Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share 1 Corinthians Week 9
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
1 Corinthians Week 9
Sermon Transcript:
Thank you all very much for having me back. I appreciate it. I flew in this time. And when I landed, your pastor picked me up. And he said to me, when we sat down, he said, Now you heard about the attempted assassination. Right? I was, I had no, I was just flabbergasted, had no idea what had happened. And we still don't know a whole lot. I mean, I'm sure some of you all have kept up with the news and the things that are going on there. But, you know, if, if I could contribute just one word to all of this, it would be to say something like this, that, you know, if if you come to a point in your life, where you think you need to use violence, in order to preserve a society, or in order to do something to defend a society, you just don't understand what a society is, you just don't get what it means to live in a society. Society is a community that exists together with stability and security and has a sense of what it means to maintain that being without having to do it at the end of a gun. So I could say, oh, you know, what a terrible person. And of course, it was a terrible person who tried to do that. And we all give thanks to God, that he preserved Donald Trump's life yesterday, Donald Trump is a man who bears the image of God, and we're grateful for him. And we should be that that concerned about any person who would face anything like that's ridiculous that we would think that we're going to find a solution in something like that. And so whether you're on one side, or the other of the politics doesn't make any difference to this, you should be on the one side of society that says the way we exist doesn't allow us to resolve things that way. That's, that's just not okay. So, thank God for having stifled that and, and put it down. And we're glad for where we've ended up with it. But you know, if I'm talking to any individual, I'm gonna say the same thing. If you have to use violence, to preserve what you think is valuable to you, you don't understand what it means to be a part of a society. That is not who we are. And it's not what we're supposed to be. And I say that to you now, not just neutrally, but because as we're going into First Corinthians nine, you know, Paul starts out the chapter by any rights, this whole chapter, it sounds very defensive, like, Hey, I'm Paul, I can preach to you I can tell you what to do. And I can take money from you if I want to. That's kind of what the chapter sounds like when you read it just on the surface of it. And it's actually quite the opposite of that, because what he ends up doing in this chapter is not defending himself as a person who communicates the message of God. But instead speaking to all of us, and to this congregation, they don't know it yet, but it's coming in the next chapters. He wants to turn the whole conversation into a talk about them, and what it means for them to be a messenger of God to carry to people, this news about god that's so important, just this news about what God is doing. So what he starts out saying is, what what is it essentially mean, for me to be a person who tells you about what God is doing in the world? Just like I would say you what does it mean to be a part of a society? Well, in this case, Paul is saying, what does it mean to be the kind of person who talks about what God is doing in the world, and what makes that important, so it starts out being about him. So what I want to do, it's a fairly short chapter, we can get through it pretty easily. But I want to take the first half and just kind of push it aside, I want to mention it to you run through it and read it to you. But it's point is so simple. It's just Paul saying, well, it's not this, you know, it's not about this. And so I want to show you that. But then at the end of the chapter, I want you to hear him saying what it does mean, for us, for any person for him, for all of us, to be the messengers of God to be the people who stand in this world, and tell people what God is doing in the world. Because what God is doing in the world is amazing, as you've heard in the prayers, and as you've sung, as we worship God for the things that he does, are amazing. So what is it? What would it mean for us, essentially, at the core of it, to be the people who are able to talk to other people about what God is doing in the world? So first Corinthians nine, the first two verses, he just introduces the question, Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seeing Jesus our Lord? Aren't you my workmanship in the gospel? I mean, because he's the one who led many of them to be followers of Christ, if to others, I'm not an apostle, at least I am to you, because you are the seal of my apostleship and the Lord. And it's in that statement that we're aware of where he's going in the chapter saying, you know, you're the evidence that God is using me as His Messenger, I'm, I'm speaking on his behalf and of all the people in the world, he should know it, you should know it. That's what he says to them. So essentially, what he's saying to them is, what what does it mean that I'm the person who talks to people about what God is doing in the world. So in verses three through 15, the next section, part of the first half of the chapter that we're just kind of blowing through right here. He offers the option of saying, Is it because and we would say it this
way in our culture, I think, is it because I wear a collar? Is it because, you know, a clerical collar? That idea? Or is it because that's how I make my living? You know? So I have the title, well, he's a priest, or he's the pastor, and you should go to him to find the answer. Is it that kind of answer? Obviously, I've already told you. I mean, this is not a spoiler, because I'm telling you, it's the point, he's obviously going to say, no, that's not why I'm a messenger from God. So starting in verse three, he says it this way. So this is my defense. And first, he's gonna say this, I could do that. I can be a messenger of God, who makes my living off of the fact that I'm communicating the message of God. And he says, Indeed, some people have to do that. Or you wouldn't have messengers who are able to lead your congregation, for instance, and things like that. So he's going to start out saying, it would be perfectly justifiable for me to say to you, of course, you know, I'm a messenger of God. I mean, that's how I make my living. What do you think I'm gonna do? He could do that? So these verses say that this is my defense to those who would examine me? Don't we have a right to eat and drink? Don't we have a right to have a believing wife? Or do as the other apostles and the other end? And the brothers of Jesus himself or Peter himself does? Or is it just me and Barnabas? Are we the only ones who don't have a right to refrain from having to work a living now for people who are insulted who are in ministry and say, so you're not working or living if you're working in paid ministry, that would miss the point, that in their culture, working a living meant being a day to day workmen, you know, going out making tents or something like that, it's a skill set that had to do with manual labor. That's how they're using the language goes on to say this, that wouldn't make any sense. Because I mean, what soldier serves his own expense, he gives three different examples here, or who would plant a vineyard and then not eat any of the grapes that came from it, or who's going to tend to flock and not get any of the milk that comes from the flock? And so it goes back to the Old Testament and explains to them why it makes perfect sense that they do have a priestly class in the Jewish culture, that they do have people who are going to give themselves to the ministry, and that's going to be their job. And that makes perfect sense. It's fine. So in verse eight, he says, Do I say these things on purely human authority with those examples? Doesn't the law say the same thing? It's written in the Law of Moses, don't muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain, you get the ideas and trade and out the grain? You let it eat from the grain because it's trading out the grain, that's the idea of workman's worthy of his labor. So is it or is higher? Is it for oxen that God is concerned when he says that? Isn't he speaking it for our sake, it's written for our sake, because the plow men should plow in hope of, of the crop that comes from it, the thresher should thrash in hope of sharing in the crop. If we've sown spiritual things, to use it too much that we reap material things from you, if others share this rightful claim on you, don't we even more. So Paul says, look, if I wanted to come to you and say, I'm the messenger of God to you, and you should take care of me, give me a bunch of money, something like that. That'd be perfectly fine. But then he says, but I don't do that. And there's a reason I'm not doing it. And it doesn't have anything to do with not being able to do it with perfect legitimacy, it would be fine. But it's not what makes him a messenger of God. So he goes on to say that, that it would be strange if what we said was, well, here's how you can know I'm a messenger of God, because I have the sign that says, I'm a messenger of God. Or you can know I'm a messenger of God, because I mean, after all, that's what you paid me for. So I must be telling you the truth. I couldn't do that. But that's not going to do it. So he says, Nevertheless, there's in verse 12, at the end of the verse, Nevertheless, we've not made use of this right? But we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the one thing that matters, the message of God, the gospel of Christ. Do you do you not know that those who are employed in the temple, these would be the priests who are the messengers of God historically, in Judaism? Don't you know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple? Those who serve at the altar, a lot of us don't, aren't aware of this, that when when the when the in the Jewish tradition when you would bring the sacrifices and this is how it's described in the Old Testament, when you would bring the sacrifices you didn't to bring the sacrifices in, and then go back, you brought the sacrifices and it was sort of like a barbecue, you know, you a the priests ate, everybody ate, and you were having communion with God in the process. That was sort of the benefit of it. That's what he's referring to. So don't you know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings in the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.
But I have made no use of any of these rights. Nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision. He's not criticizing the people who do he's not second guessing it at all. That is the right way for things to be but he's saying to them because of a lesson he wants them to learn from him. Indeed, one chapter hints
By the time you get past chapter 10, he's going to say the words Imitate me, as I am also imitating Christ. That's where he's going to arrive. He says to them, I don't use any of these options or any of these things as a ride, I would endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ. In verse 15, I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision, because I would rather die. And he never says that lightly. When he's saying those words, he's imitating Christ, I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting. And what he says is the pride that I have in the Gospel, this is the point his boasting is that he is here to represent the message that God wants to give. And so he's, he's not told us why he does it. He's not told us what the value of it is yet, but he has made clear to us why he's not going to do it, he's not going to do it for whatever he's going to receive from it. I'd love to spend time on all of that what it means we don't have time for it today. But the end of the chapter, this is what I want us to get. So he introduces the idea in verse 16, through 18, saying it this way. And I'm just going to tell you, what this means is being a messenger of God, being a person who can tell people what God is doing in the world does mean giving something up, always, it always means giving something up. And so it means that for Paul, so he only find something to celebrate in this in the fact that he's given up the right that he had to benefit from what he's doing, going around and sharing the gospel with people. So he says in verse 16, if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. Because I was already obligated to do that necessity is laid upon me. In fact, Woe to me, if I don't preach the gospel. This is a common theme throughout all of Scripture, Moses is that way, I don't want to do it. But he has to do it, Jeremiah, I tried to quit, but it was burning in my bones. You know, if you read the Old Testament, all the way into the New Testament, the, the apostles, everybody, they all have this crisis, I don't want to do it. But I have to God has put this on me. And so I have to carry this forward. It's the same thing that happens with all the disciples, by the way with Jesus. So anyway, he goes on. So necessity is laid on me, well, if I don't preach the gospel, if I do this on my own will, And he doesn't mean by that of my own free choice. What he means by that is for my own benefit, if if the things I'm interested in are the thing that drives me to carry this message, then I'm not really committed to the message. This is the core of what he say, the message itself is so valuable to me that it doesn't matter what it costs me, it doesn't matter what I would have to give up, it doesn't matter what I would have to lose, I would have to be faithful to this message no matter what. If I did it on my own, will, I it would be no reward to me. But if I do it, and it's not of my own will, then I realized that I've been entrusted with a stewardship, what then would be my reward, what, what then is my interest in it, because we always have an interest in things. And he says that in my preaching, and don't misunderstand preaching, you think of me preaching today, because I'm standing up here on the platform, and I've got a microphone. And you know, preaching is just a generic word, declaring these truths about God and what he's doing in the world. And the word is used about every person, every person who's a follower of God, that we communicate these truths about God, but he's using it about himself right now that in my preaching, I might present the gospel FREE of charge so as not to make use of my right in the Gospel. That is, you can't serve your own interest and then just tack on God as a side effect of it. You know, I was really trying to build my business they weren't working out very well and then then I got saved and my business did great. So I think gods are pretty good tack on to your life, you know, you ought to become a Christian to you do that with 1000 different things and it just doesn't work that way. When I was and I and when I say that doesn't work that way I mean, in your heart and life and certainly in the Gospel, that's not what God has given us to do.
You know, my my example of this would be in my in my own in my own I like to do a variety of things. So I've told you all I do Astro photography, it's why like, I love West Texas and dark skies and all that kind of stuff. And one of the things that I did with my son in law a few years back quite a few years back now was we kept bees for a little while I don't know if you have any individual kept bees but there's a whole lot involved in it. So if you and we put up a couple of hives near a
tree farm so that so that we would get good really clean honey from it and we did we got beautiful honey from his fantastic but the truth of the matter is, I mean if you're really going to be a beekeeper if you're going to keep bees, you have to do things you know, you don't just set up the hive and leave them alone you set up the hive and you check for molds or pests or you check the health of the queen or to make sure the brood is coming out right and all this stuff you know
I didn't want to be that kind of Beekeeper. I just wanted to be a beekeeper who kept bees. Number one. So I can tell people I kept bees because I thought it'd be cool. You know, he's the guy who kept bees. Look at that, what a courageous person anyway, so I would keep bees and then I could harvest the honey as we say, rob the rob the bees of their honey, you know, twice a year or so, because I love honey, I just I love sweet things. So I love honey. So I wanted to get honey. And we did get honey gallons of it from these two hives as we kept the bees. But for me, it was just attack on. I mean, I had my job, I had all the other things I did on the side and twice a year, I'd go down with my son in law, and we go into the tree farm and we find the hives and see how they were doing and collect the honey and then spin it all out and do all the stuff you do when you're collecting honey, which is a major ordeal. But really, it was two full days a year that I was giving to keeping bees and I heard a guy one time explain what that actually meant, he said, so you have beekeepers, and those are the people who do all the stuff I was telling you you ought to do when you keep bees. And then he said you have bee havers. And I realized that I was a bee, however, I have bees, I don't keep bees, you know what I'm saying? I didn't actually take care of them. That's how a lot of us treat the gospel. It's the thing we do on Sunday, we show up and we get this tack on to our lives, that makes our lives a little better. Maybe we get a little, a little taste of the genuine sweetness that comes with God. Because worshiping God is always a beautiful thing, no matter what. finding peace in his presence is always a beautiful thing, no matter what. So maybe that's what it is to you. You just show up on Sunday, you know, you get your harvest of honey, and you go back home, and you're not tending it during the week or doing any of this stuff. And I'm glad you enjoy the honey. But that's not what the gospel is intended to be. It is more than that the way I kept bees is not the way for us to keep the gospel. Now the point we get to is two parts that come in the conclusion of the chapter for Paul. And he says it first in verses 19 through 23 By telling us all the things that we shouldn't give our attention to because they will distract us from the one thing that actually matters, which is the gospel. And here's how it shows up very negatively starting in verse 19. Because he says this is why I only want to focus on the gospel, I want to keep the gospel, I don't want to just have it, I want to be a person who attends to it. And he says one of those reasons is because even though I'm free from all I've been redeemed in Christ, and I am free in him without any obligations, that's all true. I have made myself servant to all. Now he can literally use this expression in his political context in his society, because he's a Roman citizen. Nobody has any authority over him beyond any other Roman citizen. And yet he has and he uses the word made himself a servant to all he has enslaved himself to weird thing to say, I have made myself a slave to other people. This is the do last word for those of you who know, these Greek words that are used for servants. This is not Dr. conosce, which is a slightly more respectable form of the word servant. This is the do last word, I enslaved myself to a person so that I'm obligated to these people, whether I like them or not. That's what he's saying it. So I have made myself a servant to everyone, so that I might win. And he means by winning, sharing with them the good news about Christ so that they experience what God is doing in the world, also, the more of them. Then he says, what comes across to us kind of like a random scatter of ideas about who the kind of people are that he's willing to serve. But it's not random. It's not a scattered set of ideas. These are the people who would be the most obnoxious to him for one reason or another. And they do cover the range. So starting with the Jews in verse 22, the Jews I became as a Jew in order to win the Jews. Now he is Jewish, but at the same time, he's been redeemed into Christ. And he knows that doesn't separate him from the Jewish people. But he's alienated pretty much everybody who's Jewish by this point in his life, because he's a follower of Christ. And they view that as a cult, so he's doing crazy things in their eyes. So he chooses two examples of the kinds of Jews he chooses to serve. Starting in verse two, the second half of verse 22, those who are under the law I became as one who was under the law, and then he puts in parentheses to make it obvious to us. That is not the case about him, even though I myself was not I'm not under the law at all. But I want to win those who are under the law. For him. These are the people who are going to persecute him and bring him to beatings, they're going to end up being the reason he is arrested and put before Caesar and ultimately most likely loses his life during that episode.
All of that's coming from these people, the ones who were under the law. And then he says in verse 21, to those who are outside the law, Now you would think he would be saying about them, well, the ones who are like me, they're not like him. These are the people who are outside the law in their Judaism, before anything was being talked about regarding Christ. These are the people who are irresponsible in their Judaism, the people who were Roman sympathizers, or Greek sympathizers, the ones who were naming their kids, if you'd lived in France in 1933, this would be a kid, a family in your neighborhood, naming their kid, Adolf. That's the kind of people these would be. And he says, But I made myself a servant. To those who were outside the law. I became like them for their sake. Even though I wasn't outside the law of God, I was under the law of Christ. But I wanted to when those who were outside the law, I was willing to serve the people who were trying to have any executed, I was willing to serve the people who are antithetical to everything I stand for in our society, I was willing to serve them because I gave up my identity, so that I could represent the message about what God is doing in this world, to everyone. That's how important it was to it. So he goes on to the week, I became his week so that I might win the week. Now the week is in the context of the meat that Joe talked about last week. And the meat we'll talk about again next week, probably in chapters eight and 10. And who can eat it, who can eat it and the poor argument of the people who are saying, well, you can't eat meat, that stuff's been offered to idols and sort of the weakness of those who have a poor way of thinking about the truth. And Paul, now, I mean, he is a brilliant logician, and thinker. And in his right, I mean, I teach logic at a collegiate level. And I use some of Paul's arguments from his epistles to give illustrations of the logic that he's using when he makes his points. He is a strong thinker. And you know, when we're around people, we think we're a stronger thinker than they are, we have a tendency to just start throwing names at them, not because we don't think we're smart enough to make our point. But because we're so disgusted by their stupidity, that I can't believe these idiots are allowed to run our country kind of thoughts, right? That's how we are Paul said to the week, I just decided to become as weak
so that I might be able to win them as well. To people who are wrong on the face of it, he's saying, I attended to them where they were, instead of lording my superiority over them. So in verse 22, he concludes it by saying, Look, I became all things to all people. So that by all means, I might just save some of them. And I do it all, for the sake of the Gospel, so that I can share with them in its blessings. For those of you who are listening very carefully, you think there's a contradiction going on? Well, I'm not doing this for myself, but I am doing it sharing the blessing of the goodness of God's blessings on us. But his whole point here is I would give up any of those blessings so that I could share the blessings with them. I want them to have it. That's why he enslaved himself to anyone, if he can just tell them about what God is doing in the world. So when I was keeping these bees, after two or three years, we began to recognize the distinctive personalities in the two hives that we had there were right next to each other, but they didn't mix you know, they they separate themselves. And so in the one hive, he was fantastic, you know, I mean, you could walk up to it with you and have to have a suit on, you can walk up to this hive, take the top off, take out one of the one of the hives, one of the combs and you can steal the honey right in front of them and they wouldn't care there. They were just that those kinds of bees, they were super peaceable. They just didn't ever attack. The other bees were the opposite. The other bees you would get within 50 feet of their hive and I'm not exaggerating, you get within 50 feet. And we you know, I suited up I wore a suit I was a baby about the whole thing. I'm not one of these guys that's going out with their bare hands in like, oh, I have steak doesn't bother me. I cry like a baby. When I get stung. It hurts me now. I don't hurt more than I thought it would hurt. And I got stung a bunch anyway, I'm wearing I'm wearing my whole suit and I'm telling you, you know, I'm thinking well, okay, so Jonathan says this hive has turned out mean it's probably interbred with some other bees somehow or whatever. So but it won't be that bad. So I'm going out there by myself one time. And you know, I've got a smoker. So the smoke desensitizes them to the pheromones they use by scent to decide to attack or do whatever it is changes their mood all together. So I've got a smoker, it kind of goes out. I'm thinking I'm suited up. I'm just taking one comb out. It's not going to be that big a deal. I get within 50 feet of the hive and I'm thinking oh, yeah, now they're gonna come and they're gonna start and I hear a bee I hear two bees. I hear three and you're thinking oh, they really get around you know, like, do those terrible bees terrifying. That's not what it's like. I'm telling you I got 50 feet from the hive and it was like, by the bees are attacking
Me, I mean, they are completely covering my suit. And I'm a reasonable person I'm, I'm, so I'm not saying this braggadocious Lee, it's just my personality, I will probably end up dying because I'll see a bowling ball bounce on the highway, and it'll come through my windshield, and I'll just go, Oh, look at that. And it'll hit me in the head. I just don't react to things very strongly. They just don't, they don't do that to me, and this was freaking me out is like, that is too many Bs to be in one place, there is no way this is safe. I do not like this. I taught myself I taught myself calm, you know, it's like, oh, go over there do the job you need to do I did the job I needed to do, I closed up the beat thing, I was never so glad to get away from a bunch of BS in my entire life. I'll tell you more about that episode in just a minute, because I didn't quite get away that cleanly. But I'll tell you that in a second. My point here is that we're, we're so obsessed with so many different legitimate distractions in the world. Some of them are political, some of them are personal, some of them are social, some of them are economic. Some of them have to do with a job, you got people that you hate, who are attacking you from the outside, and you got circumstances that are coming at you and diseases that you're hearing about. And everything in the world is just
getting your distract you distracted from the only reason that you would go down there to begin with, which is to get the honey. I mean, we're here in this world, because we've seen what God can do in the world. When he takes a person's life and transforms it, we've seen that. And it's worth getting through all of those distractions, without focusing simply on them. And that's what we have a tendency to do. And that's what Paul is talking about here. He's saying, I did I don't allow myself to be distracted by the fact that be over there is one of those law keeping Jews and that be over there is one of those ones who never understood what it was to represent the righteousness of God in the world. And that'd be over there was a Democrat, and that'd be over there was a Republican, and that'd be over there. He's at work, and he's undermining the things I'm doing it my job. And all of those are legitimate attacks from bees on you, and they come in this world. And Paul says, I don't want to pay attention to any of that, because all I care about is Barney. That's why I'm here. And the gospel is the honey. That's why we're here. That's the first part is for him to take all the other distract all the reasons you have for paying attention to something else. And remember how much better the gospel is than that? Are those things legitimate? Are they real? Do they have to be done? Yeah, they are. They're real. But none of them is even on the same level, as the ultimate purpose for which all of this is here, which is him the gospel, the good news that we have. Alright, that's the first part. The second part of what he says, comes in the form of an illustration, he starts another illustration in chapter 10. And then he takes us off in a different direction, we're not going to go there. But in this first illustration that he gives, at the conclusion of the chapter, he really makes the whole point of this chapter. So in verses 24, through 27, the illustration He gives us about running a race, don't you know that a race all the runners run, but in in that race, only one person receives the prize, so run so that you can receive the prize every athlete exercises, control and everything, they do this to obtain a perishable wreath that's put on their head, but we were running for an imperishable crown. So I don't run aimlessly. I don't box as one beating the air, I discipline my body and keep it under control as after preaching to others, I myself should be disqualified from running for the prize that I'm trying to obtain from staying focus on the honey. But in this case, it's not saying don't be distracted by all of those things out there. But instead, don't allow any individual thing at all to keep even the pain that's involved to keep you from being focused on the one goal you have in front of you, which is the honey so when I had all those bees swarming around me, and they never stopped, I mean, they were just it was just persistent. When I had them swarming around me and I was trying to find a way out of that situation. I had my truck parked probably 100 yards away in a pasture on the other side of the tree, the tree farm and so I you know, I decided I close up the hive and I'm all done and I want to get so I'm just calmly gonna go back to the to the truck. The windows are all open but I'll get in the truck and I'll drive and we'll get the wind going and you know, the bees be gone and then then I'll be good. So I'm so I'm walking back towards the truck.
1000 10,000 I don't know a million. I'd like to say a billion bees are on my suit and just terrifying. And then I realize there's one bee in my suit.
It's in my bonnet. You know that guy as they call it. You know what I'm talking about the headgear that you have on. I have a headgear on and there's a beat bumping into my face. So it's like it's just, it's just bumbling around in there, just bumping into me. I'm sweating so much. Hopefully that's what's keeping it from
be motivated to sting, but
I just I can't explain to you how terrifying it is to have a bee inside your bee suit. You mean you have a bee suit so that bees can't sting you. And here and I'm not, you're gonna think I'm making I'm not making this up, it bumped into my eyeball. And I'm like, I don't want to get stung in the eyeball. And it went up my nose, and I snorted it back out my nose, I'm not exaggerating. I again, I'm a fairly rational person, in most circumstances, I was terrified. So I get back to my truck, and I got a drive and I'm going to drive across this pasture. And when I'm clear of all the other BS that I can take my bonnet off, and everything will be fine. And so I get in the truck. And I mean, there are still 1000s of bees with me when I get in the truck. I know they're still attracted to me. And so I drive I'm driving as fast as I can across the pasture. The bees are all in the truck, they're all around me. I'm like, this has got to stop this bee is just bumping into me, I know it's about to sting me. And the stupidest thing in the world is I'm afraid of being stung by one bee while I got 1000 Bees outside trying to get to me through this suit. I'm telling you, though, I can't keep that hat on. So I'm like, Okay, I'm stopping the truck. So I did the thing, I stopped the truck, I hop out, and I start running from the truck as if I can run faster than the truck was going. And I take my hat off. And I think to myself in that moment. This is it. This is this is when they find the truck running in the middle of a pasture and the door open and a dead body with his hat off. And they're like, why did he take his head off? You know, and I'm like, You should have been here. Just that's why. And I end the bees are starting to bomb my head. None of them stung me. I have no idea why they're bombing my head. And I'm terrified. So I run all the way across the field, there's a this is by the way, if this ever happens to you get to a water hose. Because when you spray these, they lose all the pheromones that make them want to do anything. They just don't care anymore. And then they dry off and they go away. They don't care. So I found a water hose. I knew there was a faucet over by the bar and I sprayed start spraying the water the bees all go away. They leave me alone, everything's fine. I lived. So yeah, if you're not sure I did live.
But man, I'm telling you, when you have literally I learned that day what the expression having a bee in your bonnet means when that B is in your bonnet, nothing else matters. That is the only thing that matters. And that's what we do. Unfortunately, with things aside from the gospel, we get one thing. And we think that's why we're here. I'm going to focus on I'm going to work on politics, I'm going to work on education, I'm going to work on being the best in my business, I'm going to work on wealth, I'm going to work on whatever it is, whatever you want to work on, all those things have to be done. All those things end up being important, it's good. Get to be out of your mind, that's all fine. None of that matters at all. If you don't get to the honey, if you don't, that's the only reason I would bother putting on the suit, or even caring about the rest of it. The honey is all that matters. That's what people want to find in jars. They don't want to find a little rolled up scroll that says here's how I got away from the bee that was in my bonnet. I paid five bucks for this. No, you pay five bucks for a jar of honey, we live in the world to provide people not with the one thing that's most important to us, I've got to get that taken care of. But to the one thing that ought to be most important to us. The gospel, that good news, the reality of what people encounter when they're alone and realize Christ is with them. The reality of what happens when you think you're trying to solve all your problems. But the truth is God is holding your hand through the crisis. The reality that when you're weeping, the Holy Spirit consoles you the truth of encountering a transcendent God in this lowly world. That gospel, the good news that Jesus is in charge when we are not that our sins were laid on him in the death and suffering that he gave freely on the cross, and that our hope is restored in the power of his resurrection. And that we're given that sovereignty forever. The good news of the gospel is a sweetness that we should be attending to, and the only thing that should motivate us, all of us, as the messengers of God in this world, what makes you a messenger of God in the world, that you have the sweetness of the message that this world needs. Father, I pray that you would draw our attention to living all of our lives not from the distraction of the whole hive of interests and compelling fears and motivations that would drive us otherwise and not on the one cause that we think is highest in our lives outside of the gospel. But instead on the truth that the sweet honey, which is your good news that
Jesus is Lord and cares about us. That that would be the only thing that motivates us. Every day of our lives with heads bowed and eyes closed, I want to give you an opportunity to respond. Even now, I'm not gonna ask you to stand right now, just for the moment. I just want you to hear this. If you don't know Jesus as your savior, if you don't know what it means for him to come for you when you're desolate, for Him to guide you, when you're lost. For him to save you forgive you, redeem you, when you know you have failed, for him to give you hope, when it all seems lost. If you don't know what that is, Jesus Christ has that for you, we would love to share with you, I encourage you to come down and talk with one of us at the front here. And just say, Yeah, I need that I'll be standing right here at the front view.
But if you know Christ as your Savior and you're a follower of him, then I asked you to take stock of all of the other things that are buzzing in your life, all the other things that are distracting you and put them in the back, put them on the side. Go straight to the hot to the to the Gospel itself, to the honey, the sweetness that the world needs, in knowing what God is doing in this place.
And I would ask you to get on your knees and say to the Lord, take those distractions and put them in their right place. And help me be a faithful servant to your good news. I mean, you have kneelers down here where you can kneel. You can turn around and kneel in your seat where you are. You may just need to in your own heart quietly kneel before God and say to him restore to me that commitment to live for your good news make that the center of everything I do. Those are the two things I leave with you as you continue in your attitude of prayer and obedience to Him and hear this closing song
View all episodes
By LIFEchurch El PasoSermon Transcript:
Thank you all very much for having me back. I appreciate it. I flew in this time. And when I landed, your pastor picked me up. And he said to me, when we sat down, he said, Now you heard about the attempted assassination. Right? I was, I had no, I was just flabbergasted, had no idea what had happened. And we still don't know a whole lot. I mean, I'm sure some of you all have kept up with the news and the things that are going on there. But, you know, if, if I could contribute just one word to all of this, it would be to say something like this, that, you know, if if you come to a point in your life, where you think you need to use violence, in order to preserve a society, or in order to do something to defend a society, you just don't understand what a society is, you just don't get what it means to live in a society. Society is a community that exists together with stability and security and has a sense of what it means to maintain that being without having to do it at the end of a gun. So I could say, oh, you know, what a terrible person. And of course, it was a terrible person who tried to do that. And we all give thanks to God, that he preserved Donald Trump's life yesterday, Donald Trump is a man who bears the image of God, and we're grateful for him. And we should be that that concerned about any person who would face anything like that's ridiculous that we would think that we're going to find a solution in something like that. And so whether you're on one side, or the other of the politics doesn't make any difference to this, you should be on the one side of society that says the way we exist doesn't allow us to resolve things that way. That's, that's just not okay. So, thank God for having stifled that and, and put it down. And we're glad for where we've ended up with it. But you know, if I'm talking to any individual, I'm gonna say the same thing. If you have to use violence, to preserve what you think is valuable to you, you don't understand what it means to be a part of a society. That is not who we are. And it's not what we're supposed to be. And I say that to you now, not just neutrally, but because as we're going into First Corinthians nine, you know, Paul starts out the chapter by any rights, this whole chapter, it sounds very defensive, like, Hey, I'm Paul, I can preach to you I can tell you what to do. And I can take money from you if I want to. That's kind of what the chapter sounds like when you read it just on the surface of it. And it's actually quite the opposite of that, because what he ends up doing in this chapter is not defending himself as a person who communicates the message of God. But instead speaking to all of us, and to this congregation, they don't know it yet, but it's coming in the next chapters. He wants to turn the whole conversation into a talk about them, and what it means for them to be a messenger of God to carry to people, this news about god that's so important, just this news about what God is doing. So what he starts out saying is, what what is it essentially mean, for me to be a person who tells you about what God is doing in the world? Just like I would say you what does it mean to be a part of a society? Well, in this case, Paul is saying, what does it mean to be the kind of person who talks about what God is doing in the world, and what makes that important, so it starts out being about him. So what I want to do, it's a fairly short chapter, we can get through it pretty easily. But I want to take the first half and just kind of push it aside, I want to mention it to you run through it and read it to you. But it's point is so simple. It's just Paul saying, well, it's not this, you know, it's not about this. And so I want to show you that. But then at the end of the chapter, I want you to hear him saying what it does mean, for us, for any person for him, for all of us, to be the messengers of God to be the people who stand in this world, and tell people what God is doing in the world. Because what God is doing in the world is amazing, as you've heard in the prayers, and as you've sung, as we worship God for the things that he does, are amazing. So what is it? What would it mean for us, essentially, at the core of it, to be the people who are able to talk to other people about what God is doing in the world? So first Corinthians nine, the first two verses, he just introduces the question, Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seeing Jesus our Lord? Aren't you my workmanship in the gospel? I mean, because he's the one who led many of them to be followers of Christ, if to others, I'm not an apostle, at least I am to you, because you are the seal of my apostleship and the Lord. And it's in that statement that we're aware of where he's going in the chapter saying, you know, you're the evidence that God is using me as His Messenger, I'm, I'm speaking on his behalf and of all the people in the world, he should know it, you should know it. That's what he says to them. So essentially, what he's saying to them is, what what does it mean that I'm the person who talks to people about what God is doing in the world. So in verses three through 15, the next section, part of the first half of the chapter that we're just kind of blowing through right here. He offers the option of saying, Is it because and we would say it this
way in our culture, I think, is it because I wear a collar? Is it because, you know, a clerical collar? That idea? Or is it because that's how I make my living? You know? So I have the title, well, he's a priest, or he's the pastor, and you should go to him to find the answer. Is it that kind of answer? Obviously, I've already told you. I mean, this is not a spoiler, because I'm telling you, it's the point, he's obviously going to say, no, that's not why I'm a messenger from God. So starting in verse three, he says it this way. So this is my defense. And first, he's gonna say this, I could do that. I can be a messenger of God, who makes my living off of the fact that I'm communicating the message of God. And he says, Indeed, some people have to do that. Or you wouldn't have messengers who are able to lead your congregation, for instance, and things like that. So he's going to start out saying, it would be perfectly justifiable for me to say to you, of course, you know, I'm a messenger of God. I mean, that's how I make my living. What do you think I'm gonna do? He could do that? So these verses say that this is my defense to those who would examine me? Don't we have a right to eat and drink? Don't we have a right to have a believing wife? Or do as the other apostles and the other end? And the brothers of Jesus himself or Peter himself does? Or is it just me and Barnabas? Are we the only ones who don't have a right to refrain from having to work a living now for people who are insulted who are in ministry and say, so you're not working or living if you're working in paid ministry, that would miss the point, that in their culture, working a living meant being a day to day workmen, you know, going out making tents or something like that, it's a skill set that had to do with manual labor. That's how they're using the language goes on to say this, that wouldn't make any sense. Because I mean, what soldier serves his own expense, he gives three different examples here, or who would plant a vineyard and then not eat any of the grapes that came from it, or who's going to tend to flock and not get any of the milk that comes from the flock? And so it goes back to the Old Testament and explains to them why it makes perfect sense that they do have a priestly class in the Jewish culture, that they do have people who are going to give themselves to the ministry, and that's going to be their job. And that makes perfect sense. It's fine. So in verse eight, he says, Do I say these things on purely human authority with those examples? Doesn't the law say the same thing? It's written in the Law of Moses, don't muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain, you get the ideas and trade and out the grain? You let it eat from the grain because it's trading out the grain, that's the idea of workman's worthy of his labor. So is it or is higher? Is it for oxen that God is concerned when he says that? Isn't he speaking it for our sake, it's written for our sake, because the plow men should plow in hope of, of the crop that comes from it, the thresher should thrash in hope of sharing in the crop. If we've sown spiritual things, to use it too much that we reap material things from you, if others share this rightful claim on you, don't we even more. So Paul says, look, if I wanted to come to you and say, I'm the messenger of God to you, and you should take care of me, give me a bunch of money, something like that. That'd be perfectly fine. But then he says, but I don't do that. And there's a reason I'm not doing it. And it doesn't have anything to do with not being able to do it with perfect legitimacy, it would be fine. But it's not what makes him a messenger of God. So he goes on to say that, that it would be strange if what we said was, well, here's how you can know I'm a messenger of God, because I have the sign that says, I'm a messenger of God. Or you can know I'm a messenger of God, because I mean, after all, that's what you paid me for. So I must be telling you the truth. I couldn't do that. But that's not going to do it. So he says, Nevertheless, there's in verse 12, at the end of the verse, Nevertheless, we've not made use of this right? But we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the one thing that matters, the message of God, the gospel of Christ. Do you do you not know that those who are employed in the temple, these would be the priests who are the messengers of God historically, in Judaism? Don't you know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple? Those who serve at the altar, a lot of us don't, aren't aware of this, that when when the when the in the Jewish tradition when you would bring the sacrifices and this is how it's described in the Old Testament, when you would bring the sacrifices you didn't to bring the sacrifices in, and then go back, you brought the sacrifices and it was sort of like a barbecue, you know, you a the priests ate, everybody ate, and you were having communion with God in the process. That was sort of the benefit of it. That's what he's referring to. So don't you know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings in the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.
But I have made no use of any of these rights. Nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision. He's not criticizing the people who do he's not second guessing it at all. That is the right way for things to be but he's saying to them because of a lesson he wants them to learn from him. Indeed, one chapter hints
By the time you get past chapter 10, he's going to say the words Imitate me, as I am also imitating Christ. That's where he's going to arrive. He says to them, I don't use any of these options or any of these things as a ride, I would endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ. In verse 15, I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision, because I would rather die. And he never says that lightly. When he's saying those words, he's imitating Christ, I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting. And what he says is the pride that I have in the Gospel, this is the point his boasting is that he is here to represent the message that God wants to give. And so he's, he's not told us why he does it. He's not told us what the value of it is yet, but he has made clear to us why he's not going to do it, he's not going to do it for whatever he's going to receive from it. I'd love to spend time on all of that what it means we don't have time for it today. But the end of the chapter, this is what I want us to get. So he introduces the idea in verse 16, through 18, saying it this way. And I'm just going to tell you, what this means is being a messenger of God, being a person who can tell people what God is doing in the world does mean giving something up, always, it always means giving something up. And so it means that for Paul, so he only find something to celebrate in this in the fact that he's given up the right that he had to benefit from what he's doing, going around and sharing the gospel with people. So he says in verse 16, if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. Because I was already obligated to do that necessity is laid upon me. In fact, Woe to me, if I don't preach the gospel. This is a common theme throughout all of Scripture, Moses is that way, I don't want to do it. But he has to do it, Jeremiah, I tried to quit, but it was burning in my bones. You know, if you read the Old Testament, all the way into the New Testament, the, the apostles, everybody, they all have this crisis, I don't want to do it. But I have to God has put this on me. And so I have to carry this forward. It's the same thing that happens with all the disciples, by the way with Jesus. So anyway, he goes on. So necessity is laid on me, well, if I don't preach the gospel, if I do this on my own will, And he doesn't mean by that of my own free choice. What he means by that is for my own benefit, if if the things I'm interested in are the thing that drives me to carry this message, then I'm not really committed to the message. This is the core of what he say, the message itself is so valuable to me that it doesn't matter what it costs me, it doesn't matter what I would have to give up, it doesn't matter what I would have to lose, I would have to be faithful to this message no matter what. If I did it on my own, will, I it would be no reward to me. But if I do it, and it's not of my own will, then I realized that I've been entrusted with a stewardship, what then would be my reward, what, what then is my interest in it, because we always have an interest in things. And he says that in my preaching, and don't misunderstand preaching, you think of me preaching today, because I'm standing up here on the platform, and I've got a microphone. And you know, preaching is just a generic word, declaring these truths about God and what he's doing in the world. And the word is used about every person, every person who's a follower of God, that we communicate these truths about God, but he's using it about himself right now that in my preaching, I might present the gospel FREE of charge so as not to make use of my right in the Gospel. That is, you can't serve your own interest and then just tack on God as a side effect of it. You know, I was really trying to build my business they weren't working out very well and then then I got saved and my business did great. So I think gods are pretty good tack on to your life, you know, you ought to become a Christian to you do that with 1000 different things and it just doesn't work that way. When I was and I and when I say that doesn't work that way I mean, in your heart and life and certainly in the Gospel, that's not what God has given us to do.
You know, my my example of this would be in my in my own in my own I like to do a variety of things. So I've told you all I do Astro photography, it's why like, I love West Texas and dark skies and all that kind of stuff. And one of the things that I did with my son in law a few years back quite a few years back now was we kept bees for a little while I don't know if you have any individual kept bees but there's a whole lot involved in it. So if you and we put up a couple of hives near a
tree farm so that so that we would get good really clean honey from it and we did we got beautiful honey from his fantastic but the truth of the matter is, I mean if you're really going to be a beekeeper if you're going to keep bees, you have to do things you know, you don't just set up the hive and leave them alone you set up the hive and you check for molds or pests or you check the health of the queen or to make sure the brood is coming out right and all this stuff you know
I didn't want to be that kind of Beekeeper. I just wanted to be a beekeeper who kept bees. Number one. So I can tell people I kept bees because I thought it'd be cool. You know, he's the guy who kept bees. Look at that, what a courageous person anyway, so I would keep bees and then I could harvest the honey as we say, rob the rob the bees of their honey, you know, twice a year or so, because I love honey, I just I love sweet things. So I love honey. So I wanted to get honey. And we did get honey gallons of it from these two hives as we kept the bees. But for me, it was just attack on. I mean, I had my job, I had all the other things I did on the side and twice a year, I'd go down with my son in law, and we go into the tree farm and we find the hives and see how they were doing and collect the honey and then spin it all out and do all the stuff you do when you're collecting honey, which is a major ordeal. But really, it was two full days a year that I was giving to keeping bees and I heard a guy one time explain what that actually meant, he said, so you have beekeepers, and those are the people who do all the stuff I was telling you you ought to do when you keep bees. And then he said you have bee havers. And I realized that I was a bee, however, I have bees, I don't keep bees, you know what I'm saying? I didn't actually take care of them. That's how a lot of us treat the gospel. It's the thing we do on Sunday, we show up and we get this tack on to our lives, that makes our lives a little better. Maybe we get a little, a little taste of the genuine sweetness that comes with God. Because worshiping God is always a beautiful thing, no matter what. finding peace in his presence is always a beautiful thing, no matter what. So maybe that's what it is to you. You just show up on Sunday, you know, you get your harvest of honey, and you go back home, and you're not tending it during the week or doing any of this stuff. And I'm glad you enjoy the honey. But that's not what the gospel is intended to be. It is more than that the way I kept bees is not the way for us to keep the gospel. Now the point we get to is two parts that come in the conclusion of the chapter for Paul. And he says it first in verses 19 through 23 By telling us all the things that we shouldn't give our attention to because they will distract us from the one thing that actually matters, which is the gospel. And here's how it shows up very negatively starting in verse 19. Because he says this is why I only want to focus on the gospel, I want to keep the gospel, I don't want to just have it, I want to be a person who attends to it. And he says one of those reasons is because even though I'm free from all I've been redeemed in Christ, and I am free in him without any obligations, that's all true. I have made myself servant to all. Now he can literally use this expression in his political context in his society, because he's a Roman citizen. Nobody has any authority over him beyond any other Roman citizen. And yet he has and he uses the word made himself a servant to all he has enslaved himself to weird thing to say, I have made myself a slave to other people. This is the do last word for those of you who know, these Greek words that are used for servants. This is not Dr. conosce, which is a slightly more respectable form of the word servant. This is the do last word, I enslaved myself to a person so that I'm obligated to these people, whether I like them or not. That's what he's saying it. So I have made myself a servant to everyone, so that I might win. And he means by winning, sharing with them the good news about Christ so that they experience what God is doing in the world, also, the more of them. Then he says, what comes across to us kind of like a random scatter of ideas about who the kind of people are that he's willing to serve. But it's not random. It's not a scattered set of ideas. These are the people who would be the most obnoxious to him for one reason or another. And they do cover the range. So starting with the Jews in verse 22, the Jews I became as a Jew in order to win the Jews. Now he is Jewish, but at the same time, he's been redeemed into Christ. And he knows that doesn't separate him from the Jewish people. But he's alienated pretty much everybody who's Jewish by this point in his life, because he's a follower of Christ. And they view that as a cult, so he's doing crazy things in their eyes. So he chooses two examples of the kinds of Jews he chooses to serve. Starting in verse two, the second half of verse 22, those who are under the law I became as one who was under the law, and then he puts in parentheses to make it obvious to us. That is not the case about him, even though I myself was not I'm not under the law at all. But I want to win those who are under the law. For him. These are the people who are going to persecute him and bring him to beatings, they're going to end up being the reason he is arrested and put before Caesar and ultimately most likely loses his life during that episode.
All of that's coming from these people, the ones who were under the law. And then he says in verse 21, to those who are outside the law, Now you would think he would be saying about them, well, the ones who are like me, they're not like him. These are the people who are outside the law in their Judaism, before anything was being talked about regarding Christ. These are the people who are irresponsible in their Judaism, the people who were Roman sympathizers, or Greek sympathizers, the ones who were naming their kids, if you'd lived in France in 1933, this would be a kid, a family in your neighborhood, naming their kid, Adolf. That's the kind of people these would be. And he says, But I made myself a servant. To those who were outside the law. I became like them for their sake. Even though I wasn't outside the law of God, I was under the law of Christ. But I wanted to when those who were outside the law, I was willing to serve the people who were trying to have any executed, I was willing to serve the people who are antithetical to everything I stand for in our society, I was willing to serve them because I gave up my identity, so that I could represent the message about what God is doing in this world, to everyone. That's how important it was to it. So he goes on to the week, I became his week so that I might win the week. Now the week is in the context of the meat that Joe talked about last week. And the meat we'll talk about again next week, probably in chapters eight and 10. And who can eat it, who can eat it and the poor argument of the people who are saying, well, you can't eat meat, that stuff's been offered to idols and sort of the weakness of those who have a poor way of thinking about the truth. And Paul, now, I mean, he is a brilliant logician, and thinker. And in his right, I mean, I teach logic at a collegiate level. And I use some of Paul's arguments from his epistles to give illustrations of the logic that he's using when he makes his points. He is a strong thinker. And you know, when we're around people, we think we're a stronger thinker than they are, we have a tendency to just start throwing names at them, not because we don't think we're smart enough to make our point. But because we're so disgusted by their stupidity, that I can't believe these idiots are allowed to run our country kind of thoughts, right? That's how we are Paul said to the week, I just decided to become as weak
so that I might be able to win them as well. To people who are wrong on the face of it, he's saying, I attended to them where they were, instead of lording my superiority over them. So in verse 22, he concludes it by saying, Look, I became all things to all people. So that by all means, I might just save some of them. And I do it all, for the sake of the Gospel, so that I can share with them in its blessings. For those of you who are listening very carefully, you think there's a contradiction going on? Well, I'm not doing this for myself, but I am doing it sharing the blessing of the goodness of God's blessings on us. But his whole point here is I would give up any of those blessings so that I could share the blessings with them. I want them to have it. That's why he enslaved himself to anyone, if he can just tell them about what God is doing in the world. So when I was keeping these bees, after two or three years, we began to recognize the distinctive personalities in the two hives that we had there were right next to each other, but they didn't mix you know, they they separate themselves. And so in the one hive, he was fantastic, you know, I mean, you could walk up to it with you and have to have a suit on, you can walk up to this hive, take the top off, take out one of the one of the hives, one of the combs and you can steal the honey right in front of them and they wouldn't care there. They were just that those kinds of bees, they were super peaceable. They just didn't ever attack. The other bees were the opposite. The other bees you would get within 50 feet of their hive and I'm not exaggerating, you get within 50 feet. And we you know, I suited up I wore a suit I was a baby about the whole thing. I'm not one of these guys that's going out with their bare hands in like, oh, I have steak doesn't bother me. I cry like a baby. When I get stung. It hurts me now. I don't hurt more than I thought it would hurt. And I got stung a bunch anyway, I'm wearing I'm wearing my whole suit and I'm telling you, you know, I'm thinking well, okay, so Jonathan says this hive has turned out mean it's probably interbred with some other bees somehow or whatever. So but it won't be that bad. So I'm going out there by myself one time. And you know, I've got a smoker. So the smoke desensitizes them to the pheromones they use by scent to decide to attack or do whatever it is changes their mood all together. So I've got a smoker, it kind of goes out. I'm thinking I'm suited up. I'm just taking one comb out. It's not going to be that big a deal. I get within 50 feet of the hive and I'm thinking oh, yeah, now they're gonna come and they're gonna start and I hear a bee I hear two bees. I hear three and you're thinking oh, they really get around you know, like, do those terrible bees terrifying. That's not what it's like. I'm telling you I got 50 feet from the hive and it was like, by the bees are attacking
Me, I mean, they are completely covering my suit. And I'm a reasonable person I'm, I'm, so I'm not saying this braggadocious Lee, it's just my personality, I will probably end up dying because I'll see a bowling ball bounce on the highway, and it'll come through my windshield, and I'll just go, Oh, look at that. And it'll hit me in the head. I just don't react to things very strongly. They just don't, they don't do that to me, and this was freaking me out is like, that is too many Bs to be in one place, there is no way this is safe. I do not like this. I taught myself I taught myself calm, you know, it's like, oh, go over there do the job you need to do I did the job I needed to do, I closed up the beat thing, I was never so glad to get away from a bunch of BS in my entire life. I'll tell you more about that episode in just a minute, because I didn't quite get away that cleanly. But I'll tell you that in a second. My point here is that we're, we're so obsessed with so many different legitimate distractions in the world. Some of them are political, some of them are personal, some of them are social, some of them are economic. Some of them have to do with a job, you got people that you hate, who are attacking you from the outside, and you got circumstances that are coming at you and diseases that you're hearing about. And everything in the world is just
getting your distract you distracted from the only reason that you would go down there to begin with, which is to get the honey. I mean, we're here in this world, because we've seen what God can do in the world. When he takes a person's life and transforms it, we've seen that. And it's worth getting through all of those distractions, without focusing simply on them. And that's what we have a tendency to do. And that's what Paul is talking about here. He's saying, I did I don't allow myself to be distracted by the fact that be over there is one of those law keeping Jews and that be over there is one of those ones who never understood what it was to represent the righteousness of God in the world. And that'd be over there was a Democrat, and that'd be over there was a Republican, and that'd be over there. He's at work, and he's undermining the things I'm doing it my job. And all of those are legitimate attacks from bees on you, and they come in this world. And Paul says, I don't want to pay attention to any of that, because all I care about is Barney. That's why I'm here. And the gospel is the honey. That's why we're here. That's the first part is for him to take all the other distract all the reasons you have for paying attention to something else. And remember how much better the gospel is than that? Are those things legitimate? Are they real? Do they have to be done? Yeah, they are. They're real. But none of them is even on the same level, as the ultimate purpose for which all of this is here, which is him the gospel, the good news that we have. Alright, that's the first part. The second part of what he says, comes in the form of an illustration, he starts another illustration in chapter 10. And then he takes us off in a different direction, we're not going to go there. But in this first illustration that he gives, at the conclusion of the chapter, he really makes the whole point of this chapter. So in verses 24, through 27, the illustration He gives us about running a race, don't you know that a race all the runners run, but in in that race, only one person receives the prize, so run so that you can receive the prize every athlete exercises, control and everything, they do this to obtain a perishable wreath that's put on their head, but we were running for an imperishable crown. So I don't run aimlessly. I don't box as one beating the air, I discipline my body and keep it under control as after preaching to others, I myself should be disqualified from running for the prize that I'm trying to obtain from staying focus on the honey. But in this case, it's not saying don't be distracted by all of those things out there. But instead, don't allow any individual thing at all to keep even the pain that's involved to keep you from being focused on the one goal you have in front of you, which is the honey so when I had all those bees swarming around me, and they never stopped, I mean, they were just it was just persistent. When I had them swarming around me and I was trying to find a way out of that situation. I had my truck parked probably 100 yards away in a pasture on the other side of the tree, the tree farm and so I you know, I decided I close up the hive and I'm all done and I want to get so I'm just calmly gonna go back to the to the truck. The windows are all open but I'll get in the truck and I'll drive and we'll get the wind going and you know, the bees be gone and then then I'll be good. So I'm so I'm walking back towards the truck.
1000 10,000 I don't know a million. I'd like to say a billion bees are on my suit and just terrifying. And then I realize there's one bee in my suit.
It's in my bonnet. You know that guy as they call it. You know what I'm talking about the headgear that you have on. I have a headgear on and there's a beat bumping into my face. So it's like it's just, it's just bumbling around in there, just bumping into me. I'm sweating so much. Hopefully that's what's keeping it from
be motivated to sting, but
I just I can't explain to you how terrifying it is to have a bee inside your bee suit. You mean you have a bee suit so that bees can't sting you. And here and I'm not, you're gonna think I'm making I'm not making this up, it bumped into my eyeball. And I'm like, I don't want to get stung in the eyeball. And it went up my nose, and I snorted it back out my nose, I'm not exaggerating. I again, I'm a fairly rational person, in most circumstances, I was terrified. So I get back to my truck, and I got a drive and I'm going to drive across this pasture. And when I'm clear of all the other BS that I can take my bonnet off, and everything will be fine. And so I get in the truck. And I mean, there are still 1000s of bees with me when I get in the truck. I know they're still attracted to me. And so I drive I'm driving as fast as I can across the pasture. The bees are all in the truck, they're all around me. I'm like, this has got to stop this bee is just bumping into me, I know it's about to sting me. And the stupidest thing in the world is I'm afraid of being stung by one bee while I got 1000 Bees outside trying to get to me through this suit. I'm telling you, though, I can't keep that hat on. So I'm like, Okay, I'm stopping the truck. So I did the thing, I stopped the truck, I hop out, and I start running from the truck as if I can run faster than the truck was going. And I take my hat off. And I think to myself in that moment. This is it. This is this is when they find the truck running in the middle of a pasture and the door open and a dead body with his hat off. And they're like, why did he take his head off? You know, and I'm like, You should have been here. Just that's why. And I end the bees are starting to bomb my head. None of them stung me. I have no idea why they're bombing my head. And I'm terrified. So I run all the way across the field, there's a this is by the way, if this ever happens to you get to a water hose. Because when you spray these, they lose all the pheromones that make them want to do anything. They just don't care anymore. And then they dry off and they go away. They don't care. So I found a water hose. I knew there was a faucet over by the bar and I sprayed start spraying the water the bees all go away. They leave me alone, everything's fine. I lived. So yeah, if you're not sure I did live.
But man, I'm telling you, when you have literally I learned that day what the expression having a bee in your bonnet means when that B is in your bonnet, nothing else matters. That is the only thing that matters. And that's what we do. Unfortunately, with things aside from the gospel, we get one thing. And we think that's why we're here. I'm going to focus on I'm going to work on politics, I'm going to work on education, I'm going to work on being the best in my business, I'm going to work on wealth, I'm going to work on whatever it is, whatever you want to work on, all those things have to be done. All those things end up being important, it's good. Get to be out of your mind, that's all fine. None of that matters at all. If you don't get to the honey, if you don't, that's the only reason I would bother putting on the suit, or even caring about the rest of it. The honey is all that matters. That's what people want to find in jars. They don't want to find a little rolled up scroll that says here's how I got away from the bee that was in my bonnet. I paid five bucks for this. No, you pay five bucks for a jar of honey, we live in the world to provide people not with the one thing that's most important to us, I've got to get that taken care of. But to the one thing that ought to be most important to us. The gospel, that good news, the reality of what people encounter when they're alone and realize Christ is with them. The reality of what happens when you think you're trying to solve all your problems. But the truth is God is holding your hand through the crisis. The reality that when you're weeping, the Holy Spirit consoles you the truth of encountering a transcendent God in this lowly world. That gospel, the good news that Jesus is in charge when we are not that our sins were laid on him in the death and suffering that he gave freely on the cross, and that our hope is restored in the power of his resurrection. And that we're given that sovereignty forever. The good news of the gospel is a sweetness that we should be attending to, and the only thing that should motivate us, all of us, as the messengers of God in this world, what makes you a messenger of God in the world, that you have the sweetness of the message that this world needs. Father, I pray that you would draw our attention to living all of our lives not from the distraction of the whole hive of interests and compelling fears and motivations that would drive us otherwise and not on the one cause that we think is highest in our lives outside of the gospel. But instead on the truth that the sweet honey, which is your good news that
Jesus is Lord and cares about us. That that would be the only thing that motivates us. Every day of our lives with heads bowed and eyes closed, I want to give you an opportunity to respond. Even now, I'm not gonna ask you to stand right now, just for the moment. I just want you to hear this. If you don't know Jesus as your savior, if you don't know what it means for him to come for you when you're desolate, for Him to guide you, when you're lost. For him to save you forgive you, redeem you, when you know you have failed, for him to give you hope, when it all seems lost. If you don't know what that is, Jesus Christ has that for you, we would love to share with you, I encourage you to come down and talk with one of us at the front here. And just say, Yeah, I need that I'll be standing right here at the front view.
But if you know Christ as your Savior and you're a follower of him, then I asked you to take stock of all of the other things that are buzzing in your life, all the other things that are distracting you and put them in the back, put them on the side. Go straight to the hot to the to the Gospel itself, to the honey, the sweetness that the world needs, in knowing what God is doing in this place.
And I would ask you to get on your knees and say to the Lord, take those distractions and put them in their right place. And help me be a faithful servant to your good news. I mean, you have kneelers down here where you can kneel. You can turn around and kneel in your seat where you are. You may just need to in your own heart quietly kneel before God and say to him restore to me that commitment to live for your good news make that the center of everything I do. Those are the two things I leave with you as you continue in your attitude of prayer and obedience to Him and hear this closing song