This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to day three together. We're looking together through 1
Corinthians chapter 9 this week, and we're going to focus on verses 13 to 18
today. We're looking at these reasons and these ways for giving up our rights
and how to give up our rights.

Yesterday, I want to give up what seems a right or a privilege to me if it's
hindering the gospel of Christ. I do that by putting up with things, Paul said.
That's very clear.

There's a second reason, a second way in verses 13 to 18. Paul says the second
reason that I give up my rights is not using my rights is a privilege. It's a
reward.

There's a positive reason behind this. It's a privilege. It's a reward.

He says in verses 13 to 18, "Don't you know that those who work in the temple
get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in what
is offered at the altar? " In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those
who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel, but I've not
used any of these rights, and I'm not writing this in hope that you will do such
things for me. I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of this boast.

Yet, when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach. Woe
to me if I do not preach the gospel. If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward.

If not voluntarily, I'm simply discharging the trust committed to me. What then
is my reward? Just this, that in preaching the gospel, I may offer it free of
charge, and so not make use of my rights in preaching it.

Paul writes, and he says the second reason that I'd be willing to give up a
right is not using a right. It's a privilege. In fact, it's a reward.

So how does he do that in a practical way here? He says I'm going to offer the
gospel free of charge. He does it by refusing a personal benefit that is due to
him.

Paul's words here, they'll challenge your life to the core. He says here, there
are some things that I'm compelled to do, and there are some things that I
choose to do. There's some things I'm compelled to do, he says, and I do not
expect to be rewarded for that.

Paul says, I preach the gospel. I'm compelled to do that. I don't expect any
great reward for that.

I have to do that. I couldn't do anything else, and the same thing is true in
your life as a believer. There's some things you're absolutely compelled to do.

You know that to not do that would be absolutely wrong, and Paul says, you know,
you may think that all the reward is in that. You can't do anything else, he's
really saying. God's spirit in you is compelling you to do that.

So where's the greatest reward in life? It's not within what you're compelled to
do. So Paul says, within what I'm compelled to do, I'm going to find something
that I choose to do that I don't have to do, and that's where the greatest
reward is.

We get so impressed by what we're compelled to do, but Paul says, I'm not so
impressed by that, but I'm impressed by his, are you going the second mile? Are
you the person who is looking and saying, even in what I'm compelled to do, what
could I do that's even more in order to love Christ? Paul says, that's my
reward.

In fact, he says, not only is it my reward, he says, and this confuses many
people, he says, it is my boast. In verse 15, he says, I would rather die than
have anyone deprive me of this boast. Now that's confusing, because many of us
look at that and think, should a Christian ever boast?

Well, here is Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, saying, this is my boast. So
obviously, there are times when a Christian should boast, because he's inspired
by the Spirit here. This is the Word of God.

So how does this work? If you're going to be healthy as a believer, if you're
going to understand what it means here to refuse a personal benefit that's due
to you and feel a reward in that, then you have to learn to balance your boasts.
You have to learn what the scripture teaches about this.

A quick walk through scripture, Psalm 34 verse 2 says, my soul will boast in the
Lord. First Corinthians 1, 31 says, let him who boasts, boast in the Lord. First
Corinthians 3 says, no one should boast about what man can do.

Proverbs 27, 1 says, never boast about tomorrow. Second Corinthians 10, 13 says,
will not boast beyond proper limits, will confine our boasting to the field God
has assigned to us. Galatians 6, 14 says, may I never boast except in the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ.

You look at those verses, it's all about boasting. My boasting needs to be
centered in Jesus. My soul will boast in the Lord.

My boasting needs to be focused on what God is doing through me. No one should
boast in what man can do. Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.

My boasting should never be concerning anything that has not yet happened. Never
boast about tomorrow. I don't boast about my plans or my visions.

My boasting should not be about what God is doing through others, not beyond his
proper limits. I'll confine my boasting to the field God's assigned to me, and
maybe most significantly, my boasting should always be done at the foot of the
cross. You see this word boasting, we hear it, and the way it's been used most
of the time in our hearing has been about pride.

It's a prideful boast. But as you look through these scriptures, as you hear
Paul talking here, there's a different kind of boast. It's not pride.

It's not human pride. It is the boast that comes out of knowing that the Lord
loves you, and he knows you, and he gave his life for you. And there is a moment
of being able to, in some small way, give back to him.

That is a very small thing that Paul is doing here. I'm not taking payment for
what I'm doing. But in some small sense, he's doing it as a small sacrifice
because of Jesus' great sacrifice for him.

It's always done at the foot of the cross. This boasting that Paul did was about
being able to offer the gospel free of charge, about refusing some personal
benefit that was due to him. And it had to do, as we walk through this, with
what he chose to do within what he was compelled to do.

I look at myself as a dad. As a dad, I know there are certain things I'm
compelled to do. I got to spend time with my kids.

I'm compelled to do that. I got to make sure that they're fed and they're taken
care of. They got a roof over their heads.

I feel that that's what I'm compelled to do. And Paul writing about this says,
that's not the place of your greatest reward. That's not the place of your
greatest positive sense of boast.

It's when, even though I know that I am compelled to spend time with my kids, I
make the choice to spend even more time than I feel I'm compelled to spend. You
see, in your life as a believer, there are certain things you know you have to
do. You got to be light.

You got to be salt. You got to love others. You got to make a difference.

You got to live up to the gospel of Christ. You got to be an ambassador for
Christ. Paul is talking about a second way of living life here, a whole new gear
of living life.

Not just what I'm compelled to do, but also what I joyfully choose to do because
Jesus has joyfully chosen to love me. And here, it's a small thing. It's a small
thing in one sense that he would say, I'm not going to take payment from you.

But it's also a huge thing because he chose to do it even though he didn't have
to choose to do it. What's like that in your life? How could you love your wife
in that way in your life?

Not just what you're compelled to do, but within what you know you have to do,
how could you joyfully choose because Jesus has joyfully chosen to love you? How
could you joyfully choose to love her even more? How could you do that for your
kids as a parent?

Because Jesus has joyfully chosen to love you, how could you joyfully choose to
love them even more? How could you do that in your service for Christ, for his
kingdom, through his church? Not just, I should give two or three hours, I
really should do that.

Okay, Jesus, I'm doing that. In one sense, you think, isn't that enough? Isn't
that more than enough?

Paul didn't think that way. Paul thought, I'm grateful for the two or three
hours. God's asked me to do that.

That's his calling. That's what he's compelled in my life, but I also want to do
even more. It's a new way.

It's a different way of living life. God, grant us that different way of living.
Jesus says we pray together.

We pray for your strength, your power to live a new example, a new way that we
see in the Apostle Paul. But we know that the seed of this, the center of this
is not in Paul. It's in Jesus and the way that he loves us.

Paul's just simply living out the love of Jesus. And so help us to live out his
love in our lives today. Lord, not just what we must do or what we should do.

Help us not to live under the burden of what we're compelled to do. Help us to
live beyond that burden and even feel that burden become a privilege, become a
reward, become a boast in our lives as we decide instead to look for that place
where we can joyfully give back to you, joyfully give up some small privilege,
some small benefit because you have so joyfully given all for us. Jesus show us
how, show us where.

We need your wisdom. Help us in some small way to try it today, to give to you
because you've given to us. In your name we ask this, amen.

Tomorrow we're going to talk about a third reason, a third motivation for giving
up a right.