I Corinthians 9:19-23

I Corinthians 9:19-23 ROUGH DRAFT

Intro - God has called each and every Christ Follower in this room to be a missionary.

-If you are a Christ Follower, you have a missionary call on your life right now.

-There are missionaries who leave home & travel.

-There are missionaries that minister in their home town.

Either way, if you are a Christ Follower you are called by God to be a missionary.

If you are a Christ Follower, you are either a successful & faithful missionary, or you are a struggling missionary. (x2)

How would you answer this question - Are you a successful missionary or are you a struggling missionary?

At the end of this message today I want you to make a commitment to:

1) Serve unbelievers being a missionary within their culture.

2) Seek the reward of watching an unbeliever get saved and grow into a mature believer.

Read I Corinthians 9:19-23

Pray

Opener

Tiger Woods lives his life with a purpose.

To play the best game of golf that can humanly be played.

-When sports fans heard of his car accident - considerable leg and ankle injuries - we all wondered, “Would this change his purpose?”

I read a story where the writer said that Tiger could not play golf again he would make a great Golf analyst and announcer on TV. That if Tiger could not play golf again that he would still be able to be a spokesperson for golf and endorse products.

I cringed when I read that.

I thought, “That’s not His purpose.”

His goal, his purpose hasn’t been to analyse and announce golf, it’s been to play great golf.

The good news for a Christ follower is that ...

Breaking your legs in a car accident will not take you away from the purpose that God has called you to.

While you are on this earth, strong or week - rich or poor, your purpose remains.

One of the purposes that God has placed before you is this.

I. Vs. 19, God has called me to have a Missionary Purpose.

Here is what Paul said about His missionary purpose.

19 “For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.”

Last week we saw that Paul refused to take financial support from the Corinthians, so that unsaved people in the community wouldn’t think he was a pagan televangelist, taking advantage financially.

His purpose was to remove any hinderance from people hearing about Jesus.

Vs 19 tells us...

He made himself “a servant to all, that he might win [to Christ] more...”

What does it mean that Paul was a servant?

How did he serve?

Consider this illustration

Illustration - If you were ultra wealthy you might have paid servants in your home.

Let’s say you were going to a super fancy dress up dinner party and you were going to wear your nicest jewelry.

-Ladies, since you are so wealthy & so fancy your servant would go to the big safe and bring to you your extra fancy jewelry - your diamond and sapphire neckless, with your matching bracelet, earing and dinner ring.

Guys, Since you are also so wealthy and fancy your servant would bring you your Platinum Cuff links, $50,000 Rolex watch, and your Liberace pinky ring.

Your servant doesn’t just bring these out in their hand and give them to you. They first take a silver trey, place a black velvet cloth on the tray and then place the jewelry on the cloth. Then bring the jewelry to you.

The servant takes care to present this jewelry in a beautiful manner. So you can really see it’s glory.

Paul was a servant to unbelievers in exact same way. He did it with something much more beautiful than a Sapphire and diamond necklace.

Paul served the unbelievers in His life by showing them the beauty of Jesus. He verbally shared the Gospel.

Paul presented Jesus to them in a manner that showed God’s beauty, kindness, love, forgiveness, and power very clear.

We call this kind of servant a missionary.

You say, Jonathan - you have this whole thing wrong.

Missionaries go and represent God. I don’t represent God, I just follow Him.

Paul teaches the Corinthians that we are all representatives of God.

2 Corinthians 5:18–20 ESV

18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

You are an ambassador for God. You are one who represents God to unbelievers.

You are a missionary.

You have been given the message of reconciliation.

Maybe Gospel here. What is reconciliation.

Helping those who have trusted God as Savior and King understand the love, sacrifice, and forgiveness of what God offers them through Jesus...

Transition - Paul goes on to give specific details of his method of being a missionary.

Paul tells us this ...

(slide) II. God has called me to incarnational ministry

Incarnational Ministry is a big church word.

It’s a theological term and technical ministry term, but don’t let that confuse you or intimidate you.

Incarnational Ministry is just a method of ministering to others that every good missionary does.

Incarnational Ministry means - becoming like those you serve.

Who was the greatest incarnational minister ever?

Jesus.

How did Jesus serve humanity?

He became like humanity.

-How as a missionary do you serve others?

-You first become like the people you serve. (not morally), but in their culture.

-A good missionary learns the language of those they serve.

-A good missionary learns what the people love & sympathizes with what they love.

-A good missionary takes time to have relationship with and learns to relate to the people around them.

-An effective missionary builds trust in relationships.

-For you to be a missionary that God uses. You will first have to becoming like those you are serving.

To be an effective missionary to mankind.

God did something that made him uncomfortable.

God challenged Himself.

He did something difficult.

He got way out of His comfort zone.

-He left the glory of heaven, to come to earth.

-He left the safety of heaven and came to a difficult & hurtful world.

He became something that He wasn’t previously.

Jesus was 100% God in Spirit form in heaven.

On earth He became 100% God and 100% human.

Once on earth Jesus got sick,

fell down as a child and got injured,

his brothers make fun of him and did not believe in him,

When he was 12 his parents accidently leave him behind. They lost Jesus.

Most people followed him just for what they could get from him. They used him.

His disciples betrayed and denied Him.

Eventually Jesus would be rejected by the very people He came to invite into His Kingdom and grace.

He was rejected as He hung on a cross to make a payment for sin.

As a Missionary, when Jesus left heaven, he had to modify his habits, his preferences, his schedule, his entire life-style.

Paul was not the first great Missionary. Jesus was the first Missionary.

Jesus became like those He served.

The fancy name for that is incarnational ministry.

The incarnational missionary call that God has placed on your life takes wisdom, insight, & flexibility.

and like Jesus. You and I have to

adjusted and change our comfortable ways, so we can reach those who don’t follow Jesus with the Good News.

Look how Paul says it in verse 19.

19 For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.

So what is the goal of this incarnational ministry.

What is the goal for becoming like others?

To win more.

Transition - and Paul shows us what He did to be an incarnational Missionary.

He did this by taking on the culture of those he was serving.

(Slide) Point 3, As an incarnation missionary, I must embrace the culture of those I am serving.

Read -

I Corinthians 9:20-23

Paul knew that if he was going to be an effective missionary he would have to adapt himself to the people and culture he was ministering in.

While Paul did not change his morals.

He was flexible with his preferences.

-Paul was very aware that different people in different regions have different cultures.

They act & speak differently.

Their food and music preferences are different.

What they value might be different than yours.

As long as these cultural issues are not moral issues they are not wrong, they are just different.

Illustration of my 2 neighbors

Miami

There is an hispanic family that lives 2 houses down from me. They have 2 kids and a modest house. Super nice people. Dad has a solid steady job. He’s a hard worker. Mom is home with the kids - she doesn’t speak english.

While they live in a modest home. Their cars are tricked out. Dad has a lowered corvette with a huge fin and mom has a sedan, with all identifying names removed. But it’s black, lowered with fancy accent colors, and special exhaust.

-First time I see those cars in that house I think - Hhhhmm - that doesn’t look like the rest of Louisville. Something is different.

There is a cultural difference. Not bad - just different.

In getting to know the husband I ask where are they originally from?

Miami - The winning bell goes off in my head.

Ding Ding Ding,

Ah, I’m from Florida. I’m a little familiar with Miami culture.

In Miami it is perfectly normal in the hispanic community to have an average home with tricked out cars. That’s just the way they roll.

No big deal, it’s cultural.

Completely normal.

-This family brought their Miami culture with them - to Louisville.

-When I interact with them and the kids, I try to see life through the eyes of an Hispanic Miami resident.

India - Just behind my Hispanic Neighbor

(3 houses away) is a family from India.

-My first clue was I saw some kids playing yard baseball with a flat bat - cricket bat. Cricket. Super popular in England, Australia and India.

-Internationally it is the second biggest sport in the world right behind soccer.

-Internationally it’s bigger than baseball & football ever will be.

-Long story short I was taking a walk and the wife and her middle school age child are walking the street looking for their cat.

-We had a conversation.

-Recognized her accent and jewelry.

-Asked her where they were from.

-I realized they were 1st generation immigrants.

-With a gleam of pride in her eye she told me her husband worked at a local gas station.

-In India unemployment and finding a job is a big problem.

-Many good jobs force a man to leave his family and work in another state. It’s common for a man who gets a good job to have to leave his family for 4-5 months at a time.

-Once you have a good job the company will work you to death because they know they can replace you easily.

-This family came to the U.S. to find work.

-The husband is able to supply for their family, with a regular job that keeps their family together.

-As a missionary to this Indian Hindu family … When I talk to them about work, I better show great honor to his gas station job. That’s a big deal to them.

-They are so thankful for that.

-When I talk to their kids, I need to understand they are under tremendous pressure to make all A’s in school. For most 1 generation Indian families , Typically, 1 “B+” and your report card is a failure.

-If I ever bring them a meal, if someone was sick, I need to not bring meat. They are Hindu and most likely are vegetarian.

-I don’t dishonor their culture.

-I not only respect their differences, I celebrate their differences.

Many of their differences, God gave them.

Why respect, love and celebrate cultural differences?

To win an opportunity to tell them about Jesus.

If you grew up in Jefferson County you see all kinds of subtle differences between people groups than I see.

As an outsider - All I see is 8 different cultural groups in the county.

Whites/Blacks - Wrens

Whites/Black - Louisville

Whites/Blacks - Wadley

Menonites

Bridges of Hope

There are subtle distinctions in each of those groups.

Those are sub-cultures.

If you grew up here you could probably name 20 subcultures.

As a Missionary, You will recognize that each of those 20 sub-groups need a little different approach.

-This attitude requires enormous flexibility.

-It requires spiritual maturity.

It requires you dropping the attitude that “life is about me and my comfort”.

It requires me to pick up the attitude that as a missionary, I have been called to love my neighbor (especially when they are different).

Transition - Why go through all the trouble? Why go through all the effort? Why learn to see life through lenses that I was not born into?

What is the fuel that keeps me going in Incarnational Missions.

Point 4, My love to see the lost saved is the fuel for Incarnational Missions.

Why go through all the trouble?

verse 22b, “...I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. 23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.”

I learn and relate to others for the reward of seeing others:

Get saved

Have their lives transformed

Be discipled

Grow to be more like Jesus

Watch them turn it around and help others become like Jesus.

Illustration - The payoff for a gardner..

A gardener gets to see the plant go from seed to a mature plant, bearing fruit.

Sometimes this take years.

The payoff for you the Missionary is to see the lost, come to Christ and grow.

Closing - Let me ask you this question...

Will you receive the call of God on your life to to be an incarnational missionary? reaching out to others? Engaging others?

Will you choose to do the difficult thing and look at life from someone else’s perspective so you can most effectively love that person and share Christ with them?

Will you ask the Lord to show you someone who you can love well and begin to reach out to in our community?

Some within the sound of my voice know who that is right now.

Q - When will you reach out to them?

Q - How will you reach out to them?

Pause

Gospel

There are some right now who need to answer the call to come to God.

The greatest most loving, most compassionate missionary is calling to you right now.

His name is Jesus. He is inviting you to come to Him.

He paid the price for your sins.

He rose again from the dead so he could be your king.

Do not put off following Him one more day.

That stirring in your spirit that you are experiencing is His call to you to say yes to Him as your savior and the King of your life.

Will you say to Jesus right now in the quietness of your heart. Jesus I trust in you. I want you as my Savior and my King. (x2)

Pray.