I Corinthians 9:24-27

- tonight we're going to be looking at one of the most
familiar passages in the book of I Corinthians
- these verses are used a lot at graduation banquets and
other special occasions
- I imagine practically everyone here tonight has heard them
and been blessed by their message

- it's good that we've been studying through this book
chapter by chapter and verse by verse because we'll have
the opportunity to put these familiar verses in their
setting/context.

- I'd like to "set these verses up" tonight by asking us to
think about a question

- Often in counseling, we begin the sessions by asking
something like "How was your week?"
- we do that for a couple different reasons
1) to determine if their were any major upsets
2) to determine how they decide what constitutes a good
week, and what constitutes a bad week

- often during the first few sessions, folks respond to that
question with exterior circumstances, like:
- It was a good week because: (INPUT - can you
guess//what kinds of exterior circumstances they might
mention?)
- good week because:
- I got a raise
- my spouse treated me better
- my child didn't throw as many fits

- terrible week because:
- had to get my car fixed
- my spouse was a bear to live with
- my co-workers don't pull their share of the
load

- over time, we've got to help that person change their
definition of what makes a good week/what makes a bad week
- a good week isn't when all the exterior circumstances
go my way
- a good week is when I take steps of growth and please
the Lord regardless of the circumstances around me

- point is - until we have the correct evaluators and the
right goals, we can't possibly determine whether the week
was good or bad
- see, how was your week? -- we can't answer that
question correctly unless we can properly decide
what constitutes a good week or a bad week.

- now, let me broaden that out and then we'll try to tie it
in with I Cor. 9
- let's say that someone asked you - how's your life?

- I realize people don't ask us that everyday, but if someone
did (on board)
- what kinds of things would constitute whether things
were going well or not?
- "things are going well because...."
(growing, effective in evangelism)

- point is - I can't possibly determine how things are going
in my life until I have the correct evaluators and goals

- now let me ask you this - is it possible for a person to
claim to be a Christian, and also be very busy doing a lot
of things--yet in the final analysis---not accomplishing
the kinds of things we've listed on the board?
- of course the answer is "yes"

- I think of a young mother I spoke, not connected with our
church in any way
- had three small children
- her and her husband claimed to be Christians

- their schedule went something like this

1) husband worked tremendous amounts of over-time
- worked doubles - sometimes triples
2) wife woke up every morning at 4:30
3) had the kids out of bed just after 5
4) to the daycare by 6:00
5) she worked a 10 hour shift, had an hour commute
6) picked the kids up at six, grabbed some fast food
on the way home

- they were making a tremendous amount of money
- but by their own admission
- had no time for each other
- no time to find a church home or attend
church
- no time or energy to invest in raising their
kids

- if they were here tonight -- they would look at that list
and say
- you could take any "slice" of our lives you wanted
to (3 months, 6 months, etc)
- you would find that we have made practically no
progress on any of those goals

- It's easy to be busy, it's hard to be effective

- we're talking about the problem of aimless living
- now in these last verses of I Cor. 9 - Paul's going to say
"The Lord doesn't want us to live aimlessly--and here's
four steps to avoid that kind of lifestyle"

- read 9:24-27

I. Run To Win - v. 24

A. Background

- If the apostle Paul were here tonight and he wanted
to liken the Christian life to some sports activity
that you and I would relate to - he'd probably talk
about Purdue basketball, or maybe one of the high
school teams, because that's something we'd relate
to

- for the Corinthians, it was naturally for him to refer
to a foot-race, because that was part of the Isthmian
games that were held right there in Corinth
- there were two great athletic contests in those days,
of course the Olympics held in Greece
- and second to that was the Isthmian games
- the athletes would come to Corinth months before the
games in order to train, so the Corinthians were very
familiar with athletics

- Paul is capitalizing on that and saying--let's liken the
Christian life to a footrace, one of the most exciting
events in the games, both then and now

- we need to talk about what is being stressed and what's
not being stressed

B. What is not being stressed

1. run "for your salvation"

- Paul's obviously not talking about a contest in
order to earn your salvation
- that would contradict all that Paul and other
Bible writers had taught about salvation being
by grace through faith solely apart from works
- even though the Corinthians had a lot of
problems, Paul addressed them over and over as
brothers and sisters in Christ
- the issue here is not their salvation

2. run "against other believers"

- an important principle of hermeneutics is
determining the kind of literature we're
seeking to interpret
- when we're studying parables or figures of
speech, it's important not to "push" the
meaning of every last detail

- we talk about illustrations "breaking down"
- where that illustration no longer fits

- that's true here
- when Paul talks about the Christian life being
like a race -- he's not saying we're racing
against one another
- we're racing against ourselves---fighting
against sin, flesh, and the devil---and every
believer who applies these principles can be a
spiritual winner

- so Paul's not talking about salvation---he's not talking
about racing against one another

(C. What is being stressed)

- Instead, Paul's talking about a Christian's desire to
spiritually succeed
- NASB (end of verse 24) - "Run in such a way that you may
win."

- he says - look out there at those folks competing in the
games
- "What do you notice about them?"
(they're running in to win)

- that’s exactly right
- they're not hoping to come in second
- they're not just glad they got to make the traveling
squad
- they're out there to win

- that ought to be true of a Christian spiritually
- not - "I'm just happy I found the stadium"
- "it doesn't really matter how I do"

- we ought to run to win!

- natural question is:

D. What does it mean to "win" in this context?

- that’s a very important question
- sometimes these verses are used out of their context
- that’s not necessarily bad
- there's some general truths which are appropriate and
applicable to many occasions, but in light of the
context of these verses (which we've studied the last
several weeks) - what kind of winning is Paul talking
about here?

(on board - funnel - handling Christian liberty
correctly, winning others to Jesus Christ)

- winning in this context is enslaving my liberty and
being in the best possible position to win men and
women to Jesus Christ

- one writer said it this way - "The athlete's disciplined
self-control is a rebuke of half-hearted, out of shape
Christians who do almost nothing to prepare themselves to
witness and consequently seldom do."

- Paul says - we ought to want to win
- we ought to have some spiritual ambition
- we ought to want to look at a certain period of our
lives and say
- here's some clear evidences of how I enslaved my
liberty in order to minister to others
- here's some clear examples of how I sought to
tell someone else about Jesus Christ and the
salvation that's available in him
- here's someone who trusted the Lord who's now
been baptized and is a growing disciple

- I don't want to coast - I won't be satisfied simply being
busy
- I want to win

- see, what's one of the evaluators to determine how things
are going?
- am I running to win?
- what evidence is there that I am?

Paul also says:

II. Run With Self-Control

- read v. 25

- verse 24 talked about the what - now he's going to
begin giving us the how-to's

A. Assumes tremendous effort

- KJV - everyone who "strives"
- NASB and NIV - everyone that "competes"

- its the original word "agonizomai"
- INPUT - what word do we get from that?
(agony, agonize)

- that undoubtedly would have called up some pictures
in the Corinthian's minds about athletes that
trained and worked so hard that it was agony

- I think of a woman several years ago who was
running the marathon
- by time she got to the stadium she was exhausted
and they showed her trying to make the last lap
around the track
- by that time she was disoriented and not even
able to run in a straight line
- you could just sense her agony

- that’s the image that Paul's calling up here

- now you know we're not talking about human effort alone
- none of this could be accomplished apart from God and His
word

- but when it comes to the issue of how we enslave our
liberty, and how we go after people who don't know the
Savior
- the way we pray
- the way we act
- the way we witness
- the way we treat our freedoms

- it's agonizomai - agony - tremendous effort

- Paul says - its effort directed at self-control

- "everyone that competes in the games exercises self-
control in all things."

INPUT - what are some ways an athlete has to exercise self-
control in order to be ready to give his best
performance?

- a very important point to notice about the things we just
listed is: many of these things aren't wrong in and of
themselves
- but a disciplined athlete still lays them aside
because it might hinder their ability to win

- someone has defined discipline as "giving up the good and
the better in order to accomplish the best"

"everyone who competes in the games exercises self-
control in all things."

- see, how would you complete this sentence--"If I had better
control of ____________, I'd be a better witness."
(if time, take hypothetical examples)

- Paul also says - this self control:

C. Results in a crown

- one of the thing that amazes Paul is what the
Corinthian athletes were willing to do in light of
the crown they received
- we're not talking about lucrative advertising
contracts
- we're not talking about interviews on late-
night TV

- historians tell us that the crown the winner
received in these games was often made of celery or pine
- it was corruptible, perishable

- it wilted after a few days
- that is so true of sports today

- Could you name who won the Super Bowl five years
ago?
- the world series?, the NCAA Basketball finals?
- the Stanley Cup?

- yet athletes worked months and years for those
honors -- but they're fleeting

- Paul says - but our race is different
- we're talking about crowns that won't perish
- we're talking about crowns that can be laid at the
Savior's feet in worship and praise to him

- Paul is saying - "shame on us"
- shame on us if an athlete gets more excited about
earning a perishable celery crown than we do about
earning an imperishable one

- shame on us if an athlete is more willing to control
himself for temporary rewards than we are to earn
eternal rewards

- see, if we're going to avoid aimless living, we'll have to
I. Run to Win, II. Run With Self-Control

- next Paul says:

III. Run With Purpose - v. 26

- read 26

- Paul says, we've got to run with purpose, and he:

A. illustrated (that) in two ways

1. in running

- if you've been around here a while, you've
probably heard me tell about Bert
- develop - where you going - "I don't know -
I was just running"

2. in boxing

- Paul says - I'm not just "beating the air"
- there's some disagreement here over whether
Paul's talking about shadow boxing or actual
wild punches thrown during a boxing match

- the bottom line is - the point the same
- it's purposeless

- running without a goal is a waste and so is
boxing without a clear target

- Paul says--this isn't a purposeless exercise
- it's not a meaningless game

- he says--these athletes take this serious, and so
should we

- one of the reporters asked Coach Keady about one of guys on
his team and he said - "How do you coach someone who just
giggles all the time at practice?"

- now that's one kind of bad in Big Ten basketball--but its
something completely different when we talk about living
for the Lord
- "Holding tightly to liberties and rights is a sure way to
lose the race of soul-winning"

- Paul is saying --- this is serious

- the couple I mentioned earlier who say they have to work
all that overtime and have to throw their kids in the day-
care for 60 hours a week and have to have the new boat and
all the rest
- when confronted about the fact that they weren't
taking time to develop relationships with each other
and with the Lord
- and certainly weren't having any kind of
spiritual impact on others--you know what they
did?
- they laughed!
- I recently read several notes of a young woman who had just
attempted suicide
- as I read them I thought - "this is a game to this
girl"
- she doesn't have any idea of the seriousness of what
she just attempted

- how is that possible? - by running without aim, by getting
in the habit of boxing at the wind

- purposeless

- we're talking about eternal issues
- we're talking about someone's eternity, and whether it will
be spent in heaven or hell

- the person who all the time wants to say - "but I've got
liberty, I've got freedom"
- doesn't realize the serious of these issues

- Paul says--Run to Win, Run W/Self-Control, Run With Purpose

IV. Run With Self-Discipline - v. 27

READ v. 27

- Paul says - "here's how

A. How

1. I buffet my body

- Buffet - "lit under the eye"

2. make my body a slave

- instead of being a slave to my body, I make my
body a slave

INPUT - what do our bodies have to do with the issue of
Christian liberty? (so many of the Christian liberty
issues have a physical component)
- what we eat, drink, wear, listen to

- some of us are not as effective at evangelism as we could
be because we haven't buffeted our bodies and made it our
slave

B. Why?

- because I don't want to be a castaway

- word literally means - "be disqualified"