1 Cor 9:19-23 = Freedom to serve
A few
weeks ago while we were away in Namibia I loaned our car to someone from
Ministry of Game. He'd had a car accident just before we left, and needed a car
to get to work. When we got back and he returned the car, he told me that one
of the headlights had blown. And I thought, "That's okay. I've changed a
headlight before. I'll fix that when I have some free time."
A couple
of weeks passed, and I was driving along one night and noticed that the
headlight was still out. "I really need to get around to that," I
thought. "As soon as I have some free time."
A blown
headlamp is not a hugely difficult job to replace, and it's important, not only
to make sure my car is legally roadworthy, but also as a safety issue. So why did
it take me so long to find the time to fix it? Because life is busy! Other
things pop up. Penny came down with covid. I started back at work. I returned
to Ministry of Game. I was asked to preach a sermon. I had the ability to
fix the headlamp, but just couldn't find the time.
But it
just so happens that during this same period with the broken headlamp I also
had a lot of free time. I had pretty bad jetlag for about two weeks. I would
regularly wake up at 2.00, 3.00, 4.00am and I would sit around twiddling my
thumbs.
Why
didn't I go and fix the headlamp then? Because you can't get a new headlamp at
3am! The petrol stations around my area don't seem to stock them. I could get a
coffee or a donut or petrol, but I couldn't get a headlamp. I had the time to
fix it, but not the capacity. Anyone who has had long-term insomnia knows this
feeling of having lots of time but few ways of redeeming it because of the
circumstances.
It's
interesting how two totally opposite life situations - high capacity low time,
and high time low capacity - both end up with the same result: some important
things don't get done.
And I
think often we feel like it's important work for God that falls through these
cracks. We see opportunities to serve the gospel, but either we're too busy to
make use of them, or our capacity means we're unable to do them.
Then we
read a message like the one Paul writes to the Corinthian church in 1
Corinthians 9:19-23 where he claims that for the sake of the gospel he has
become all things to all people so that by all possible means he might save
some. He made himself a slave to everyone, he says, to win as many as possible.
And sometimes we get tempted to just switch off and say, "That sounds
really hard. I'm no Paul. I can't even find time to change a headlamp. I can't
even sleep. It's just going to make me feel bad thinking about it. This passage
isn't for me. I just can't do that."
Now the
thing is there is a challenge to us in this passage, but let me tell you it's
not one that should leave us feeling like that! Paul isn't talking about his
life in order to make us feel bad, or to try and big note himself. And he's not
saying that every Christian's life needs to follow the same exact pattern that
his did. We don't all need to be church planters, pastors, evangelists,
missionaries, preachers, writers of scripture. Earlier in Corinthians he says
that he thinks it would be great if we all stayed single, but he knows even
that isn't realistic, and isn't God's plan! We don't have to live the same life
as Paul, perform the same actions as Paul. God's plan is big enough for all
people to play their part: Jew or gentile, rich or poor, young or old, single
or married, male or female, slave or free.
Paul is
talking about his life because he really was devoted to the gospel, and that
devotion is clear in how he has lived his life, and he's saying that makes
him someone worth listening to about how we all should live if we want to be
devoted to the gospel. This whole chapter has basically been about Paul's resumé
of why the Corinthian church should listen to him when he answers them about
how they should use their freedom in life.
In our
specific section he's addressing the freedom God has given him to choose what
he does with his life, what choices he makes about what he does with his time,
and who should get the benefit of his efforts. He's really clear about it: he
is prepared to give up "his" way of doing things - the way of
life that might make him more comfortable or more at ease or fit better in with
his peers - in order to provide more opportunities for the gospel to be
heard and accepted by other people. He becomes what people need to be able to
give the gospel a fair hearing. He does it for the sake of the gospel.
We have
that same freedom. Just like Paul, God has given us the freedom to choose what
we do in our lives. And I don't mean that vacuously, like when we say to kids,
"You can be anything you want when you grow up; you could be Chief Justice
of the High Court if you work hard!" Only 13 people have ever held that
position in Australia's history; no doubt there have been lots of people who
worked very hard in their lives and yet were disappointed - the chances of
getting there are perishingly small. We're not God; we don't get to determine how
everything happens.
But God
is God, and he could determine everything for us. Like windup robots, all our
moves could be predetermined so that we have no say. But amazingly, graciously,
he allows us to make choices about our lives - sometimes bigger choices, and
sometimes smaller ones. Sometimes we have the freedom to make changes to our
lives, and other times we can find ourselves trapped in our circumstances and
our only choice is how we deal with it. Paul is saying when he has choices to
make, he asks the question "How will this further the gospel?" and
whatever the answer is, that's how he makes his decision.
And that
way of treating choices has two results. First of all, it directly furthers the
gospel! It means that all the choices we make are serving the gospel. And
secondly, by making choices in our life that further the gospel instead of just
whatever society wants, or what makes us the most money or the most happy or
the most comfortable, the gospel becomes that much more credible to others
because it's clear we take it seriously. We see this worked out in our passage
today: Paul chooses to live his life in a way that helps Jews, gentiles, and
even the weak in faith be won over by the gospel; and then he says to the
Corinthians, "and because I live my life this way, I'm worth listening to
about this".
But what
about the busyness of life? Life has gotten busier for a lot of people. Kids
have more structured sports, activities and club memberships, which means their
parents have more time driving them around and attending them. Older kids
are more likely to have jobs. Most university students also hold down jobs at
the same time as they study full-time, and many young adults in the workforce
will find they need to continue upskilling with more study once they enter
their career. Housing prices and cost of living continues to increase, along
with a felt need for more stuff, and so the amount of time spent at work
increases. With many families having both parents working, grandparents spend
more time looking after grandkids.
Or what
about my incapacities? This modern life also leaves people tired and depleted and
lonely. People see friends and family less often - especially true in covid
times, but even before that it was hard, because people had less time. People
are lonelier than ever before. Just a really simple example: you don't talk to
strangers on public transport or in public places or shops anymore. It's been a
gradual thing over time, but when we lived in Namibia I noticed a marked
difference in how open and affable complete strangers were.
We can
get really tied up in looking at what we aren't doing, and especially looking
at certain activities that we see as really central to the service of the
gospel - preaching, evangelistic programs, discipleship programs, mission work,
volunteering on the church rosters - and the less we are doing of them, the
less we think we're devoted to the service of the gospel. And so then we feel
like we're failing God, because we're not living up to the example of Paul.
A couple
of weeks ago I was having a chat with a young adult Christian man who works as
a professional, and he was asking this question: why aren't more Christians
reducing their workload, freeing up time, so they can spend more time doing
work with the church and in activities that further the gospel?
And I
said to him, Brother, since becoming a Christian I have tried to live
a life dedicated to the gospel! Attending, hosting and running bible
studies, preaching in churches around Australia, choosing my university studies
based on how I thought I could serve the gospel, my first job out of uni was
with a mission agency, then working for a charity for persecuted
Christians, attending bible college, becoming a church elder, running
youth groups and youth camps, founded and run Ministry of Game, taking part
time jobs and pay cuts so that I have enough free time to devote to church
ministries, donating a portion of my income, and even putting my profession on
hold to go overseas as a missionary. I have chosen paths less travelled so that
my opportunities for serving the gospel were higher, even if it meant other
opportunities suffered. And I can tell you that now that I'm in my 40s, those
sacrifices of time and reduced income and less professional development are
taking their toll. Would I do it again? Probably. But I can tell you I can
totally understand why some people would not, or could not, make those same
sacrifices.
And I can
still read what Paul says about his life and feel inadequate, because there
have been opportunities that I have let pass by because I simply didn't have
the wherewithal to take them on. There were needs I saw in Namibia that I
desperately wished I could attend to, but even if I had the time, I didn't know
where to begin. It's like when you see someone broken down on the side of the
road with their car bonnet up and smoke pouring from the engine. I could stop
and ask if they need help, but I can't fix the engine - I'm not a mechanic!
That's just the way life is: even if you're choosing between serving the gospel
by going left or serving the gospel by going right, when you choose one you
can't do the other. You lose that opportunity at that time. None of us can do
everything.
But the
really great thing about Paul's focus on the choices we make is that those
problems of having lots of opportunities but no time to act on them, or lots of
time but no opportunities to act on, become less important. Now, obviously
there are choices we can make in our lives that will free up our time and
energies to be involved in those important ministries that serve the gospel, as
I like to think I've done in my life. But just like Paul says he wishes
everyone stayed single so they had more freedom to serve God the way he does,
but that's simply not for everyone: we can't judge one another, and we can't
judge ourselves, simply for not making those choices.
But you
know what is for everyone? Making sure that the choices you do make are ones
that you can see allow you to serve the gospel, because not only will this
ensure that you are serving the gospel in everything you do, but it will also
mean that the way you have consciously decided to live your life will be
gospel-shaped, and that will give authenticity and genuineness to the gospel
you share with others, because both your words and your deeds back it up. While
the gospel message is always worth hearing, the gospel you share will be worth
hearing from you.
And those
choices about your life come in big and small sizes. Remember my headlamp?
Pretty small thing. But the choice to fix it serves the gospel; leaving it
broken does not. It's illegal and unsafe to drive around with a broken headlamp
- and what will others think about the genuineness of my faith in Jesus if I
won't take the time to fix such a small thing? I can tell you the moment I
realised this might be a good illustration for my sermon, I went out and fixed
the headlamp!
An
example of a big decision might be what you're going to do with your life for
the next few years. Since coming back from Namibia, I've had lots of people
tell me, "I could never be a missionary in Africa." And many of them
came up with really good reasons why! I honestly wasn't expecting that. I
thought, "If someone like me could do it, surely anyone could." But
just like marriage is not for everyone, neither is overseas mission. And of
course I'm not dismissing the strength that God provides us to accomplish great
things in his name - he has shown again and again that he can do such great
things with weak people. And I'm not discounting the call of God on some
people's lives - if you hear it, you'll know, and you need to listen. But
at that point it's a different kind of choice, because if you feel convicted by
God to do something and you don't do it, that is sin. We shouldn't be choosing
to sin.
But a lot
of the time, the big choices we get to make about how we are going to shape our
lives are choosing between two good things. The gospel can use accountants and
police officers. It can use prayers and payers and pastors and parents. It
can use the married and the single. Some of these big choices you can't make
lightly: buying a house is a long-term commitment, but you can sell it;
changing careers is a pain but you can do it; it's much more difficult to
change marriage partners or having children.
Whatever
choice you're making, when you're choosing between things, you need to look at
them for yourself and weigh up for yourself how you see it allowing you to
serve the gospel, because even though you might be choosing between two good
alternatives in principle, in practice one might not be so good for you in your
service to the gospel. While doctors might be super useful to the gospel,
you as a doctor might not be. I don't know why it wouldn't work for you in
particular: maybe you'd be too distracted by the big salary, or you would have
a bad bedside manner, or you'd get too frustrated by the years of study and you
want to do something to help people right now! That's one of the reasons
I love Ministry of Game. It's a ministry that involves doing something I
already love doing - playing games with people - and turns that thing into
something I can do to serve the gospel by sharing my life with these people and
contributing to their journey along the Waitara Path.
Not
everything is going to be like that, sure - packing up chairs or cleaning up
after cooking aren't my most favourite things, but I can see how they serve the
gospel and so I choose to do them rather than not do them. And sometimes you
have to choose to not do something now so you can do something later: I could
volunteer every waking moment of my time to gospel ministry and I would pass
out after about 72 hours I reckon, because I need sleep, I need to eat and
drink, I need rest. This follows the emergency mask principle on the airplane.
When they say in the safety instructions "Put on your own mask before helping
others", that's because starving yourself of oxygen is not going to help
you help more people. It's going to leave you unconscious on the floor needing
someone else's help. So even choosing rest can be a choice for service of the
gospel. You know I was more disappointed than I thought I'd be when I heard the
church wasn't going to be a polling place for this election? I won't get to use
my sausage flipping skills to serve the gospel. But rather than focus on the
choice I didn't have, I needed to focus on the choice I did have: what was I
going to do with my election day if not volunteer at church? And I ended up
deciding I would just vote, and relax, and hang out with some friends and watch
the results on TV. And it was a good use of time, and served the gospel by
helping us rest and recuperate.
But
here's the challenge in making these choices: whatever we choose, if we've made
our choice in order to serve the gospel, we have to make sure that we actually
use that choice to serve the gospel.
If you
chose to babysit your grandchild instead of volunteering at church because you
think it will serve the gospel better for you to be a godly Christian influence
in the life of your grandchild, then you need to make sure you are actually
being a godly Christian influence in their life for your service to be
effective! If you chose the higher paying job because you feel you can serve
the gospel better by having more money to give to mission work, then you need
to actually give the money to mission work for that service to be effective! If
you choose to get married instead of staying single, then you need to actually
invest in your marriage as part of furthering the gospel for that service to be
effective! If you choose to pray for something, then set aside a time where you
can concentrate and reflect and pray thoughtfully and effectively! And when you
choose to get involved in actual front-facing gospel ministries like teaching
scripture, running youth group, attending a Bible study, then you have to work
to be effective in those ministries - that means building relationships of
trust and support and encouragement, learning what is being taught and teaching
it effectively through what you say and how you live!
So what
decisions are you in the process of making right now, this week, this month?
What big and small decisions are coming up for you? I urge you this week as you
make those decisions to factor into your decisionmaking how your choice is
going to help you serve the gospel. Then I urge you to take that factor and put
it at the top of your list in your decisionmaking. Let the service to the
gospel rule your decision-making process. If you do, then by all means possible
we might save some people. And alongside Paul, we can all share in the
blessings of the gospel.
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