Sermons & Studies

Text: 1 Corinthians 9:10-27

INTRODUCTION

The Olympic Games is on,
And we are all excited about it.
We watch it on TV day and night,
It even affects church attendance
As some of us are glued to the 
TV screen day and night.
Spectator sport is hot in America
As one cynic cryptly remarked,
We are a nation
Where 95% of the people 
who badly needs to exercise
Pays to watch the 5% of professional athletes
who badly needs to rest.

But this is nothing new at all,
As there is nothing new under the sun.
During the time of the Apostle Paul,
The Greek-speaking people he reached
Were just as fervent in spectator sports.
The sports arena was a standard feature
of many Greek cities.
Sports competitions--the games
Were held on a grand scale
in the ancient world.
The Olympic games was the most popular,
Second in popularity was the
Isthmian Games, 
Which was held in the city of Corinth
Once every two years.

Therefore when Paul used sports activities 
As an analogy of the Christian life,
Practically everyone in the Corinthian church 
Understood him. 
In the passage we study today,
Paul is giving an inside look 
Into his philosophy of Christian life.
The use of sports analogy
Is to better state and make clear his purpose.

Shockingly, Paul says that 
A true believer in the Lord
Is to live a life
Just as goal oriented and disciplined
As an Olympic athlete.
The Christian must…
1.	Go for the goal
2.	Go with the go; and
3.	Go for the better than gold.

1. GO FOR THE GOAL
The Christian is in a race
When he/she becomes a Christian,
He/she enters to win.

In the athletic contest,
Every runner enters the race
For one purpose only: To win.
Therefore he strains in running
To obtain the prize.
As Paul said in V. 24 
“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.”

Anything short of running towards the goal 
And to obtain the prize is unacceptable.
[Walking fast is unacceptable, 
Jogging is unacceptable,
Taking a break from the race is unacceptable,
Lagging behind is unacceptable,
Showing little concern for the finish line is unacceptable,
Running towards any direction other than the Goal is unacceptable.]
The Christian in life must run
As diligently as the runner
In the Olympic games.
The believer must put out the 
Same kind of vigorous effort
In order to reach the finish line.

Paul further stated in V. 26
“Therefore I do not run like
a man running aimlessly;
I do not fight like a man
Beating the air.”
There is a clearly defined purpose
In the life of the Christian.
That is to accomplish the task
That the Lord wants
Him or her to accomplish.
Paul stated his life’s goal in V. 22-23
“I have become all things to all men 
So that by all possible means
I might save some.
I do all this for the sake of the gospel, 
That I may share in its blessings.”

When Paul met Jesus Christ 
On the road to Damascus
And became a Christian,
The purpose of Paul’s life 
Became completely changed.
As Paul confessed in Acts 26:16,
Jesus Christ told him,
“I have appeared to you
To appoint you as a servant
And as a witness of what you have
Seen of me and what I will show you.
I am sending you to them
To open their eyes
And turn them from darkness to light, 
And from the power of Satan,
to God so that they may receive
forgiveness of sins 
and a place among those 
who are sanctified by faith in me.” 

Since then, this has become the sole purpose of Paul’s life. 
As he told the Philippians church 
In Philippians 3:13-14
One thing I do: 
Forgetting what is behind 
and straining toward what is ahead,
I press on toward the goal to win the prize 
for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Therefore even in the face
Of hardship and trials,
Paul never found life
Not worth the living.
We are, materialistically speaking,
Living better off than any generation before us, 
Yet suicide has become 
One of the top 10 causes of death.
Why do so many give up on life so easily?
Because even before they
Jumped off or took poison or shot themselves
They have already died. 
As Paul observed in 1 Timothy 5:6
The person “who lives for pleasure
Is dead even when she lives.”
The most fearful and the saddest life
Is a life sentence of imprisonment,
It is feared because it is worse then death.
It is a life with no purpose other
Than waiting to die. 
Why are you not happy?
Why do you find no joy in life?
Most likely it’s because you have 
Lost sight of the purpose of God 
In your life. 

God has a purpose for you in life.
As 1 Peter 2:9 reminds us
We are a chosen people belonging to God.
“that you many declare the praises
of him who called you 
out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
We are here to tell others about how God has loved us, 
And to bring others to Christ.

ILLUSTRATION
Last Friday night,…
Dr. Chi-Hi-Chang.

Go for the Goal!
As Paul challenged us in Philippians 4:15
“all of us who are mature
should take such a view of things”

II. GO WITH THE GO.
In order to live out God’s purpose in our lives,
We need to be committed to Spiritual Discipline.
V. 25 “Everyone who competes in the games
Goes into strict training.”
The apostle Paul further elaborated in
V. 27 “I beat my body and make it 
My slave so that…
I myself will not be disqualified 
For the prize.”
Completes in the games
comes from the Greek word Agonizomai.
Which gives us the word agony, and agonize,
This conjures up the hardship and
The sacrifice that the 
Athlete must undergo
In order to compete in the games.
As you watch the athlete
Swings back and forth between the uneven bars
And parachutes herself into repeated summersaults in the air,
The fact that it looks so effortless
Is because of her years of dedicated and sacrificial training. 
Otherwise, just try to hop over a three foot fence,
And you will learn that it is not easy at all.
Every athlete exercises strict training
In all things with three fold purposes.

FIRSTLY,
The athlete exercises strict training in order
That he/she may be fit enough to run the race. 
The athlete deprives himself
Of many lawful pleasures.
The Christian must similarly
Avoid not only definite sin,
But anything that hinders spiritual progress.
ILLUSTRATION
Leonardo Di Vinci’s Cup.

SECONDLY,
The athlete exercises strict training 
In order that he/she may master his body
And not allowing the body master him.
This is what Paul means by “beat my body.”
We are naturally being led
By our temper, our instinct,
Our passion, and our bodily desires
That we become
The slave of the flesh.  
But we must subject the body--Our physical desires
To the control of Christ’s law
That we may become competent in our race.

LASTLY,
Just as the athlete has to set priority in his/her life
To achieve his life’s goal,
The Christian, similarly, 
Has to set priority in his life
And devote himself
To those things that help to bring 
Him closer to achieving his life’s goal.
The Apostle Paul said, 
“I do all this for the sake of the gospel.”
The question that the Christian 
must keep asking himself is not
“can I do this,”
but rather,
“is what I do going to further the gospel
for Jesus Christ?”

ILLUSTRATION 
Mandarin Translation of Bible

IN CONCLUSION,
The Bible assures us that
Our commitment to God’s purpose, 
And all the dedication and sacrifices that we put into
Living out God’s purpose in our lives,
Ultimately lead to
Something better than Gold.
In the current Olympic games,
The Gold medal signifies the highest honor.
In the ancient games in Corinth, 
It was either a crown of pine or celery.
These honors will fade
and the winners will ultimately be forgotten,
Their names washed out by the tide of time.
But what we do for Christ
Will have eternal significance
And produce eternal rewards.

Hence v. 25 
“we do it to get a crown that will last forever.”
The true disciple seeks to 
Live out God’s purpose in ones live,
And dedicate oneself
Whole-heartedly to achieve that purpose 
In our daily living.
We go for the goal
We go with the go
In order to go for the better than gold.
This means giving up the good and the better
for the best.
May the Lord give us grace to choose wisely
And live purposefully 
For His glory.