I Corinthians 9
Jeremy Farmer
Pomona Assembly of God
AM Service - May 5, 2002 1 Corinthians 9
19Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.
20To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law.
21To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law.
22To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.
23I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.
24Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.
25Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.
26Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air.
27No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize
I want to run - sometimes our mindset is not of the right mind. We have so many things that come across and we let ourselves go to a certain extent, that we don’t even think about what is good and perfect after God.
3 Things that Will Trip You up When You Run:
1. Other People - This includes Christians and non Christians alike
Look at Revelation 2: the church in Ephesus. They focused, and affixed their eyes on everything but God, they forsook their first love.
So many christians have their eyes fixed on ‘THEM’ than ‘HIM’...
It’s a low down dirty shame
We as christians oftentimes do this for whatever reason. It’s very frustrating, because see what could happen
Some time back I heard a story about a little boy who got a new slingshot and went out to try it out. While he was trying it out, he took aim on grandma’s pet duck, and to his surprise he hit it and killed it. As you can imagine, the boy was horrified, so he took the duck and hid it in the woodpile. Just as he finished covering it up, he noticed that his sister Sally was watching. After lunch that day, Grandma told Sally to help with the dishes. Sally responded, "Johnny told me he wanted to help in the kitchen today. Didn’t you Johnny?" She leaned over and whispered "Remember the duck." So Johnny did the dishes. The next several weeks were Johnny’s worst nightmare. It seemed like he was always at the sink, sometimes for his duty, sometimes for his sin. Whenever he would almost get completely fed up with it, Sally would remind him "Remember the duck." Finally, Johnny decided no punishment could be worse than a lifetime of washing dishes, so he confessed to killing the duck. Grandma was understanding. "I know you killed the duck. I was standing at the window watching the whole thing. Because I love you, I forgave you. I just wondered how long you would let Sally make a slave out of you." Johnny had been pardoned, but he continued to feel guilty because he listened to the words of his accuser.
DO NOT LISTEN TO THE WORDS OF OTHERS, BECAUSE IN THE LONG RUN THAT IS NOT WHAT REALLY MATTERS
2. The Enemy can trip you up
Look at the book of Job. It’s possible for those who think it’s not possible...
LOOK AT JOB!!!!!!!
2 Samuel 10
11 Joab said, "If the Arameans are too strong for me, then you are to come to my rescue; but if the Ammonites are too strong for you, then I will come to rescue you.
12 Be strong and let us fight bravely for our people and the cities of our God. The Lord will do what is good in his sight."
13 Then Joab and the troops with him advanced to fight the Arameans, and they fled before him.
See, even if the enemy is stronger than us, we can STILL hold onto the promises of God 3. Probably the biggest, YOURSELF
We’re going to talk about this more tonight
- It is your choice
- You can run after the things of this world
- Money, position, comfort, the good life, possessions
- Or you can put your effort into serving Christ
- Put Him first and follow Him
- Wherever He leads you
“You can’t live like hell and gain heaven”
- You can’t live your life like you never knew Christ
- And expect that you will experience the blessings of Christ
- He is not in the business of rewarding sinners
- So they can live under His divine protection
- Christ is not in the business of selling fire insurance
- Against the fires of hell
- So you cannot live your life however you want
- If you belong to Christ
- It has never been part of His plan for you
5 Things about running tonight:
1. Run like you want to receive the prize
2. Run like you want to win
3. Run with everything you have
4. Run like the race is important
5. Run like you know who’s on your side
2 Timothy 4
7I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
3 Questions this morning
1. Who are you running for?
2. What are you running for?
3. How are you running?
