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Hi, this is Pastor Tom, and I want to welcome you to day five, our last day of
looking at First Corinthians chapter nine, these challenging chapters, chapter
eight, chapter nine, about how to live the Christian life, how to live in
freedom, but also give up those freedoms in order to love the people that are
around me. And we've been looking this week at what Paul says are the reasons I
would give up so that I don't hinder the gospel of Christ, because it's really a
reward, a privilege to do so, so that all can be won to Christ, so I can win as
many as possible. And reason number four, it's around the same thing we've been
talking about.

It's all about the gospel, all about the good news. The fourth reason Paul says
he would give up a freedom is for the sake of the gospel, so that he could share
its blessings. That really sums up everything we've been talking about.

The blessings of God and the good news of God are really at the center, at the
core of why Paul would give up a freedom, a right. Listen to what he has to say
in verses 23 to 27. I do all of this for the sake of the gospel, that I might
share its blessings.

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize?
Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes
into strict training.

They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that
will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly. I do not
fight like a man beating the air.

No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I preach to others, I
myself will not be disqualified for the prize. Paul says for the sake of the
gospel that I might share its blessings. That's why I would give up a freedom.

That's why I would serve others. And the way that he does it here, he says, I
buffet my body and I make it my slave. He says, I give my entire physical self
to this.

If you're going to give up a freedom, it's going to involve your physical self.
And Paul says, I even, in some sense, am making a slave of my body in order to
be able to serve others. Now, what does he mean here?

How do you do that? What does this phrase, I buffet my body, have to do with?
There are three specific things Paul is talking about here when he talks about
this kind of life.

For the sake of the gospel that I might share its blessings, commitment, strict
training and the decision not to run aimlessly. Those three things. The first
thing he talks about is commitment to get the prize, and that's excellence that
he's talking about.

He says, when you run, you may as well run for the prize. Run for excellence.
Don't run at the back.

Don't run with the pack. Run for the prize. All run, he says, but only one gets
the prize.

So run for the prize, not out of pride, but out of excellence. Run to be the one
who did the very best. Not because you can look at all the other people and say,
look, they did worse, but because you can look at yourself and say, I did
everything I could.

As I reach toward that finish line, Paul is saying here in the Christian life,
it's not enough to say, at least I ran. It's not enough to say, at least I ran
along with everybody else. If we do that, we're going to all start running
slower and slower and slower and all be together and all still feel very good
about ourselves.

We're to run the very best that we can for the glory of God, not out of pride,
but for the glory of God. Paul is saying here, do not settle for being a
participant. How do you buffet your body and make it your slave?

You run for the prize. You run with excellence in your life. How do you get your
body to serve others, to serve for Christ in this world?

How do you get involved in a way that really makes a difference? It takes
commitment to get the prize, but it also takes strict training and that's
discipline. It takes excellence and it takes discipline.

In verse 25, Paul says, everyone who competes in the games, everyone who
competes in the games goes into strict training. If I'm going to win a 100 meter
dash, a run in an Olympics, I'm not going to show up on the day of the Olympics
without putting any training in. No, it's extremely strict training in order to
win that kind of a race.

If you're going to win a marathon in your own community, if you're going to win
a 5K run that was run maybe just a couple of weeks ago, you don't do it by just
showing up and thinking I'll be strong enough, I'll run faster than anybody
else. The person who wins, you know they've been in training in order to win. It
takes discipline.

So in verse 27 when Paul says I beat my body, I make it my slave, that phrase
beat my body doesn't mean punishment, it means discipline, it means personal
discipline. As much as I can, he says, I want to discipline my body so that I
can serve Christ with my all. Our bodies, our physical bodies are either going
to be enslaved to the passions and pleasures of this world or we're going to
make them slaves to the will of God, one or the other.

The people who live in excellent faith are those who are learning how to make
even our physical bodies slaves to the purposes of God. I offer my body as a
living sacrifice. So it takes discipline in order to run for the sake of the
gospel that you might share its blessings.

It takes excellence and then it takes the third thing Paul talks about. Third
thing is you don't run aimlessly. Third thing is it takes clear goals.

Paul says I don't run like a man running aimlessly. I don't fight like a man
beating the air. He had a target.

He had a goal. You can't run a race effectively without an eye on the finish
line. You might run just as long as the other people.

You might run even faster seemingly than the other people, but if you're not
running in the right direction, you're not going to win that race. So what is
the clear goal that motivates your life? What is the thing that you're running
toward?

There are two things that can ignite our lives, short-term motivators and
long-term motivators. We've got to be motivated by something, but short-term
motivators and long-term motivators can both ignite our lives. There are a lot
of short-term motivations out there.

Could be money. Could be success. Could be worry.

It could be fear. People are motivated by fear. It could be guilt.

It could be positive peer pressure. Some of the short-term motivators are better
than others for you. Some cause ulcers.

Some don't. But the problem with short-term motivators is they're short-term.
They run out quickly.

And then you have to look for another motivation. I've lived a lot of my life
under the short-term motivation of getting things done, of accomplishing tasks.
And the tasks have often come as fast as I wanted.

Being a pastor for the first time in a church, learning how to do that, having
to relocate a church to a new location, having to build a church after
relocating, being at Salaback Church with all that we have happening all the
time here. But the problem is, when you're motivated by the task, once the task
is complete, discouragement sets in and you've got to find another motivator.
I've had to learn a lesson about that in my life, especially these last few
years.

Only long-term motivations last. If you find yourself cycling from being
motivated to being discouraged, it might be that you're relying on what can only
motivate for the short-term. And the truth is, we have long-term motivations.

It's at the very center of enjoying the good news, and it's at the very center
of living out the disciplined kind of life that God's given you to live. Think
of the eternal reward. Back in verse 25, "Everyone who competes in the games
goes into strict training.

They do it to get a crown that will not last. We do it to get a crown that will
last forever. " Average Olympic athlete, a lifetime of training for a race that
will last 10 seconds.

A worthy goal in this world, where a lot of people have no goals, is to win an
Olympic race. But as glorious as that may look on television, it only lasts for
a moment. Even in human history, it only lasts for a moment.

But all of human history only lasts for a moment in terms of eternity. What
about, Paul says instead, realizing I'm giving a few years of endurance, of
sacrificing myself for others, of serving others, for an eternity of reward? Not
only the reward in my life, but the reward that's going to come in their life.

Not just selfish reward, but the reward that spills over into the lives of
everyone that's around you. If you're asking yourself recently, "Why can't I get
motivated? " Maybe you need a higher motivation.

Ultimately, the next paycheck, or the next business deal, or the next game to
win, is not enough. God made us to look forward to the reward, but we substitute
sometimes our little rewards. And really, what he made us to look forward to is
the reward of living with him forever.

We say to ourselves sometimes, maybe you've had a tough day at work, so we get
home and say, "I'm going to reward myself. I'm going to go out to a movie or
whatever. " Or, "I've had a tough week.

I'm going to reward myself. I've had a tough year. I'm going to reward myself
with a vacation this year.

" What about if you're having a tough life? How do you really reward? Well, you
don't reward yourself, instead you look to his reward, the reward that comes in
Christ.

Now remember, the motivator behind all of this is, "I'm willing to give to
others, to serve others, because I'm looking to the reward. " Remember, we
started this week by saying, "I do not have the right to give up my freedom in
Christ, but I do have the freedom to give up my rights. " And the way you do it
is by looking to the reward.

The way you do it is by looking to the benefit that comes to the gospel. The way
you do it is by deciding to serve others. The way you do it is by looking at the
example of Paul, but asking for the strength of the love of Jesus Christ.

Let's pray together for the strength to serve. Jesus, give me the strength to
serve today. That strength can only come one day at a time.

I wish somehow you could infuse me with the kind of strength that would be
there, a way of thinking that would be there for the rest of my life. But I know
how easy it is to think selfishly, to think about my rights and my freedoms.
Each day I need your Spirit to speak to me.

And I pray, we pray for your Spirit to speak to us today. Show us where we're
being selfish. Show us how we can set that selfishness aside and decide instead
to serve.

And let these motivations, the motivation of the good news of Christ, the
motivation of the reward of sharing that good news, the motivation of the joy of
living for you, let those rise to the top of our minds right now. So that today,
this day, we could serve you by loving you and by loving others. We ask this,
Jesus, in your name, Amen.

1 Corinthians 10, and Paul is going to continue to talk about how to promote
love and freedom over knowledge and rights. He's going to focus in this chapter
about how to deal with the temptations that you and I face in this world.