Be The Witness

The following story is an example of how to not get people to keep coming to church, you do this and they aren’t going to listen to you share the Gospel either:

An elderly woman walked into the local country church. The friendly usher greeted her at the door and helped her up the flight of steps. “Where would you like to sit?” he asked politely.

“The front row please.” she answered.

“You really don’t want to do that”, the usher said, “The pastor is really boring.”

“Do you happen to know who I am?” the woman inquired.

“No.” he said.

“I’m the pastor’s mother,” she replied indignantly.

“Do you know who I am?” he asked.

“No.” she said.

“Good,” he said.

Historical/Cultural Context -

Paul preached the gospel in Corinth in the early 50s AD during his second missionary journey (Acts 18:1–18). When opposition grew fierce there, the Lord Jesus spoke to him in a vision assuring him that he had ‘many people’ in the city (Acts 18:10). With this encouragement, Paul stayed on for eighteen months, ‘teaching them the word of God’ (Acts 18:11). God used Paul’s ministry to bring about the birth and establishment of the church in Corinth.

Biblical Text -

1 Corinthians 9:19–23 NKJV

For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more; and to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law; to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law; to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. Now this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I may be partaker of it with you.

-[Prayer]-

Life Principle - We Are To Reach The Lost Any Way Possible & Be Willing to Be God’s Broken Vessels

Life Point- Reach The Lost

Exegetical -

1 Corinthians 9:19 NLT

Even though I am a free man with no master, I have become a slave to all people to bring many to Christ.

Homiletical -

First of all when Paul talks about being a servant, that is a weak translation.

The actual word here means “to become a slave of all men.

The term slavery here is not what we have in mind when we think of slavery. He has in mind that of 1st century slavery. Which was nowhere near as brutal as what we think about. Oh there was some brutality, but just not as brutal.

There were times when people would sell themselves into slavery. The number one reason is that they owed quite a bit of money and could not pay.

The second reason is due to social standing. They could have a higher status as a slave of someone rich and powerful than they could as a non-citizen of Rome. To be a citizen of Rome was not automatic as it is today in our country. They had a lot of hoops to jump through and had to have sponsors as well as the wealth to make it happen.

Being a slave was still no bed of roses. Your family could be split, you could be sold, you could be beaten for not doing your work. That being said, generally the brutality was nothing like that of the African Slave Trade.

Paul was not only a freed man, but he had Roman Citizenry conferred on him because his father was a Roman Citizen.

Acts 16:37 NKJV

But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us openly, uncondemned Romans, and have thrown us into prison. And now do they put us out secretly? No indeed! Let them come themselves and get us out.”

To beat a Roman citizen when they were not guilty of any charge was a huge problem indeed. Non-Romans, you could beat them, but a Roman citizen had rights that others did not.

So, for Paul to call himself a slave was not only scandalous but downright disgusting in most people’s minds.

We know that Paul called himself a slave of Christ many times, but here he says he is a slave to all men, even though he is free.

What in the world is he talking about here?

The mistake we make as Americanized Christians is that we confuse our traditions, and yes we have them, with the Gospel.

So, what is the Gospel?

That Jesus, was virgin born. Lived a sinless life. Died on a Roman cross for your sins and on the third day Rose again. Declaring He is the victor over death, hell and the grave.

That is the Gospel. That is the main thing. You get that right and everything else will fall into place.

We should not try to change a culture to match ours so long as that culture isn’t displaying immorality.

In other words, if the people we are trying to reach believe that your hair has to be blue or you can’t talk to them, then by all means dye your hair blue!

If the people we are trying to reach want to wear shorts to church, let them wear shorts. We are trying to reach sinners not trying to steal sheep.

Now when the church was young there was much disagreement about what parts of the tradition and law that the Gentiles should keep, but it came down to the following.

Acts 15:24–29 NLT

“We understand that some men from here have troubled you and upset you with their teaching, but we did not send them! So we decided, having come to complete agreement, to send you official representatives, along with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are sending Judas and Silas to confirm what we have decided concerning your question. “For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay no greater burden on you than these few requirements: You must abstain from eating food offered to idols, from consuming blood or the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality. If you do this, you will do well. Farewell.”

This particular group of believers asked the question on whether they needed circumcision or not to be believers.

The answer was no. You see the Holy Spirit had already given the signs of being a believer just as He did the Jews of that time, so if God has accepted them then so does the church and the Apostles.

notice that they said, for this group, it seemed good to them to not lay on them any other burdens than what they just wrote. It was so simple that they simply said. If you do that you will do well.

In other words, do what we said and you should be good to go living before God. Farewell.

No big list of rules, no Pentateuch (Which is the first five books of the Bible written by Moses), no Torah. No traditions of men. Just, we think if you do these things you should be good togo.

Speaking of reaching sinners. You can’t expect people whom are unsaved to act like they are saved. You can’t expect a new convert to have it all figured out either.

But when we do get new converts, new disciples lets not put on them any more than what is required. Let’s not substitute the Gospel and the work of the Spirit of God in their lives for our traditions of man.

It is man’s traditions that stifles the power of God. We get all caught up in what we can do and what we can’t do that we take our eyes off of Jesus and stifle God’s Word. The following is an example that Jesus gave:

Mark 7:9–13 NLT

Then he said, “You skillfully sidestep God’s law in order to hold on to your own tradition. For instance, Moses gave you this law from God: ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and ‘Anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death.’ But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you. For I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you.’ In this way, you let them disregard their needy parents. And so you cancel the word of God in order to hand down your own tradition. And this is only one example among many others.”

Illustration -

I was raised you must wear pants to church. You must always look your best. When I was a teen and called to the ministry, a minister kind of took me under his wing. I saw someone, a teenager, come to church with shorts on. It really bothered me, so I said to him “I am going to let him know that isn’t appropriate.” He stopped me and said.

Is he a Christian? I said I didn’t know, but kind of doubted it. He replied, “Let’s be more concerned about his eternal destiny and let the Holy Spirit work on him about his shorts.”

Did you know that when evangelical missionaries made it to India that they found it offensive for the missionary women to not be dressed in the traditional way? Did you know that because of that, many people would not listen to them when it came to the Gospel?

The knew this and rather than have the women wear traditional Indian clothing, they stuck with their own traditions. Then one day a woman came over who ended up dressing like them and low and behold the Gospel started to take hold there.

Yet she was still getting in trouble with the government there because she reached out to all castes and not just one. Indians during that time had a very, very strict and restrictive caste system. It was the root of the Gospel taking hold that began to undermine the caste system and eventually do away with it.

Just as the Gospel began to undermine the slave trade and eventually it was abolished.

Life Point - Be God’s Broken Vessel

Exegetical -

1 Corinthians 9:20–23 NLT

When I was with the Jews, I lived like a Jew to bring the Jews to Christ. When I was with those who follow the Jewish law, I too lived under that law. Even though I am not subject to the law, I did this so I could bring to Christ those who are under the law. When I am with the Gentiles who do not follow the Jewish law, I too live apart from that law so I can bring them to Christ. But I do not ignore the law of God; I obey the law of Christ. When I am with those who are weak, I share their weakness, for I want to bring the weak to Christ. Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can to save some. I do everything to spread the Good News and share in its blessings.

Homiletical -

Why would Paul. Who wrote so many times to be free from the law, say that he would live like a jew with all of their traditions and trappings?

Listen, if you weren’t considered a good Jew, then they wouldn’t listen to you. Their community, at that time and even now, was very close-knit. To not be a good Jew, meant you were ostracized and no one would listen to you.

So why would Paul choose to live free amongst the Gentiles? Because the gentiles (the Greeks) didn’t much care for the Jews. So in order to reach them in their culture. He would eat what they ate, dress like they dressed. He did everything short of compromising the Gospel and Christian morality.

So to reach them with the Gospel, he looked like them and proved he was a man of his word. Someone who had honor, someone to be trusted.

1 Corinthians 9:22 NLT

When I am with those who are weak, I share their weakness, for I want to bring the weak to Christ. Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can to save some.

He tries to find common ground with everyone, so that he has done everything to bring them the Gospel.

Can we say that? Can you say you have tried to find common ground with all those around you to bring them the Gospel?

If not, let me challenge you today to do so. You know that quiet person at work? Yeah, try to find common ground to bring them the Gospel. Don’t assume they know. Because chances are good that they don’t know.

You know that person that just rubs you the wrong way? You know the one that just keeps showing up out of nowhere it seems. They just annoy you.

Yeah, God put that person in your life, so go ahead and thank God for them and share the Gospel.

This life here on earth may be the only heaven that most people will ever see. How sad is that. If we truly believe what we say we believe then let me tell you something. I don’t care how many people so “no thanks” you will find that some will say yes to the Gospel and this church will start to be filled.

But some of ya’ll are saying “Pastor, I can’t get out and walk. I can’t talk to anybody.” Do you go to the Doctor? Have you told them about Jesus?

Did you know that you can go to whitepages.com and type in any address around the church ( By the way the church address is 105 S. Galena Ave. Minneola, FL) and you can get their landline numbers for free? Did you know that if you pay $4.95 a month you can get their registered cell phone numbers.

I have had folks tell me before that they dialed the wrong number by mistake and had an hour long conversation with people.

That would be a wonderful ministry right there. pick a street and start typing addresses. It will even give you the neighbor’s addresses and phone numbers.

I am preaching to myself here too when I say:

In today’s world there is no excuse for not sharing the Gospel with people in some way. All you need is prayer, a testimony of what God has done in your life and persistence.

How about you today? What excuse do you think you have for not sharing the Gospel? What limitations do you have?

I know of a quadriplegic who goes around preaching.

I knew a man who served as a deacon who was called to preach the Gospel, but he didn’t have vocal cords. He had one of those machines and you know what. Every Thursday night for years he would stand up in front of alcoholics and addicts and tell them they could be free from their addictions if they would surrender their lives to Christ.

He would go into stores and talk to people with thing. People wold stop just listen to him either out of pity or respect, I have no idea; but it amazed me how many people he lead to Jesus Christ with that thing.

Before he lost his vocal cords to cancer he would never share Christ, but after that’s all he wanted to do. He made excuses for a while because he didn’t have vocal cords. His pastor told him that means he just needs to be more creative.

He came to the conclusion that he didn’t need to be more creative, he just needed more practice with that external vocal machine and he got his practice by sharing Jesus.

I know of a man that is in very poor health. But as he goes to stores he carries around this little flash light. All he asks people is if they would like a flashlight. Then he says I will give you one but I got a story that goes along with it.

He says: “This little light will help you find your way in the dead of night. It lights the way and keeps you from running into things that can hurt you.”

Let me tell you about a man who will also keep you from running into things that will hurt you. This man has been called the light of the world.

He came some 2,000 years ago because he saw how bad the human race was and that we needed someone to save us. His name was and is Jesus.

Jesus can take all your wrongs and all your sins away and make you right before God.

You want to go too heaven when you die don’t you?

The answer is almost always yes.

Then Jesus is that way. He said in John 14:6 I am the way the truth and the life and no one comes to the father buy by me.

He is the only way.

Then he hits them with

Romans 3:23 NKJV

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Romans 6:23 NKJV

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 10:13 NKJV

For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

He tells them. I can’t save you but Jesus can, would you like me to introduce you to Him?

Every time this man gets into the hospital for a heart attack or kidney problems or whatever. Everyone knows to bring him more flashlights. Because not only has he given the ones he carries out, but he has seen nurses pray to receive Jesus. He has seen doctors pray to receive Jesus and even transporters pray to receive Jesus.

I have known this man most of my life. He was deacon when I was growing up, but he didn’t start sharing his faith like this until he retired from being a butcher at Winn Dixie down in Eustis.

He tells me what changed for him was when I was a youth pastor and hurt his leg deer hunting. I went and visited him and prayed with him. I barely remember this, but at the end of that prayer.

I said “Jim, I feel like the Lord is sharing with me that you are about to go through some pretty bad health problems, but don’t worry because He said He would use you in that.”

At first he said he thought I had lost my mind. He was always healthy and this was just a broken bone. That was 20 years ago by the way. It wasn’t three months later he found himself in the hospital and he said the Lord brought that time back to him and said “Lord you said you would use me, show me how.”

I don’t go around giving prophecies or things like that, in fact I barely remember it. But in that time God used a broken vessel to minister to another broken vessel so that His word would get out.

Won’t you let God use you as a broken vessel so that His Word may get out?

Life Principle–

Call to Action – altar call….