This Is Who I Am
Notes
Transcript
Do you know who you are?
Do you know who you are?
Haters gonna hate.
One of the smartest things a Pastor can do is use the dictionary - especially the urban dictionary.
Whenever a Pastor is going to use street slang that he’s picked up from the kids, it is most wise to google it first.
I did that for this morning.
Haters gonna hate wouldn’t get out of my mind.
Paul had haters and in 1 Corinthians 9, he shows us how to deal with haters.
We all deal with haters, we may not think of it that way, but we do.
Haters gonna hate came out of hip-hop.
The Notorious B.I.G. recorded “Playa Hater” in 1997.
Puff Daddy rapped in the song, “You see, there are two kinds of people in the world today.
“We have the playaz, and we have, the playa haters.
“Please don’t hate me because I’m beautiful baby.”
Ice-T - some of you know him from Law and Order:SVU fame had a song called “Don’t Hate the Player.”
He defines a hater in the song: “Actin’ like a brother done did somethin’ wrong / cause he got his game tight.”
That’s a pretty good definition of a hater - someone acting like you did something wrong because you’ve got it going on.
Now, before someone gets all apoplectic because I’m recommending rap.
I’m not - most rap lyrics are godless and vile.
But they are perfect illustrations of our 1 Corinthian series title - “Among the ruins.”
Haters hate because they are jealous or covetous.
Someone else has something they want - might not say it is so - but down deep it’s true.
Here’s the question.
How does someone who is Godless - whose words and music promote the opposite of Jesus
How do they know that hating is wrong?
How do they know that jealousy and coveting is wrong?
I’d say two ways.
Maybe their grandmother’s taught them Exodus 20:17
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”
Or maybe they heard a preacher reading when they were little: James 3:16
For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.
Those are God’s truths - you don’t have to study them every day for them to be true
You don’t have to have them memorized for them to do their work.
They are truth.
I’d go one step further because I’ve tangled with this and I’ve watched some good people tangle with this:
You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
Jesus quoted that - said it was the second greatest commandment.
And - maybe you’ve done this.
You’ve really loved someone - you gave them all the respect and love and care you could
And they treated you like dog dirt and you didn’t understand why their hate.
Haters gonna hate is real.
There are people who will hate - who are programmed to hate.
And people will be hurt by it - they’ll write songs saying they aren’t
But then, they had to write a song saying it doesn’t bother them - so I guess it did.
And they are doing all of that in response to a gospel they don’t know.
That is alive and active and real.
A good portion of 1 Corinthians is written to answer Paul’s haters.
Chapter 8 that we studied last week and Chapter 9 this week and next are really good examples of how to deal with haters.
If Christ is living in you, well, haters gonna hate.
So you’ve got to decide and be ready to say - This is who I am.
Our text today is 1 Corinthians 9:1-18.
Please open your Bibles there and follow along.
As we read, listen for a few things.
Listen to see if you can hear how Paul was hated
And listen to see what his responses are
And most particularly, listen for his declaration of what he stands for or
As our title today is, “This is who I am.”
Hear now the Word of the Lord.
Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are not you my workmanship in the Lord?
If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
This is my defense to those who would examine me.
Do we not have the right to eat and drink?
Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?
Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living?
Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? Or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk?
Do I say these things on human authority? Does not the Law say the same?
For it is written in the Law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.” Is it for oxen that God is concerned?
Does he not certainly speak for our sake? It was written for our sake, because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop.
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? Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.
Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings?
In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.
But I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision. For I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting.
For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!
For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward, but if not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship.
What then is my reward? That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.
This is the word of the Lord - thanks be to God.
Let’s pray.
Sometimes Lord, your word seems very specific to a place in time
But as we meditate on it - we start to see the timelessness of your love for us.
Help us to see that today.
And Lord, I know I am fully forgiven.
I also know I still do and say things I wish I hadn’t.
Please Lord, let me not get in the way of your word reaching your people.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Haters gonna hate.
And the church at Corinth had its haters.
They were Christian - no surprise there - church people can be some of the meanest people in the world.
And they were giving Paul fits.
In chapter 8 they were protesting because they wanted to go to the cookout at the local heathen church.
And they simply couldn’t understand why it would be a bad thing to do that.
Idols aren’t alive - they can’t do anything - they aren’t gods.
And simply because someone is a convert from that heathen church and they feel all wonky about going back there
Should that really - I mean - should that really make any difference to me?
Shouldn’t it be my mission to help this weak brother become strong?
And besides, they have really good bar-be-que.
Do you remember Paul’s response?
Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.
Paul could have easily said, “If you love your brother, how could you hurt him like that?”
Then he uses that as the tie to his next argument.
1 Corinthians 9:4 “Do we not have the right to eat and drink?”
Let me explain Paul’s situation.
He’s suffering the same affliction that me, Kim Washburn, Tommy Freeman, Steve Johnson, Daniel Wright all suffer from.
We’re just run of the mill Pastors.
Nothing special.
We all know - we all know that if we really need something done in our church
There is a message that really needs to ring out - call in an expert.
The expert will same the exact same thing you say - only everyone will listen - because they are an expert.
And here is the crux of Paul’s problem - experts get paid.
And I don’t mean they just get paid - I mean they GET PAID.
Back a number of years ago we looked at getting Guy Penrod to have a concert here.
For the uninitiated, Guy Penrod is a staple of Southern Gospel Music
He’s on every Gaither homecoming album.
He’s somebody.
He was $12,000 dollars for one - two hour concert without a band.
That was singing to accompaniment tracks.
The guy that spoke at our Married People events gave us a discount.
He only cost a grand for a 45 minute talk.
Others have come for several thousand plus expenses.
And for the most part, they deliver.
We want those folks to come.
They have gifts and abilities and have polished their messages until they ring very true
And often yield big results.
In fact, because we are making such a monetary investment, we expect the returns.
You get what you pay for, right?
And here is Paul’s problem.
He’s not charging anyone anything.
Paul is the equivalent of the dude that sets up a tent at Central City Park and preaches for a love offering.
What makes Paul’s situation worse is to make a living, he does manual labor.
He’s a tent maker.
Hands-on, dirty, common.
How could this guy know what he’s talking about?
The argument then is - the argument now is - if he’s worth anything, we’d have to pay him.
So because he comes for free - that’s about how much his message must be worth.
And please, don’t shake your head over that.
One of the rules I was taught early on was, if you have an event at the church, charge something.
If people have to make an investment, it will mean something.
If it’s free, well, you get what you pay for, right?
Haters gonna hate.
If he doesn’t charge anything
Why listen to him?
But, flip side, if he does charge - well, he’s in it for the money.
There is no winning here and he knows it.
So how does he handle it?
He answers their objections.
I did see Jesus so, yes, I am an apostle.
I do have a right to charge money if I want to - the Bibles says so.
But then he quits answering their arguments and he says this:
1 Corinthians 9:16-18 “For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward, but if not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship. What then is my reward? That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.”
You all know I was out of the ministry for 15 years.
I didn’t realize when I started that some of the meanest people alive can be in the church.
I was naive and immature and it shames me - but it is done.
We still went to church.
And 5% of the time the messages I heard moved me.
And 95% of the time I was critiquing.
I would have said that differently.
That doesn’t mean that.
That doesn’t fit together that way.
You should have studied more.
I was a hater.
Why was I a hater?
Because I had a call on my life - “For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!”
And it wasn’t that I hated the one’s preaching.
It was that I was hating myself.
I knew I wasn’t going to die and go to hell because I didn’t preach for 15 years.
But I knew I wasn’t doing what I was called to do and it ate me alive.
Paul is saying here, “I have no choice but to preach.
“There is a calling on my life.
“And I’m going to preach the best I know how.
“And I’m going to do it in such a way that you can’t say I’m doing for any other reason but one.
He said it back in chapter 1.
1 Corinthians 1:23 “but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,”
This is who I am.
This is a question we’ve all got to deal with.
There was a Tic-Toc video that someone posted to Twitter the other day that has haunted me.
It was a transgender woman and his opening statement was “You will respect us.”
He goes on for a few minutes making his case and then he does this.
He looks directly into the camera and says, “You. Will. Respect. Us.”
It was a threat - You will respect us or else.
And my first reaction was - “No I won’t.”
Like my kids when they were small, “You aren’t the boss of me.”
But I’ve done a lot of thinking.
And haters gonna hate - I know my words will never change that person, but what he doesn’t understand is
I already respect him.
He was created in the image of God - his life has infinite value and worth
Because God created him.
And because God created him - He has taught me and every one of this followers:
Leviticus 19:18 “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.”
Jesus taught me that.
This is what we stand on.
There are 31 days left until graduation - have I got that right?
School has its haters for sure - but you haven’t seen anything yet.
College is a different world.
Work is a different world.
Who are you?
Will you be able to stand in the face of the haters?
Brothers and sisters, the world has changed so dramatically.
And it is so easy to get angry.
But the better response is to know: This is who I am.
This is what I stand for.
These are my non-negotiables.
And it’s OK to have non-negotiables.
If you are standing on - not principle
If you are standing on God’s word.
Well, then yeah, these are my non-negotiables.
And one of my non-negotiables is this - I already respect you because God created you.
And you are in the same condition I was in
You just manifest it differently.
But I was just as lost as you are now.
And I know it makes you angry to hear you are lost because it made me angry.
I’ve always been a good person.
Yes, I’ve been dunderheaded at times, but mostly I was kind.
I’ve always listened and helped
And I’ve alway hurt for hurting people.
I wore different clothes than you and expressed my hurt differently than you do.
But I had the same problem that you do.
I needed Jesus - still do - every day.
I want you to know Jesus too.
Because Jesus fixed my lost self.
Paul stuck a stake in the ground and said, “This is who I am.”
Can you do that?
Who are you?
What do you stand for?
Are you a hater or a player - Christian player?
I want to end with someone else’s story.
Charles Spurgeon told it.
So did Leonard Ravenhill.
And so did Austin Ussery one Wednesday night in Student Worship.
Ravenhill tells the story like this:
Charlie Peace was a criminal. Laws of God or man curbed him not. Finally the law caught up with him, and he was condemned to death. On the fatal morning in Armley Jail, Leeds, England, he was taken on the death-walk. Before him went the prison chaplain, routinely and sleepily reading some Bible verses. The criminal touched the preacher and asked what he was reading. "The Consolation of Religion," was the reply. Charlie Peace was shocked at the way he professionally read about hell. Could a man be so unmoved under the very shadow of the scaffold as to lead a fellow-human there and yet, dry-eyed, read of a pit that has no bottom into which this fellow must fall? Could this preacher believe the words that there is an eternal fire that never consumes its victims, and yet slide over the phrase without a tremor? Is a man human at all who can say with no tears, "You will be eternally dying and yet never know the relief that death brings"? All this was too much for Charlie Peace. So he preached. Listen to this on-the-eve-of-hell sermon.
"Sir," addressing the preacher, "if I believed what you and the church of God say that you believe, even if England were covered with broken glass from coast to coast, I would walk over it, if need be, on hands and knees and think it worth while living, just to save one soul from an eternal hell like that!"
The world has changed.
The only way to get over it is to decide who you are and stand on it.
We can’t glibly speak of hell - the guy in the video is going to hell.
My heart aches for him.
His life will be full of ill perceived tragedy.
I believe Jesus can save him.
Do you?
If I asked you, “Who are you?” can you answer clearly and with conviction
This is who I am.
There will be haters - you’ve got to know who you are and where you stand
So you can stand - and speak Jesus with authority.
Let us pray.
Communion
So let’s talk symbolism for a moment.
As Baptists, we don’t believe anything magical happens when the bread and the cup are blessed.
It’s still bread and juice.
But with the blessing, they become powerful reminders of what Jesus did and what it means.
Jesus said in Luke 22:19 “And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.””
So the bread is His body.
And it was broken for us.
But some other symbol is hiding there.
This bread is “unleavened” bread.
Flat as a flitter - it has nothing in it to cause it to rise.
The easy symbolism for us is that it recounts the Exodus when the Hebrew children had to escape Egypt so fast that they didn’t have time to bake proper bread.
But there is something else.
Leaven - the yeast that makes bread rise - came to represent sin.
Do you remember Paul saying in 1 Corinthians 5:6 “Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?”
Paul was saying, no matter how good something is, if you add in just a little bit of sin, eventually the whole thing becomes sinful.
Proper communion bread is free of yeast.
It is “unleavened.”
Therefore it is free of sin.
So when Jesus took the bread and gave thanks and broke it and gave it to them, he was saying, “This is my SINLESS body, which is given for you.”
Jesus who knew no sin, became sin for us.
So that as you eat the bread today, you can remember what He did for us.
After Jesus gave them all a piece of bread he said, Luke 22:20 “And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.”
At the Passover meal, which is what they were celebrating, they traditionally had four cups of wine.
The first cup is the cup of Sanctification and it is consumed at the very beginning of the Passover Meal.
The second cup is the cup of Deliverance.
It would be consumed after the story of the Exodus was recited.
The third cup is consumed at the very end of the meal.
The third cup - the cup that Jesus offered to everyone - remember, Luke 22:20 says, “And likewise the cup after they had eaten...”
So it was the very end of the meal.
The third cup is the cup of Redemption.
The body of the sinless Son of God would be broken
His blood would be spilled out on the cross.
For our redemption.
If you are a Christ follower
If you have made a public profession of your trust in Jesus,
And if you have been baptized
You are invited to partake of the sinless body and redemptive blood of Jesus.
By coming forward and taking the Lord’s Supper we will be making a statement to the world.
As the Apostle Paul said to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 11:26 “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
And Jesus will come again.
This is who I am - I belong to Christ.
Please join me as we pray and make our hearts ready to celebrate this ordinance:
Almighty God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Maker of all things, Judge of all men:
As your brothers and sisters have prayed for hundreds of years - We acknowledge and regret our man sins and wickedness,
Which we from time to time most grievously have committed
By thought, word and deed - against your Divine Majesty,
Provoking most justly your wrath and indignation against us.
We do earnestly repent, and are so very sorry for these our misdoings;
The remembrance of them breaks our hearts;
The burden of them is intolerable.
Have mercy on us,
Have mercy upon us, most merciful Father;
For thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ’s sake,
Forgive us all that is past;
And grant that we may ever hereafter serve and please you in newness of life,
To the honor and glory of your name,
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen
We ask that you exit your pews to the left.
If a station becomes empty, you are welcome to move to that line.
You may consume the bread and juice as soon as you receive it.
The gluten free bread is at _________________________’s station.
Won’t you come forward at this time.