1 Corinthians; Chapter 9, Speak The Gospel

Context: Food offered to idols, 8,9,10.
The Big Idea: The Gospel with no barriers for brothers & the lost.

Use your freedom to proclaim the Gospel

Am I not an Apostle?
[1Cr 9:1 ESV] Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are not you my workmanship in the Lord?
[1Cr 9:2 ESV] If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
[1Cr 9:3 ESV] This is my defense to those who would examine me.

Don’t I have rights also?
[1Cr 9:4 ESV] Do we not have the right to eat and drink?
[1Cr 9:5 ESV] Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?
[1Cr 9:6 ESV] Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living?
[1Cr 9:7 ESV] Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? Or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk?

The Bible commands you compensate your workers.
[1Cr 9:8 ESV] Do I say these things on human authority? Does not the Law say the same?
[1Cr 9:9 ESV] For it is written in the Law of Moses, "You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain." Is it for oxen that God is concerned?
[1Cr 9:10 ESV] Does he not certainly speak for our sake? It was written for our sake, because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop.


Shouldn’t an Apostle be remunerated?
[1Cr 9:11 ESV] If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you?
[1Cr 9:12 ESV] If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even more? Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.

The Temple Economy
[1Cr 9:13 ESV] Do you not 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?
[1Cr 9:14 ESV] In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.

I Must Share The Gospel!
[1Cr 9:15 ESV] But I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision. For I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting.
[1Cr 9:16 ESV] For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!
[1Cr 9:17 ESV] For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward, but if not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship.

Paul’s Reward; Sharing the Gospel Free of Charge
[1Cr 9:18 ESV] What then is my reward? That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.

Why: That he might win some.
[1Cr 9:19 ESV] For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.

His Strategy
[1Cr 9:20 ESV] To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law.
[1Cr 9:21 ESV] To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law.
[1Cr 9:22 ESV] To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.

“I do it all for the sake of the Gospel”
[1Cr 9:23 ESV] I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.

Why the Gospel?
Means Good News. What is the good news?
The ABC, The Romans Road, The Color Book/Bracelet.
The reason Jesus Christ went to the cross.
If that does not move you, you don’t belong to God.

The story about Jesus Christ, the Cross, The resurrection, the atonement from God,
The only way for a human to make it to Heaven.
The only way for a human to be forgiven for being evil.
The only way for God declare a human “not guilty”.
The only way for satisfy the God’s 10 commandments.
The only way to have a relationship with God

Yet, when was the last time you told anybody about the work of Jesus Christ?
Think about why you are silent.

Why we want to be Disciples: To respond to God’s love through the Gospel
Why we want to Worship: To respond to God’s Love through the Gospel
Why we Fellowship: To respond to God’s Love through the Gospel
Why we Minister: To respond to God’s Love through the Gospel
Why we Evangelize: To respond to God’s Love through the Gospel

The Gospel is the reason we Exist!

Are you in it to win it?
[1Cr 9:24 ESV] Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.
[1Cr 9:25 ESV] Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.
[1Cr 9:26 ESV] So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air.

Discipline your life, so you can share the Gospel
[1Cr 9:27 ESV] But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

1 Corinthians Chapter 9; Speak The Gospel

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