Title: Those ugly Tan Lines!
TEXT: 1Cor. 9:1-14 Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not the result of my work in the Lord? 2 Even though I may not be an apostle to others, surely I am to you! For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. 3 This is my defense to those who sit in judgment on me. 4 Don’t we have the right to food and drink? 5 Don’t we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas ? 6 Or is it only I and Barnabas who must work for a living? 7 Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its grapes? Who tends a flock and does not drink of the milk? 8 Do I say this merely from a human point of view? Doesn’t the Law say the same thing? 9 For it is written in the Law of Moses: “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.” Is it about oxen that God is concerned? 10 Surely he says this for us, doesn’t he? Yes, this was written for us, because when the plowman plows and the thresher threshes, they ought to do so in the hope of sharing in the harvest. 11 If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you? 12 If others have this right of support from you, shouldn’t we have it all the more? But we did not use this right. On the contrary, we put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ. 13 Don’t you know that those who work in the temple get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar? 14 In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel.
INTRODUCTION:
1.) Without Question this passage is talking about ministerial remuneration. (v. 14)
2.) Finance is an area that we must take seriously, realizing there is a different standard for God’s people than that of the world.... but that is another sermon
3.) This morning notice instead, the impact What you do-- has on Who you are.
4.) Maybe I am stereotyping, but what you do seems to mold who you are.
5.) "They who wait at the altar are partakers with the altar,"
a. Paul takes this statement straight from Levitical Law:
b. Lev. 6:16, 26 Aaron and his sons shall eat the rest of it, but it is to be eaten without yeast in a holy place; they are to eat it in the courtyard of the Tent of Meeting. 26 The priest who offers it shall eat it; it is to be eaten in a holy place, in the courtyard of the Tent of Meeting.
6.) According to the law of Moses the priest who ministered at the altar,
received his living from the altar.
7.) His whole life was so wrapped up in the altar and its significance
that it came to modify who he was.
8.) ILLISTRATIONS:
a. No one talks like Preachers except Preachers
b. No one writes like Doctors except Doctors
9.) A Bartender, “ministering at his altar,” he also partakes of the nature of his worship. You will not find many “Tea-tolling” Bartenders.
10.) Priests of Moloch, casting children into fire, become through the frequency of this awful service so hardened to the sight of suffering children that they see a child on an altar like we see a burger on a grill.
• (There is your answer, as to “how an abortionist can do what he/she does?”)
MAIN POINT: What you DO has profound impact on who you ARE.
I. What a man does affects what he becomes.
A. Everyone’s Occupation has an affect his or her character.
1. You can pull them out of a crowd:
a. Farmers.... “Tan Line” -
b. The Mechanics “Hands”
2. It is all because the altar at which we serve puts its impression upon us.
B. The recreations in which we indulge affects what we become. . . even more!
1. Occupation is often thrust upon people,
2. but his leisure hours we choose
C. APPLICATION: Our voluntary acts affect us for more than our surroundings.
1. I do not think I am over stating it when I say, "What You do effects Eternal Destiny."
2. The same man who wrote “Salvation is a Free Gift...” Rom 6:23 wrote
3. “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” Phil. 2:12
4. The Altar You wait on is the Altar you will eat from.
II. All of us wait on Some altar.
A. The days of Moloch are past, but all of us wait somewhere.
B. if not at the altar of the true God then of some other, --
C. Our altar is molding our character day by day.
D. EXAMPLE: Lets look is the man who bows at the altar of Indulgence.
1. All his life he devotes himself to having a good time
a. he pampers every desire, with no particular purpose,
b. he has nothing in particular to live for, no concern for spiritual interests,
c. He’s just living day by day, often going on to excesses, but having fun--
2. After a time this worshiper at the shrine of selfish pleasure, comes to a need of some kind.
a. Usually it is not a long time, either.
b. Then he bows at his altar and his idol mocks him with its silence.
c. If it is financial reverses that are his need, there is no comfort, but rather frustration in the memory of past indulgences which cost money and now that money is gone.
d. It may be that ill health stretches him on a bed of pain, but his fellow worshipers at self indulgence offer little sympathy
e. Finally old age comes & unhonored and uncrowned, his head is bowed in vain before an idol that cannot satisfy and what is left?
f. For so long, he waited at his altar of self indulgence, and now he has become capable of nothing but indulgence there is none to be had.
E. How about the altar of Accumulation? - Hoping to “Make it Rich”
1. The saddest thing about waiting at this altar is that it makes of you a mere "money-making machine."
2. The fable of King Midas well illustrates:
a. Everything Midas touched became gold, but he could not use it.
1.) His food became gold and he could not eat it.
2.) His drink became gold and he could not drink it.
3.) His clothing became gold and he could not wear it.
4.) His family became gold and he could not love it.
b. Wood, Hay & Stubble....
F. How about the altar of Religion?
1. Devotees of this altar look with disdain at those who worship elsewhere.
a. The Self-indulgent are labeled REPROBATES & CARNAL
b. The Accumulators are labeled MONEY HUNGRY (Hard... rich man enter)
2. What’s scary about worship at this altar is those observations are right!
3. The problem lies in the In self-righteous arrogance it fosters;
a. the Religious develop the “We four, No More” mentality
b. They become cold-hearted and unloving,
4. This altar turns their eyes in on themselves till they cannot see the need about them
5. It literally erodes the path that leads them to the need in others, & that erosion eats away any sympathy that may have been left in them.
6. Those worshiping at altar of Religion hear the story of Rich man & Laz....
a. They hear Abraham say “between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.” Luke 16:26
b. APP: They think that it applies to this life!
c. APP: God help us who are religious build some bridges to the lost!
III. So What is the “Real Altar” & How do you “Serve at it”?
1Cor 9:13 those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar
A. The Altar of the Levities was an altar of sacrifice. . . Giving if you please
B. All the other altars people bow to and serve are about getting... even Taking
C. The Paradox is this: When you serve at the altar of sacrifice.... then you get
1. I hesitate to say that because getting is not the motivation, it is the by-product.
2. When you serve at God’s Altar, it changes what you become...
a. You bow before the S-U-N & You get ugly tan lines
b. You bow before the S-O-N & You get everything that is true,beautiful & good.
D. Serving God’s altar denies you nothing worthwhile to be found at false altars
1. It does not deny you personal pleasures:
a. It helps you to keep them in such control that they minister to your soul
b. and make for real and enduring happiness.
2. It does not keep you from making money:
a. but it enables you to see that the only worth in money
b. is in its being used for the things that make for the higher life of the soul.
3. It does not deny you SANCTUARY.... a place of security from worldliness
a. but it does keep you from turning yourself into useless hypocrite.
b. It is ever and always an altar of Service.
c. It makes you a blessing to others and thereby blesses you.
CONC:
1.) Its not much of a worship song, But Bob Dylan was right when he penned the words to the song, “SERVE SOMEBODY.”
2.) What altar are you going to serve at:
a. Self Indulgence
b. Making Money
c. Religious Pride
d. Jesus
3.) If you give yourself to SERVE Jesus Christ ,
You are giving yourself to
the improvement of yourselves,
AND the church
AND our community.
