Spiritual Warfare (SW-05)
The Great Offensive - (SW-05)
1 Corinthians 9:23-27
Every day 150 000 people die - that is 6250 per hour - or 104 per minute or almost 2 people every second - their lives are snuffed out - and the majority of them go to a lost eternity in the flames of Hell that last for ever and ever and ever. After ten thousands years of intense suffering and excruciating pain, they are no closer to the end than when they began.
You see, everyone is going to die. As a matter of fact, everyone is dying. They say that optimal health is simply the slowest possible rate of dying - but we are all dying. We all have a very limited shelf life. Every beat of your heart is a drum beat in your own funeral march. While everybody gets to spend eternity, not everybody gets to spend it in heaven. The most important question that needs to be settled this side of eternity is where you will spend your eternity. The question is important for three reasons. Firstly, longevity - eternity is a very long time. Secondly, severity - one option is filled with eternal bliss and the other with eternal pain. And thirdly, finality - once you get there it is too late to change your mind. You and I have friends, family, neighbors, acquaintances that will spend their eternity in this Hell. As a matter of fact, we have brushed shoulders in churches, shared together in ministries, listened to preachers who will spend their eternity in Hell. You see my friend, it does not matter how religious you are or how good you have been, whether you are part of this church or any other church, whether you have been involved in good, effective or even a miracle working ministry, you will not see the kingdom of heaven unless you are born from above.
Let me back up and ask you a question? How many ways are there to heaven? Two. There are actually two ways to heaven.
The one way is to live a sinless life, or, as Jesus summarizes it in Mark 10:17 - to keep the 10 commandments, or as Jesus breaks it down even more in Mark 10:25, just keep the two greatest commandments. The other way is to put your faith, trust and hope in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation. Seeing that every single person I have met has already blotted their copy book, it is not longer possible to live a sinless life, I am leaning toward the second option as the only hope for mankind.
Please open your Bibles with me to 1 Corinthians 9:23-27. I want to share a message with you that I have called The Great Offensive. Our series is entitled simply Spiritual Warfare. This morning I want to talk with you about the gospel. And I want to do that for a number of reasons. Firstly, there are 150 000 people dying every day and most of the are going to Hell. That is why I want to talk with you concerning the gospel. Secondly, the gospel is central to the Christian life. It is how you got saved. Somebody shared the gospel message with you. It is why you got saved. You were saved to share that same gospel message with others. Thirdly, I want to talk about the gospel because we are in danger of cluttering the simple good news message up with other stuff. It seems to be picking up some baggage, or add-ons, or upgrades if we want that are weakening it. I believe the church at large in the west is in danger of departing from the simple gospel message. Do you know that the gospel was the most important thing for Paul?
Let’s read that together.
1 Corinthians 9:23-27 - Read - Pray
Paul, I would suggest to you this morning, understood that you could not be committed to Christ without being committed to the gospel. Paul was committed to the gospel in a life transforming way. He knew the gospel message so well he calls it the Gospel of God, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Gospel of the grace of God, the gospel of the glory of God. As a matter of fact, he so infuses the vision of the gospel with the practice of his life that he ends up calling it ‘my gospel’ - not ‘mine’ in that it belonged to him, but ‘mine’ in that he belonged to it.
So I have to ask you this morning - are you committed to this gospel? Are you committed to this gospel that the New Testament calls the gospel of the Kingdom?
You see, if you are . . .
1. It is a Personal Commitment
Paul lived for this gospel - that was what he was about - and that is what we should all be about.
Whose job is it to share the gospel? Well you know what the Bible says, ‘Go into all the world and grab a sinner and bring him back for the pastor to save.’ Now - God’s instruction to you is go and make disciples. Are you doing that? You know - I do not know much about farming - but I would suggest to you that we have got this thing messed up when we thing it is the shepherds job to have sheep. How ridiculous! Who has sheep? Sheep have sheep? Well have you?
1 Cor. 9:26
Listen to me precious believer - if you are not sharing the gospel - you are simply running without an aim, you are boxing and all you are hitting is air. It does not matter what else you are doing right - if you are not sharing the gospel, your life and ministry are in danger of being futile.
2. It is a Particular Commitment
Did you notice the words ‘the gospel’? When Paul speaks of the gospel, he speaks of THE gospel. Almost 100 times the New Testament speaks of THE gospel. What is Paul trying to tell us? He is trying to tell us that the Gospel is a given set of facts, of truths, it is the given historic account of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, man’s need of a Savior and God’s offer of forgiveness and salvation.
By the way, he contrasts THE gospel with a gospel and a different gospel in Gal. 1:6.
My friend, if you do not know the gospel message you are not able to share the gospel message. It should be the main message of our lives but I dare say that many in the Body of Jesus Christ, if asked, could not share the gospel message in three minutes. If somebody was struck by a stray bullet in the store, and they lay there bleeding to death, and you happened to be there - and you had three minutes to tell them the gospel message - how many here would end up just babbling, just running without and aim, just beating the air.
You say preacher - ‘I don’t really think that will happen to me.’ really? What is our running total at right now? They tell me that every single person in the world is connected to every single other person in the world by no more than 7 relationships. Here is what that looks like. You know somebody - who knows somebody - who knows somebody - and seven relationships from you is literally every single other person in the world.
It is a Personal Commitment
It is a Particular Commitment
3. It is a Passionate Commitment
1 Cor. 9:23
1 Cor. 9:24
Precious believer - Paul was passionate about the gospel - and so ought you and I to be. It does not matter what else you are passionate about - if you are not passionate about the gospel you are not passionate about the right things.
I suspect many in the Body of Christ, instead of being passionate about the gospel have become ashamed of the gospel! Do you know what I mean?
Paul says in Rom 1:16 - "I am not ashamed of the gospel - for it is the power of God unto salvation to all who believe - first to the Jew, and then to the Gentile."
My friend, are you too ashamed to share your faith at work, at home, when you are out? Are you in danger of being ashamed of Christ?
You say to me, "Well Preach, I’m just not comfortable with all that witnessing stuff." Let me ask you, do you think it was comfortable for Jesus to hang on that cross for you?
Since when does your or my comfort have anything to do with it?
"Well Preach, I love Jesus and can sing His praise all day long - but that evangelism stuff - I leave to the professionals, and those with that gift."
Precious believer - the Body of Christ is not a pleasure cruise of worshipers on its way to heaven. It is a battle ship of witnesses at the portals of Hell.
It is a Personal Commitment
It is a Particular Commitment
It is a Passionate Commitment
4. It is a Powerful Commitment
The Bible says in Isaiah 61:1 and Luke 4:18 - "that God has anointed you to preach the good news to the poor." The anointing is the release of supernatural power in your life. That power is given you so that you will not need clever arguments. When you hear a gospel message that is about a clever argument, you know it does not have power.
Mat. 4:23 and 9:35, twice the Bible says that Jesus proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.
Then in Matthew 10:1 Jesus gave the disciples authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.
Precious believer - when you make a commitment to the gospel . . .
It is a Personal Commitment
It is a Particular Commitment
It is a Passionate Commitment
It is a Powerful Commitment
5. It is a Priority Commitment
Now listen carefully if you will. The gospel message is of the utmost importance - it is, I dare say, the most important thing - and if the gospel is the most important thing - then surely, the most important thing is to keep the most important thing the most important thing.
Paul says it like this - "I do all things for the sake of the gospel." 1 Cor. 9:23. In other words, the organizing principle of his life was the gospel. He interpreted everything he did, every where he went, every one he met, every cent he spend - in terms of the gospel. I do all things for the sake of the gospel.
Somebody said it well when the noted concerning the business of the church, "we are loaded down with countless church activities while the main work of the church lies in tatters."
Let me ask you precious believer - is the gospel a priority commitment for you? If you have not sought to share the gospel this week it is not. If you have not prayed for the opportunity to share the gospel this week it is not.
A number of years ago, White House domestic policy advisor Bill Galston resigned his position after receiving a letter from his 10 year old son. The letter read "Dad, baseball is not fun when no one is there to applaud you." Mr. Galston told the President, "You can replace me, my son can’t." Galston understood that his son was a priority - even more important that the work he was doing for the president. Precious believer - your commitment to share the gospel is a priority commitment. It is more important than your job, than your vacation, than you comfort. It is the singular most important thing you can be doing.
Do not wait for the atheists to come church to share your faith. That is not going to happen. Atheists do not come to church - they are atheists. That is why the message of Jesus was ‘Go into all the world. . ." because the atheists are to going to come into the church. An atheist is not going to wake up one Sunday morning, look out of his window and says, ‘Ah - it is a wonderful day today - I think I’ll go to church.’ There is as much chance of a wanted criminal waking up, looking out of his window and saying, ‘Ah - it is a wonderful day today - I think I’ll go pop in to see the old officers at the Police Department. And the police would be as foolish as the Christian if they said, ‘I think we will wait for those criminals to pop in and see us - and when they do we will let the chief officer arrest them. No matter how pretty they paint the cells, how eloquently the speak about crime or how effectively they train then to apprehend criminals, if they do not leave the police station with the sole purpose of apprehending criminals, they will have empty jails and the streets will be filled with criminals. Precious believer - do you want to know why we have empty churches and the streets filled with the unsaved?
It is a Personal Commitment
It is a Particular Commitment
It is a Passionate Commitment
It is a Powerful Commitment
It is a Priority Commitment
6. It is a Pricy Commitment
1 Cor. 9:27
Mark 8:35 - Jesus speaking "whoever loses his life for the gospel will save it" How many of you understand that Jesus anticipated that committing to the gospel could be a pricy thing - not only will it make you uncomfortable - not only will it make you tired, not only will it infringe on your calendar, not only will it cost you some money - but it may cost you your life. Precious believer - if you are already looking to opt out because it is making you a little but uncomfortable, you will not make it unless you rethink your level of commitment. It is a pricy commitment.
Some people are waiting until it gets a little easier. Precious believer - it will never be as easy again as it is now. The longer you put it off, the more difficult it will be.
Watch video clip - The Life Station
Don’t wait till you are so old that you have nothing left to offer before you make a commitment to the gospel. When you turn 140 it is too late to make up for 140 years of life squandered on self.
Don’t wait until you are on your last legs before you give your ways to God.
Don’t wait until your eyes are dim before you give your sight to God.
Don’t wait until your hands are weak before you give them to God.
150 000 are dying every 24 hours - Jesus puts it this way. The fields are white unto harvest.
What will you now do.
It is a Personal Commitment
It is a Particular Commitment
It is a Passionate Commitment
It is a Powerful Commitment
It is a Priority Commitment
It is a Pricy Commitment
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