1 Cor 9:19-23 “Connecting With People”

1 Cor 9:19-23 “Connecting With People”

This section of scripture tells us the importance of making connections to people to share the Gospel. When we go out into the world to share our faith we have barriers to the Gospel. At any one time, you may be facing several barriers to be overcome before the message can get to them. The way they think, what they value, how they look at life and the world, are so different from you. The words they use, music they listen to, and their knowledge base, all are as foreign from our world as a third world country. If the church is going to reach the lost with the Gospel, we must bridge the culture gap.

Paul traveled to parts of the world that had many different cultures. When in the presence of Jews, he followed their culture and practices, but put his Trust in Jesus not works. He would eat as they do, use their words and concepts to make a connection with them.

When ministering to gentiles he could leave his Jewishness behind and make connections with them. Their food and customs even their words. All to shorten the gap. He identified with the weak. He identified with the powerful. He bridged the gap as much as he could so they could understand the Gospel.

The churches strategy by and large is sit contained in our building and expect people to come in and make the effort to understand us. We need a new strategy if we are going to win people with the Gospel.

1.       Go where they are.

a.       Increase our footprint in the community

b.       Become involved in community

c.       Be seen in town

d.       Make friends

2.       Understand their lives

a.       Their needs

b.       Their issues

c.       The way they think

d.       What they value

3.       Walleyes and deer

a.       If you want to catch walleyes, where do they eat, sleep, spawn, temp…

b.       If you want to shoot deer, where they eat, sleep, drink, travel, protect themselves.

4.       They are not like you.

a.       What they think, value, eat, and so much more.

b.       We must bridge the culture gap, make connections where we can.

c.       What can you do to help bridge the gap, make a connection?

I have become all things to all people that that I might save some.

1 Corinthians 9:12-18 Giving Up Our Rights

1 Corinthians 9:12-18 Giving Up Our Rights

“Woe to me if I preach not the gospel”

Our country was built on the idea that we all have rights. Sometimes one person’s rights get in the way of someone else’s rights. At times, free speech and assembly becomes a riot. I was greatly disappointed at the protest against Donald Trump. I may be mistaken but I do not remember rednecks burning cars when Obama was elected. Those who call for peace and acceptance do not live out the very ideals they claim to hold dear.

This same trouble shows up in the church. Unfortunately, in many churches I have seen people who claim the forgiveness and acceptance of Jesus, not live out the very things they claim to hold so dear. In this passage, Paul talks about a power greater than your rights, the ability to set them aside for the Gospel.

1.       Member’s rights

a.       music you like

b.       liturgy or not

c.       parking

d.       spending

e.       decorations

f.        attention to how you think things should be done

2.       your rights, my rights, the Gospels rights

a.       our rights destroy the Gospel

b.       Meeting our desires get in the way of our ministry

c.       Those who look at us do not see us living what we claim to believe

d.       The power of the church is not assertion of our rights but in sacrifice

e.       Those who would save their life will lose it

f.        “Woe to me if I preach not the gospel.”

3.       What would you give up and for how long?

a.       Paul gave up his right to reach people

b.       What is the value of another person’s salvation?

c.       What would you sacrifice to see them saved?

d.       For how long would you sacrifice to see them come to Jesus

e.       Commit to be here every Sunday, not for your comfort or benefit

f.        Commit to serve not be served

g.       “woe to us if we preach not the gospel”

h.       Woe to us if we do not live that which we claim to believe

 

1 Cor 9:8-12 “Feed Your Ox”

1 Cor 9:8-12 “Feed Your Ox”

If there is a subject that will under people’s skin it money. So many Christians today have issues with money. Only a few people in any given church tithe. If a pastor gives a sermon on giving people pass it off as self-serving and even get angry. In this section of 1 Corinthians Paul talks about the support of those who minister to us.

1.       Those who feed us.

a.       Pastors

b.       Churches

2.       The principle of tithing

a.       Why we give

b.       Why I live it

3.       The ministry in shackles

a.       Quit dreaming

b.       Cut back on outside ministry

c.       Fail to supply the tools needed for the job

d.       Fail to take care of the church

e.       Those who serve become discouraged

4.       Yes, our own church

a.       The leaky basement

b.       The decomposing parking lot

c.       We are not broke

d.       How can we keep cost down, not how we can reach the lost?

e.       Our giving statements

f.        Where did our giving rank

We as church members need to ensure that our church has the resources needed to do the ministry not just dream about it. Make sure that those who serve us can focus on ministry.

1 Corinthians 8:1-13 Living for your brothers”

1 Corinthians 8:1-13 Living for your brothers”

The people in Corinth must have asked Paul about eating meat that had been offered to idol’s. Paul’s answer to their question has much to say to our world today.

Over the last 50 or 60 years we have pushed out the boundaries of individual rights. We have been so focused on what we have a right to do, that we fail to ask what we should do. Just because something is legal to do does not make it right to do. When individual rights are pushed to the extreme the natural result is conflict. Paul’s answer to the Corinthian church shows us a different way to live.

1.       Eating food offered to idols

a.       The meat market and food stands

b.       You did not offer it to idols but you buy it from those who did.

c.       People who cannot break the idol connection

d.       They end up back in idol worship

2.       Individual rights

a.       Speech, beach, drinking and cars

b.       People struggling with addictions

c.       New age religion

3.       Living to help others

a.       What will we give up to help a brother or sister

b.       Drinking, gambling, ostentatious living

c.       Are we even aware that our actions may affect others?

d.       Do we consider or actions effect on others?

God calls us to live as an encouragement to other Christ Followers around us.

 1 thes 5: 11  ¹¹Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

1 Thess 5:14 Be at peace among yourselves.   ¹⁴And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.

Heb 10:24   ²⁴And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,   ²⁵not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Mark 9:42 “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. 

God calls us to live as an encouragement to other Christ Followers around us. What we do, what we say, how we live may affect the people living around us.