So that some might be saved!

 Read 1 Corinthians 9

 

Paul said that he became all things to all people. There’s a little hyperbole in that, but not in the why. So that some might be saved!

So that some might be saved!

Jesus said, I will show my servant—then going mostly by Saul—how much he must suffer for my name. None of what Paul experienced should have been a surprise to him. He knew God chose him for a very tough mission—one that took him over much of the Gentile world.

Paul had been run out of town—sneaked out of town.

He had been stoned and didn’t need a medical condition or medical permit. It was the old-fashioned kind, just rocks.

He had been shipwrecked.

He had been snake bitten.

He often paid his own way but welcomed gifts.

We don’t think he was married—ever. It was always mission, mission, mission for Paul.

He was a Hebrew from the tribe of Benjiman.

He was circumcised on the 8^th day.

He was a Pharisee.

He met Jesus on the road to Damascus. Oops! That’s going to be a problem. The others traveled with him for 3 years. Paul’s probably thinking, slow learners.

Paul spent some wilderness time after he encountered Jesus. I like to say that Paul went to PAS.

He was different. Other apostles—at least Peter—were married. Paul was going this solo.

He met people in synagogues, by the river, and in public forums. He met people who were totally removed from the one true God but had plenty of others.  Remember Mars Hill?

Paul mixed it up with the Stoic and Epicurean philosophers of the age. These were the polished thinkers and speakers of the age. Paul showed up unpolished but armed with the truth.

It was sort of like Paul grew up in the country in Oklahoma. Where’s that dirt road go? Won’t know just sitting here.

The scripture you know is I became all things to all people so that some might be saved. It’s a powerful verse. These are mighty words.

Do we have a clue what’s behind them?

You come to a person who is hurting. Do you talk to them or walk on by?

You see a person who is hungry. Do you feed them?

You see a person who is just lost in the world. Do you guide them?

Do you? Do you have a choice? I say that you don’t, at least not anymore.  Once I professed Jesus is Lord the decision had been made.

Jesus is my Lord and he told me to go into the world and make disciples. I didn’t hear the opt out version of that commission.

So, what’s that mean?

We do everything within our power to fulfill our commission. We too become all things to all people so that some might be saved. Yes, there is some hyperbole in that, but the why has no exaggeration. So, what does that mean?

Someone needs to lead a prayer. I will.

Someone needs to work in the nursery. I will.

Someone needs to drive the youth to camp. Oh, I forgot. I’m working 28 hours a day the last 22 weeks of June and July! When is camp?

Someone needs to go sit with that guy and see if he is OK. Yeah, OK.

Someone needs to share person to person with someone and let them know that there is no other name than the name of Jesus by which you might be saved. I’ll invite them to church.

In the words, “I’ll invite them to church” lies the heart of Casual Christianity. Inviting people to church.

Are we not to invite people to church?  You have heard me talk about these semantics for over 15 years now. We are the church, but this message is not about just choosing a better lexicon.

It’s about skipping the part about Jesus is Lord. Salvation is in Christ alone. There is life and life abundant through Christ Jesus.  That is what we are called to do.

We are to invite people to life! Invite them to worship and study for sure but don’t skip the part about life in Christ Jesus. Don’t go pedestrian on me and do what the church has been doing for too long.

Once we have shared life in Christ with others, surely, we invite them to worship and study with us. We want them to know the fellowship of believers. We want them to have this thing we call and sing about called blessed assurance.

We have been commissioned by God—who is love—to do just that!

And that brings us to Meat Loaf.

I’d do anything for Love, but I won’t do that.

We are to be known by our love and deliver the gospel.  This is not a dichotomy. There should be no dissonance. This is who we are.

We need to be sure, confident, and faithful to who we are. Why?  That is who God made us to be.

If your son or daughter asked for something to eat, would you give them a rock? Of course not. C’mon, we would give our own child food.

What if one of our children asked for advice?  Would we give them half-hearted advice? C’mon, we would download our lifetime memories and lessons-learned if we could. These are people made in our image, and we want them to live the best life possible.

 If we—believer and nonbeliever alike--want our children to have a chance to survive in a tough world, would we not insist they looks both ways before crossing the street, be respectful to adults and weary of strangers, and learn to work for what’s important?

Did you catch the verb? It was not suggested, or hinted at, or casually recommend. The verb that I used was insist. These things and others are important as we guide our offspring to self-reliance.

They are what we expect of our children and of ourselves as we nurture our children into adults.

Does God not expect us to do what he told us, commissioned us, and directed us to do?

So why is it so hard to tell others that don’t already believe that Jesus is Lord, God raised him from the dead, and real life and abundant life is in him.

Life eternal is in him!

But it’s not so hard to invite someone to church?

Is it:

·       I don’t want to be preachy.

·       I don’t want to be judgmental.

·       The government says I can’t.

·       I might lose my job.

·       I shouldn’t have to, that’s why we hired a preacher.

 That might be how we rationalize it, but the truth is that we can invite someone to church with some ease because the words don’t mean anything. It’s like talking about the weather or the close call at the ball game.

We are the church. We are to be inviting people to become the church by professing Jesus Christ is Lord.!

It really is that simple.

But why is it so hard? Consider that we have conformed to the world in our approach.

We try to entice people to come to church—to worship—with tag lines and pretty postings. Surely that is a good thing, right? The preacher can lay it on them thick the.

Maybe, if we put a message on the sign out front. Maybe if we had one of those signs with a scrolling message that would bring them in, maybe.

Maybe if we had basketball goals on both ends of the playground. Ok, I’m playing with you now, and purposefully so.

Why would we use something other than the best tool available to us? It’s not that there is anything wrong with a highspeed, low drag online posting. It’s not that there is anything wrong with a sign or another basketball goal or a newer van.

I remember when we put the sign up out front. We had a sign and it gave us good service! Some of you here probably had something to do with that.

Over the years, many of the letters migrated on the Oklahoma winds to Kansa and Nebraska on the Oklahoma wind. Do you ever wonder what they spelled when they landed, or is that just me?

It’s probably just me. I swallowed a bunch of Scrabble tiles when I was young, and my vowels were consonated for weeks.

Relax for a moment. Take a breath. This isn’t going to be this hard. Remember easy yoke and light burden.

Remember relax, catch your stride, and let the endorphins kick in from the early service. This is going to come so naturally for those that love the Lord and want to bring glory to his name.

What is?

Testify. Testify to love. Testify to what the Lord has done in your life. That’s how we get to Jesus is Lord with someone that we have only talked sports and weather with for decades.

Witness to them!

That’s how we get to there is no other name by which we may be saved. That’s how we get to God has good plans for you. That’s how we get to you will have trouble in the world but take heart—take courage—God through Jesus has overcome the world.

Love has overcome the world!

Most of what we need to do is talk about what God has done in our lives and invite people to know him.

We have been looking at rights and responsibilities over the past couple of weeks. I hope that you do not see responsibilities as burdens. I hope that you see them as a trust in you from God and embrace them.

Enjoy them!

Now, testify to love. Become what you need to become so others may be saved.  Become a person-to-person witness not so we check the block because we are directed by our Lord, but so that some might be saved.

Do this because we so long for our hearts to be like the divine heart of our Father in heaven.

The message from God remains unchanged. It’s all about his love for us, but the method and modality of bringing people to God so that they may know him, that part changes through the centuries, sometimes through the decades.

There is a constant among those changes—testimony and witness. I’m not splitting hairs on these though we have look at the two in various studies.

Testify to God’s love!

People can hear the best sermon ever and it might stick with them for a day or an hour, but the preacher has to be convincing. He has to do his own fact checking. That’s his gig. It’s like asking a barber if you need a haircut.

But when they hear from you what God has done and is doing in your life, it has a connection where the personal touch authenticates the message. This God stuff, this Jesus stuff, this love one another stuff might just be real.

When your testimony doesn’t sugar coat the trials that have come and the One that you know who has turned you into an overcomer, things happen. People believe. Our mission is about reaching the lost and helping them come to believe.

It’s often said that the preacher’s job is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. I don’t know where you stand in that regard, but if you have been offended by this message, note it on the comment cards when they arrive in May or June 2027.

Between now and then testify to love.

If this message got under your skin, petition the Lord, not for redress but redirection. We don’t do Casual Christianity.

We want to be more like Paul as we fulfill our commissions. Bringing others to Christ is foremost in our hearts and minds We become more things to more people so we might reach people and they might be saved.

Amen.