[0:00]
So 1 Corinthians 9, verse 16 through 2, the end. And this is the Word of God. 1 Corinthians chapter 9. Verse 16. For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Why to me if I do not preach the gospel? For if I do this of my own will, I have a lot.

[0:30]
reward, but if not of my own will, I'm 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. For though I am free of all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew in order to win Jews, to those under the law I became as one under the law, though not being myself under the law, that I might win those under the law.

[1:00]
To those outside the law, I became as one outside the law, not being outside the law of God, but under the law of Christ, that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the week. I've become all things to all people that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel that I may share with them in its blessings. Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives a prize? So run that you may obtain it. every athlete exercises self-control in all things.

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They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we and imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly. I do not box as one beating the air, but I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others, I myself, should be disqualified. Well, you might have noticed a great difference between me and the Geneva Push church planters and coaches. appear.

[2:04]
Just to tell you a little bit about myself or at least my interest in church planting, I was in Bathis, New South Wales, for 10 years, and at one point we helped start an evangelical church, an independent evangelical church in that city for various reasons. Reflecting on later on, actually, I ended up writing an essay. after doing a bit more research as well. And I tried to write an essay on why church plants fail,

[2:34]
because there wasn't much literature about, there's lots of people saying how we did it and how it was really good, but not many people writing on what makes a church plant fail. And so I was doing a bit of research on that. There is one book called 10 Reasons Why a Church Plant Fails, which I thought that was very interesting. Our church in Bathurst is actually still going, so it wasn't a failure, but there was some, I learned a lot in those. years. It was fun, but it was hard. It was really hard, and I think we made a lot of mistakes. I came to Geelong with a little bit more experience in church planning and got involved in the

[3:09]
West Presbyterian Church in West Geelong, and the minister there was very keen to plant an evening congregation, and he wanted to do a cafe-style church, and I sort of looked at where he was and thought, yep, that sounds good, so we put our time and effort in there. And again, had a lot of fun, but there's a lot of work. So I've always kind of been interesting church planning, although I've never planted a church myself. Well, if you open up your book, you can see a little bit of an outline there,

[3:39]
and if you turn over the page, you'll see a very detailed outline there by Andrew Heard. There's an advantage of that means you can change things, and even with my outline, there was things I wanted to change, but we'll follow on roughly what we've got. Let's ask God to do. to help us as we just work really through this topic of stumbling over the gospel. Heavenly Father, we thank and praise you that you've given us the gospel. We ask in your kindness that you might help us understand what the Apostle Paul

[4:14]
teaches us about the gospel and stumbling over it. Please help me to be faithful and help all of us to listen clearly to this part from your word. We ask this in Jesus. Jesus' name. Amen. Lots of people stumble over the gospel, and they stumble over the gospel for lots and lots of different reasons. Even the religious leaders in Jesus' day, the Pharisees, they stumbled over Jesus himself. Jesus' humanness kind of hid his divinity, the fact that he was a human being hid the fact that he

[4:50]
was divine, and they were so sinful and filled with self-righteousness and jealousy. So they stumbled. over the man who was the center of the gospel. Yesterday, I was a manning a stall down at the university as chaplain. At Deegan University, we had a student life essence day. Apparently, I am one of the S's in essence. I am the spirituality man. One guy came up and as soon as I said, I'm chaplain, he was not interested. He stumbled over the word chaplain.

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We didn't even get to Jesus. We live in a world that he's so discused. interested in God and his son, it feels like everyone is stumbling over the mere mention of God. The smallest comment offends people. The smallest obstacle halts progress. How do we get past square one? This is not just intellectual stumbling blocks either. We can't just address all the defeater beliefs, although I like to work through some of them, because the majority of people don't even

[5:56]
care about belief? What are we to do? How do we connect with the 21st century generation of apathetic and disinterested people? Well, in Paul's letter to the Corinthians, he gives us a little window into his ministry method. Really, it's not a particular method. It's more like a ministry mindset, an attitude in his head that radically affects the ministry method or practice that he adopts the ministry method or practice that he adopts.

[6:28]
And with these various comments, he opens up the possibility of the problem being solved, first of all, from within us. In other words, those of us who are doing the ministry of the gospel to other people. And what I mean is that Paul is suggesting that we change first before we ask other people to change. The difference is you. The difference is that Paul is suggesting that we change is, is on where the stumbling blocks lie. He wants to remove all the stumbling blocks so that he might,

[7:00]
sorry, that he might cause, so that, or before even thinking about the stumbling blocks that people might have, their intellectual stumbling blocks, perhaps. So that's what we're thinking about with our stumbling blocks. The things that we are doing that are causing stumbling blocks. Well, that's all by way of introduction. Here's how I'm going to tackle. all the passages. First, we're going to look at that one paragraph in 1 Corinthians 9 versus 19 to 23 is where I'm going to concentrate on. The enslaved servant, I've called it. And then we're

[7:36]
going to jump across to 1 Corinthians 10 and 2 Corinthians 6 and talk about the free method. And I'm going to contrast the enslaved and the free and help us see that that that serves Paul's greater desire. his greater ambition of winning souls for Christ. So let's start with the 1 Corinthians 9. And as I said, just concentrating on verses 19 to 23. Verse 19 serves as kind of a heading for the whole paragraph.

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Although I am free or a free man and not anyone's slave, I have made myself a slave to everyone in order to win more people. Paul is free from people. because he is now a slave to Jesus. He opens many of his letters with that claim. You can look up Romans. Romans chapter 1 starts off. Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus called to be an apostle.

[8:40]
So he puts his slave idea ahead of him being an apostle. His allegiance to Jesus Christ is dominating. He is free from the demands that people might place on him. But he says, I've actually made him. myself a slave to everyone. That is, he is willing to enslave himself to other people. He doesn't use his freedom. Although he's free, he doesn't use it. He doesn't stand on his rights. He denies himself.

[9:11]
If you read the context earlier on, you'll notice that it's about not insisting on the rights of being paid as an apostle, demanding payment as a speaker, and there's another cultural reason why he does that. but it's all much bigger than that. Think about it this way. What does Paul enslave himself to? Now, actually, that's the wrong question, isn't it? Because it is who Paul enslaves himself to.

[9:41]
Paul enslaves himself to people who don't know the gospel. He enslaves himself to non-Christians, to pagans, to other people who are not known the gospel. He enslaves himself to non-Christians, to pagans, to other people who are not connected with God. That is amazing when we stop to think about it. Paul does not enslave himself to his doctrinal position or to his ministry practice. He enslaves himself to non-Christians. Have you ever considered what you are enslaved to?

[10:14]
What you are enslaved to in your mind or what you are enslaved to in your church? And I want to leave aside the possibility of being enslaved to sin. in some kind of way or that we might feel, what are you enslaved to in your practice of church, in your expression of the Christian life? And by enslavement, I mean things that you won't compromise on, things that you might be rigidly inflexible over. How might your enslavement affect relationships with outsiders?

[10:51]
Do you care that it affects relationships with outsiders? ! you care that it affects relationships with outsiders? Do you care that it affects how they might view you or how they might view God because of you? Well, the Apostle Paul did care. He cared very much. See, he wanted a hearing with people. He wanted an opportunity to preach. So he became flexible. I think we fall into a number of enslavement.

[11:22]
today, we can enslave ourselves to a certain doctrinal position. I'm not referring to critical doctrines like the divinity of Jesus or justification by faith alone. But there are others that are less important ones that we can be rigid over or inflexible on. And I wonder whether we should be. It may surprise you to notice how flexible Paul was on doctrine.

[11:52]
See, he recognized a number of disputable matters, matters that he allowed a liberty of opinion. Now, the classic reference to this is in Romans chapter 14, verse one, !

[12:22]
In Philippians chapter 3, verse 15, he says there, therefore all who are mature should think this way. If you think differently about anything, God will reveal this also to you. Now, God may reveal it to you over the next 10 years, not in the next 10 minutes. Our thinking is always developing and changing, isn't it? Paul was a little bit flexible.

[12:52]
on some doctrinal issues. Sometimes in conservative evangelical circles, we are so enslaved to our doctrinal position that we view others who don't agree with us as heretics. Paul, on the other hand, is so enslaved to others that he can be flexible on a range of issues. A little bit flexible. I'll talk about a limit on that in a moment. So I think it's challenging us to be not so,

[13:22]
rigid on matters that are not so critical. Let's be enslaved to people rather than positions. Let me give you a little personal example. I'm maybe dangerous because, you know, you might hear what I'm in my heart, and you might think I'm a heretic. But, you know, here's one little thing that I can think of. I don't call Sunday the Lord's Day. Now, I don't know what you think about me when I tell you that. But, you know, I don't, criticize people who call Sunday the Lord's Day,

[13:55]
but I wonder, do people think differently of me now that you know I don't call Sunday the Lord's Day? I especially don't use that term around my non-Christian neighbours or around other footy dads that I hang out with sometimes. I mean, they would just think it's weird. Does that mean I have compromised the truth? Well, I don't really think so. it reflects more that I've enslaved myself to the 21st century Aussie

[14:25]
who I'm trying to reach with the gospel. I could say the same for our ministry practice. Are you enslaved to your ministry practice, whatever that might be? What if your ministry practice made it hard for someone to hear the gospel? What would you do about that? Paul would say that you should flex. But if we are enslaved to our ministry practice

[14:57]
rather than to the people that we are trying to reach with our ministry, then we're going to be rigid and not budge. I could say the same about denominational structures. Are we enslaved to them such that we don't budge? And they prevent gospel opportunities. If we are honest, I think sometimes we'd have to say, that some of our denominational structures do restrict the free flow of the gospel to non-Christians.

[15:29]
Some of them make it harder to advance the gospel than easier. But Paul, when he writes this paragraph, would sort of never allow such an obstacle to happen, never allow such a situation to be the case. And what I'm saying almost sounds contradictory, but it isn't. Paul is in slow. to people, therefore he is free to be flexible. Paul is enslaved to people, outsiders, to reach outsiders.

[16:00]
Therefore, he is free to be flexible. His flexibility has definite limits, as I hinted at earlier. He is still under Christ's law, verse 21. But the emphasis here throughout this whole paragraph is on his flexibility, because he is enslaved to people, because he wants to reach them. So let me draw out the flexibility side a little bit more. Now, I've challenged you to think about what we might be enslaved to. That's limiting our flexibility of our belief or our practice.

[16:33]
But, you know, that was just an extension of what might be enslaving us. Paul's flexibility in this paragraph, 1 Corinthians 9, is regarding his own personal lifestyle and Christian expression. So to the Jew, he becomes a Jew, in his personal lifestyle, in his expression of his Christianity, he becomes a Jew. To those outside the law, he becomes

[17:04]
outside the law. To the weak, he becomes the weak. Obviously, the flexibility in his lifestyle has limits. He won't become a drunkard to reach the drunk or an adulterer. He won't break God's moral laws for his lifestyle. But again, there is a certain amount of flexibility. To the footy-loving Aussie culture, I will watch footy on Sunday. Heaven forbid I will even allow my son to play on Sunday.

[17:37]
Sometimes I don't let it be the regular every week they're going to play. But if the roster comes around and it's on Sunday, well, I can be flexible. Dan can go, in our situation, Dan can go to church at night. So I'm thankful for that. But see, I'm also trying to reach a certain dad, and that dad referred to certain children playing on Sunday, and I quote him, he said, in the earshot of me, he said, don't get me started on that topic. In other words, for him, it was a stumbling block to him even thinking about Christianity.

[18:14]
I'm trying to reach this guy with the gospel. He's one of the hardest guys I know to reach in Geelong. But there's a little window, and if I can be flexible in my lifestyle, I'll make it a little bit easier for him to hear. I think I should flex. I'd like you to pray for him. Well, let me jump across now to 1 Corinthians 10, and the 2 Corinthians 6 passage now, because it's a continuation of the same idea. We'll come back to 1 Corinthians 9 later and just finish it off.

[18:45]
But in these other passages, we see Paul's free. method or his flexible method. Let me read both those passages first. 1 Corinthians 10, 31 to 111. Therefore, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do everything for God's glory. Give no offense to the Jews or the Greeks or the Church of God, just as I also try to please all people in all things, not seeking my own prophet,

[19:17]
but the prophet of many, so that they. may be saved. I imitate me as I imitate Christ. Or the two Corinthians one, working together with him, we also appeal to you. Don't receive God's grace in vain, for he says, I heard you in the acceptable time, I helped you in the day of salvation. Look, now is the acceptable time. Now is the day of salvation. We give no opportunity for stumbling or for offence to anyone so that the ministry will not be blamed.

[19:50]
Because Paul is an enslaved servant to others, he can adopt a free method of both his ministry and his lifestyle. 1 Corinthians 1032 is in the form of a command. Give no offense to the Jews or the Greeks or the Church of God. That's a command. And notice, though, that the Jews and the Greeks come first. They are a priority in Paul's mind because he is trying to win them to Christ.

[20:20]
so that they might become part of the Church of God. Again, it shows Paul's flexibility, the flexibility of his behaviour and his practice. Verse 33 puts it this way. I try to please all people in all things. He's a people pleaser as much as he possibly can be. Now today, us conservative evangelicals are critical of people pleases, aren't we? Just like we're critical.

[20:50]
of the idea in 1 Corinthians 9. We're all things to all people. See, we use it to describe someone who has got no backbone or someone who is two-faced. Someone who is unstable and uncertain in what they believe. And so he's sort of flopping all over the place or just trying to put, oh, yeah, I'll be Catholic today or I'll be liberal today. Both of them are forms of derision today. But for Paul, he would wear,

[21:20]
it as a badge of honour because it shows his evangelistic commitment. It shows his commitment to those who do not know Christ. It shows that he cares more about the gospel advancing in the lives of unbelievers than pleasing himself and being comfortable in his ministry practice. He demonstrates that he really does know the times that he's in. This is the day of salvation. This is the day of opportunity for the world.

[21:50]
world to be saved. And so Paul puts no obstacles or no offense in the way whatsoever. The same root word is used there in both the 1 Corinthians 10 passage and the 2 Corinthians 6. Translations go differently. Some go with offense. Some go with stumbling and some go with obstacle. I wonder if you were to list up on some board or something. There's one over there. We might do it. If you were to list up what we think are stumbling blocks or obstacles to the gospel.

[22:27]
We may as well have a go. But what, I'll give you a condition. What you can't do is you cannot list things like intellectual beliefs that non-Christians have. What we've got to list is we've got to list ministry practices that might be an obstacle or you think are an obstacle to non-Christians. Now that might seem unfair. You might think I've ruled out a whole range of things. But the context in 2 Corinthians 6 is about ministry.

[23:00]
Verse 3 says, we give no opportunity for stumbling to anyone so that the ministry will not be blamed. He's talking about stumbling blocks of his ministry. So here we go. Let's have a crack at it. We'll make a little bit of a list. Call out anything you like. Something that you think is a stumbling block to the gospel, something in ministry practice that we do. Call them out nice and loud. I'm half deaf. Cultural groups.

[23:34]
Like Dutch. Sorry? Okay. So, um… Speaking, not listening. Okay. Daggie, promote, oh, I can't spell for nuts. It's like we're in the 19th century, you know, before the 20th century sometimes.

[24:10]
Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Um. Well, we'll just go with architecture, location. It's a brief. I can't spell that either. And design. Like some of our buildings, 19th century, and yet all the buildings around have modernized. Ours happens. Ah, long-winded sermons.

[24:46]
I won't ask what church you get to. For fear, you might say mine.

[25:16]
jargon. Singing, okay, there you go. Because the Australian culture doesn't sing, although we sing rugby songs. What have I got here? Yes, our organs? ! Good point. Even, like, you said jargans, I just, it just made me think of, well, I had it earlier,

[25:50]
but doxology is just a word I don't know. A non-Christian doesn't know. That'll do us. Sorry, someone else wanted to say something? Yeah, so no follow-up. Now, the next question I was going to say something? is, if I was to circle on those, the things that we could be flexible on in our practice,

[26:24]
what would we, or let me do it the other way. What do you think are the non-negotiable things that we could not be flexible on? Oh, so we've got to have daguroposional material. You go to a prescriptive church? Okay, very good. So you'd say that's a non-negotiable. And I think you could, a lot of us would resonate with that because there's great encouragement in the Bible to sing,

[26:58]
but also we've got something to sing about. So there's joy in Christian life because of what Jesus has done. So, yeah, what else? Okay, so… Yep. So we want to… It's not just to listen, but we need to speak, yeah, okay, it's good. Well, I've just circled that. Oh, sorry, you've got irrelevant. Well, we'll circle sermons.

[27:32]
Now, that's very revealing. I had no idea what was going to come up on there, but there's our non-negotiables, and that tells us we've only got two non-negotiables. The question I have for you is this. How concerned are you for the salvation of the lost? Are you prepared to flex at all? Are you free to adapt your method? The three passages that I emphasized in Corinthians

[28:06]
all talk about this free method. And the purpose of the free method is to… to win people. So one Corinthians chapter 9 has got this, has punctuated the whole paragraph like bullets or like the little pebbles coming out of a shotgun. To, in order to win more people, verse 19, in the heading. To win the Jews, verse 20. To win those under the law, verse 20 second half.

[28:36]
To win those outside the law, verse 21. To win the weak, verse 22. All things, to all people. so that by any means at all, I might save some verse 22. Paul could not have been more emphatic if he tried. He's flexible in order to win people. That is his governing concern. 1 Corinthians 10 says, I please all people in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many,

[29:08]
so that they may be saved, verse 33. This is the purpose. purpose of his flexibility, to win more people to Christ. Are you flexible? Are you flexible for the sake of saving people? Can you enslave yourself to people so that you might win them? Maybe it comes down to what you desire most. What is your greatest desire in life? What will you say is your driving ambition?

[29:39]
When it comes down to it, bottom line, what do you want most? What is it? If you understand the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, that he died on the cross 2,000 years ago to save us from God's wrath because of our sin, to allow us to participate in God and be taken up into glory, if you understand that, and if you love the people around you who haven't been forgiven,

[30:09]
who don't know the saving news of the death of the death of God, Jesus on the cross. You should desire above all else that people be saved. If you are in ministry, you should desire that people be one to Christ. If you are a chaplain or at school or at university, you should desire that those people you are chaplain over be saved. If you plant a church, your greatest desire should be, not that you succeed as a church planter,

[30:40]
not that your church is self-sufficient after five years, not that you've got healthy numbers attending every week, but that people be one to the kingdom of God. Paul is an enslaved servant in order to win more people to Christ, and he uses free methods, free methods in order to win more people. He is flexible for that. Well, let me conclude with a few take-home challenges.

[31:10]
First take home challenge is we've been entrusted with the gospel. God trusts us to present the gospel to the generation of people that we live amongst that we are in here today, 21st century, Australia. God has made us his fellow workers to work, to do the work of advancement. His chosen method, his mode of operating is to work through people.

[31:40]
people, to reach people through people. We must not just see evangelism as an obligation placed upon us or an act of obedience required of us, but it is an entrusting of the very gospel itself to us. God has entrusted us with something very precious and something life-changing. He has entrusted us with the good news. Are you worthy of that trust?

[32:10]
willingly making yourself a slave to others by being willing to flex in your method. Secondly, we should also endeavor or ensure that we trust the God of the gospel. You know, it is all too easy to trust ourselves. Trust our knowledge, trust our ability, trust our gifts. It's also tempting to trust our opinions, trust our positions, trust our ministry practices, trust our methods, trust our denomination.

[32:42]
But above all, we need to actually be trusting God himself. It is His gospel. Those who are being saved are under his watchful eye, even for years before they are saved. We must trust God, not ourselves, or our beliefs, or our practices. And if we trust what God says in His Word, in the Corinthians letters, it means we should be be flexible on all of those things because God encourages that flexibility.

[33:15]
Obviously within limits, but he encourages that flexibility to win people. Thirdly, we need to love those who are lost to the gospel. We need to love those who are lost to the gospel. Genuine love for those who don't know Christ. Not in a general sense of, you know, yeah, I love all the lost people in Geelong, so I'm going to plan it. church here or whatever, but in a personal sense and passionately as well. We generally love people we know, people we are in some kind of relationship,

[33:50]
but here's another question for you. Do you know many non-Christians? Could you invite your neighbours around to your house for a meal and then not kind of feel that they don't know you well enough to accept it? Or think, oh, that's a strange invitation. I've got a random invitation from my neighbour to dinner. Could you invite non-Christians from your local sporting connections or other networks that you are in?

[34:22]
Could you list non-Christians that you know well enough for that to invite around to dinner? How many could you put on the list? If it's only a couple, it doesn't actually reflect that you love people very much. that you actually become isolated from people. And we're told here to love, Paul pours out his love, and just saying, I'll do anything that they might be saved.

[34:55]
It's a challenge. And if you love the lost, are you enslaved to them such that you're prepared to be a bit flexible on things like. like your doctrinal views, your ministry practices, your methods, your church structures, other things. Are you prepared to be flexible in your lifestyle within limits, within limits, to accommodate a non-Christian, to make the gospel a little bit easier for them to accept?

[35:27]
If you're not flexible, Paul would say you are not loving, that you don't care. Finally, we need to hate it. something as well. We should hate stumbling blocks to the belief in the gospel. We should hate them so much that we are prepared to remove them. I challenge you to look around your church ministries and your own Christian lifestyle and to see if there's any way that your

[35:58]
practices or your behavior is in some sense an obstacle to outsiders believing, to outsiders coming in. If there is, then you should be flexible and you should change. Show them that you are a slave to them, not to your practices or your structures. If we love the gospel and we love the God of the gospel, and if we love those who are lost to the gospel,

[36:31]
and if we love those who are lost to the gospel, we may be love those who are lost to the gospel, ! certainly will hate any and every offense, any and every obstacle, any and every stumbling block to belief in the gospel. Certainly those stumbling blocks that have to do with us, have to do with our ministry practices, our Christian lifestyle. Let's pray that God might help us do that.

[37:02]
Our Father and our God, we thank you that You have come to earth in the form of your son and died so that we might have eternal life. Thank you for saving us from ourselves and saving us from this corrupt world and saving us from your wrath. Father God, we pray that you will help us practice our belief in such a way that we can make it easier for other people to also be saved.

[37:32]
Grant us a great love for people. that we might be flexible. Thank you that Paul enslaved himself to people, not to anything else, so that he might save some. Father God, we ask that you would help us examine ourselves and our churches to be more flexible that more people might be saved on this day of salvation. We ask all of this in Jesus' name.

[38:05]
Amen. Thank you.