Bad Ways To Run
Memory Verse: 'Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. '
James 3:13
Sermon Sentence: The goal of making disciples should reflect a lot of consideration on how we are living our lives and will leave us with plenty of opportunity to grow personally.
James 3:13
Sermon Sentence: The goal of making disciples should reflect a lot of consideration on how we are living our lives and will leave us with plenty of opportunity to grow personally.
Day 1
Read 1 Corinthians 9
I know that we only covered a few of these verses in this sermon, but I wanted to go back. Going back is important because these verses are used differently than they were meant to be. You will remember that Paul is making the case about serving others in order to bring them the gospel. He has talked about how our actions have to consider where people are and what will be assumed as well as the straight laced moral ideas of our actions. That is the burden of love. We live and give up rights and oughts as allowed by God’s word, in hopes of being able to show love to other people and open the door for them to hear and witness the Gospel.
Paul is not writing verses about bad days and tough times. The sacrifices here are not the sacrifices of getting to first place and finishing on top. The race analogy may have led many people to go that direction, but the truth is that there is not one prize given to one winner in the story of salvation. The first runner across the line doesn’t win heaven at the expense of all of the rest. Paul’s point seems to be a bit more complicated than that. He is talking about the discipline and the training that is needed to live a careful and deliberate life that brings the gospel to the ends of the earth. Paul is writing about his ministry and calling by God in this chapter. That does not mean verses 24-27 only apply to his ministry, because he has already invited us to imitate him and will return to that invitation in 11:1.
There is a long debate about what exactly Paul is talking about losing here. Is he referring to salvation or to rewards? What is your take and what do you think after sitting with it for a while?
What are some ways that the section from Sunday (verses 24-27) can be used not like they were intended to be used?
What are the careful parameters that need to be considered when working out the application of this section?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
I know that we only covered a few of these verses in this sermon, but I wanted to go back. Going back is important because these verses are used differently than they were meant to be. You will remember that Paul is making the case about serving others in order to bring them the gospel. He has talked about how our actions have to consider where people are and what will be assumed as well as the straight laced moral ideas of our actions. That is the burden of love. We live and give up rights and oughts as allowed by God’s word, in hopes of being able to show love to other people and open the door for them to hear and witness the Gospel.
Paul is not writing verses about bad days and tough times. The sacrifices here are not the sacrifices of getting to first place and finishing on top. The race analogy may have led many people to go that direction, but the truth is that there is not one prize given to one winner in the story of salvation. The first runner across the line doesn’t win heaven at the expense of all of the rest. Paul’s point seems to be a bit more complicated than that. He is talking about the discipline and the training that is needed to live a careful and deliberate life that brings the gospel to the ends of the earth. Paul is writing about his ministry and calling by God in this chapter. That does not mean verses 24-27 only apply to his ministry, because he has already invited us to imitate him and will return to that invitation in 11:1.
There is a long debate about what exactly Paul is talking about losing here. Is he referring to salvation or to rewards? What is your take and what do you think after sitting with it for a while?
What are some ways that the section from Sunday (verses 24-27) can be used not like they were intended to be used?
What are the careful parameters that need to be considered when working out the application of this section?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Day 2
Read Philippians 3:1-11
Paul’s faith must have been an intense thing to experience in person. Listening to speakers for many years, you eventually learn that there is a certain drama that can be put on. Even in the art of words, you can get wrapped up in the moment and the setting. As many of you have probably noticed, real life is played out in times when a person is acting out what they believe more than when they are just talking about it. It is the example of Paul’s insanely dedicated life that, in my mind, makes verses 7-8 seem to have so much more power behind them. This came from a very accomplished religious person. Paul has declared how he had risen to the top of the Pharisaical order and was considered a leader from there. He did not kind of do anything it seems.
With all of the credentials and merits that the religious system he worked his way up through had to offer, it was not worth anything compared to knowing Jesus. Think about that! He spent his whole life filling his wall with merits and trophies, probably starting when he was young. He gave everything he could to the system and became all that you could be in that system. It was when he was knocked down that day and met Jesus that his life changed. He was fighting against Jesus, but then had an encounter with Him. It was in that very moment that all of the years of labor and work amounted to nothing compared to who he just met for the very first time. Now, at the time of writing this, he is seasoned and still on that road, and still counts this the prize above all the other things. Don’t you wish your heart still burned for knowing Jesus’ like Paul’s did?
How do you think Paul kept that passion going in his life?
What do you think Paul would say to advise those from his past religious places to consider?
What do you think it looks like to know Jesus more in your life?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Paul’s faith must have been an intense thing to experience in person. Listening to speakers for many years, you eventually learn that there is a certain drama that can be put on. Even in the art of words, you can get wrapped up in the moment and the setting. As many of you have probably noticed, real life is played out in times when a person is acting out what they believe more than when they are just talking about it. It is the example of Paul’s insanely dedicated life that, in my mind, makes verses 7-8 seem to have so much more power behind them. This came from a very accomplished religious person. Paul has declared how he had risen to the top of the Pharisaical order and was considered a leader from there. He did not kind of do anything it seems.
With all of the credentials and merits that the religious system he worked his way up through had to offer, it was not worth anything compared to knowing Jesus. Think about that! He spent his whole life filling his wall with merits and trophies, probably starting when he was young. He gave everything he could to the system and became all that you could be in that system. It was when he was knocked down that day and met Jesus that his life changed. He was fighting against Jesus, but then had an encounter with Him. It was in that very moment that all of the years of labor and work amounted to nothing compared to who he just met for the very first time. Now, at the time of writing this, he is seasoned and still on that road, and still counts this the prize above all the other things. Don’t you wish your heart still burned for knowing Jesus’ like Paul’s did?
How do you think Paul kept that passion going in his life?
What do you think Paul would say to advise those from his past religious places to consider?
What do you think it looks like to know Jesus more in your life?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Day 3
Read Philippians 3:12-21
This is a great thought to spend some time with in your day today. Paul is explaining something that needs to be understood properly, because it can sound like you are saved by works if you don’t understand it well. He ended the last section with talking about attaining the resurrection of the dead. In other words, the promise that the believer holds that death is not the end of life for us. When you look at it at first glance, it may seem that Paul is actually saying that we have to obtain it. He talks about his efforts to make it his own. This can easily sound like the effort is the thing that is securing it. In our text in 1 Corinthians 9:23-27, he carried the same language and probably could be accused of making people think the same thing. But he also labors at explaining that this is not what he is saying. He is clearly not saying he has reached perfection and therefore it is secured by him. But rather he is saying that Jesus has given it to him, and that is why he can act as if he has already obtained it. The effort is because he is already aware that the gift is his, so he tries to live in light of that reality.
For Paul, this is a mark of maturity. It is what the maturity of living in the light of God and what He has done for us looks like. Paul calls for us to hold true to what we have already attained. It does not make sense to say that we have been saved from sin and moved from death to life and then live as if we were still dead in our sins. This is good practical advice that should hold us accountable as we consider what Paul is inviting us to join him in.
What does it mean when Paul encourages us to hold true to what we have obtained?
What does Paul make you think of when he talks about forgetting what lies behind and straining for what lies ahead?
How does this become your prayer today?
This is a great thought to spend some time with in your day today. Paul is explaining something that needs to be understood properly, because it can sound like you are saved by works if you don’t understand it well. He ended the last section with talking about attaining the resurrection of the dead. In other words, the promise that the believer holds that death is not the end of life for us. When you look at it at first glance, it may seem that Paul is actually saying that we have to obtain it. He talks about his efforts to make it his own. This can easily sound like the effort is the thing that is securing it. In our text in 1 Corinthians 9:23-27, he carried the same language and probably could be accused of making people think the same thing. But he also labors at explaining that this is not what he is saying. He is clearly not saying he has reached perfection and therefore it is secured by him. But rather he is saying that Jesus has given it to him, and that is why he can act as if he has already obtained it. The effort is because he is already aware that the gift is his, so he tries to live in light of that reality.
For Paul, this is a mark of maturity. It is what the maturity of living in the light of God and what He has done for us looks like. Paul calls for us to hold true to what we have already attained. It does not make sense to say that we have been saved from sin and moved from death to life and then live as if we were still dead in our sins. This is good practical advice that should hold us accountable as we consider what Paul is inviting us to join him in.
What does it mean when Paul encourages us to hold true to what we have obtained?
What does Paul make you think of when he talks about forgetting what lies behind and straining for what lies ahead?
How does this become your prayer today?
Day 4
Read Romans 6:1-14
Romans 6 is Paul’s long form version of what he talked about in 1 Corinthians 9:23-27. I like to see those other places that a writer works through a thought in a different way. There are times that I have had a message that God has laid on my heart and then I preach it. When I am sharing that message with a different church in a different place, the message will be a little bit different. The setting has changed, so you address the audience that is before you. That is the way to think about this. Paul is not writing to the same culture or the same people in Romans. The teaching points may be the same, but he is going at the idea in a different way.
Here is the bottom line: Sin has no place in the life of the believer. Your life story narrative has changed. You were dead, but now you have been raised with Jesus. This is what you declared to everyone in baptism. This is a key point that we should pay close attention to. The resurrection is not only a thing that is applied after we have passed on from life. It is not a tool or an idea that we store away for a day that we need it. It is a present reality. As we are right now, we WERE dead in sins, but now, we have been raised from that dead life to the new eternal life. Eternal life is not something that starts when life ends, but rather something that is now at work in us. So we are free to not live in sin. All the power needed to leave death and chaos behind has been given to us and is at work within us right now.
What does it mean for you to “not let sin reign in your body?”
Why do you think it is important to realize the power and purpose of the resurrection now as opposed to it being like a tool that you will need for later?
Paul’s message in 1 Corinthians 9 that was similar to this passage, was about living in a way that allowed us to reach people with the gospel. How does this passage tie in to that one?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Romans 6 is Paul’s long form version of what he talked about in 1 Corinthians 9:23-27. I like to see those other places that a writer works through a thought in a different way. There are times that I have had a message that God has laid on my heart and then I preach it. When I am sharing that message with a different church in a different place, the message will be a little bit different. The setting has changed, so you address the audience that is before you. That is the way to think about this. Paul is not writing to the same culture or the same people in Romans. The teaching points may be the same, but he is going at the idea in a different way.
Here is the bottom line: Sin has no place in the life of the believer. Your life story narrative has changed. You were dead, but now you have been raised with Jesus. This is what you declared to everyone in baptism. This is a key point that we should pay close attention to. The resurrection is not only a thing that is applied after we have passed on from life. It is not a tool or an idea that we store away for a day that we need it. It is a present reality. As we are right now, we WERE dead in sins, but now, we have been raised from that dead life to the new eternal life. Eternal life is not something that starts when life ends, but rather something that is now at work in us. So we are free to not live in sin. All the power needed to leave death and chaos behind has been given to us and is at work within us right now.
What does it mean for you to “not let sin reign in your body?”
Why do you think it is important to realize the power and purpose of the resurrection now as opposed to it being like a tool that you will need for later?
Paul’s message in 1 Corinthians 9 that was similar to this passage, was about living in a way that allowed us to reach people with the gospel. How does this passage tie in to that one?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Day 5
Read Romans 12:9-21
When I try to sum up what Paul is discussing in our passage in 1 Corinthians 9 and the surrounding places, it boils down to the call to love, genuinely love people. Most of society tends to think that is a feeling that happens when you change your mind. It can be, but it is certainly not only that. It takes work. This is why Paul used the analogy of the runner in 1 Corinthians 9:23-27. It’s not even always fun work. It is hard work that requires the giving of ourselves. Why would you do that? Because the goal is in sight. We are genuinely trying to be people that are growing the Kingdom of God. That is the work we were called to and the goal that was set before us.
This section of scripture just lays out some of that work. It is the list of practical application to all that Paul taught about in the book of Romans, but its application carries over for the thoughts we have been working through. Much like a skill that you are developing to perfection, if you have 19 different coaches, you will get almost 19 different opinions. It's the same when it comes to this subject. Why not spend today with just this much? Just let Coach Paul talk to you about the things right here and see where you can spend some time working in your life?
What is the piece of teaching that you feel you should pay the most attention to at this point?
How do you apply this?
What will be the results of seeing this applied in your life this week?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
When I try to sum up what Paul is discussing in our passage in 1 Corinthians 9 and the surrounding places, it boils down to the call to love, genuinely love people. Most of society tends to think that is a feeling that happens when you change your mind. It can be, but it is certainly not only that. It takes work. This is why Paul used the analogy of the runner in 1 Corinthians 9:23-27. It’s not even always fun work. It is hard work that requires the giving of ourselves. Why would you do that? Because the goal is in sight. We are genuinely trying to be people that are growing the Kingdom of God. That is the work we were called to and the goal that was set before us.
This section of scripture just lays out some of that work. It is the list of practical application to all that Paul taught about in the book of Romans, but its application carries over for the thoughts we have been working through. Much like a skill that you are developing to perfection, if you have 19 different coaches, you will get almost 19 different opinions. It's the same when it comes to this subject. Why not spend today with just this much? Just let Coach Paul talk to you about the things right here and see where you can spend some time working in your life?
What is the piece of teaching that you feel you should pay the most attention to at this point?
How do you apply this?
What will be the results of seeing this applied in your life this week?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
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