This morning I attended Lincoln Berean Church with my roommate and a couple other friends. Lincoln Berean is sort of a mega church and one that is soundly Bible based and missional. After worshiping Jesus to some awesome Christmas music, the pastor stepped onto the stage to preach.
Pastor Bryan Clark walked to the stage dressed in black with a 2 x 4 in hand (figuratively, although he had his Bible which is just as effective for beating sinners like me across the face also figuratively speaking, (the beating part) ). The text he preached out of was 1 Corinthians 9:1-18. The first thing he said was that this wasn’t going to be one of those warm and soft kinda sermons, but a slap across the face type of message. This is a continuation of a series on 1 Corinthians that pastor Bryan has been working through. In chapter 9 Paul is addressing the Corinthian church about the issue of giving to a ministry as you receive from that ministry. The focus of the sermon was that we as a body of believers must analyze our need for ministries and see the value and worth that a ministry has in the spiritual growth of a person. Paul says that as people who work for a living or serve people through labor for their living, so too shall a person who is a missionary of the Gospel be allowed to receive pay to live off of. Here is Paul in verses 11-12.
If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even more?
We must take time and examine our heart to see and respect that those in ministry who are serving the eternal and spiritual needs of others deserve to reap their reward to feed their families just as much as the business man down the street.
Paul goes on to emphasize that he is not complaining or demanding his due for the work he has done, instead knowing with his whole heart that his reward is ultimately in heaven. Towards the end of his message pastor Bryan Clark talked about the stress and demand that a career in ministry can have on a man’s health, family, and mind. He went on to say that you would have to be and idiot to make a career of ministry. I praise Jesus for those “idiots” who have seen that Christ and his Gospel are far superior than their health, finances and comfort. Paul ends this chapter talking about life being a race and being disciplined in a focus on winning that race. In 1 Corinthian 9:24 Paul says this…
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. 25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control,lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
I love the Greek translation of verse 27… “I pummel by body and make it a slave”. Pastor Bryan spoke of this race of life and finishing it with everything we have. He used an example of Husker quarterback Joe Ganz saying after his last game at home as a Husker that he just wanted to go out and put everything he had into winning that game and when it was all over that he just left it out on the field. As tears came to the Pastor’s eyes he expressed his deisre to leave this world as a warrior. Instead of meeting Jesus face to face as a well-groomed, fit looking man resembling someone going to the prom, he wants to enter heaven bruised and bloodied, with his helmet in hand.Thats how I want to finish my life. I want to stop procrastinating, stand up, put on my armor, grab my sword (the Bible) and go into battle. I want to come to the end of my life with all my energy spent on killing sin and spreading a passion for the supremecy of Christ. I want to be physically exhausted, I want to fight to the end and find my reward in heaven. I pray that I would not value anything in this life over the gospel. As Paul says in verse 16… Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel.
New Self 