SPEAKER_00 0:00

It is good to be with you guys as we continue our discussion. We've been in a discussion for now three weeks on idolatry. And I know that just warms your heart. It's like a really great topic. You're like, man, I'm so glad we're talking about idolatry. This is good, right? And uh, but for those of you who may not have been with us, I want to quickly give you a little recap of where we've been and why today, as we will close out our series, we're we're finishing out uh with this passage. But if you have a Bible, go ahead and pull it out. 1 Corinthians chapter 9 is where we're gonna spend our time today. 1 Corinthians chapter 9. So if you want to pull it out on your phone, uh there's some Bibles under the under some of the chairs. We just ordered some more because some of those have been hopefully leaving with you that don't have a Bible. Uh and if you don't have a Bible, feel free to take one of the ones that's under the chairs around you. But uh we'll also have the words appear on the screen uh behind me. We uh we've said that the last couple of weeks that idolatry is not this issue that just a few people deal with. In fact, we said last week that idolatry is something that we all deal with, it's something that we're all working through. And so maybe when you hear the word idolatry, it doesn't feel real relevant to your life, like what's this have to do with anything, or where am I am I really gonna get anything out of this message about idolatry? Uh my hope is that you would see that actually idolatry is connected to everything in our lives. Um, and that when we really stop and think about it, that the reason we struggle with sin, I think we said this last week, is the reason we ever sin against God is directly tied to idolatry. Uh and so because we worship things other than God, we sin. We we fall into sin and we commit sin and we rebel against God. And so this morning, um, as we think about kind of the the last couple of weeks, we remembered the first week we had defined idolatry so that we had a working definition. Uh, and we said, in essence, that idolatry is anything, uh, an idol is anything that we substitute for God. It's anything that comes becomes more important to us than God. Okay? And so in our lives, there are things that, good or bad, can become more important to us than God. And when they do that, they can be very destructive. That's why this series is called Destructive Idolatry, is because it destroys things when we make it more important, something more important than God. And we said the first week that one of the things that destroys is our relationship with God, that our personal relationship with God is hindered by idolatry. And that seems pretty obvious. I hope it does at least, that when you say to God, God, I'm gonna reject your leadership in my life, your lordship of my life, I'm gonna reject you as my creator and as the one who gets to call the shots, and I want to be in control, I want to be God, therefore I'm gonna do my own thing. When you choose to do that, it's gonna have an impact on your relationship with God, correct? And so, God, it's not that God is insecure, it's not that God hangs on our every worship line from a song, or that he needs us in order to be a God, but it is a sense of that God knows how he made us, uh, and he knows that it is it's deeply offensive to him when we say, God, we're gonna do our own thing. And this is not a new problem. This is all the way back to the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve had everything in a perfect, beautiful place without sin, and yet they still said, you know, God, we really need some fruit from this tree. I know it's the only tree that you said don't eat from, but we're gonna do that because we want this, and we still want to have a say here. We want to be in charge, in essence. We want to call the shots. And so they were deceived, yes, but they also willingly rebelled against God's instruction. And we've been doing that ever since, correct? Agreed? Not only does idolatry, though, impact and affect our relationship with God, it also deeply impacts our relationship with each other. And last week we said, here's the thing, that idolatry will lead us to worship things that we shouldn't worship, because that's that's in essence what it is. And when we do that, we will use people or we will abuse people to get that thing. Or we will neglect people if they don't deliver the goods. So in a marriage, our spouse doesn't give us what we want, so we're gonna give them the treatment to make sure that they know that we're not happy with them. And so a lot of conflict derives from idolatry. When we worship our spouse and we look to them to do what only God can do, guess what we will do? We will crush them with our demands, with our expectations, right? And so it has really bad uh bad outcomes when we put a person in God's position in our life. They can't live up to that. I can't live up to that. Uh, when we put our children in that place of worship, we will crush our kids with our expectations. Or again, if they don't deliver the goods, we will just pout about it, or we will manipulate them, uh, we will hurt them, uh, we will neglect them because we don't feel like that they're living up to our expectations. And so it has a deep impact. Now, this is interesting because the first two weeks really could be summarized by looking at the Ten Commandments. Now, I don't know how many of you have heard any teaching on the Ten Commandments in recent days. It's kind of gone out of style to talk about the Ten Commandments, right? It's like, oh, that's Old Testament law. Let's not talk about the Ten Commandments. Well, I hope you know that this is in the Bible, it's the Word of God, it still has application for us today, and that the Ten Commandments still hold weight. That Jesus didn't come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it, and that in fact, if you look at the Ten Commandments, it's a great pattern for all of our life, right? Because the first two commandments, can anybody tell me what the first commandment is? No other gods. That's number one, right? Number two, no idols, right? No graven images. Don't worship these images, these idols. Now, listen. One and two make logical sense. If you're God and you're trying to tell people to follow you and to obey you because that's where they're gonna find life, right? That's where they're gonna find real life because that's what we were made to do. Uh you would say, don't have any other gods and don't make any gods. Uh then the other eight commandments. Now, I'm not gonna make you go through all of them, though I'm sure all of you could list every single one of them correct. We could get there eventually, I'm sure. But here's the thing you'll notice things like don't steal, don't kill, honor your father and mother, uh, you know, don't don't be don't covet, right? Don't lie. Notice these are all things that happen between people, aren't they? They're horizontal commands. So let me re kind of reshape this and help us see this. That in the first two commandments, we see a vertical orientation, and the other eight, we see a horizontal orientation, a relational orientation with other people. Here's what Martin Luther said about this. He says, if you don't break the first two commandments, you won't break the rest of the eight, the other eight. You see what he's saying there? Because if we listen to God and we obey God and we follow God, guess what? We won't hurt other people. We won't lie, we won't steal, we won't kill, we won't be jealous, we won't take somebody else's wife or husband. We will we will follow God's instruction on this. And so it's just helpful to think about idolatry as a core problem because every sin flows out of making other gods, worshiping other gods. Okay? Now, today we want to take this into a little bit different uh bent. It's really a flow of la out of last week because last week we said that idolatry will impact our relationships with people. And we tried to talk a little bit about how that those demands, those expectations, uh those unrealistic desires to get stuff from people uh that can be destructive. There's there's another component of this horizontal thing that I want us to think about today and consider. And it's in light of the text that we've been reading. So in order to get there, let's go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 9, because we wouldn't let the text drive us. We've been working through the book of 1 Corinthians. And I'm gonna read some and explain a little bit, read some and explain a little bit. It's gonna take us a little bit of time to work through chapter 9, but it'll help set up the rest of the message and to understand, okay, well, what does this look like when idolatry actually destroys the mission that God has for our life? That's where we're going, okay? So let's start in the beginning in the verse 1 of chapter 9. This is Paul talking. He's continuing his writing about this conversation on food sacrifice to idols. Should they eat it? Should they not eat it? He was asked this question from the Corinthians, from the church. They asked him, they said, Hey, is it okay, Paul, if we eat this meat, is it okay or should we not eat this meat? Paul's addressing this question, and in chapter 9, he's actually going to give a personal example of what he's already said in his truth, which is this, that uh we should never abuse our freedom or use our rights to neglect others or to cause others to stumble. Okay? So we don't want other people to see our freedom that we have in Christ, and specifically in this text where Paul says, look, idols, they're not really gods anyway. So this sacrificial system is pretty silly since these gods really aren't real gods. Right? And he says, so therefore, eating meat, not eating meat, like, you know, yeah, this is not really a big deal for us as Christians because we understand the living God. We know who the real God is. So we don't have to worry about that. However, if we eat the meat, we could actually cause people who are weak, people who are weak conscience, he even uses that language, uh, to stumble into sin, to think that it's okay to worship idols, and to not understand the gospel, to not fully understand that Jesus Christ is sufficient for salvation, okay? So he's like, you don't want to go there. Don't do that. And now he's gonna give us his own personal example. So here's what he says, verse one. Starts with four rhetorical questions. Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus, our Lord? Remember his road to Damascus experience where he had an encounter with Jesus? For those of you who know the text, you would know that. Are you not my work in the Lord? Like as in, have you guys not seen fruit from my labor among you? Okay. If I am not an apostle to others, at least I am to you. For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. My defense to those who examine me is this. Don't we have the right to eat and drink? Don't we have the right to be accompanied by a Christian wife like other apostles, the Lord's brothers and Cephas? So he's saying there are other apostles who are married, right? But Paul is not married, he's chosen not to be married, so he can do the work that God's called him to? Or do Barnabas and I alone have no right to refrain from working? Or who whoever goes to war at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat at its fruit? Or who shepherds a flock and does not drink the milk from the flock? Am I saying this from a human perspective? Doesn't the law also say the same thing? For it is written in the law of Moses, do not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain. Is God really concerned with oxen? Or isn't he really saying it is it is for us? Yes, this is written for us, because he who ploughs ought to plough in hope, and he who threshes should do so in hope of sharing the crop. If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it too much if we reap material benefits from you? If others have this right to receive benefits from you, don't we even more? Now, before we get too much further down the train, I want to stop and make sure we understand what Paul's driving at here. Okay? So he's making a case that as a preacher of the gospel, as a minister of the gospel, as this missionary who's been sent by God to take the message of Jesus to all these different people groups, including Corinth, which he's writing to here, he says, Look, if if it's if the truth be known, I could be taking a salary, I could be getting paid for doing this work, and I could be getting, I could be receiving income from you, I could be receiving benefits from you, right? He's like, I'm an apostle, uh, I have worked hard among you, and you can see that that there's fruit from that work. You can see that many of you have come to know Jesus Christ and experience salvation through my work as an apostle, as a missionary. So I'm, I mean, I've done a lot of things, and the the Old Testament sets this pattern in place that says that those who do the work of the Lord should be cared for by those that they labor among, right? So, really practically speaking, he's saying it's okay for a pastor to get paid. It's in fact, we should take care of those who do that. Now, I want to stop there because here I am a pastor on a platform talking about getting paid, right? And there is a cultural concern, and it's it's a legitimate concern. We need to be very, very careful when we come to this topic, and I want to be very sensitive here because this is something that not only in Paul's day, but in our modern day has been abused.

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SPEAKER_00 12:03

Now, what I mean by that is this if you turn on the TV and you go over to one of our Christian stations that are there, um, you might hear somebody on there saying things like, send us your thousand dollars and God will bless you. You know, send us your money and we'll send you a golden eagle, and then your life will be blessed forevermore, right? They say these things like this, and and they're filling their, in like they're lining their pockets with people's hard-earned money, right? Because they are making this, basically, they they've turned the gospel into a way to peddle this message of the gospel into a way to make money and to do really, really well, by the way. Uh I read some stuff this week uh about some of the wealthy pastors. There, there are people that are making millions and millions of dollars preaching the gospel. Now, I want you to understand something here. This is important. Um, I don't know their hearts. I don't know all the circumstances that surround this, but I will tell you, red flags start raising and concerns start coming when I find out that these guys in isolation are doing all these things without accountability, right? And they're very manipulative and controlling, and they're pulling in resources, right, and using them without accountability, and they're using them in a way that doesn't seem to be necessary. Now, God will sort all this out, by the way. I hope you know that. I personally feel like as a pastor, that I stand before you as a congregation, accountable to you, to serve you well, and also accountable before God, and that one day God's gonna, like all the things that are hidden and secret, are gonna be exposed, and and we're gonna stand before a holy God and we're gonna have to give account, right? For what we've done with what God's given us. Please, please, please don't give your money to people who are just like demanding your money because they say that if you give your money, then you're gonna get a blessing. You sow your seed, then you're gonna get blessed, you're gonna get healing, you're gonna get this. Listen, that's not in the Bible. Okay? It's not. They're taking Old Testament passages that were about God's people in Israel, and they're applying it to these people as if it's these promises you can get in in today. Now I'm telling you, if you will be faithful to give, if you'll be faithful to follow God's commands and instructions, you'll be blessed. But it may not be that you're gonna get more money in your bank account. And it may not be that you get healed. So we need to be very, very careful the messages that are out there, right? But going back to this, um, even practically here at point, we have accountability in place because I need to be accountable. I need to know like money is not the end-all be-all for me. I don't want to worship money. And so we have an elder board, uh, four elders, and that I'm a part of that elder board, but those four guys are actually my bosses. I'm under their authority. They set my salary, they determine what I should make. And I propose to them what our other staff should make, and they they approve that. And they have the right to fire me if I'm not honoring God and they could pull me right out of here. God could use them. I'm not like the king of this big pile, this kid machine here, you know, and and getting to call the shots. We need authority, we need accountability. I need that in my life. And those guys decide how God's going to take care of my family. And I'm very, very thankful. I'm humbled that I get to preach the gospel and that I can take care of my family. I'm so humbled, so honored. And my wife would say the same thing as she was standing up here. We feel so blessed that God has freed us to do that. And we we just see it as an honor and a privilege. And I'm thankful that I don't know what all of you give. I don't look at the giving records and say, ooh, I better be nice to them. They're giving more. I don't do that. I don't want to know because I don't want my heart to be into that, right? I want to be free to just preach the gospel and let God do what God's gonna do. And so that's what we should do. Now, again, I just say that all because this is an appropriate place to kind of interject this, that there can be a danger here of idolatry, even amongst ministers, of money and using the gospel for our own selfish means. We trust that God will provide, and God has provided. And I say thank you to all of you who faithfully give to support point. And my family benefits from that by God's grace. It really is a gift to us. But I know that some of you have been hurt by the church, and I'm really sorry. And I'm not talking about in project necessarily point, but other churches, other places, and you've been hurt in this area. And I just want to say sorry for you to you, and that that um God is not honored by that. Jesus is not honored by that. All that said, Paul is making the case here that he has every right to get paid to be supported by the people he's been ministering to. But, what does he say? Well, let's continue on in the text. He gets this in verse 13. However, we have not made use of this right. Instead, we endure everything so that we will not hinder the gospel of Christ. Apparently, there were some who kind of had this attitude. They said, Well, look, the only reason you're even teaching this message and getting these followers is so that you can become rich. And Paul's saying, I don't want that to become a hindrance. And because I'm a single guy, my my my way of life is pretty affordable. I can go pretty lean here. He'd raise some resources from other churches that had sent him out. He'd also worked uh making tents. We know he's a tent maker, so he found a way to make enough income to support himself, and he didn't want anything to hinder the gospel, so he didn't latch on to this right to be paid by them, even though he said biblically, I can make a case that I should be. And what happens is he says here, as we continue on, um he says, Don't you know that those who perform the temple services eat the food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the offerings of the altar? In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should earn their living by the gospel. So that's the same point we've been making, right? If you want to make a living, uh, or if you want to be supported in that, it's it's okay if you need that. Okay, if you need to be freed up to do that. He's saying it's okay. But catch this again. But I have used none of these rights, and I have not written this to make it happen that way for me. For it would be better for me to die than for anyone to deprive me of my boast. For if I preach the gospel, I have no reason to boast because an obligation is placed on me. And what is he saying? He's like, first off, I don't want anyone to deprive me of the boast of being able to proclaim the gospel without monetary gain. Right? It's pretty awesome. He's like, I don't need money to feel like, you know, I'm getting, I'm I'm accomplishing something great for the Lord. But he goes on to say, what? He says, my real boast anyway is in the gospel. This would be consistent with what he says in Galatians 6.14, where he says, I won't boast in anything but the cross of Christ. This is what he says. So he says, Um, for it would be better for me to die than for anyone to deprive me of my boasts. For if I preach the gospel, I have no reason to boast because an obligation is placed on me. And woe to me if I do not preach the gospel. I love Paul's language. Woe to me if I don't actually preach this message of Jesus. Woe to me. For if I do this willingly, I have a reward. But if unwillingly, I haven't I'm entrusted with a stewardship. Now, just one note on this. He's saying, if I willingly preach the gospel to these people, uh I have a reward in that. But if I unwillingly do it, I don't get off the hook. I still should preach the gospel because I am now a partaker in the gospel, I've received the gospel, and I have an obligation in one sense to tell other people about Jesus, right? So some of us sometimes we tell people about Jesus because we want to, and sometimes we tell people Jesus because we're like, I should do this. And that's what Paul's saying, I should be doing this, I should be telling people about Christ. Um, what then is my reward? To preach the gospel and offer it free of charge and not to make full use of my authority in the gospel. Although I am a free man and not anyone's slave, I have made myself a slave to everyone in order to win more people. To the Jews I became like a Jew to win Jews, to those under the law, like one under the law, though I myself am not under the law to win those under the law. To those who are not without the law, or who are without the law, like one without the law, not being without God's law, but within Christ's law, to win those without the law. To the law, to the weak I become weak in order to win the weak. I become all things to all people, so that I may by every possible means save some. Now I do all this because of the gospel, so I may become a partner in its benefits. Now let me stop right there, and then we'll read the last little section. So what is Paul saying? He's saying, Man, I I am willing to do whatever it takes for people to come to know Jesus Christ. I am willing to do whatever it takes for people to know Jesus. So uh I'm gonna become a slave, literally, I'm gonna make myself a slave to people so that they might know Jesus Christ. He says, for the Jews, which Paul was a Jew, he knew all the customs, he knew all the ways that Jews function, he knew, knew their, their, if he was at their house, he knew how to behave like a Jew. So he would do, uh he would basically behave in such a way that wouldn't be offensive to them that might cause them to shut out the message of the gospel, right? And if he's with the Gentiles, then he's making sure he's acting in such a way that's not going to be offensive to them, or they might think he's like condescending, or that he's arrogant because he's operating in his Jewish ways. And by the way, Paul was a Jew, but he also had purchased Roman citizenship. So he had this ability to kind of live in both of those worlds and to really do a great job of connecting with people that were different than him. And so you're like, okay, well, what's the point here, Nick? Again, Paul is so compelled by the grace of God, by the mercy of God, by the gospel that he's willing to do whatever it takes to share the gospel with those around him. In fact, it even says that he would become weak so that he might win the weak. That kind of refers back to this previous chapter we talked about last week, this weak conscience. I have a weak conscience. So Paul, he makes sure they come alongside the weak, and he doesn't like force the gospel down their throat. He comes alongside of them, and in their weakness, he helps teach them, and he is gentle with them, and he is kind, and he's careful in his explanation, and he's careful in his example. Are you with me? And so Paul is very committed to taking the gospel to these people. But go on with me. This is the last section here. It's really, really good. This is probably a section that you uh know if you've been around church very long. It says this don't you know that the runners in a stadium all race, but only one receives the prize, right? Run in such a way to win the prize. Come on, Paul. I'm competitive. This gets my competitive juices flowing here, right? Run to win. He says, now everyone who competes exercises self-control in everything. Why is that? Because anybody was going to compete in their races, and by the way, Corinth was a place where they had a lot of athletic venues and they were, uh they had races and they had these kind of these uh athletic competitions going on, and these guys had to give ten months of training in order to be prepared for these races. They would set aside ten months. This was typical in their day. And he says, uh, now everyone who competes exercises self-control in everything. However, they do it to receive a crown that will fade away. But we a crown that will never fade away. So whenever they won the race, they would get a wreath put around their neck, right? And they're like, you're the winner. Awesome. And so now they got this wreath. But guess what happens to that wreath in three or four weeks? It's all like gnarly and dried up and it doesn't look very good anymore. Why? Because it's gonna eventually just crumble. It's a wreath. It's it's made of these plants that are dying. He says, but we, a crown that will never fade away. We're gonna come back to that. Therefore, I do not run like one who runs aimlessly or box like one beating the air. Instead, I discipline my body and bring it under strict control so that after preaching to others, I myself will not be disqualified. And I should say there, Paul's not saying by disqualified that I would lose my salvation. He's not saying that if I mess up on this thing, I'm gonna lose my salvation. He's saying I could miss out on the rewards that Christ is offering to those of his children who live faithful lives and are faithful with the mission that God's given them. Okay? So, here's where we are. We've now explained this chapter, and I want to dive into how I think this actually connects with us today. So you're gonna have to hang with me for a second, but let's start with this premise, okay? One of the greatest idols in our day is individualism. One of the greatest idols of our day is individualism. Uh, individualism is just a modern word for selfishness. Self-centered, being uh focused on me, that life is all about me. And we do really well in America discipling our children to believe this. Okay? Now, and I and I don't mean that to be facetious or mean-spirited. I'm just telling you right now, we know how to train up a kid to think that the world revolves around them. And many of us have been trained up that way, and we have this way of life that we are living where it's all about us. So we we think about the world through the lens of how does this affect me? How's this gonna make me happy? How is this gonna benefit me? How's this gonna advance me? How's this gonna help people look better at, uh, think that I'm a better person, my image look better, I mean, how is this gonna add value to my life? Those are the questions that are in our heads. And by the way, this is not a new thing, right? But this is how we live as human beings. Because we've said all along that every idol in our life, even other people that we worship, ultimately are propped up by who? Us, right? Because at the core of every idol is me. At the issue with worship that's really going on in my heart is that I'm ultimately saying, God, instead of worshiping you, I want to worship myself. And I want to determine what I'm gonna find life in, where I'm gonna find my security and my significance. Right? That's that's where that's where idolatry really comes from in our heart. So individualism can really lead to multiple things, but it can also produce a private, a view of our belief system. It's like our beliefs are private. Our beliefs are my beliefs, and so as long as I'm clear about what I believe, it really doesn't matter what anybody else believes. Which is where we get our common view, our modern view of tolerance, by the way. Which, you know, says, like, look, as long as you don't mess with my belief, you're all good. As long as you don't try to change my mind on this issue, or as long as you agree with me, we're okay. Right? But in the individualism mentality, we say, you know what, my beliefs, my view of God, my view of how you get to heaven, my view of salvation, that's all private. Well, did you know that the Bible actually doesn't teach that? The Bible actually says that it's not private. Yes, it is personal, but it's not private. That our relationship with God and what we believe actually is something that we um we embrace as we understand God's word, as we understand what it means to be a Christ follower, and then we begin to live out those beliefs, and those beliefs have an impact on other people, including, again, the point that we should be sharing our beliefs with other people. Now, I'm not talking about going around and being the moral police in people's life. I'm not talking about going around and cramming your beliefs down people's throat. That's not what I'm talking about. But many of us have bought the idea that as long as I've got my beliefs okay, it really doesn't matter about anybody else. Think about how unloving that is. Think about how ungracious that is. You see, the problem is that individualism, it produces a lack of care and concern for the spiritual condition of others. It produces this lack of care and concern about the spiritual condition of others. Can I be really honest with you? There are many times in my life where in my comfort, in my pursuit of comfort, in my pursuit of happiness, in my pursuit of my own little world being all the way I want it, I can just find myself really ignoring people around me. Not even aware of them, not even aware of their lostness. Now, that might not be a word that you feel real comfortable with, but the Bible would say that if you don't know God, if you don't have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, you're out there wandering around trying to find the God or find salvation or find something to fill your life, but only God can do that. And so we call that state lostness. Not knowing that your creator, a God, made you and loves you and sent Jesus Christ to die for you. Now again, that might not be politically correct, but that's kind of what we that's how we understand the Bible to say it. And when you're lost, um, you know, you don't know the solution. You don't know the hope. You don't know the peace, you don't know the joy that Christ can bring. And the question I have to ask myself is do I care? Do I care that the ladies cutting my hair doesn't know Jesus Christ? Do I care that the person checking me out at the grocery store for a little longer until Amazon takes over the world? Uh, that, and we don't have people checking us out anymore. Um, but do I even care? Do I care about that person? Do I see them as a human being created in God's image who has value and has worth that Jesus Christ died for? Or am I just okay with the fact that I know where I'm gonna go where I die when I die? And that really doesn't matter. I'm not gonna engage in that because that's just that would be like offensive, or that would probably create some hardship for me if I had that conversation. Now again, we there's a lot in that, but I'm just pointing to the reality that individualism can lead me to not care. It can lead me to think I don't really even have much concern about the spiritual condition of my neighbors. There's times when I drive in my neighborhood and I'm walking with Jesus, and I've had time in the Word, and I'm thinking about God, and it's become natural and normative for me to pray for my neighbors, ones I don't even know, just praying over homes and asking God. God, I don't know who lives there, but I pray that those people there would know Jesus Christ, that they would know salvation. There's other times I drive in my neighborhood and I don't give that a thought. I don't even think about it. I pray that increasingly it becomes normal for me to pray for those who are unbelievers and pray for opportunities to know them, not just to pray for them and say, I hope you send somebody else to talk to them, Jesus, right? So I don't have to. No. God, if you give me an opportunity to get to know them. When we're at the when we go to the swimming pool with my kids in our neighborhood, we pray before we go. I pray in my heart, even if we don't pray out loud together, but we pray, and it was like, God, I don't know who we're gonna meet at the swimming pool, but I pray that you would help us to connect with them, to hear their story, to know their story, and to have the opportunity to share the gospel, the good news of Christ with them. Maybe not the first time we meet them, maybe not, may not be appropriate. But hopefully that I will get to point them to Christ, even through our lifestyle, through the way we are living. But I just think that in our lives, so much of the time, we have this idea that as long as we're okay, as long as we're okay. Now, one of the ways that you know individualism has really crept into your life, your spiritual life, is if you really evaluate your prayer life. This is a really practical way you can you can evaluate this. Let me ask you a question. What do you pray about? What do you pray for? If you never pray for anybody else, that's a problem. If you never pray for the lostness, the unbelievers around you, that's a problem, right? And there's times again in my life where I find myself praying more consistently for the unbeliever, for the people who are lost, but there's other times I find myself not even thinking about them. And I'm just praying, God bless me at this and provide this and fix this and heal this, and you know, but I'm only thinking about me and my prayer life. And so it's an indicator, again, how individualism, the idol, the idolatry of individualism sneaks in. So much so that I don't even pray about the lostness of others around me. And individualism will lead me to not even see people as worth the effort. That's sad, isn't it? But that's where we can go. Now, contrast this what with Paul. What's Paul doing here? Paul's saying, guess what? Because I have the gospel at work in me, I am willing to sacrifice my rights. I am willing to lay down my individual rights and freedoms, which by the way, again, in America, I mean, we are all about this. We worship this, right? My rights, my freedoms, and I'm all for freedom. I'm praising God. We have freedom to worship God in his place. But when we start to elevate that again as an idol, we become people who are so hard towards one another, indifferent towards one another. It's only about me. And so, in contrast, though, the belief, belief in the gospel produces a deep commitment to helping every person find life in Jesus. In contrast, this belief that Jesus Christ did come and he lived a sinless life, and he died on the cross, a sacrificial death in my place, to pay the penalty for my sin. In contrast, that belief will drive a deep commitment to helping every person in my life, in my sphere of influence, find life in Christ. Now, I want to make sure you understand what I'm saying here. I'm not telling you that you can save people. You can't. I can't. I'm not telling you that you are Jesus. You're not. In fact, even saying things like, be Jesus with skin on, you know, is really not good. It's not. We're not going to be Jesus. We can't be Jesus. All right? Our job is to be who we are called to be. We're called to be who we are for the glory of God. If you are shy, then be shy for the glory of God. If that's your personality type, if you're like, I don't really engage with a lot of people, I don't really know how, I'm not real extroverted, I don't know how to do it. Just be who you are for the glory of God. If you're wealthy, be wealthy for the glory of God. If you're poor, be poor for the glory of God. You're like, I don't know how I can do that. You can do it. If you are extroverted, you do that for the glory of God. Be who you are. We're not asking you to be a certain type of personality to be an evangelist, to share the gospel. But we can all own the responsibility to take the gospel to the nations. Okay? We can do that. But our idolatry of individualism sometimes will hang us up. But the gospel will compel us to commit. Notice what Paul committed. Because he believed the gospel. What did Paul commit? Well, even in this passage, he says, I'm committed to the gospel so much that even if I don't have a lot in terms of material goods, I'm okay. Even if I don't get paid from this work that I'm doing, that I could get paid for, I don't care. Because what I care more about is your salvation. At one place, Paul even says this in the book of Romans. He says, I wish I love my people so much that I literally would be willing to give up my own salvation so that they would all come to know Jesus. He says that. Anybody in that camp? Like, I wish I was there. I wish my heart was that bent. I wish I was willing to give up my very salvation so that other people could know Christ. That's amazing. It's incredible. He was laying down his individual rights so that these people would come to know Jesus. We know what Paul went through, right? He was he had rocks thrown at him. He was beaten. He was left for dead. He was shipwrecked. Paul endured a lot of hardship. Why? Because he understood the beauty of the gospel. And it changed his commitment level. That's why in the end, when he says, run the race with perseverance, run the race to win, run the race with self-control. He knows that it takes commitment to run this race. So I would say this: living on mission is difficult, but it comes with great benefits and eternal rewards. Living on mission is difficult, but it comes with great benefits and eternal rewards. Now, I'm going to break this apart a little bit because first off, you have to say, well, what is the mission anyway? That seems a little ambiguous, Nick, and everybody kind of has their own way they say it. Let me give you a few phrases that I've heard, and these capture what we talk about, what we're talking about with the mission. One is uh Harley's not in here, but it's one of his uh pet peeves. There's a song that says all of life boils down to what just one thing, and then they list two things. And it's know God and make him known, okay? But those two things do go hand in hand, alright? So here's the thing. If you want to talk about what's the mission, well, one of them is just to know God, to be a disciple of Jesus personally, to know the gospel, and then to help others know the gospel, to make Jesus known, alright? To know God and to make him known. That's one way we could say that's the mission that we have as a Christ follower. Another way to say it is that Jesus, in his own words, said, go make disciples of all nations. That's another way to say the mission. It's right out of Jesus' mouth. Go make disciples of all people groups, of Ponte Ethne. I met with a guy this week. Some of you guys were a part of the Easter offering. You guys were here during Easter. We did a resurrection offering, and we said, we're going to just take a special offering and we're going to give those resources so that we can pay for a Bible translation for a people called the Rakali people group in Southeast Asia. We met with a guy this week who works for them, the organization that's doing the translation, and it was so awesome that right now across the world, over 800 different translations are going on where they are taking the message of Jesus and they're putting it into a language for a people group that currently does not have it. Isn't that awesome? And this church gave $10,500 just on Easter Sunday to go and to help support the work of that Rakali people group translation. And we hope to give more because we want the Rakali people group to know that Jesus loves them enough that through some believers who live on the other side of the globe, they would sacrificially give so that they can hear the message of Christ in their own language. Isn't that awesome? Now, I say that because the mission that God's given us is a global mission. And we get to take the gospel to every tribe, tongue, people, but it starts right in our own house. It starts right in our own home with our own spouse and our own children and our extended family, letting them know the beautiful message of Christ. That our gospel is not a message of self-help. It's not a message of earn your way to God through checking the boxes of good behavior. That's silly. We would never measure up. That's why it's so crazy to me that the number one answer you get when you ask people, Are you going to go to heaven one day? And they say, Yes, I'm a good person. That's the number one answer you get in the United States, guys. And that is the big fat lie. We can never be good enough. You can't tilt the scales in your way, your side. It doesn't work that way. We needed a savior. We need a rescuer, and his name is Jesus. He has come so that we could have life. And we get to proclaim that message. Listen, it is difficult. That's why Paul said it's difficult. Listen, look, look at what Paul gave up. Look at what Paul sacrificed. There is sacrifice involved. But here's what I know. I know that you in this room, you people in this room, that you understand that there's this phrase that's out there that says the best things in life are free. And I think that you reject that in your core. I think that you understand that the best things in life are the things that you participate and you sacrifice for and you gain by hard work. And because our salvation has been given to us in Jesus Christ as a free gift that He paid the price for, our work, our working out our salvation, our working on the mission, it is hard work, but it is worth it. And to see what Christ has done, to participate in his mission, this is where these benefits come in. Think about it. I mean, just a few of the benefits that come as a people who live on mission with our lives, who leverage our lives for something bigger than ourselves. First, we get a transcendent purpose. It's more than just making a buck. It's more than just having a nice house or a nice car, creature comforts. It's more than just saying we have accolades and people's approval or even getting to a place where we go, well, I climbed the ladder and I got here, and now look everybody looking up at me saying you're a great person. Listen, it's so much more than that. We have a purpose. We have a mission that will impact eternity. Listen, one of the greatest benefits of being on mission with God is we get to see dead people come to life. We get to see people who are on a trajectory of eternal separation from the living God be brought to a path of life. How cool is that? Which means it transforms everything we do, like our jobs, like our parenting, like our hobbies, because we get to participate in the mission as we do those things and point people to Jesus. We get to see people find real hope. We get to watch people experience life in Christ and change. I've watched some people in this room, literally, their whole countenance change as they found Jesus Christ. There's a girl who this past week went back home after being a foreign exchange student here over the last year. And at Easter she accepted Christ. In fact, on Good Friday, she accepted Christ. And I told her last week as we were praying up here before she went back home, flying back home, it was amazing to watch her face literally change as the glory of Christ entered into her heart. It was amazing. What a benefit getting to watch people's lives change by the gospel. You know why people Christians are bored? Because we only think about ourselves. We're not participating in the mission. We're like, I'm going to do the church thing. I'll show up on Sunday. I'll sit through a service. If you're like my five-year-old son this morning on the way to church, he said, Dad, uh, can I bring my fidget spinners so when I get bored during your sermon, I have something to do? Like some of us, that's us, right? I love it. My kids keep it real. It's great. It's good, good humility for dad. Here's the point I'm making. Some Christians, the reason we're bored is because we're not even participating in the mission. We're not. We're just trying to be good moral people or check the box or say we've done some we've done our duty for the week. Listen, God has so much more for you. This is Father's Day, men? Men. God has so much more for you than just providing your kids good things. He wants you to be a spiritual leader in your home. He wants you to lead your kids to live their life for things that are going to matter, for a crown that will last. It's okay, dads, to teach your kids how to play baseball or how to, you know, to play any kind of sport or to be good in the classroom. It's okay, dad, to provide good family vacations. It's okay, dad, you know, to make sure your kids have good meals and good house to live in and a nice room and have a good education. It's good on that. But listen, the most important investment you can make, men, is to tell your kids that what's going to matter in the end is not all that stuff. It's the kingdom of God. It's Jesus Christ. That is living on mission. And we as men, we as dads, we've got to say that because the culture's not going to tell you that. They're going to say, yeah, just keep doing your thing. Have fun. Enjoy life. Guys, there's so much more. I want that for you. God wants that for you. There's eternal rewards. It's a crown of life. It's a crown of life. But also, did you know in Revelation, the book of Revelation, it says that Jesus, when he comes back, he's going to come back with rewards in his hand? Have you read the book of Revelation? It says when he comes back, he's going to come back and he's going to have rewards to hand out to the faithful. Did you know that? We don't talk about this a lot in church. I don't know why. Maybe we feel awkward about it, like we shouldn't want the rewards. I want the rewards. I'm just going to tell you, I want them. I want to be faithful. Now, listen, I'm way, way, way back down the line. I think about how many people have lived and are living on this planet today for the glory of God. And man, they are sacrificing deeply for the kingdom of God. But I want to give my life to the things that matter, the things that last. And I want to be like, okay, Jesus, I'm ready. I'm ready to receive some rewards here. But you know, but here's the cool thing it also says in Revelation that the rewards of the crowns that were given, guess what they do with them? Take them straight over and put them in Jesus. His feet. Because that's he's the one who deserves them. Because if there's anything good that comes out of my life, it's Jesus. It's not me. There's anything that's good that comes out of this life, and you know, any way that I've you know literally denied myself or turned away, it's pells in comparison to the way that Christ denied himself and brought upon himself my pain and my guilt so that I could have life. He's worthy of every reward we could ever receive, anyway. Our willingness to join in Jesus' mission is tied directly to our growing realization of what he has secured for us. This eternal crown, Jesus secured this eternal crown for us. It wasn't something that we could earn. I know we're still battling against that. I know we still think somehow that we have something to do with it. We sang a song right before I got up to preach. And it's the song Glorious Grace. And I'm just sitting there singing that song and I'm just letting those words kind of just come over me to remind myself, because I need a reminder that I do not deserve the salvation that I have in Christ. That it is God's grace. And here's the thing: the same grace that was present the moment that I received Christ when I confessed Jesus as Lord, and I believed in my heart, God raised from the dead, and I was saved, and I had that moment of salvation, the same grace that was present there, and it was definitely there in that moment, is the same grace that is helping me grow and mature in the gospel. I didn't like to stop needing God's grace the moment that I came to faith in Christ. In fact, if anything, it was like, thank you for that grace. I'm going to need it even more as I seek to grow in the grace of God. To grow in maturity, to grow in the kingdom. I entered the kingdom by God's grace, I will grow in the kingdom by God's grace. That's why Paul says to Titus, the same, for salvation has appeared to all men, right? The same grace that appeared to all men brings salvation. He goes on to say, he says, it's the same grace that teaches us to say no to ungodliness. That means it's that growing up process. It's a big word we use sometimes called sanctification, becoming like Christ, saying no to sin, worshiping Christ more fully, more perfectly, which we'll never arrive this side of heaven fully. But we can grow. We can mature. And when I say that Christ is secured for us, I want to go back just to this as we close. Verse 19. Although I am free and not anyone's slave, I have made myself a slave to everyone to win more people. Verse 22, to the weak I become weak in order to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that I may by every possible means save some. What am I saying? Well, this was Paul's example. Paul's example pales in comparison to Christ's example. Even though Paul was an awesome man, think about the words he just said. He says, even though I'm free, I became a slave. You know who became the greatest slave ever? Jesus Christ. He allowed himself to be beaten, to be mocked, to be hung on a cross naked before the world, and to have all of the shame and the sin that I've committed, that you've committed, that the world's committed, put on him. He became a servant, a slave. So why? So that we could become sons and daughters of God. He secured for us an eternal crown through his sacrifice. That's what motivates me to share the gospel. Not because I think that if I share the gospel, then I'm gonna get brownie points. I know I talked about rewards. Those are gonna be fun. But you know what ultimately motivates my heart? The fact that Christ secured that for me through his sacrifice, through his death, through his becoming a slave. And in fact, he even says, to the weak I became weak in order to win the weak. This is Paul's words, but I would say to you, submit to you this morning, that Jesus Christ, he became weak so the weak he became strong. That in Philippians 2, he says he laid down his rights and he humbled himself, taking on the form of a servant and going to the cross. Again, same point, right? He became weak so that we could know life, that we could have salvation. I hope and I pray that my heart will be increasingly freed from the idolatry of myself. And I believe that as Christians, the only thing to free my heart from the idolatry of self is to refix my focus on Jesus. And as I see Jesus for who he is and what he has done, I will be compelled to tell the world about him. I will. I will seek to tell them about the beauty and the wonders and the awesome things that Christ has done. Here's the reason why people don't tell other people about Jesus, because we're not really all that impressed with what Christ has done. That's a sad reality for me. The reason that I don't tell other people about Jesus, the reason that I don't care about my neighbors at times, the reason why I don't really find myself thinking about the person who's cutting my hair or the person who's checking me out at the grocery store or wherever I might find myself is because truthfully, many times my view of Jesus is too small. And so I need God to refresh my heart in that, to help me realize with increasing measure his deep love for me. And when I understand his deep love for me, and when you understand his deep love for you, his love will flow out of you. It will flow out of me. If you've never received the gospel, if you've never received the person of Jesus, if you've never received the work that he did for you on the cross, then my invitation today is simply this: receive the gift of salvation. Receive by faith the gift of salvation. You can't earn it. It's been given to you in Christ. If you have received the gift of salvation, let's go. Let's run this race. Okay? Let's run this race. Let's sacrifice because it's worth it. Let's give, let's go for it. Let's invest, men, let's invest in our families. Let's not stand on the sideline, let's compete. Because we know the crown's going to last. Let's do that with the grace that God provides. God, thank you so much for every person in this place today, and I pray that you encourage our hearts as we continue to learn what it looks like to follow you, to trust you. And I pray, God, for every person, including myself, that's that's sitting in this room, that we might know the power of the cross and the power of the resurrection at work in us, that we would understand our deep need for you, and you would deepen our affections for you. Yeah, we just need you, God. Help us to stop worshiping ourselves. God, may our individualism not keep us from caring about people's spiritual condition around us. May we reflect on the cross and take the message of Christ to the world. Praise in your name. Amen.