Introduction:
Are You Committed to Winning People with the Gospel? (1 Corinthians 9:15-23)
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SACRIFICE: Do You Give Up Your Rights in Order to WIN People?
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STEWARD: Do You See Yourself as ENTRUSTED with the Gospel?
2 Corinthians 5:19 - that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
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SHARER: Do You Know the Joy of Sharing the Blessings of the Gospel?
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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Open up those Bibles to 1 Corinthians 9.
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While you're turning there, let's just take a moment.
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I'm going to ask that you would please pray for me to proclaim the Word of God as I should.
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And I will pray for you to have a heart open to receive what it is the Lord wants to teach us today.
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Let's pray.
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Father, we understand that what is about to happen is supernatural.
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This isn't giving some TED Talk.
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This is the proclamation of your eternal word that somehow your Holy Spirit works with your word.
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to conform us into the image of your Son.
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Father, I pray that you would do a mighty work in all of us this morning.
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Thank you, Father, in advance for the work that you're going to do.
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We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
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1 Corinthians 9, are you there?
01:24-01:29
Before we start this, Doug, did Taylor get paid this week?
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He did not.
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We don't usually do this publicly, but would you pay Taylor?
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(congregation laughing)
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You gotta keep the pastor humble, thank you, Doug.
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You gotta keep the pastor humble.
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Don't expect anything else for like a month.
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You're gonna have to stretch it.
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You got him the king-size Kit Kat, right?
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Okay, then I don't wanna hear nothing about no second service.
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You got plenty.
02:10-02:10
Don't be a hog.
02:14-02:33
When Erin and I were first married, we lived in town and we had a neighbor up the street that would often walk his dog right by our house and he would often stop in our front yard and let his dog do what dogs do on walks.
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And there was no cleanup, by the way.
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But this went on for some time and one day he was walking the dog up the street on the sidewalk in front of our house and Erin was outside and she said, "Hey, I'm buying you a shovel for Christmas." He got a little smile on his face and he goes, "So, you think I'd look pretty good with a shovel?" I think he thought that Erin was flirting with him.
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And if so, that is a really weird pickup line to use.
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Hey baby, you look good with a shovel.
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It's pretty easy to miss the point, isn't it?
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At least it was for him.
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It was easy to miss the point.
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And as we get to this next section in 1 Corinthians, I think that's what's going on here is I think Paul wanted to make sure that none of the Corinthians missed his point.
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All right?
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This is the Q&A section.
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In this section in particular, they had asked him about eating meat that was used in pagan worship and they're like, "Well, it's just meat, but it bothers some of the weaker Christians that are, you know, just kind of fresh coming out of paganism." So what do we do about that, Paul?
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Paul says, "You are free." But love says, "I will lay down my rights so that I don't offend a weaker brother." And then Paul, led by example, that's what we saw last week.
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Paul goes, "Look, I'm showing you an example from my own life.
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I have every right to be paid to preach." And he went through all the reasons it is legitimate for the pastor to get paid.
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He gave us five very compelling reasons.
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"Yes, the pastor should be paid." He said, "That's a right that I have.
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That's a freedom that I have, but I'm laying it down for the sake of the gospel." And I think when you get to this point in chapter 9, Paul knew that some of the Corinthians were going to miss the point, and Paul's talking about paying the pastor, paying the pastor, while you pay the past year's while and they're like, "Ah, um. Yeah, Paul, we asked about meat. That was what we asked about. It's a bigger issue. It's not about the meat." "Oh, not about the meat. Oh, oh, this is about getting paid to preach. No, no, no, it's not about the money. That's like saying the fall of man. That's like saying Adam's sin in the Garden of Eden is a story about fruit trees. You missed the point.
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The bigger issue is this, examining how does what I do affect somebody else?
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That is the issue.
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It's about not letting anything be an obstacle to not only loving a weaker brother, but winning people to Christ.
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people to Christ. How high of a priority is that for you? I mean, can we just take an honest assessment today? How often do you think about winning somebody to Christ. How committed are you to personal evangelism? I thought so much about this this past week. And I want you to hear what I'm saying here because this isn't pack your bags we're going on a guilt trip. This is deeply convicting to me. And I'm right here with you, church. Please hear me, corporately and individually, corporately and individually, church, we are distracted and we are insulated.
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We are, first of all, distracted. We're distracted. We are so distracted. Winning people to Christ, What are you talking about?
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Oh yeah, I guess that is a thing.
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I've been so distracted, distracted with good things.
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Work and sports and home projects.
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There is so much that demands our attention.
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I think especially in a church like ours, we're insulated.
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How much of our lives revolve around going to church, going to small group, going to event at the church.
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And then when we're not at Harvest Bible Chapel, we are sending our kids to Christian school, or we volunteer at a Christian school.
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And all of that is great stuff, obviously.
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But I have to ask, how often are we even interacting with lost people?
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I think we're insulated.
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Look, there's so much.
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There's so much that this church does so well when it comes to discipleship.
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We have an excellent small group ministry.
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We just had two excellent conferences, one for the men last month, one for the women yesterday.
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Excellent.
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Our giving to missions, I've never seen a church like this one.
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Whether it's the Vision Appalachia or Thailand or somebody taking a short-term trip, our Forgiving to missions is excellent.
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But when we get to this passage, we have to ask ourselves, "When was the last time that you led somebody to Christ?
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When was the last time that happened?
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When was the last time that you even shared the gospel with someone?
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When was the last time that you even invited somebody to come to church to hear the gospel here?
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Are you committed to personal evangelism?
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Not just talking about the church at large, obviously that is a concern for me.
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I'm talking about you as an individual.
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Are you committed to that?
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Look down at verse 23 here in chapter 9.
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Paul says, "I do it all for the sake of the gospel." Paul says, "Everything in my life revolves around the gospel.
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Everything in my life revolves around winning people to Christ." And this verse has a very special place in my heart because our missionary in Thailand, This is His verse.
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This is the verse that fuels everything that He does.
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Several years ago, He was at our house and He was talking to Erin and I about how this verse fuels everything in His ministry.
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"I do all things for the sake of the gospel." He kept going back to that.
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"I do all things for the sake of the gospel." Twenty-three churches, four children's homes, a Bible institute.
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I do all things for the sake of the gospel." That's how that mission started, by the way.
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Do you know how that started?
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It was Barnabas, this Burmese man going through the northern mountain jungles of Thailand looking for villages.
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Looking, looking for lost people in the middle of the jungle and finding a village and walking in and just sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with them.
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That's how that started.
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All things for the sake of the gospel.
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He is like spiritually hilarious to talk to.
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He was telling me recently about a telemarketer that was calling to try to sell him on some kind of goofy energy pills or something.
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And do you know what he told her?
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The gospel!
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He told her the gospel.
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He also told me, this was just a couple weeks ago.
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He had a couple guys show up to pump their septic tank.
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And do you know what he told them?
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The gospel, yeah.
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One of my favorite stories, he had to get some sound equipment.
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They do this big outdoor Christmas program as an outreach.
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It's kind of like open air preaching and the Lisu tribe, they're dancers and there's this whole thing, right?
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But he had to get like this PA system.
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So he goes into the store, the electronics store, where they sell these things, and he wants to buy one.
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He goes, "I wanna try it out." Remember this, Justin?
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He goes, "I wanna try this out." And they're like, "Okay, you can try it out." He's like, "I wanna make sure it works." So they fire up this PA system, and he gets on the microphone, and do you know what he says?
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"He proclaimed the gospel to the whole store!" I'm gonna give you the short version of the story, I don't have time to get into all of it, but he told me about a village across the border that was guarded by four armies that needed fish.
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And he took them fish, and I said, "How did you keep the fish from spoiling?" He's like, "What are you talking about?
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"What do you mean spoil?" I'm like, "Well, he said it took him 10 days "to walk through the jungle with these fish." I'm like, "Fish is gonna get bad after a while." He goes, "No, no, no, no, no, no, live fish." I'm like, "How did you take live fish?" And then it hit me.
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I said, "Hang on, hang on.
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"Did you carry bags of water full of fish "through the jungle for 10 days "to take fish to a village?" And as a matter of fact, he just says, "Yeah, they needed fish." You carried an aquarium through the jungle for 10 days.
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He's like, "They needed fish." Why would somebody do something like that?
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What would possess a man to do something like that?
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I'll tell you what possesses a man.
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He does all things for the sake of the gospel.
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He says, "The reason I'm taking these fish to them is it's going to open the door for me to share the gospel with them." Who does something like that?
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A person who wants to win people to Christ, that's who.
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So what about you?
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Do you love lost people?
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You're like, "Man, I guess I don't love lost people like that." Now, this section here in 1 Corinthians shows us what the heart of an evangelist looks like.
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I think there's something here for all of us.
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I just want to go through the text, and then I want to go back and pick up some of the key principles that motivated Paul here, but let's pick up in verse 15.
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Paul says, "But I have made no use of any of these rights." He didn't use his right to get paid to preach.
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That's what he's talking about.
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Like, why didn't you do that?
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Well we talked about that.
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Paul didn't want anybody to think that he was using some new religion to try to get rich.
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He didn't want people to assume that he had bad motives.
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Time out here for a second.
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They're like, "Well, if Paul had this conviction, why didn't the other apostles have this conviction?" I mean, it makes sense, but why didn't the others have this conviction?
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And the answer is very simple.
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Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles.
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He was reaching pagan people.
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That Peter and the rest that were going to the Jews, the Jews already had this system in place about paying the spiritual leaders.
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That wasn't a weird concept to them.
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Paul going to the Gentiles, it was a different ball game.
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All right, look, keep going to verse 15.
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He says, "Nor am I writing these things "to secure any such provision." Paul's like, "I'm not writing this to you "to secure provision." Like, what's he mean by that?
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Paul's saying, "To be clear, "I'm not trying to use reverse psychology here "to make you pay me." All right?
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Paul's like, "I'm not trying to be like, "Well, you know, I'm just out here preaching for free." And then you're like, "Oh, poor Paul, preaching for free.
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"We should pay him.
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"He shouldn't have to do that.
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"We should pay him." Paul's like, "I'm not trying to reverse psychology you, okay?
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"This isn't, I'm not throwing this out there "so that you're convicted to pay me." He goes, "That's not it at all." All right, go on.
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He says, "For I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting." Wow.
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Paul says, "I would rather die than somebody accuse me of using the gospel to rip people off." But what's this boasting thing?
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You see that?
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He says, "Deprive me of my ground for boasting." So that word for boasting literally is rejoicing.
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Usually when we hear boasting we have a bad connotation with that.
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The word literally is rejoicing.
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Okay?
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And boasting is really not a bad thing, it just depends on what you're boasting in.
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Because we're called to boast in the Lord, right?
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But the question is, what is Paul's ground for boasting?
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What is it?
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What's he boasting about?
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What about this is occasion for boasting?
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Well, first he tells us what it's not.
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Look at verse 16, he says, "For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting.
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For necessity is laid upon me.
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Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel.
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If I do this of my own will, I have a reward, but if not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship." He says, first of all, the boasting is not about preaching the gospel.
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Let's get that off the table.
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That's not...because that's not in the actual preaching the gospel itself.
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I'm not like boasting in the opportunity to preach, because you realize, church, the gospel leaves no room for boasting, right?
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You can't earn your salvation not by what you do, not by who you are, not by who you You know, you cannot do a thing to earn your salvation.
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You can't do a thing to make God happy with you because you are a guilty, rebellious sinner before the eyes of your holy creator.
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That's reality.
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There is not a thing that we can do.
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We are guilty of sin.
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But God, because of His great love, He's given us grace.
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God says, "Because I love you, I am providing salvation, not through what you do, but through what my son did on your behalf." It is a gift, and when you receive a gift, there is no room for boasting.
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So okay, so what is the reward?
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What is it?
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Well, he tells us, look at verse 18.
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He says, "What then is my reward?
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That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel." See, Paul says, "You know what thrills me?
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Do you know what I'm really like fired up about?
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It's this.
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There's this one thing, this one thing that I can choose to do, and that is to preach the gospel for free." In other words, Paul is saying, "God's not making me do this.
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God's not making me lay down my right to be paid." Paul goes, "I chose that.
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That is my contribution.
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That is Paul's contribution to the kingdom.
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I choose to do it for free." He's so excited in this passage.
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He's so excited to forfeit his rights so he can preach.
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Paul's like, it is such a joy for me that I have the ability to love people in a unique way.
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That I can give to them and not get a thing in return from them.
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That is such a joy for me!
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Right now, somebody's like, look good with a shovel.
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I don't get it. I don't get it.
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Who gets joy from denying themselves something that they are rightfully entitled to?
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Who does that?
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The person who wants to win people to Christ, that's who.
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Verse 19, he goes on, "For though I am free from all, "I have made myself a servant to all "that I might win more of them." He's like, I'm free, I'm a child of God.
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My salvation is not based on my performance, but I made myself a servant for the sake of winning people.
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Paul is always about winning people.
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And Paul would do anything to win someone to Christ.
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He found so much joy that he could give up his rights to win people to Christ.
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So what does that look like, to lay down your rights in order to share the gospel?
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What does that look like, to lay down your rights for the sake of evangelism?
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Well, he tells us what it looks like.
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Look at verse 20.
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He says, "To the Jews, I became as a Jew in order to win Jews.
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To those under the law, I became as one under the law, though not being myself under the law, that I might win those under the law." So Paul says, let me tell you what that's like.
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When I'm with the Jews, I'm not going to violate the law in front of them.
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Paul saying, "I'm not going to walk into the synagogue eating a ham sandwich in front of them.
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That would really offend them.
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Like, "Look, I'm free in Christ.
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I can eat a ham sandwich." Like, he goes, "I would never do something like that." I mean this is all through the book of Acts.
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All throughout, you see in Acts chapter 15 with the Jerusalem council, that's what that whole thing was about.
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You see it in Acts chapter 16, that was an interesting story.
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Paul had Timothy circumcised.
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Like why?
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So Timothy can get saved?
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No, no, no, that has nothing to do with that.
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Paul had Timothy circumcised so that they didn't offend the Jews that they were trying to win.
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Boy, that had to have been an awkward exchange, don't you think?
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Did you imagine?
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Paul's like, "I will do whatever it takes to win people!" And Timothy's like, "Yeah!" And Paul's like, "Make any sacrifice for the gospel!" And Timothy's like, "Yeah!" And Paul's like, "Circumcise Timothy!" And Timothy's like, "What?" Paul's like, "Are you committed or not?" That's the point, though.
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Anything.
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What's it going to take?
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What's it going to take?
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He goes on, verse 21, he says, "To those outside the law, I became as one outside the law," being outside the law of God, but under the law of Christ, clarifying. We'll talk about that more in a minute. He says that I might win those outside the law. You see, you also see that in Acts, right? When Paul was with the Gentiles, he acted like the Gentiles.
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Not in a sinful way, but he assimilated with them. You see it in, what is it, Acts 17.
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Paul quoted one of their poets.
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It was a bridge.
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He goes, "You know what one of your poets says?
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Ah, he was on to something." And he uses that as a bridge, but he assimilated with them.
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That's what he's talking about.
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Verse 22, he says, "To the weak I became weak that I might win the weak.
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I have become all things to all people that by all means I might save some." The weak.
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We've been talking about the weak.
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These are the baby Christians.
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These are the people that are coming out of paganism.
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It's just so hard to let go of things that we were so used to.
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And that's what really the whole meat issue was about, right?
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And Paul goes, "Oh, if eating meat is a problem for them, I will be a vegan." And then we land on verse 23.
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Here it is.
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I do it all for the sake of the gospel that I may share with them in its blessings." That's the thesis.
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That's the thesis of the passage.
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That's the thesis of Paul's whole life.
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Everything I do is for the gospel.
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Is that the thesis of your life?
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You see the passion for winning lost people in the past?
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Did you see it?
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Don't miss it.
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You think I'd look good with a shovel, don't miss it.
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It's passion for the lost.
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So on your outline, I just want you to draw some things down here.
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You see, three big ingredients, three things that motivated Paul that I have to ask myself and you have to ask yourself.
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Are you committed to winning people with the gospel?
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Are you?
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Are you?
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Are you committed to winning people with the gospel?
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The first ingredient, it's the most obvious one, right?
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It's sacrifice.
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Sacrifice, do you give up your rights in order to win people?
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Do you give up your rights in order to win people?
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Again, Paul found laying down a freedom for the sake of the gospel to be an absolute joy.
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He goes, "I will go along with whoever I'm with.
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Gray areas, I'll give up anything that might cause an offense." You're like, "Wait, wait, so you're saying that you win people by accommodating them?" No, that's not what we're saying at all.
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You accommodate yourself so that you have the right to speak to people.
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That's what he's saying.
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If you offend somebody because you insist on your freedom, you lost the audience.
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They're not going to hear you.
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That's what he's talking about, removing anything that would offend.
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What does that look like today?
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Here's a few examples today of what that could look like.
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Let's say you have some Catholic friends that you've been witnessing to, and you know that they're faithful Catholics, but you're not sure if they truly know Christ.
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And it's Lent season, and you invite them over to your house for dinner on a Friday.
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You're not serving hamburgers.
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You see?
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You're gonna offend them right out the gate, and they're not gonna hear you.
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Let's say you have some Muslim neighbors, and it's summertime, and you're like, "I wanna reach them with the gospel.
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"I wanna have an opportunity to share Jesus with them." You invite them over to your house for a barbecue.
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You're not having pork at your barbecue.
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You offend them, you've lost your audience.
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Let's talk about the big one.
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Is there any issue in our day that really quickly brings offense?
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Can you think of anything?
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Say anything at all.
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Anything at all that you could mention that people would immediately get offended.
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Politics, right?
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Let's say that you have a neighbor that is a true blue Democrat and you are of the MAGA persuasion.
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This isn't a political statement, okay?
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This is an illustration.
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But if you're inviting your hardcore Democrat friend to your house, you're putting away the MAGA stuff, okay?
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You're not wearing your little red ball cap to the dinner table.
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Why would you want to offend them over something you don't need to offend them over?
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It works the other way too, by the way.
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If you're a Democrat and you have a Republican friend over, take down your Bernie Sanders banner.
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By the way, it's 2026.
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You've needed to take that down anyways.
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And I think one of the biggest places where we're so quick to offend people is in social media.
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Look, if you're one of these social media people, yes, post your Bible verses, sure.
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Post your excerpts from the devotional.
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But can I tell you this just lovingly?
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Stop posting all the political garbage, because you know what you're doing?
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You're losing half your audience.
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And someday you're going to want to tell them about the gospel.
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Someday you're going to have an opportunity, and they're not going to want to hear it because they know that you're on the other side of the political aisle, and we know that automatically makes you a demon.
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Either way, all things to all people.
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Not compromising the gospel.
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We have to be clear about that.
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Not compromising the gospel.
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Church, this is a call for discernment.
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You have to discern what is optional and what is not.
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Some things are not optional, right?
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Some things are not optional, like the truth, like Jesus, like the gospel, like God's command to repent, God's command to believe, not optional.
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Truth is not optional.
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You know what else is not optional?
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walk." Meaning, in no way is Paul saying, he made this very clear, that you should sin to fit in. Right? You think, "Oh, I'm gonna win them. I'm gonna be just like them.
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We're gonna get into the crude anatomy jokes so he'll know I'm one of the boys." No. No. Gossip. Well, they're all gossiping. I jump in the gossip with them. No.
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Getting drunk. No. We're not compromising our walk. That's not optional. But there are some things that are optional. Like we've said, food, music played. Maybe you know they have a big issue with tattoos, and you go to tattoo, you wear long sleeves and cover it up, so you don't offend them.
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Nothing at the expense of the gospel, nothing at the expense of being an ambassador of Christ, but if it's a gray area that might offend, I'll always seek to take the high road, because committed to winning people means committed to giving up your rights. So that's the first S and these are all alliterated. I get paid more when that happens. The second S is steward. What are the ingredients? What are the ingredients of somebody that's committed to people with the gospel? The second one is steward. Do you see yourself as entrusted with the gospel? Do you see yourself as entrusted with the gospel. Look at verse 17 again. The very last phrase, he says, "I am still entrusted with a stewardship." God is trusting you to give this out. He's trusting you. You got a Bible on your lap? He's trusting you with that, to give it out. You're entrusted. Like, "Well, yeah, that's good for Paul. I mean, he obviously was. What about the rest of us? He ropes us all in." Look at 2 Corinthians 5.19. Look, that is, "In Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, thanks to Jesus.
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Look at this last phrase, "and entrusting to us, us, the message of reconciliation." Do you realize how awesome that is?
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That the God of the universe, your Creator and your Savior said, "Here, here, here is the message that's going to forgive sin.
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Here is the message that's going to transform people.
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Here is the message that's going to save people from hell.
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Here it is.
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Here it is.
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And I'm giving it to you.
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Do you know the gospel?
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You know it?
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If you do, that means that God's entrusting you to make sure that people hear it.
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He's trusting you with it.
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You know, last week, Bob Brown and Jesse Boggs went down to deliver some boxes that were packed.
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Our small groups donated boxes for the needy that were given out through the ministry Vision Appalachia.
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And to nobody's surprise, they packed way more boxes than our target goal, right?
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How many boxes were sent, Bob?
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250.
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How many were asked, like, we were shooting for like 25 or something from this church, right?
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And didn't we get like, we got 30.
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All right.
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Nobody's shocked, Bob.
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Nobody's shocked.
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Again, you guys are so generous.
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But Bob and Jesse took the boxes down.
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Let me ask you, they had the U-Haul trailer right out here.
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Bob, want you another van we had out here?" With all these boxes with the donations for Vision Appalachia, let me ask you this.
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Did Bob and Jesse have a choice in what happened with those boxes?
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Did they have a choice what would happen with them?
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No.
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No.
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Not convinced of that?
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Okay.
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What if Bob would have drove that U-Haul back to his house and him and Jesse threw the mother of all block parties with those supplies.
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Would you have been like, "Good for you, Bob.
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Live it up." Is that what you would have said?
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You would have been like, "What are you doing?
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That was given to you to give to them.
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What are you doing?" We trusted that stuff to them, and they are faithful stewards.
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They got it where it needed to go.
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principle here, church.
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God is trusting you with His message.
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You don't have a choice.
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Like, I don't really feel like a steward.
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You are a steward.
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God did not give you the option to keep it to yourself.
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He didn't give you that option.
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And somehow we get saved and down the road we forget and we get all self-focused and all we care about is our walk with Christ.
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I'm going to tell you, it's so convicting to me, you know, you plant a church because you want to win lost people for Christ.
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You want to win lost people, and then you get down the road, you know what we end up doing?
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We end up swapping complaining sheep with other churches.
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That's what we end up doing.
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The guy complaining about his last church is now here, and the person leaving this church complaining about this one is going there, and we call that doing gospel ministry.
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You know, we're talking about putting up this new building, an opportunity to win more people to Christ, but are we winning people to Christ here and now?
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If we're not passionate for the gospel and reaching lost people here and now, what makes us think that we're going to get this new building and all of a sudden we're going to be magically converted into evangelists.
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Committed to winning people means you've got to see yourself as entrusted with the gospel.
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You're a steward.
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The third S, number three, is shareer.
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a word. You know how I know it's a word? Is my computer didn't give me a red squiggly line underneath it when I typed it. And in my world, that's a word. Share.
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Do you know the joy of sharing the blessings of the gospel? Look, there is there is nothing more exciting than leading someone to Christ. Have you ever done that? If you have, you know, right? If you have, you know. There is nothing more exciting than that, seeing them baptized and knowing that God used you to reach somebody for eternity. There is nothing in the world greater than that.
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Look at verse 23 again. This is the verse, "I do it all for the sake of the gospel," look, "that I may share with them in its pleasures," in its blessings, excuse me, "share with them and its blessings.
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Think of everything you've experienced as a follower of Jesus.
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Everything you experienced, think of it.
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If you're a Christian, you get it.
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You know the forgiveness of sin.
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God will never hold your sins against you.
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You know the joy that comes, the peace that you have no matter how horrible things get, The comfort God gives you in the tragedies of life, the fellowship of the church, oh and the hope of heaven that our best days are ahead of us.
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Everything you experience as a Christian, to go to somebody that doesn't have that and say you can have all of that too.
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Sharing the blessings, that should be a natural inclination, you know?
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You know?
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It's like, imagine this scenario.
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Imagine Erin and I are at a restaurant and we order different dishes, something neither of us have ever had before, but we got different things.
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And I take a bite and I'm like, this is the best thing I've ever tasted.
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I gotta be sure.
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And I take another bite.
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I'm like, yeah, verified.
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This is the best thing I've ever tasted in my life.
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What's the next part of that story?
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Oh, oh, Erin goes, "Can I try it?" I'm like, "No, eat your own." That's not how the story goes, is it?
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That's not how it goes.
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The story goes like this.
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This is the best thing I ever had in my life.
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Erin, you have got to try this.
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You have got to try this.
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And she's like, "I don't want to try it." You're trying it.
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That's actually happened, hasn't it?
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Both ways.
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I'm like, she's like, this is so, I don't wanna try that.
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Erin's like, you know, next thing you know, she's like, the fork can go in your mouth or in your forehead, pick one.
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You gotta try this.
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See, when you have something, when you experience something so glorious, so beautiful, there's something in you that wants to share that.
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God put that in us.
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That's how it is with the gospel, by the way, to that lost person.
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Like, bro, you have got to get in on this.
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You have got to get in on all of the blessings that comes in the gospel, knowing Jesus, the fellowship of the church, serving Him locally and in international missions, worshiping Him together, oh, and heaven, we'll get to share that one for all of eternity.
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One of your greatest joys in life should be winning people to Jesus and sharing in the blessings of knowing Him.
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Because committed to winning people means sharing in the blessings of the gospel.
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Our worship team would make their way back up front.
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Next week, our Easter series begins.
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I don't really like the word Easter.
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It doesn't mean anything to me.
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I call it Resurrection Day, but you know what I mean.
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Our Easter series begins next week, and it's a season where talking about Jesus and inviting someone to church is going to be much more natural. God is entrusting you to share the blessings of the gospel. Will you do whatever it takes to win someone? Let's pray.
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Father in heaven, I confess before you in front of my brothers and sisters here that this passage tears me up because we look at the life of Paul and we look at the life of like Barnabas today, we look at people like that and we see Father Such passion to win lost people and we look inwardly and don't see that in ourselves sometimes, a lot of times. Father we come to you because you're the God who changes us, you're the God who transforms us, and I pray Father, I just pray simply this, that you would stir in the hearts of all of your people here to have the same mindset of Paul, an attitude of sacrifice, an attitude of being a steward, and the joy that comes in sharing the blessings of Christ.
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Stir that spirit in us, Father, so that evangelism isn't some mechanical, obligatory thing that we think we have to do, but it's just so natural for us to to share the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ.
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It's in his name that we pray, amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read 1 Corinthians 9:15-23
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
How would you respond to someone who says, “I don't really share the Gospel with anyone. I don't know what to say.”?
Reread 1 Cor 9:17. What does Paul mean that he was “entrusted with a stewardship.”? Is that true of all Christians? See 2 Corinthians 5:19.
What are the “blessings to be shared” when you win someone to Christ (1 Cor 9:23)?
Breakout
When was the last time you shared the Gospel with someone or invited them to church? What happened?
Who has God put on your heart to win with the Gospel? What are you doing about it?
Pray for one another.