: And that's that's what Paul would say.
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_00: He's born free, stay free, live free.
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_00: But sometimes, would you please be free enough to occasionally give up your freedom?
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_00: You hold two things in the palm of your hand.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_00: One is your freedom, and the other is the ability to curb your freedom at times.
• 47:13
  SPEAKER_00: Final story Abraham Lincoln told that this is a true story.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_00: 1860s, 1850s, 1850s, late 1850s.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_00: He was a sinner and he goes to a slave auction in Illinois.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_00: He sees a woman standing there who looks beaten down, angry, and so forth.
• 47:33
  SPEAKER_00: Feels compassion on her, finally has money in his life, and so he bids and he wins.
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_00: He wins her.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_00: And she steps down and she's hanging, she looks at him and says, So what do you want?
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, I want to set you free.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_00: Completely free, she says.
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_00: Completely free, he says.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_00: To do whatever I want and to do whatever you want, Lincoln says.
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_00: To say whatever you want, said Lincoln.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_00: To go wherever I want.
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_00: To go wherever you want, he says.
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_00: Then she said, I choose to go with you.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what you and I do if we're godly and mature.
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for setting me free, Lord, but I choose, I choose to serve you.
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_00: I choose to give up my freedom out of love for the rest of the world for whom Christ died, and out of love for my brothers and sisters.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
• 48:39
  SPEAKER_00: Father, thank you for this uh for dropping this sports passage right into the middle of this freedom and freedom limit stuff.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_00: And uh we hear it in a different way now.
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_00: We pray that we, like Paul, would look at the person in front of us at any particular time and ask the question what is the best good that I can do for this person?
• 49:06
  SPEAKER_00: And Lord, then that you would help us do that good for them.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.