It's good to be with you this morning and having an opportunity to share God's Word. Pastor Paul, you need to go on week's holidays more often. Thanks. Let's do that again. He is here this morning and it's always fun to preach when your senior pastor is in the congregation. I'm just not going to look over to that side for the whole time. Hope you're enjoying the beginning of your March break and looking forward to a great week together. I want to thank the team for sharing and leading us this morning in the praises of God. I think we have a picture this morning of somebody, and that is not Evan's grandfather, by the way, although the beard looks vaguely familiar. And I did notice, Pastor Evan, that the clippers came to your chin this week, so well done. Have you ever heard of Hudson Taylor? Well, that's who Hudson Taylor is. That's Hudson Taylor. Hudson Taylor was a missionary to China who, in 1854, arrived. And when many missionaries were content to stay on the coast where it was safe and comfortable and predictable, he was a pioneer who pushed into the interior to reach the vast, unreached peoples that were kind of far afield rather than on the coast. And one of the things that Taylor did in his pioneer spirit was to push the norms of what mission work looked like in those days. He founded a ministry called China Inland Mission, which was later to be called the Overseas Missionary Fellowship, OMF. And he founded that in 1865. And what they were known for was their unusual approach to reaching people for Jesus Christ. So in a nutshell, what they wanted to do was to become more like the Chinese people to reach them so what they would do is they would he would wear Chinese clothing and he shaved his head and left a ponytail now that's something I could probably get into I could probably do the shaved head look and maybe there's enough to grow a ponytail I know that picture doesn't show that he had a ponytail. He was an older man then. But that's what they did. They ate Chinese food with Chinese implements. They observed local customs. And rather than live in kind of Western-style housing and settlements, they would live in Chinese housing among the Chinese people. And also, Taylor was amazing. He actually learned how to preach in four different languages. And they had a high standard for language acquisition and being able to communicate to people who were Chinese in order that they could share the gospel. Here's what Taylor wrote to his missionaries. He said, let us adopt their costume, acquire their language, study to imitate their habits, and approximate to their diet as far as health and constitution will allow. Let us live in their houses. You know, Taylor wanted Christians, Chinese Christians, to be able to worship God and understand the gospel in their own culture, in their own context. But to be fully Christian, yes, but to be fully Chinese in every context of that word. He wanted to see churches that were led by Chinese pastors. He wanted them to worship in their own country, in their own buildings, in their own languages, so that they could know and live for Christ in a way that was thoroughly Chinese. What does Hudson Taylor teach us? What does the China Inland Mission teach us? Well, it teaches us that they sought to take the unchanging truths of the gospel and put it into a language and a context that were the way they were trying to reach the people. They wanted to help the people they were trying to reach understand the gospel in a way that was native to them. They were trying to translate the gospel in word and in deed into ways that were understandable so these people could come to know Jesus Christ and to grow in Him. This sounds exactly like the Apostle Paul in the verses we read. 1 Corinthians 9, 22, 23. Paul summarized this passage that we're looking at this morning. He said this, 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. So take out your sermon notes that you'll find in your bulletin. Let's write these things down today as we look at the scriptures. Enslaved to win. This is what Paul was. Paul was enslaved to win. You'll find out what that means. And as a servant of Jesus Christ, in verse 19, this is what Paul said, for though I am free from all, listen, he said, I've made myself a servant to all that I might win more of them. The Apostle Paul was owned by nobody. He was free from all. That's what the scripture says. He was free from entanglements. He was not a puppet on a string. He was not controlled by special interest groups, by lobby groups. He was not controlled by the wealthy. He refused to be. And as Pastor Paul shared last week, no one owned his tongue. No one purchased his tongue. He was free from the restrictions that were placed upon him. Yet, in spite of all that, the scripture says that he self-identified as a slave. He called himself a servant. He voluntarily relinquished his rights and his freedoms for a purpose. He said, I have declared, I have made myself a servant to all. And when everybody else in all of humanity says, hey, I want to move from being a slave to free and is moving in this direction, the Apostle Paul moves that direction. He says, I'm free, but I'm going to become a slave. So we say, hey, Paul, what's up? What's going on? In the ancient world, the distinction of being a slave or free was as natural as being a Jew or a Gentile or a man or a woman. It was a common distinction. And so, a slave was somebody in that culture who gave up his or her identity. They gave up their rights. They adapted into the culture that owned them. They adopted the things that were in front of them. They didn't bring things with them that was part of who they were. They gave all that up. to be in the household they were serving. This is what was expected in the Roman culture. A slave adapted to his or her culture, the culture didn't adapt to them. And so we say, Paul, you want to be like this? You want to give up your rights and your freedoms? Well, Paul chose, he made the choice to adapt to the cultural context in which he was living and serving, whether it was Jewish or Gentile. So we ask the question, why did he do that? Well, the big reason was that we know that he had a greater identity that came from Jesus Christ and his reality as a new creation in Christ. Paul knew who he was and so he could say, I'm going to give up my freedoms in order to become a slave because I understand that I'm first and foremost a servant and a slave of Jesus Christ and I will be a servant and a slave of the people that I'm called to minister to for the sake of the gospel. As you hear that, I'm reminded this sounds exactly like Jesus. Listen to John chapter 13. Jesus knew who he was. Jesus, it says in John 13, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he had come from God and that he was going back to God, he rose from supper. This is what happened on that final night. He laid aside his outer garments and taking a towel, tying it around his waist, that he poured water into a basin and he began to wash the disciples' feet. What did Jesus do? He's taking the role, the humble role, the low role of a servant. Why did he do that? It says he knew who he was, he knew where he came from, he knew where he was going. He understood his greater identity and so did the Apostle Paul. He knew that he was free in Jesus Christ. He knew that he was owned by Christ, therefore he could say, I am a slave, I am a servant of all so that I can win some. And for people who look at a lifestyle like this, at Jesus or Paul or believers who would take this stand, this absolutely looks like foolishness. But Paul turned cultural norms upside down. He inverted the values. And he said earlier in 1 Corinthians that the preaching of the cross was foolishness compared to the seemingly wisdom of this world. Paul was not afraid to look like a fool. Paul was not afraid to challenge cultural norms. Paul willingly, strategically placed himself under. He purposely lowered himself, did not use his power in such a way as to lord it over people, but to humble himself to serve them for the strategic advantage of the gospel, because his heart pounded for people to come to know Jesus Christ, and that's why he did what he did. Paul lived by something that we would call missiological flexibility. That might sound slightly fancy, But for the sake of the mission, he flexed in order that he could build a bridge and become like the culture that he was trying to reach so that he could speak and communicate clearly. Like Hudson Taylor, Paul hoped, he wanted to remove barriers that were inhibiting him from presenting Jesus Christ to the people that he was so desperately wanting to reach. This came at a great cost. at a great price. As you can imagine, if you're laying your comfort zones aside, if you are not eating the food you're used to, if you're not living in the same manner that you used to, you're not living in the same kind of housing, some of this is going to cost you. For Paul, it cost him persecution, it cost him ridicule. Overall, we would say that this passage of Scripture in 1 Corinthians 9, 19 to 27, is helping us to understand what we would call contextualization. So write this in. As a servant of Jesus Christ, the Apostle Paul contextualized the gospel. I'll say that again, as a servant of Jesus Christ, Paul contextualized the gospel. What does that mean? Well, let me say first that his attitude as a servant and as a slave came out of nothing else than his zeal and his love for Jesus Christ and his burning passion for the salvation of humanity. And if we're going to do the same, if we're going to follow his example, we need to have the love of Christ in us, and we need to have a burden for the lost. Well, what was Paul's call? We find that in Acts chapter 26. He's giving his testimony, and he's reverting back, and he's talking to the call that was given to him by the Lord, what he was called to do, how he was called to live. And this is what it says in Acts 26. This is what the Lord says. But rise and stand upon your feet for I have appeared to you, Jesus is saying this, for this purpose, listen, to appoint you as a servant and as a witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles to whom I am sending you. Did you hear that? He's been sent to the Gentiles. To open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light. and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me." Paul's call, given to him by the Lord Jesus Christ, was to reach the Gentiles, was to be a servant and a witness for salvation, for humanity. And Paul had a strategy. Paul's strategy was to bring more glory to God by bringing more people to Jesus Christ. Well, you say, how can I do that? Well, we've already seen the first thing. It came out of his identity. What was his identity? It was of a slave, of a servant. And what was his method? Well, his method was contextualization. Here's what that means. Verse 22. Look at that in your text. Verse 22. It says, I've become all things to all people that by all means I might save some. Here's what Paul didn't do. He wasn't cookie cutter in his approach. He didn't always start with the same two questions and always share the same three verses and always go to the same spot. He was flexible. He was adaptable in how he shared the gospel. He was a bridge builder. Yet, in the midst of his flexibility and methodology, he didn't compromise on the message. He adapted to different groups. To some people looking at Paul's life, this may have appeared inconsistent. He wasn't a chameleon, he wasn't a compromiser, he wasn't a people pleaser, but he did all of this in order to win people to Jesus Christ. You see, Paul understood that the gospel does not belong to any particular one culture. As the gospel comes to different people and different cultures, it's going to look different. It's going to be expressed differently. The gospel adapts, but listen, but it does not accommodate. Did you hear that? The gospel adapts, but it does not accommodate. So who are the people that Paul was trying to reach out to? Look at your text. The first group were the Jews and those under the law. Verse 20, follow along. To the Jews I became as a Jew in order to win the Jews. To those under the law, I became as one under the law, though not being myself under the law, that again I might win those under the law." Paul himself was a Jew. He had a great burden for his own people. And when Paul would go into a new city, an unreached part of the world, the first place he would go to was where? It was the synagogue. He would reach out to his own people first, and if he received a hearing, he would preach the gospel, and he would stay as long as he was welcome. And when he was kicked out, or when he was persecuted, or when he was ridiculed, he would go to the Gentiles. Acts chapter 17, verses one to four. Here's an example of what Paul did. They came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul went in and was his custom. And on three Sabbath days, he reasoned with them from the scriptures. Paul started with the Old Testament. He was reaching the Jews. He went to the place where they worshiped. He was explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, saying, this Jesus whom I proclaim to you is the Christ. He was doing what he was doing. He was preaching to the Jews, to those under the law, verse 4. And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women. So here's an example where Paul became, as a Jew, he was a Jew, but he became like the Jews so that he could share Jesus Christ to the Jews. His statement in 920, to the Jews I became a Jew, seems strange to us because Paul was a Jew. But yet he was freed from the Mosaic law, but he was living under the law of Christ. So therefore he adapted the customs and the language of an observing Jew when he was with them so that they would not stumble. We see this in Acts chapter 16, and it's the case where Paul was ministering in a particular context, and so that he didn't offend the Jews, he had Timothy circumcised. I'm pretty much thinking that Timothy at that moment was thinking, Paul, I wish you weren't so concerned about this contextualization thing. So the first group he ministered to was the Jews and those under the law. The second group we see in verse 21 was the Gentiles. They said if Paul was rejected by the Jews he would turn to the Gentiles, to those not being Jewish. Verse 21, to those outside the law I became as one outside the law. not being outside the law of God, but under the law of God, that I might win those outside the law. In fact, you're going to see this word win five times. Paul says it five times in this text. I want to win the Jews. I want to win the Gentiles. I want to win the weak. This was his heartbeat. Paul revered the law, but he set it aside to reach the Gentiles. He adapted the ways and the customs of the Gentiles among those he worked. It didn't mean that he was lawless. It didn't mean that he was immoral. but where he was reckless, he was still bound in obedience to Christ. It was his call. In Ephesians 3.8 it says this, So he was both compelled as a Jew and burdened to reach his people, and he was compelled and he was burdened to reach the Gentiles as well. Paul lived in such a way that he could share Christ. In Acts 13, 46, it says, So Paul lived in such a way that he could minister to the Jews and minister to the Gentiles. But he didn't stop there. Look at verse 22. It says, So who is the weak? Who is it that he's referring to when he says the weak? Well, it refers back to chapter eight. This group of people are young, immature believers who are young and growing in their faith. He's referring to these people. His MO was not to compromise, but for the law of God and for the love of Jesus Christ to reach out to these people. In verse nine of chapter eight, we've been hearing about these verses in the last number of weeks. This is what it says, but take care that this right of yours, he's preaching to the Corinthians, take care that this right of yours, this freedom of yours, does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. Because Paul was not only burdened for the Jew and the Gentile, but for the weaker brother or sister. He didn't want them to stumble because of other certain believers who were eating food that was offered to idols. He didn't want them to lose their faith. He didn't want them to stumble and be destroyed. He was very burdened for them. So the principle is this, that becoming all things to all people, Paul was able to adapt the most appropriate response to reaching them in the wisdom of God. With respect to methodology, he was flexible. Habits and customs were negotiable. Gospel workers are willing to adapt so that they can win as many people as possible. To win, to win, to win, to win. Five times Paul said that, to win Jesus Christ. What does this mean? Contextualization. So you're trying to reason, I think you can probably understand what this means, and this happens around us all the time in our communication. Everyone contextualizes their message. We say this all the time. So that people can understand what we're trying to say. So if I read the statement to you, the tension on the taut metal cable is inappropriate for the desired frequency, the tension on the taut metal cable is inappropriate for the desired frequency, you probably are saying, what exactly does that mean? Well, another way of saying it is this, your guitar is out of tune. If I say the tension on the taut metal cable is inappropriate for the desired frequency, I'm not communicating really clearly. It's not understandable to you. Contextualization is about good communication. We need to know who our hearers are, who our audience is. So I speak to you in English. I don't speak to you in German. I don't speak to you in French. So we use the ESV Bible. We don't preach from Hebrew or Greek. So we use PowerPoint slides so that you can see, so that you can understand a little bit better, so that you can let the message sink into you. This is contextualization. Contextualization and mission is the idea that we need to translate the gospel into ways that people can understand. Downstairs contextualization is happening right now. So what happens is a Sunday school teacher has prepared his or her lessons and is communicating in a language and a style, working hard with concepts to help three and four and five and eight year olds to understand about Jesus. And when they get it, they've done their job. That's contextualization. And why do we contextualize the gospel? Why, when we are on mission, do we contextualize? Because we want people to get it. Because we want people to understand God's truth. Think about how you came to faith in Jesus Christ. The gospel was contextualized for you. Somebody spoke your language. Somebody came to where you were. Somebody spoke in terms that you could understand. All that under the umbrella and the working of the Holy Spirit, who turned the light switch on, and you got it, and you understood, and you believed, and you came to Jesus Christ. That's the heartbeat of Paul. That's the heartbeat of mission when we contextualize the gospel. And so we are citizens. Here's our identity. Our citizenship is in heaven. We're citizens of heaven. We understand that. And God calls us in the midst of contextualizing the gospel, yet, though we are of heaven, to be on earth, but yet radically different from the culture and customs of this world. Yet we should sacrifice and serve our friends by trying to reach them with the gospel. So in our quest for connection, in our quest for being good communicators and good bridge builders, here's what we want to do. We want to be salty salt and we want to be bright light. But there are limits to this, all right? There are limits. There's things that we need to make sure that we're not doing, lines that we shouldn't cross. One of them is that we don't want to compromise on the gospel. We don't want to distort the message or compromise on the truth. We also don't want to hide the tougher parts of the gospel. Sometimes people who want to build bridges, they don't talk about repentance, they don't want to talk about dying to self, they don't want to talk about losing your own control over your own lives and giving it over to Jesus Christ. They compromise. We seek to bring clarity to the message, not to compromise it. We want to remove those barriers that are negotiable, but we don't want to fudge on the truth or remove the content and the cost of following Jesus Christ. And if we are not careful, as some Christians swerve into this lane of traffic, we create a new gospel, a compromised gospel, which is no gospel at all. So what do we need to watch out for? Well, there's two ditches. On one side, there's legalism, and we retreat from culture. And we don't share the gospel at all, we don't communicate at all, because we're so unrelatable. We stay there and we withdraw from culture. The other ditch is compromise, where we water the gospel down, and that's what happens when we over-adapt it. Here's what Tim Keller says. He says, the gospel itself holds the key to appropriate contextualization. If we over-contextualize, it suggests that we want too much the approval of the receiving culture. This betrays a lack of confidence in the gospel. If we under-contextualize, it suggests that we want the trappings of our own subculture too much. This betrays a lack of gospel humility and a lack of love for our neighbor. And so no adaptations that we want to do will be considered that are destructive to the nature of the gospel. Ultimately, in seeking to win others, first of all, we need to seek Christ first. We need to seek His approval. Contextualization without compromise is a pithy way of saying this. Contextualization without compromise. And so we use methodological flexibility We use missiological flexibility, yet with self-restraint and with gospel faithfulness. Here's the second thing. As a servant of Jesus Christ, Paul exercised great personal restraint. He exercised great personal restraint. Here he says this, look at verse 24. Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Verse 26, so I do not run aimlessly, I do not box as one beating the air, but I discipline my body and I keep it under control lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. Paul often, if you read the New Testament, loved athletic metaphors. In fact, right here in the Corinthians, he could Again, use this metaphor because there was Olympic-like games that happened every two years, and so they understood these metaphors. There was athletes training on the hills, and the games were there. There was thousands of people that would participate, or excuse me, be onlookers in the participation in the games. And so Paul could use this analogy of an athlete because they were to be exemplary about self-discipline and self-control, pursuing a goal with excellence for glory. He says this in verse 24, do you not know? Of course they knew. And they knew about these games and they understood the sacrifice and the price it paid, the determination that it would require. And so he's saying to us, he said to the Corinthians, Christians, run to win. And I would say to you today, run your race to win. Consider these people, consider these athletes who have to focus, who have to be self-controlled, who have to be disciplined. who have to master their skills and master their bodies. They had focus and sacrifice. And so sometimes you have to say no to that apple fritter so you maintain your 165-pound cheetah-like figure. Sometimes you have to say no to 10 more minutes of sleep because you know there's a training schedule that's waiting for you. The athlete has to forgo temporal pleasures in order for that goal to be reached. They keep their eyes on the prize because they know there's something better waiting. Verse 25, look at that again. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Here's what one commentator said about what it means to be in strict training, as we consider what it means to run to win. Strict training is to keep one's emotions, impulses, or desires under control, to control oneself, to abstain in all respects. I don't know about you, but we don't do this really well, do we? We love 10 more minutes of sleep. We love that apple fritter. We love the large hot chocolate. Just one more cup of coffee, just one more spoonful of sugar. But if athletes do all of this, spend years of training and focusing for a wreath, he says, that perishes, and in those days it was a pine wreath or a celery wreath, I'm not sure that's too exciting. A wreath made of celery, how long is that gonna last for before it rots? At least today you get gold medals. Anyway, if they're all doing that for a moment on the podium, and a little pine wreath or a little hunk of celery tied around your neck, Paul says, should we not much more, much greater, oh so much more, live our lives, run the race in such a way, enslave our bodies to win because we know that we're doing it for something that's eternal. He says if they're doing it like that, how much more should we? So therefore what we should do is we should enslave our body. We should devote it unreservedly to Jesus Christ, first to God and for his purposes, so that we can live in such a way that we run the race, that we finish the race, that we win the race, and we win others to Jesus Christ. And so we say, Lord, take my life and let it be consecrated to you and for your glory. In fact, Paul is warning these people, he warns us today, if you run your race but you don't run with self-control, you're going to run in vain because you're not going to finish the race. Paul was afraid of that. And next week, Pastor Paul is going to preach on the beginning of chapter 10. And he's going to pick that theme up and that idea again. In fact, we're going to find out that the Israelites were running the race, but they were disqualified. They threw in the towel. They didn't run properly. They didn't run in the way that pleased God. He says, I'm concerned for you that if you do not bring your body under subjection, under your own control, that you will run your race in vain because you're not going to finish the race. You're going to lose the prize. And Paul feared greatly being disqualified. The Apostle Paul, the mighty preacher, the mighty theologian, who took blows upon his body, who suffered, said, I'm concerned about me, that I may somehow be disqualified from the race. So be careful that you don't fall into that same thing. Now let me just bracket this for a moment. What we're not talking about this morning is losing our salvation. Paul wasn't saying that, hey, I'm afraid of losing my salvation. He was afraid of losing his reward on the day that Christ judges our works. He was afraid that somehow his effectiveness, his usefulness in the gospel would be compromised and hindered and hampered, and that he would be out of that because he didn't compete according to the rules, that his body somehow won over him, and that he gave into his appetites and his lusts. But rather, Paul said, he said, I discipline my body. He said, I beat it back, I beat it black and blue, I make it my slave. How's that going in our lives, in self-control? So as an application, as a servant of Jesus Christ, number one, I share the gospel in meaningful ways. Let's see how we can apply this to our own lives. But before we do that, we need to settle one thing. This is what the Apostle Paul understood. We need to settle this truth that I am a slave of Jesus Christ. I am a servant of His, and this makes me free. This is the whole idea of our identity. Who are you, Christian? Who are you? Have you settled the fact this day that you are a servant of Jesus Christ, that you do not belong to yourself anymore, that you don't own your rights, that you have no rights? He owns you. He controls you. You are His. He is yours. He has bought you at the price. You don't own yourself. You are a slave, you are a servant of Jesus Christ. Your life, your breath, your days, your money, your house, your vocation, it all belongs to Him. That is your greater meta-identity. This is who you ultimately are. You have to solve that. You have to decide that. This has to be true of you. That has to be pulsing in your heart, that you are not your own, you are His. And these verses that we're reading today have massive implications for you and for our outreach. Let's just remember one thing as we look at contextualization. Let's remember that just being hip and relevant isn't the goal. It's just not about looking cool and being able to be relevant to people. Paul is winning people so that they will understand the gospel of Jesus Christ and so that their identity, and he's saying this to the Corinthians, he's saying, I was contextual to you in the gospel, but I'm also living it out so that you can become not only followers of Jesus Christ, but followers of Jesus Christ who in turn become people who are slaves of Christ and have the identity of a servant of Jesus Christ. He wanted to make disciples, yes, but he wanted to make disciples who understood themselves as slaves. who in turn would make more disciples who would follow Jesus Christ and win more to Christ. And so we think about, what does this mean in my life? How do I do this? How do I figure this out? We wrestle with what this means in my school or in my workplace or in my driveway talking to my neighbor. Well, here's one thing that's really encouraging to me. Let's remember this, that the gospel is always counter-cultural. The gospel is always alien in every culture. But, Let's also remember that the Holy Spirit takes this countercultural gospel, this alien message, and makes it understood and makes it contextual through the lives and through the mouths of people just like you and me. He always has, He always will. That's what the work of the Spirit is. He brings the gospel across these barriers so that people understand. That's why we're here today, because He's opened our eyes, He's opened our ears. This is very, very good news. And if you're feeling challenged, the Holy Spirit takes this gospel through people just like you and me. So what do we do? How do we live this out? How do we share this gospel? How do we contextualize it? How do we share it in meaningful ways? First of all, we look for connection points. We look for ways that our lives connect with other people. It's at work we do that. Maybe it's in sports, maybe it's on the hockey team or baseball, or maybe you become a soccer coach so that you can connect with other people on a level that they understand, that you can meet them on. Maybe it's in the area of music and the arts, whether you're in a band, whether you're in the symphony, or maybe you're involved in theater. Maybe it's somebody who's on your school bus that every day for 25 minutes you sit with, twice a day, five days a week, 40 weeks a year. Those are places where you have connections. Maybe it's moms that you're in a peas in a pod group or mothers of preschool playgroup that you're hanging out with other young moms and you're sharing the gospel. Maybe parents, it's when you meet with people on the parent council. Maybe it's that you connect with people on Facebook. You have things in common with people. Recently, I got back in touch with a guy that I haven't seen for 36 years. He was my best friend growing up. And out of the blue, he found me on Facebook and he started this little dialogue with me and it turned out that he was in Ottawa and when my dad passed away, he came to my dad's funeral. And after 36 years of not knowing who I'd become, because in that time I'd become a follower of Jesus Christ. We'd gotten out of touch with each other. The very first point of impact was at a place where I was able to preach the gospel and share the gospel in my dad's funeral service. And two weeks later he came, Jamie came to a concert that I was doing in Ottawa and once again he saw me singing and praising the Lord and hearing about Jesus Christ. Points of connection that God will give you that you will share Christ with people. So not only do we look for points of connection, but we also go to places where we're going to connect. We look for connection places. And we have to be close to people who don't know Jesus. And I've got to say it is hard for Christians who love to be in this room, in this building, in small groups, in fellowship with one another, to maintain relationships with people who don't know Jesus Christ. We tend to prefer the holy huddle rather than getting out there going, as Hudson Taylor would say, into the vast interior of the unreached people groups. How's that working in your life? How many people do you know and relate to and meet with on a regular basis that don't know Jesus Christ? If you do, fantastic. If you don't, if you're more prone to the holy huddle, then that's something you need to change by the grace of God. Pray about that. Say, Lord, give me relationships with people who don't know you. I want to be your salt and light among people who don't know you. And so let's go to those places. Let's go to the places where people are at so that we can share Christ. We go by listening. We go by hearing their hearts, by hearing and understanding their worldviews, by listening to their heartaches and their heartbreaks, by understanding the questions they're asking. So where are some of these places? Well, it could be the Tim Hortons. It could be the gas station where you always get gas. It could be the place where you always get your hair cut. It could be the arena when you're hanging out watching your son or your daughter play hockey. It could be at the YMCA where you're swimming or where you're lifting weights. It could be on your front lawn. We haven't been doing too much of that lately, but the weather's getting a little bit better. Front lawns will return, I promise. We look for connection points, we go to connection places. And let's just remind ourselves as we go to those places and look for those connection points, as we were reminded from the Apostle Paul, what contextualization is not. Let's not devolve into compromise. Let's not just try to be hip. to be popular, to be liked by people. Let's not eliminate the unpopular parts of the gospel. But let's give people God's answers in a way that they can understand and let's help to meet the needs that they're feeling and the parts of their lives that are broken and help them understand that Jesus Christ is the answer to their issues. Whether you are having coffee at the Mariposa, whether you're at the end of your driveway, whether you're on the job site, at the GTA. Let's remember that all of us are on mission. We are all on mission sharing the gospel with Jesus Christ wherever you go. And I tell you this is going to take Holy Spirit power and it's going to take Holy Spirit wisdom and it's going to take Holy Spirit boldness for us to translate the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ into ways that people are going to understand so that they can be one to Christ. We want to become all things to all people, yet to not lose our distinctiveness as people of the faith in Jesus Christ. So here's what we don't do, alright? In becoming all things to all people, this doesn't mean that because the guys in the locker room swear, you start swearing. Because the guys go to the strip club, because you want to share Christ with the guys, that you go to the strip club. We don't cross those lines. We don't hang out there. We don't adopt those kind of values. Paul never said, I'm gonna become strong to reach the strong. He said, I'm gonna become weak to reach the weak. We maintain our gospel distinctiveness in the midst of sharing Jesus Christ. Let's not lose our saltiness. Let's not compromise. We do this for sake of the gospel. Second thing in our application is this, as servants of Jesus Christ, I live a disciplined life. As a servant of Jesus Christ, I live a disciplined life. Let's ask ourselves, what is it going to take for us to run well, to live well in such a way as to please the Lord and to win the prize? You need to run and I need to run as if our fruitfulness and our usefulness and the prize depends on it because it does. I only know a little bit about athleticism. I'm not the world's greatest athlete. I've had my share of moments where I've run in high school and where I've hit the pool and, you know, try to keep in shape. I've never been sort of at any sort of high-level professional sports training. But I do understand the discipline and the energy and the focus it takes in diet, in sleep, in rest, and in getting out of bed in the morning and hitting the street. running in order to run in such a way as to kind of win these goals that I have. And it takes a lot of energy and all of us struggle with that and wrestle with that. Paul's saying that very thing has to be at work in our spiritual lives as well. We need to be living in such a way that self-control is at work. Do a little self-reflection for a moment of the fruit of the Spirit of which that is one. It's the end, but it's definitely not the least. How is self-control at work in your life? Where do you see self-control being strong and where do you see it being weak? Paul says this, do everything to reach that goal to win the prize and do so with self-control. Self-control, if it's going to happen in me and in you, it's going to happen because we abide in Christ and the power of Jesus Christ is at work within us. Self-control is needed when we're memorizing scripture. It's needed when we're doing the RMM plan and we're reading our two or four chapters a day. Self-control is needed when you're tempted to take a glance, and you want to take a second glance, and you say, no, for the sake of the gospel and for purity, I will not look in such a way as to lust after a woman. Self-control is needed when saying, I'm not going to do this, I'm not going to go there, because I know it's going to compromise the gospel, I know it's going to be harmful to me, I know it's going to bring disrepute on the name of Jesus Christ, and it's going to be a stumbling block to people. We say no to those things. We need self-discipline. Verse 26, he says, so I do not run aimlessly. I do not box as when beating the air. Paul is saying this. He says, I'm not wasting my time. He says, I'm living a life in such a way that I'm going to land my punches, that I'm disciplined in my boxing. I have a goal. I have a target. And because of my goal, because I can see eternity in the future, because I want to win people to Jesus Christ, because I want to win the race, because I want to win the prize, I'm going to live in such a way that I'm disciplined. I'm going to live that kind of life. I'm not going to be an occasional jogger who says, yeah, once or twice and sleeps in the rest of the time. And let's not miss the warnings of the scriptures. Let's flee from sexual immorality. Let's curb our appetites. Let's keep our bodies under control. Whether we eat or whether we drink, let us do all to the glory of God. And why do we live this way? As we conclude the message, why do we live this way? Where did Hudson Taylor get his understanding of going into the interior, of dressing in Chinese clothing, of shaving his head, and living in Chinese housing? Well, Hudson Taylor got this work from the same place that Paul got his understanding. Where did the Apostle Paul get his understanding? It's the example of our Lord Jesus Christ. We live this way because of the example of our Lord Jesus Christ. Hudson Taylor understood because he read 1 Corinthians 9. Who did the Apostle Paul read? He read the life of Jesus Christ. And what do we understand about the Lord Jesus Christ in a word? The Incarnation. The Incarnation. What does the Incarnation mean? What does it say? It means that the Lord Jesus Christ left heaven, left eternity, left His eternal place with the Father to come, to step into our world, to contextualize the Gospel, to look like one of us, to speak like one of us, to live among us, to speak in ways that we can understand so that we can understand our need for salvation and understand who He was. In a word? The Incarnation helps us to understand why we do this. This was the pattern that Jesus Christ took. We understand in Philippians chapter 2 that he humbled himself and he became like us. He took the very nature of a servant so that we could understand who he was and what he came to do for us. God, who took the nature of a slave, became all things to all men in order to bring salvation to all. So how do we live? We live with this one motivation, to imitate Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word of God. We live it because Jesus showed us. And the second thing is this, we live this way with the goal of winning the lost. We live this way because of the goal of winning the lost. We want to be faithful to God. We want to be fruitful in our lives and in our ministry. We want to finish well. And failure can knock us out of the race. But we say, I have a goal, and I want to see as many people come to Jesus Christ through my life and witness as possible. I don't know if you've ever prayed this prayer, but this would be a great prayer for you to pray in 2015, in the months that are left. Lord, by your grace, would you enable my life and my witness in the places that I go, in the way I live, in the things I speak, to bring one person to Jesus Christ? God, would you give me that opportunity to lead one person to you? The vision and the burden of the Apostle Paul, that I may win, that I might win, that I might win. Lord, help me to win someone to Jesus Christ. And so you start by praying that prayer. Lord, put someone on my heart. The men's conference happened a couple of months ago and one of the things we did was we took a name and we wrote it on a small card. We said, Lord, this is the person that I'm praying for. My person that I'm praying for It sits in my office on a little frame. It's the word Jamie Loshaw, my best friend growing up that I haven't seen in 36 years who God gave me the opportunity to share with. He's the one I'm praying for. Who is it that you're praying for? Who is the top on your most wanted list? Who's the person you're looking for, for ways to share Christ with? So I picked up that Facebook conversation, and after I did that night of worship in Ottawa, I was exhausted. I was dead tired, but Jamie and his girlfriend came back to my mom's house where I was staying for the weekend, and he stayed from 11 o'clock until about quarter to one. I was absolutely exhausted after the concert. I went home and spent another couple hours with him, and I had a worship seminar that I was doing the next day, but I spent those couple hours with him because I just wanted to be connected with him. I wanted to share Christ with him. I wanted to build that bridge after 36 years of not seeing him. I picked up that Facebook conversation yet again, and he said that he's been in northern Quebec looking for some work, and he was thinking about moving to northern BC. I just tested the waters a little bit. I said, you know, I'm going to pray for you. That God will show you where you should go and what the right thing to do is. He responded back. He said, you know what? He said, thanks for the prayers. They're much needed every day. So there's an openness in his life. There's an openness to the gospel. And I'm going to pick up that conversation and see where it goes again. And I'm praying and I'm believing that he's going to come to faith in Jesus Christ. We do this. We live, we speak, we go, we connect with people because we want to see them know Jesus Christ. And if it hadn't been for people that connected with us by the grace of God, we would not be here. We want to be fruitful for the gospel. Hudson Taylor said this to his missionaries. He said this, let the love of Christ constrain you. And as you seek to commend yourself and your message to the Chinese, as you become followers of such a master, let there be no reservation. Give yourselves up fully and wholly to him whose you are and whom you wish to serve in this work, and there can be no disappointment." Hudson Taylor was saying, give yourselves to the master wholly and wholeheartedly, and give yourself to the work of the gospel. For the Jew, for the Gentile, for the weak, for us, for people who live in Orillia, for the people in our school, for our family, for our neighbors, give yourself up fully and wholly to the Master. For those in your life, in your circle, in your world, those God will bring into your world who don't know Jesus Christ. Give yourself up. Bring the gospel. Be enslaved first to Christ and then your appetites and your self-control. to win people to Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 9, 22, I close with these words from Paul. I have 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. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ who stepped out of heaven, born as a baby, coming to this world so that we could know you, that we could understand you. Lord, you humbled yourself and you took the form of a servant. Lord, by your grace and mercy in all of our lives today, may we run this race in such a way as to win. May we live as who we are, as slaves, as servants of Jesus Christ. And God, may you use our lives this year in 2015 and as for as many years as we have left that our lives would share and communicate the gospel in ways that people can see and hear and understand, and that they, through our witness by your power, would be saved, that you might be glorified. So, Lord, we pray that whatever we do, we would do it in such a way that you would be honored and glorified. We pray that we would live in such a way that our self-control would not bring disrepute upon your name or the gospel, that, Lord, in the way that we live, we would not compromise. but that we would contextualize for your glory. We ask this, that you would work in us that which is pleasing in your sight. God's people said, Amen. Amen. I'm going to invite you to stand with us and respond. We're going to sing together.