Pastor Dan Eddy
1 Corinthians
9:19-27
Endurance:
Winning more for Christ
9-5-10
I.
Introduction - Amazing Race
Berta and I love
to watch the CBS-TV program, The Amazing Race. Have you seen this
show? Eleven teams of two people compete by racing approximately 40 to 70
thousand miles around the world over about a 30 day period, visiting usually 2
to 3 continents.
Teams have to do difficult
physical and mental challenges; eat local food, much is not very appetizing;
indulge in local customs. They travel by foot, car, taxi, train, and planes,
sometime in less than clean and comfortable conditions.
And the team
which arrives first at the finish line wins one million dollars. In the early
seasons of the show it, the second place team won nothing…no money. One million
dollars or nothing.
Winning teams
tended to be the people who best adapted to their surroundings. They were
comfortable meeting people from vastly different cultures. And they usually
appreciated the blessings received from their travels.
Growing the
In this morning’s
text from I Corinthians 9, CLC’s Biblical Figure #1, the Apostle Paul, gives
us, members of CLC, great advice on how to win the prize. But our trophy is not
a million dollars. It’s something worth a whole lot more. It’s winning more
people for Christ, mentioned five times
in our text.
Just to be clear:
Winning more for Christ means saving more souls for eternity by bringing the
love of Jesus to more living in our South Shore Communities today.
But it does
involve interacting with people different from us and showing our appreciations
for the eternal blessings we receive through Christ Jesus.
And the key to
winning more for Christ is endurance.
Training your hearts and minds for a stronger, wiser, and more loving faith to
share to others.
This morning I
want you to think of one person you know a friend, family member or co-worker who
either doesn’t believe in Christ or has fallen away from the Church…this one or
any other congregation.
II.
Purpose and Results Driven, so we don’t
treat God’s gift of grace cheaply.
You see outreach
to the weaker believers and unbelievers is our main purpose for existing as
believers in Christ. It’s taking what Jesus did for all human beings from the
cross, and speaking and living it to those around us.
Now, you may be thinking
that you’re not qualified to share your faith, but if God can take the Church’s
number one enemy, Saul, and make him its #1 advocate, Paul, imagine what He
still has in store for you. You see the Lord doesn’t want just believers in Him;
He’s here to equip us to be His disciples, and there’s a difference.
Believers have
faith, but disciples have faith that is put into action. Believers in Christ can
and do fall away from the Church if they don’t accept being trained as His
disciple.
Sunday worship
and Bible study are training ground for disciples. That would include you,
today. That way we show His gift of grace as valuable by doing something with
it; instead of treating it cheaply by doing little to nothing. There’s a race
to run and prizes to win for Christ.
And Paul is
implying here that the life of a disciple goes beyond being a good student of
God’s Word. It includes observing, knowing, and living in our communities. It
involves developing relationships and friendships with people who are not
believers or weaker believers at best. That’s what Paul’s saying to you here. We
have been selected to be in Christ’s Amazing Race.
And Jesus wants
this congregation to be smart about the way we go about it. Look at His Words
in our Gospel lesson from Luke14. Christ wants you, His disciples, to assess
the plans and sacrifices it will take to reach out to others, to make it work,
and to expect results from it.
You see if we are
just believers and not Jesus disciples than our faith ends up losing its
saltiness to eventually be thrown out. Think of it this way: We have been freed
by Christ at our baptism, and through His Word…freed so we can be a servant to
all. When we look at our faith that way, the possibilities are endless, and
more joys of our faith are just waiting to be discovered.
And Paul adds
that when we live and reach out as Christ’s disciples we do it with a sense of
urgency, like we are in an Amazing Race where there’s only one prize.
III.
Become like others in order to
win/gain-more
Let me see if I
can bring all this Bible talk and race imagery down to a simple practical
scenario. At the last adult Bible study we had in June, we were down to our
last five minutes of the class. And we were concluding our series on what other
churches teach. And in passing, I made a
comment about doing what we can to invite people to our congregation. And one
of the students asked, “And pastor, just
how do we do that?”
I said, “Does everyone know someone who doesn’t go
to church regularly, who has problems in their lives?” And everyone’s head
nodded.
“Great. How many times do people tell you
their problems?” Most
people’s heads continued to nod.
“And how many of you listen?” Still a majority of heads were nodding.
“And at the end of listening and
reflecting on what someone has said do you either say a prayer with them, or at
the every least say ‘I will pray for you.’” One person said she does tell people she will pray for them.
Then I added, “What would happen if you took the time to
listen, reflected, offered to pray and then a week or two later followed up
with that person to see how things were going. Do you think they might begin
to see God in a different light?”
Paul is saying
that you have to be in the trenches with people, empathize with their life,
struggle as they struggle, so you can gain the credibility to speak about
Christ and bring them into His kingdom…to win them for Him.
And in verses
20-22 he describes three types of persons you may run into.
First, the work
righteous person – The Do Gooder. In Paul’s day, it was the Jews who were
really good at observing what we call the Old Testament ceremonial law. The
Pharisees were the best at this. They thought their works earned their
salvation with God.
Now we may not
have Pharisees today but how many of you know people who volunteer their life to
a number of causes and always seem to be helping people but don’t have faith in
Christ or are not active in worship, but think they are good enough to go to
heaven? Paul is basically saying. Act like them. Be that righteous person. Offer to help them with their many good
works endeavors, so you can earn the right to tell them our good works don’t
save us, but are instead acts of thanksgiving for what Christ did when He
suffered and died on the cross.
Then there are
those who have no sense of good works or righteousness…very little clues as to
there’s even a right and wrong. In Paul’s day they were called the Gentiles.
Many engaged in some real immorality….it was Roman culture with all its sex and
violence. Not unlike our culture today.
Now Paul is not
saying act unrighteous as them, but find out why they act the way they do. Even
Jesus ate among the sinners which included tax collectors who cheated people
out of money, and prostitutes.
For today, we
know people who act in ways oblivious to morality. A recent survey done on
morality for people 30 and under revealed something shocking to the surveyors.
They were phrasing questions in terms of right and wrong, and the participants
did not understand the question because many of them didn’t know what right and
wrong was. What was right was whatever you thought it was. And to be told
something was morally wrong was not in their vocabulary.
And yet these
people need to hear the Gospel as well to know the wrongness of their sins and
the righteousness Christ gives us in His Word.
And Paul says in
Romans 2:15 that the law, in terms of right and wrong, is written on our
hearts. But many people are in denial about that, and many times it takes being
personally hurt to really see that. I guarantee you if someone who doesn’t
think there’s a right and wrong discovered their house was ransacked, their
child was kidnap or a loved one was assaulted, they guarantee they would quickly
develop a sense of right and wrong.
And then there
are those who are weak in faith; they believe in Christ but they’re mourning
the loss of a loved one and not grieving well. Or someone’s facing a terminal
illness and angry at God. It’s amazing how listening, providing a meal, and
doing chores for them earns you the right to speak about Christ’s bore their afflictions
and loves them to heal their hurts.
But all of these
take empathy toward others and endurance in the faith. And Paul is realistic.
Our efforts driven by Christ will not always work. Not all will be saved, but
even if it’s one, it’s worth it because the prize Christ gives us with His
suffering, death and resurrection is worth more than all the wealth in the
world.
IV.
Conclusion: Apply to changes starting next
week
That’s one of the
reasons why next week we start worship a half hour later at 9:30am. We didn’t
make the changes strictly for the convenience of our membership. Rather a
family approached me some months back and wanted to make we are doing what we
can, as smartly as we can, and passionately as we can, and urgently as we can,
to win as many as possible for Christ as we can.
I recently heard
at a pastor’s conference that it takes on average of 70 members in a
congregation to bring in one new member….not a visitor, a member.
I know of at
least 3-5 households in this sanctuary now that are actively inviting people.
There may be others but they have not made me aware of they are doing that now.
Imagine if that
number doubled or tripled how many more could be gained for Christ?
Let me leave you
with this final thought: If you didn’t
know what you knew about Christ, wouldn’t you want someone to tell you about
Him?
Don’t treat God’s
gift of grace cheaply. Be more than a believer; be His disciple. Let Christ’s
love from the cross and grave, given at baptism, renewed in His Supper…fill you
with the strength and endurance to win more for Christ. Amen.