As we continue in our series, Witnesses in a Watching World, this Sunday our focus will be on 1 Corinthians 9:1-27. A powerful reminder from Paul, about the importance of sacrificial love and selflessness in our Christian journey. Let's reflect on Paul's examples of giving up lawful things for the sake of others and the kingdom, and consider how we can live out these principles in our daily lives.
As we continue in our series, Witnesses in a Watching World, this Sunday our focus will be on 1 Corinthians 9:1-27. A powerful reminder from Paul, about the importance of sacrificial love and selflessness in our Christian journey. Let's reflect on Paul's examples of giving up lawful things for the sake of others and the kingdom, and consider how we can live out these principles in our daily lives.
Good morning. I hope everybody's doing well this morning In the first service, when Caleb got up and read out of 2 Corinthians 9, in my mind I thought, oh, corinthians 9, he's going to read what I'm going to talk about today, or actually in 1 Corinthians 9, it took me a minute. I'm not too good with math, ones and twos, you know it took me a minute to figure that out. But I thought, not only because he mentioned Corinthians 9 would we be talking about the same thing, but the topic that he mentions in 2 Corinthians 9 is similar to some of the topics we're going to talk about in 1 Corinthians 9. Similar to some of the topics we're going to talk about in 1 Corinthians 9. And you know, you realize that Paul and Peter and the other apostles and Jesus even talk about the same thing, sometimes over and over and over again. Because just like we've got to go to our kids and tell them the same thing 1,500,000 times, sometimes he's got to do the same with us. So we're going to be in 1 Corinthians 9 today and 1 Corinthians 9 kind of continues on what he talks about in chapter 8, and also we hit it in chapter 6 and a few other places this concept of freely giving up what we have a right to as Christians, for the betterment of the kingdom, for the betterment of other Christians. So we'll be in chapter 9 today. You can open up to that, but we're going to go to the Lord before we get into it.
Speaker 1:Heavenly Father, lord, I thank you so much for all that you've given us. I thank you especially for your Son, jesus Christ, and the salvation we find in his name. I thank you for your word, lord. It's precious to us. David calls it honey. Your law is like honey to us. I pray that you would make it sweet to us today. God, build us and nourish us through it. God, that we might glorify you. I thank you that you've given us your word. Lord, you don't even have to do that. You could have let us all we your word, lord. You don't even have to do that. You could have let us all. We'd all gone astray. You could have let us all go, but you didn't. You sent your Son and you sent your word, and you call us back to you. Be with us this morning, lord. Strengthen us that we might glorify you, for you are worthy of glory. It's in Jesus' name we pray Amen. It's 1 Corinthians 9. We're going to start in verse 1.
Speaker 1:Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ, our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? If I'm not an apostle to others yet, doubtless I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
Speaker 1:My defense to those who examine me is this Do we have no right to eat and drink? Do we have no right to take along a believing wife, as do also the other apostles, the brothers of the Lord and Cephas? Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working? Whoever goes to war at his own expense, who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit, or who tends the flock and does not drink of the milk of the flock? Do I say these things as a mere man, or does not the law say the same also? For it is written in the law of Moses you shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain. Is it oxen God is concerned about, or does he say it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt.
Speaker 1:This is written that he who plows should plow in hope and he who threshes in hope should be partaker of his hope. If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things? If others are partakers of this right over you, are we not even more? Nevertheless, we have not used this right, but endure all things lest we hinder the gospel of Christ. Do you not know that those who minister the holy things eat of the things of the temple and those who serve at the altar partake of the offerings of the altar? Even so, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel. Praise the Lord. So Paul begins.
Speaker 1:Remember chapter 8, he talks about you have a right to go eat meat that's been sacrificed to idols, but if it's going to cause a problem amongst your brothers or sisters, then maybe it's better that you just don't do it. Your brothers or sisters, and maybe it's better that you just don't do it. Paul begins by saying I have rights also. Am I not an apostle? He says am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ, our Lord? That was one of the requirements to be an apostle that you'd been a witness and eye testimony, eyewitness testimony to the risen Christ. Paul had seen the risen Christ.
Speaker 1:Paul struggled somewhat with people receiving his authority as an apostle because he was the one he calls himself born out of time. He wasn't the disciple that walked with Jesus during his ministry. He was the terrorist like Morgan spoke last week, going around and arresting and killing Christians. When he ends up seeing the risen Christ, when Christ appears to him. So people didn't always receive him as an apostle. But he says if I'm not an apostle to others, if other people don't consider that I'm an apostle, I'm definitely an apostle to you because I'm the one that planted the church in Corinth. You guys wouldn't even be here coming together sharing the gospel if God had not sent me here to do it. I'm certainly an apostle to you and because I've come and I've shared the gospel with you, there's certain things in which I'm given a right to partake of right. One is to eat and to drink, to be supported in his needs by the ministry. One is to take a wife along, a believing wife, as several of the other apostles did. He says I have this ability to be supported by you guys.
Speaker 1:And he gives in verse 9, it's a quote from you know, you think of the agrarian society. Specifically the Old Testament was rooted in but even in the New Testament we've understood this the picture of sowing and reaping. In the gospel Jesus says that the harvest is ripe, right Harvest fields. Earlier in the book, paul says one man sows and another man reaps, but it's God who brings the increase. Another man waters right. So the picture of farming kind of fits here. He says you shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain. You're going to take an ox and you're going to put a yoke on him. You're going to have him plow your fields. Well, you're probably going to feed the ox so that he continues to have the strength to do the work right. Well, the same thing is true with Christian ministers. They need to be fed and supported so they can continue to carry on the work. You know this has its root in the Old Testament.
Speaker 1:If you go back and read about the way the Levitical system was set up. The sacrificial system was set up. To be a priest you had to come from the tribe of Levi, you had to be. Other Levites would serve in a temple as well, even if they weren't specifically priests. But the tribe of Levi was not given a land inheritance. All the other tribes were received an inheritance of land and through that land they could grow crops, they could grow livestock, they could feed themselves from the land inheritance they were given. God tells the Levites you don't get a land inheritance, I am your inheritance. And this was true for all of the Levites. Some of the Levites, specifically descendants of Aaron, would have been priests, the ones that are actually carrying out the sacrifice. But there were a bunch of other Levites that weren't specifically priests, that served in the temple. They too had a right to partake of those things which were brought in. So you think of the sacrificial system and how it works. People would have brought animals, obviously to be sacrificed, and animals slaughtered and it becomes meat, right? They also had grain sacrifices. You had drink offerings. There's a few mentions of that in scriptures. So what do you do with this meat and grain and drink that you're bringing to the Lord? God doesn't need it, right? It was used to serve the needs of those who served in the temple, right, of those who served in the sacrifices.
Speaker 1:False as well, that system which is set up in the Old Testament. That continues today. He says those who serve, who minister the holy things, eat of the things of the temple. And he says the Lord has commanded those who preach the gospel and serve the gospel should also live from it, right? So if you serve in a full-time capacity with a church as a pastor or some other minister amongst the church, you receive the right to be fed from that. Where does that come from? That comes from our tithes and offerings, right, that's where it comes from. So you think of the concept of the congregation bringing tithes and offerings, right, that's where it comes from. So you think of the concept of the congregation bringing tithes to the church. And we think. You know, I don't really want to give my money away. Really, I'd rather just hang on to it. You know, we're not the first people to think that we don't want to give our stuff away. That's really been a truth. That's been as long as that system's been set up.
Speaker 1:If you go back to the book of Malachi, god actually talks about this to the Israelites who also didn't want to give their livelihoods away, and he makes the statement Malachi 1, verse 7,. He says you offer defiled food on my altar but say in what way have we defiled you? By saying the table of the Lord is contemptible. And when you offer the blind as a sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? Offer it then to your governor. Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you favorably, says the Lord of hosts. God says you guys are robbing from me. You guys are taking the blind and the lame.
Speaker 1:Think about the sacrifices that were meant to be brought. It was meant to be the best, right? It was meant to be the firstborn. It was meant to be the one that was unblemished. The best of what you have was brought and presented to God. Think about the concept of killing the fatted calf, right? Abraham and the three visitors, which one of them is God, shows up and Abraham says hey, go kill the fatted calf, go kill the best thing we have and present it to the Lord. Right? That's the concept that is involved here. We're supposed to be giving our best to the Lord.
Speaker 1:God says you guys, you guys are giving me the blind animals, the lame animals. Like, this thing is going to die anyway. Go ahead and take it, give it to the church. It's going to die anyway. I got no use for it. What's that? That's the leftovers, right, that's like you know, I haven't given to church in six months and the plate gets passed around. I say, well, I got 10 bucks in my wallet. I guess I'll throw that in there. It's the leftovers. He says you're robbing from me. He says would you give that to your governor?
Speaker 1:You got taxes coming up here soon, right, april 15th. We've probably all done our taxes, haven't we? Hopefully we have. Do your taxes right. Hopefully we've done them honestly. Right, do them honestly. Why do we all do our taxes? We all do our taxes because we have to, because if we don't make sure our taxes are paid appropriately, somebody from the IRS is going to show up and be like good morning, you haven't paid all your taxes. We need to take all that from you. Let me go look at seven years worth of your background information, and none of us have that stuff sitting around anyway. Oh great, we all pay the IRS. We all pay the government.
Speaker 1:Out of what? Out of compulsion? Because we have to, because we know that there's going to be an issue if we don't. Right, think of the quote that Caleb put up here earlier. We don't give out of compulsion, we give out of joy, right, you know?
Speaker 1:I know there's a hundred reasons why we don't want to give our finances away to the church. Everything's expensive, right? You got kids going to college. That stuff's crazy expensive, man. My kid just got a driver's license. Can you believe how much that stuff costs? Everything is expensive, right? I took my son to the Godzilla vs Kong movie yesterday. It was $50. $50 for two tickets and a couple of drinks and a snack right $50. Everything's expensive. And we look and a couple of drinks and a snack right Fifty bucks. Everything's expensive.
Speaker 1:And we look at some of these things and we think I can't stretch it, man, I can't make the ends meet the way they're supposed to. I know that. You know we're supposed to give to the church and we're supposed to give to the kingdom and stuff like that. I just can't do it, it doesn't fit right. That's what we say to ourselves. Do you think that God is not trustworthy to provide? Because when we're struggling in those things, when we're struggling and saying, man, I just can't make it, I can't stretch it, I can't do it, what we're saying is we don't think God's going to make sure we have what we need. We might not say that consciously, but that's our fear, right?
Speaker 1:You think of a kid, right? A kid at Christmas morning and grandma gave him a card with a $100 bill in it. Kid, five-year-old or six-year-old, whatever gets the card, opens it up Wow, $100. Man, I'm rich, right? They're all excited. And then dad or mom will look over and say, hey, do you want me to hang on to that for you? You want me to keep that for you? What's the kid do? Yeah, yeah, go ahead, put it somewhere so I can have it right. Because what's the kid know? The kid knows they're probably going to lose it and they trust the dad or mom is going to keep it in a way in which it's not going to get lost, right? You know, everything we have is given to us anyway.
Speaker 1:We mentioned that quote from 1 Corinthians a couple times. Everything we have is given to us. Is it not better for us to give what we have to God, who is a million times more trustworthy than I am with things that are important to me? You know, if you look at still in Malachi, if you look at chapter 3, god says this chapter 3, verse 10, he says Bring all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be food in my house, all the tithes, all the stuff you're supposed to be giving to God. Take it and give it to God. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be food in my house and try me now in this. Some translations say test me, test me now in this that there may be food in my house and try me now in this, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. It says you want to test me, you want to see if I'm trustworthy to provide for you. Let's do it.
Speaker 1:I remember at our old church the year before we got married, I remember I didn't tithe back then. I was, you know, when you'd be in church and they passed the plate every once in a while I'd be like here's 20 bucks, whatever. I guess I have to. That was kind of my attitude. It was tax time Back. Then my stepdad did all my taxes for me. He calls me up in the middle of the week and says, hey, I ran through your stuff. You're going to get like 400 bucks back. I said, okay, 400 bucks is good. That week I go to church Sunday. I'm in church. I've got a blank check in my wallet. I don't remember what it was for, but it wasn't for church, it was for something else.
Speaker 1:Anyway, the pastor that day preached on Malachi, chapter 3, and he said I challenge you, take 90 days, give 10% of your income to the church and see if God doesn't take care of you. And he said if you don't, if God doesn't take care of you in that time, come tell me, I'll give you your money back, which that's a pretty easy statement to make. I don't know anybody's going to go to the pastor and be like, hey, I need my check back, please. You know probably nobody's going to do that. But that challenge, what did it do? It stirred in me. It stirred in probably other people, god willing, in the congregation. Hey, you know what God is trustworthy. You know what I'm going to. Check this out, test me. He says go ahead and do it. So I took my check out, wrote down 10% of my biweekly income back, then threw the check in the plate. Right that afternoon I go to lunch with my family at my sister's house my stepdad's there. He says hey, I went through your numbers again. You're actually getting $1,200 back. I thought, wow, look at that. God's showing me right there that if I'm willing to trust him with what I have, he's willing to show me that he's trustworthy. That's what it is when we give of our own things to the Lord, when we trust God with any area of our life, but this is just as true with finances as anything else. When we show God that we trust Him in that area, he will show us that he is trustworthy in that area, and then we are built. We are built in our faith through that Praise God. So that's the congregation.
Speaker 1:What about the minister? Let's go back to 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians, 9. 14, he said Even so, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from it. 15, he says but I have used none of these things, nor have I written these things that it should be done so to me, for it would be better for me to die than that anyone should make my boasting void, for if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me. Yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel, for if I do this willingly, I have a reward, but if against my will, I have been entrusted with a stewardship. What is my reward, then? That when I preach the gospel, I may present the gospel of Christ without charge, that I may not abuse my authority. In the gospel, paul says I have a right Remember, that's kind of what he's been talking about. I have rights that I can claim as a Christian. I'm not going to claim all of them for the good of something else. He says I have a right to receive support from you, corinthians, but I haven't taken it.
Speaker 1:Now you look at the way in which Paul is supported through Acts and through his letters. He's supported in a couple different ways, and sometimes he's supported directly by the congregation that he's ministering to. Right Acts 16, he comes to Philippi, preaches the gospel in Philippi, lydia and the other ladies down by the river God opens their heart to come to faith. Liddy's actually a wealthy woman, right, and she says hey, paul, I know you're out of town. You got a place to stay, you got some food, you got your stuff taken care of, you got your ducks in a row. He says no, actually I don't have any of those things, just since you asked. And she supports him. The congregation in which he's ministering to supports him directly. Sometimes he's supported by one congregation so that he can go and minister to another congregation.
Speaker 1:He leaves Philippi and goes on to Thessalonica. There's no church in Thessalonica, there's no Christians to help support his work there. The Philippians continue to send support to him when he's over there, right. Sometimes he works kind of as a you know, bivocational pastor kind of deal. He works to support himself. That was the situation in Corinth.
Speaker 1:When he comes to Corinth in Acts 18, he comes to Corinth, he meets up with Priscilla and Aquila. They're tent makers. He's a tent maker. He said, all right, we'll all settle down here and make some tents and that'll be the way in which we support the ministry. There was no church in Corinth, there was no way for him to be supported from the congregation, so he worked. He worked as a tent maker, you know, monday to Friday maybe, and on the weekends he'd go preach, right. So he says I haven't used this, right, I gave it up. Why did he give it up? Why did he do that? Why did he not partake of it? Well, one possibility is obviously, when he gets there, there's no Christians there to support him. That certainly would have been the reason initially, but after that, as the church grows, he ministers there for like a year and a half.
Speaker 1:As the church grows, he continued to say I'm not going to take the right that I have, why? Well, some people think I mean the Greeks, right, greek philosophy. They had these. Think I mean the Greeks, right, greek philosophy. They had these itinerant philosophers that traveled around and, would you know, go teach philosophy. Is the table really a table? Maybe it is, maybe it's not, maybe it's all a figment of your imagination. I don't know. Whatever they would taught they're weird stuff, right? Anyway, they would go and teach all this stuff and the school or the organization that they came and taught about would support them. That way, paul realizes that that's a truth. That's something that's happening in Greece. He says you know what? I don't want them to confuse me with somebody who's out here peddling Greek philosophy.
Speaker 1:When you go back to chapter 2, he says I didn't come to you with fine-sounding words, I came to you with the gospel and the power of God. I'm not peddling philosophy, I'm promising resurrection and salvation and glorification and all those things, right? I don't want you to confuse that with some fool that's walking around talking about Aristotle and all those other stuff. Right? Paul recognizes that he needs to not partake of something freely, so that what he says it up in verse 12, I have not used this right, but endure all things lest we hinder the gospel of Christ. He says I'm not going to partake of something that I could partake of, because the gospel is more important. The spread of the kingdom is the priority. That's certainly true.
Speaker 1:As a minister, if you go into the ministry thinking you're going to get rich, you're probably going to be disappointed. And if you do get rich, it's probably because you're doing something corrupt. Right. There are certain things that a minister is called to freely deny. Because what the reward is? What's he say? He says my reward. My reward is that I get to present the gospel. That's my reward, and that's better than a bank of Cain that's got a million zeros behind it. Right, that's my reward.
Speaker 1:The ministry, what I'm doing, is the reward, and that applies not just to somebody who works in a church a preacher, right. Or a worship leader or staff members at a church that are serving the congregation full-time, like the Levites right. Or a worship leader or staff members at a church that are serving the congregation full-time, like the Levites right. It applies that in principle, any Christian who's in a situation where the gospel has an opportunity to be shared. If you're somebody at work maybe you're the only Christian at work and there's an opportunity for you to share the gospel there maybe you need to not partake of something you could, because it will make things more receivable to the other people there, right? Same thing at school, same thing on a sports team, any situation you might find yourself in. There's plenty of things we could freely receive, right. But maybe we need to say no, I'm not going to receive that, because if I don't, that will help the spread of the gospel to somebody else. The gospel takes priority over all of our worldly desires, and I don't mean sinful desires. We're supposed to be separating ourselves from that anyway. I mean good, non-sinful things that we can attain in the world, right.
Speaker 1:All right, let's go back to the text, verse 19. 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 a partaker of it with you.
Speaker 1:Do you not know that those who run in a race, all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it, and everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now, they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we do it for an imperishable crown. Therefore, I run thus, not with uncertainty. Thus I fight, not as one who beats the air, but I discipline my body and bring it into subjection lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified. So why? Why should we give up things we freely can take? Why do we give up our finances? Why do we give up receiving worldly things? Why? Greeks are obviously very familiar with athletics, depending on what archaeologists you read, the Olympics were going on for almost a thousand years before Paul came to Greece, right, so they were very familiar with athletic competitions came to Greece, right, so they were very familiar with athletic competitions. You know, he says thus I fight not as one who beats the air.
Speaker 1:Every time I read that, I think about boxing. Of course. Every time I think about boxing, I think about Rocky. I mean, of course, right, oh yo, I'm gonna fight Adrian. Adrian, what are you doing? You know, I'm gonna fight Apollo. Sorry, I really like doing that voice, though, oh yo, I'm gonna break your thumbs. Are you doing? I'm going to fight Apollo. Sorry, I really like doing that voice, though, oh yeah, I'm going to break your thumbs. What are you doing, anyway?
Speaker 1:So Rocky, my favorite Rocky is Rocky IV, when he fights the Russian, and you think of the whole movie there and how it plays out. And he's living in Philly, he's got this big mansion, his family's there, his wife, he's got his kids. I remember the scene of his kids going crazy he's a little boy going crazy when they're watching the fight on TV. But he's got his family, he's got a mansion, he's got a nice sports car, he's got that robot that drives around and talks to Pauly and all this stuff. He's got all these good things. He says no, if I'm going to fight the Russian, I'm going to go to Russia and I'm not going to have any of that stuff. And I'm going to live in a cabin that's got no heat and just has a fireplace and I'm going to run up and down mountains full of snow and work out in the back of a barn, because that's what I've got to do to beat the Russian. I've got to give up this stuff. That's good, because I've got something more important I'm doing.
Speaker 1:And you think of athletes and the way in which they give up of themselves for a goal, right, I mean get up early and work out or run or something. You know you don't eat certain stuff. It's lunchtime but I'm not going to eat the cookie because I got to stay in fighting shape right In the evening, right? Instead of hanging out and watching TV, maybe you're going over game film or you're going through the playbook or something. You give up plenty of things because you have a goal that you're trying to get to. You're trying to achieve something good in sports, right? Paul says here's the thing If you're giving up that stuff as a runner or a boxer or a baseball player or whatever else it is that you are. If you're giving that stuff up for this, you know what you're getting. First of all, it's uncertain. You don't know if you're going to make the team. You don't know if your team's going to win. You don't know. You might win, you might not right. Secondly, it's perishable. You're getting a perishable crown. Whatever it is you're reaching for, eventually it's going to go away.
Speaker 1:You know, the older I get, the more I watch. You know, the more I identify, when I'm watching sports, with the commentators that have been around longer. Right, I always identify with the commentators who were playing, especially when I was a teenager. I always think of Troy Aikman when I'm watching football. Aikman was a Cowboys fan back in the day, you know, and I see Aikman and Aikman's doing his thing. But you know, like my kids don't know who he is Like. Who's that guy Like? He's just an old guy that talks about football. That's really all he is now. Like Troy Aikman no man. He's like he won the Super Bowl and he was the MVP and all this stuff. He's just an old guy talking about football. It's perishable. It's going away.
Speaker 1:Anything that we're striving for and there's so many things that we give up good things for in this life, whether it's sports or academics, or a job or a relationship. We're willing to give up so much for these things, which are what Going away. Why are we not willing to do the same for the kingdom? Because look what he says about the kingdom. He says I don't run with uncertainty, the kingdom is not uncertain, the return of Christ is not uncertain. Salvation and resurrection is not uncertain. If you know Jesus, you can take that to the bank. And resurrection is not uncertain. If you know Jesus, you can take that to the bank. It's coming. And then he says I run not with uncertainty, but we're also attaining what?
Speaker 1:Something that is imperishable, an imperishable crown. The Greek there. The term in Greek is aftartos. It's used a few other times in the New Testament 1 Peter in chapter 1,. He says that's the inheritance we're getting. Aftartos means incorruptible, imperishable, indestructible right. We're getting an inheritance that won't be taken away. Peter also says we're born again of imperishable seed. When the Holy Spirit comes and regenerates us and gives us a new heart, a heart of flesh and not a heart of stone, it's not going away, it's going to continue to grow and grow. It's imperishable. 1 Corinthians 15,. He says that's what we're getting in glorification Our body will be imperishable, indestructible, incorruptible. That's what we're receiving If we're willing to give up these things for all the stuff that's going away. Why are we not willing to give up these things for what's certain and imperishable? How much more joyful might we be if we were willing to do that more.
Speaker 1:Some of you guys might have heard the story of Jim Elliott. Jim Elliott was a missionary in Ecuador back in the 50s. The story is pretty impressive if you read through. Go, google it and look it up, right. But Jim Elliott was a missionary out in the jungle in Ecuador. He gets killed by the natives that he's gone to share the gospel with him and a few other guys door. He gets killed by the natives that he's gone to share the gospel with him and a few other guys, and some years later his wife continues the ministry. She actually reaches that same tribe with the gospel.
Speaker 1:I mean, you think about the love of Jesus. It would take the love of Jesus to do that. But when they found his journal there was a quote in there. I don't know if this quote came initially from him or if he borrowed it from somebody, but he says he is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to attain what he cannot lose. That's what we're doing in the church. Are we going to be able to hang on to our finances, or hang on to an athletic trophy, or hang on to a job, or hang on to something else? No, we're not. Are we going to be able to hang on to salvation and glorification with Christ? You better believe it. Let's be willing to sacrifice the things that are good for the things that are greater. Let's go to the Lord.