That may be what you get as a 20-minuter. I'm not really sure. What? What do you mean, amen? Was that Nan said that? Nan has a, she has a stopwatch in her purse and she goes, as soon as I start, as soon as I stop, and then I get the rundown after, you know, I'm critiqued then at the end of the service. All right. Take your Bible and turn with me to the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 9, if you would please. It's good to be back up in the mountaintop. And we, of course, the past couple days we just kind of stayed in. I've had a touch of, I guess, a cold or whatever it is. And I was, today's the first nice day. that we was able to get out tomorrow morning or tomorrow afternoon. I'm hoping to go out and see if I can shoot Bambi. And maybe Friday afternoon I'll get a chance. I don't go out in the mornings anymore. That is for young bucks that likes to get out there and not anymore. I used to do that and I found that along about, you have to get up like 4.30 in the morning to get out early And I found that by 7 to 15, I'd usually fall asleep anyway. And in a tree stand, that's not good. So I just decided that we'll probably just do the afternoon things from now on. And I've been getting most of my deer in the afternoon, maybe because I sleep most of the morning. All right, we're in 1 Corinthians chapter 9. I'll allow you to remain seated. We're gonna read a few verses there, beginning in verse one. He said, am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ, our Lord? Are not ye my work in the Lord? If I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord. Mine answer to them that do examine me is this. Have we not power to eat and to drink? Have we not power to lead about a sister or wife as well as other apostles and as the brethren of the Lord and of Cephas? Or I only and Barnabas, have not we power to forbear working? Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? Who planteth the vineyard and eateth not of the fruit thereof? Or who feedeth the flock and eateth not of the milk of the flock? Say I these things as a man, or sayeth not the law the same also? For it is written in the law of Moses, thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Does God take care for oxen? or saith he it also for our sakes. For our sakes, no doubt this is written, that he that plows should plow in hope, and he that thrashes in the hope should be partaker of his hope. If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things? If others are partakers of this power over you, are not we rather? Nevertheless, we have not used this power but suffer all things lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ. Let's pray. Our Father, we bow before you to ask for your help and your filling. I pray, Lord, that you'd clear our thoughts and our minds and help us to focus now upon the word of God and only say those things which would bring honor to you. We pray in Jesus' name, amen, amen. In this ninth chapter here, We're all familiar with the church at Corinth. Corinth was a worldly city. It was a city that was very prosperous. It was in a position where, in a place where there was a lot of commerce because it was right close to the the sea there and so there was a lot of commerce there. As a result, it was a rich city, but it was also a very immoral city, but it had a number of religions. So the Apostle Paul, he comes into the city and he gets with Aquila and whatever Quill and Priscilla, I guess it is, and stays with them for a while and he builds a church there. But during this time, of course, he's dealt with a lot of problems. As you know, there was the problems of division within the Corinthian church. There was problems with immorality within the Corinthians. In other words, all the things that the city of Corinth was involved with, when these people got saved, a lot of those things came into the city. It came into the church, which caused the Apostle Paul a lot of problems. He had to deal with them, and so the letter of 1 and 2 Corinthians. But one of the other things that he had to deal with was those who came in and began to question his apostleship, that he really was not an apostle. And so he, in chapter 9 here, has had to defend his position as an apostle. He's had to explain why he was one and actually defend himself. Now, you wouldn't think one who who earlier wrote in some place in the earlier chapters there where he says, he said, I have planted a pile of water and God gave the increase. You know, you would have thought that this would have, you know, they would have just said, this is the apostle Paul and been done with it. But that apparently was not the case. I noticed in verse 3 it says, my answer to them that do examine me is this. And so he he gives an answer to those who examine. In other words, these people that were questioning his apostleship was actually, you know, putting him under the spotlight and really examining him as an individual and him as a moral person and him as a, you know, his doctrine, whatever it was, but they were really after him to destroy him. So the Apostle Paul, He begins to lay out three things in this one chapter here, in chapter nine, three things that authenticate his apostleship. And as I read these things and did some study and research on it, I find that these are things really that also characterize a Christian who is sold out to God. So we can learn from this example here 1 Corinthians chapter 9 from the Apostle Paul. We can learn these three things. Perhaps it will show us where we are spiritually. We may not like what we see as we look at these things, but I think it's important that we at least are aware of them so that the Lord can speak to our hearts about them and perhaps we can make some changes. I was thinking of two preachers that were kind of talking about about how frail the human, how frail man is. And the one says, he said, I'm so glad that God knows that we're weak and that we're just made of dust. And the other one said, yes, but I'm sure that he probably wishes we weren't as dusty as we are. And I think it's probably true. We may be made of dust, but we don't necessarily have to be as dusty as what we are, spiritually speaking. And so I think the Apostle Paul will hit on some of this as we get into our study. The first thing that I noticed in the way of the marks of authenticity in the Apostle Paul's life is the renunciation of lawful rights. Now, that may be a long point, but the truth is that the Apostle Paul, you'll notice as he says in verse 3, my answer to them that do examine me is this. And then he starts down the list and it's several verses there. We're not going to read them all, but we will read some of them. where he says in verse 4, he says, have we not power to eat and to drink? Now, when he says power, he's not saying, well, I'm just barely strong enough. That's not what he's saying. It speaks of the right. He said, do we not have a right to eat and to drink? Have we not the right to lead about a sister or wife? These are just common things that everybody had a right to have. You know, we live in a society today where people's rights, you know, children have rights, dogs have rights, cats have rights, and, you know, everybody has their rights. And we're, you know, it just seems like there's no end to it. And it's even got to the place where it's ridiculous. But the point is that there are some rights that we have. We have a right to you know, to eat. We have a right to have a job and to be paid a fair wage for the time that we work. We have, you know, there are some things we have a right. And the Apostle Paul, it just goes down the list and he points out a lot of the rights that he has. But it's interesting As he continues on down there, he deals with this matter of the preacher being paid. You know, whether a preacher ought to work and do that. There's one church that we go to where I know at least one of the people in there, he wouldn't even go to that church if the pastor did not have a job. He said pastors ought to work for you know, but it clearly states in the Word of God that It's just a it's it's a rightful thing for if a pastor works or pastor preaches and he Presents to you spiritual truths and and he feeds you spiritually that you should feed him physically so that's just that's just one of the things that's that is brought out here in these verses. Verse 9 says, for it is written in the law that thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Does God take care of the ox? And then he goes on and so forth. We won't get into that anymore. But the point that we're getting at here is the Apostle Paul points out all these rights that he has. He has a right to do this, a right to do that. And every one of them, you'd have to say, well, yeah, he has a right to that. He has a right to eat and to live. He has a right. And then he says this, and this is the point that we're trying to make here. And this is what he's getting at. But he says in verse 12, notice this, in verse 12, after he lays out all of this rights that he has, he says, if others be partakers of this power over you, Are not we rather? Nevertheless, we have not used this power but suffer all things lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ. Now look down at verse 15. Let's read verse 14 first to get the context. Even so has the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live by the gospel. But he said, and now let me go back and remember all these rights he's got. Now verse 15, but I have used none of these things. In other words, I've had all these rights, but I have forgone the rights in order that the gospel of Christ might be preached in its purity. We don't think a whole lot about it, I suppose, as Christians, because I think of the way we live. We have so much. I cannot help but think of the young man that's over in Iran, Yousef. I think I have his name here. the darkened, the darkening, anyway Yusef, I know that one. And Yusef is a Christian preacher. He's a preacher of the gospel over in Iran. Of course, Iran is all Muslim. And the Christian religion over there is looking as a heresy and something to be put down. And those who believe in it are, you know, are persecuted. and Yusef is a preacher of the gospel in Iran and he refuses to renounce Christianity and as a result he's under the penalty of death. Now, he has a right to life and Yusef, if all he would have to do in order to live It's just simply to say, OK, I renounce Christianity. And he can go home and sleep in his bed that night and raise his children, live a normal Muslim life, I suppose you'd say. But he has foregone that right, the right to live, the right to life itself. in favor of the gospel. Do you see what the Apostle Paul's getting at here? I have the rights, he says, to do all these things and to live a different way. But he says, I give all that up. In another place, he says, I just count it as done that I might win Christ. And I believe that we Christians, we have lost, we have lost that particular part of what it takes to be a Christian. Our churches today, we are so indulgent in ourself and we're so conscious of our own rights. I have a right to say what I want to say. I have a right to do what I want to do. I have, you know, you can, I have freedom in Christ. I have liberty in Christ. I can do what, but listen, the one who, The mark of an authentic spirit-filled Christian is the one who willingly gives up his rights or renounces those rights for the cause of Christ, you see. Do I have a choice left or right here? Thank you. There may be things that you have to say, you have to say no to. Things that are normal and right. For the sake of your Lord, though, you renounce your claim on those things. You know, I think of a missionary, and I thank the Lord for this church. My church at home is like this. It's a very mission-minded church. We're conscious of the needs of the missionaries that come in. You take a missionary and he... He may be called to some foreign country that is totally, the culture and customs and the language is so totally different that it takes him years to prepare just to get on the field. So he goes to college and he educates himself and he gets his theological degrees and so forth and then he begins to prepare for the mission field. and he goes on deputation and he's on deputation for a year, two years, sometimes three years just to get enough money to live by. He's had to sell his house and then do the deputation. he's had to learn a foreign language and then has to take his children out of school and he has to go into a place that most of us would not want to take our children but he takes his family there and there he lives and he has foregone all the rights that are his. He had the right to stay home. He had the right to not sell his house and just to stay there and raise his family and enjoy life. But he forgoes those rights in order that the cause of Christ may be forwarded. Do you see how the Apostle Paul is dealing with this thing? He says, one of the things that you can tell that I'm an apostle, and I can say, one of the things you can tell that I am a Christian, listen, we are all being examined. We all are being examined by people who are lost. There's people who are watching your life, each one of us, and they're judging us by maybe this one, this very thing. whether we just take our rights and go with them or whether we forego our rights and renounce our rights in favor of the gospel of Christ. Amen? I can get an amen somewhere. Alright. It may be that, it may be friendships. It could be opportunities. I know that I know people who have, who have quit particular jobs and taken a job that paid less because that job did not interfere with their church life. They did it on purpose. They forego the, uh, the, the right to have more money in order to, that the cause of Christ might be greater fulfilled. Do we see that characteristic in our life? That's what we have to ask ourselves. Do we look at our life and say, does it cost me anything to be a Christian? You have to answer that. Does it cost you anything? And what is the cost? And really, when you start stacking up against Yusef over in Iran, does it really measure up or do we just hang our head and say, Well, I guess it really doesn't cost me a whole lot to be a Christian here in the United States. Because it doesn't. It doesn't cost us a whole lot. But if the cause of Christ is going to go forward in the United States or in Garrett County or in Oakland, Maryland, then it's going to take Christians who have a willingness to forego their rights and begin to see that it's important to forego their lawful rights in favor of the cause of Christ. The Apostle Paul, he says, let's see, where is it? He speaks of his reward. Let me see, verse 17. For if I do this thing willingly, he's talking about preaching the gospel. He says, if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward. But if against my will a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me, what is my reward then? He said, what is my reward for me forgoing all these rights that I have for which I have not taken advantage of? He said, I didn't take any money. I built tents and I patched tents. That was what I did. Why? Well, that people could not look at the Apostle Paul and say the Apostle Paul is in it for the money. I still don't understand how if anybody reads their Bible can send a nickel or a dime to some of these TV evangelists that are out there that are living off the fat of the land, off the fat of... Let's see, I have to be nice about it. You know what I'm talking about. They have two or three nice places and different places all over the United States and across the lake, across the sea and they haven't given up anything. All they're doing is raking in the dough from people who are ignorant enough to send them money. It's tragic, tragic. Has anybody ever heard of Marjo? What's the last name? Is it Marjo Reynolds? Marjo, do you remember what the last name is? Okay, does anyone know who Marjo is? One guy here, okay. I'm not going to explain it. Since you know, I won't have to do it. Marjo was an evangelist in the charismatic movement years ago, not too many years ago. What, 15 or 20 years ago, maybe? 30? Has it been that long? That started out preaching when he was about four years old. And he could preach up a storm. The whole, I have a CD on his whole life that he did himself exposing that movement and show that the insincerity and the fakery of the whole thing, the healing thing and the tongues thing and that whole mess. And I can't help but, since I saw that thing, it made me sick just to watch the CD. because of how gullible people are. Have you seen the CD? Is that where you? Okay. It was on TV. It was an expose by either ABC or CBS or NBC, one of those organizations. They did this expose and he's the one that had it up because he got feeling bad about taking all this money from these people. And so he did the expose himself. So he's exposing the movement through his own life. And it's something. Later went into the movies and TV, and I've seen him on different TV shows and movies and stuff like that. And he just, I guess the closest thing to an atheist, I suppose, is what he is now. But anyway, there's a fake. There was no self-imposed discipline in his life. And so, but anyway, all right, let's get into something else here. So anyway, it could be, it could be friendships, opportunities, it could be hobbies, recreation. You know, there's things that, we was down in Knoxville, Tennessee last week, preaching in church down there for the week. And the pastor down there, he and I got to talking, You know, I enjoy hunting. I get to hunt maybe a week or two weeks in the fall, and that's about it. I can remember a time when I spent as much time in the woods as I did anywhere else. That was before I got saved, though. So I was talking to Brother Napier, and we were talking about hunting, and he said, boy, I used to just love squirrel hunting. I just enjoyed getting out in the woods that time of the year and everything. And I said, it sounds like you're saying you don't do that much anymore. And he said, no. He said, it's just something that was less important than the work of the Lord, just something less important. That's one way to look at it. That's what we're talking about. That's the very thing we're talking about. There's things in our life that would be better off if we just let them go. Are they legal? Are they good? I mean, is there anything wrong with doing certain things? No. There's nothing wrong with having hobbies. There's nothing wrong with enjoying recreation and things like that. But it's what we're not doing that's the dangerous part. And it may be that some of these things need to be laid aside and we need to forego or renounce our rights to some of these activities that we get involved with so that the cause of Christ can go forward. We can be more effective in the work of God. The Apostle Paul, he had, of course, He gave his testimony here, and then later on in Philippians chapter 3, he said this, and this is 30 years later that he wrote these words. He says, But what things were gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ? Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but done. that I may win Christ." That was 30 years later, which brings us to our next point. The first one being the renouncing of lawful rights that we have. And the second one, a consistent and unblemished testimony. That's a second mark of a of the apostle and for the Christian who's living close to the Lord and walking with Christ. For 30 years, his testimony was unblemished, was consistent, was clean. Verse 19 says, For though I am free from all men, yet I have made myself servant to all that I might gain the more." His testimony, reaching the lost for Christ, he became whatever was necessary for him to win somebody. Now, we have to be careful when we get into this because some people take those words where the Apostle Paul says, I became all things to all men that by some means I win some. And they say, well, OK, that means that I ought to go into a beer joint, you know, and sit next to a guy and have a beer with him while I witness to him about Christ. That's not what it's talking about. We, there has, there cannot be compromise in this thing of being all things to all people. What the Apostle Paul is talking about is you go to the house of somebody and you're going to win to the Lord and you want to talk to them about the Lord and they They're sitting there drinking a beer. And so they say to you, well, hey, pull up a chair and I'll pop a beer for you. And you say, no thanks. If you've got a Coke, I'll drink a Coke. And so you'll sit there and maybe drink a Coke as you witness to them. The compromise would be, of course, to have the beer. You're not going to do that. You cannot compromise. You can't do evil in order to accomplish good. That's just a basic principle. But Paul's, uh oh, I think I'm almost running over my 20 minutes here. We're almost done, don't worry. Is there a ball game on tonight? No? Okay, nobody knows, so I guess that's a good sign. This is done without compromise in the sight of heaven. But he went along with their need and sin to win them to Christ. Now I wrote that right out of a, it's something that I had there and it sounds so good I just thought I'd write it as it was. So he crossed over, but here's the thing, he crossed over the borders of prejudice and race in order to reach people for the Lord. I see the Good Samaritan. He's walking down this road of sin there between Jericho and Jerusalem. And he sees somebody over on the side of the road and he flails his arm and it's all bloody and the guy's all beat up and the Levite and the priest have already passed him by. He didn't want to get involved with his life. But the Good Samaritan stops by and he takes the oil and the wine and he wraps him up and he cleans him up and he dresses his wounds and he takes care of him. And here's a Samaritan dealing with a Jew. It's crossing the borders. and we as Christians need to get to that place. You know one of the sad things that I'm seeing in our churches today is that, and all of us I think are guilty of it to a certain degree, and that is that we have our own circle that we're in, our circle of influence, but it does not touch the circles of the unsaved anywhere. Our circle touches the circle of our church people all around us. Our area of influence, we get into the lives of them because we see them every day. But we don't get involved in people who are unsaved. Their circle is over here and ours is very conveniently just short of reaching over and touching it. When the reality of it is we need to cross the line and get involved in people who are lost. How else do we grow? How else do we reach the lost if we're not involved in their lives? The Apostle Paul, obviously, when you read anything about the Apostle Paul, there's one thing about it. He was very aggressive in this matter of witnessing to people and meeting people who were lost because those are the ones who need to get saved. I'm telling you, folks are getting so quiet. He says, I made all things to all men that I might by all means save some. Woe is me if I preach not the gospel. Yeah, that was his great concern. We have one more thing. It'll just take a few minutes. Your pastor hit on this a little bit on Sunday morning. and the message he preached, and we may overlap a little bit, but it won't hurt anything to be reminded once again, and it may not, so we'll just see where it goes. But the third thing, the first thing is to be willing to renounce the rights that we have, and just give it to God, say, okay, God, here it is, a blank check on my life, and whatever you want, I'll do, and I'm yours. That's the attitude of a bond slave. That's what the Apostle Paul called himself often. The second thing is this matter of having a consistent, unblemished testimony before the world. And then the third thing is this disciplined life. Let's read starting at verse 25. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. I therefore do so run not as uncertainty, so I fight not as one that beateth the air, but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection. lest by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." I really believe that one of the things the Apostle Paul feared more than anything else was to be a castaway. He's not talking about being lost there. I mean, this is the same guy that said, I'm confident of this very thing. He would have begun a good work in Meshua. perform it till the day of Christ and what shall separate me from the love of God, you know, and he goes through all that. So he's not talking about getting lost here in this thing. This whole chapter is dealing with service, see? So the context has to do with service in the matter of the being a castaway. No, what it means is being set up on the shelf, or being set aside, or being rejected for service, or being put in a position where you can no longer, in his case, preach the gospel. And this was a great fear in his heart. And what he did to offset that so that he would not have to worry about that so much was that he kept under his body. So it's obvious that what he's dealing with here is this spiritual fight, warfare that is constantly going on in the believer's life between the old nature and the new nature. That's what he's talking about. And he said, I'm not fighting this war just beating the air. And when it says that, it's the same as saying, no, I'm fighting this thing for real, I'm blacking eyes, I'm bloodying noses, I'm busting lips, I'm fighting this, this is a serious thing. And I don't believe that we today understand the seriousness of having a disciplined life. A disciplined life. Discipline, I went in the army. I've told you before, I didn't like the army. I didn't like people telling me what to do, all right. And I didn't care for it. And I'll be honest with you, though I didn't care for it at that time, I would give anything if I could go back and relive it the way it should have been fed. And I would not have been so careless with my military life as I was. I just didn't. I just hated it. That's all there was to it. But the one thing that I learned in the Army was this matter of discipline. Everything was done with discipline. Even when I went on KP, it was all done with discipline and by the numbers. Take a string and make sure that all 40 different tables going back through and every ketchup bottle had to be right on touching that string all the way back through there. Every mustard bottle had to be exactly in line. Every sugar bottle had to be just in line. Every table, you pull that string tight and every table had to be just perfectly in line. Everything was lined up. Discipline. Discipline. And then they wake you up at three in the morning, and you're standing outside in your undies, and they take you on a forced march for five or 10 miles. And everything was disciplined. It's no wonder I hated it. But the Christian life, if the Christian life, if we do not want to be a castaway, there has to be a life of discipline. There has to be a time to read your Bible, a time to spend time in prayer, a time, you know, to be alone with God, a time to witness, a time to, you know, to be in church, a time, that is a disciplined life. And the Apostle Paul, He understood what it meant. And he was so concerned about this being a castaway. Isn't it amazing that someone who wrote some 13 books in the New Testament had all this godly wisdom, personal contact with Jesus Christ, leadership of the Holy Spirit, filled with the Spirit of God would be concerned about being cast away, being rejected of the Lord. And you and I live our lives and don't give a second thought to it. I think there's something wrong, isn't there? There ought to be that concern in our life. There ought to be that discipline. Well, we've taken our 20 minutes, plus a few, But let me read these verses. Let me say this first of all. It is possible for a child of God to be indwelled by the Holy Spirit, but mastered by the flesh. It is possible for appetites and excesses to rule the life of the child of God. And if we're not careful, that will take place unless we can forego the rights that we have. Have a spotless, unblemished testimony before the world and live a life that has some discipline to it. A life that Christ can bless. Wherefore let him that thinketh, he standeth, take heed lest he fall. That's over in the 10th chapter. By the way, the 10th chapter has some other interesting stuff. We can't get into that though. But that verse there tells us that, let he that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall, is written because we need to be careful. Oh, it can't happen to me. The Apostle Paul was worried about it. He's worried about it. It can happen to us. And then the final verse is the one that the pastor mentioned and was on on Sunday morning, and there hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. God is faithful, will not suffer you to be tempted, but able to resist. But will the temptation make a way to escape that you might be able to bear it? I'm glad that that he expects us to live a spirit filled life, but he gives us everything that we need to do it. And that's the Holy Spirit within the promises of the word of God without. Let's bow our heads and close our eyes. Heavenly Father, I thank you, Lord, for this time that we've had around your word. Lord, I pray that you'd convict us of our slothfulness, Lord. I'm guilty myself, Lord. I have to acknowledge that fact. I need more discipline. I need a desire to waive some of the rights that I have in favor of the gospel. Pray, Lord, that you'd help us today to remember these three things and to implement them in our life, that we might glorify you in Christ's name. Amen.