I’m the Captain Now

I’m the captain now. That’s the name of today’s sermon. Have you guys seen this movie or that movie? Sorry, there’s no picture up there. Have you seen this movie so good? No, okay. So, yeah, captain Phillips, is this movie with Tom Hanks? Obviously, everyone loves Tom Hanks. He’s like your grandpa or son for some of you All, right, well, in this movie he’s like a captain and these Somalian pirates take control of his ship. And this guy’s awesome because he’s like look at me, I’m the captain now. Remember that, because at the very end of the sermon it’ll come back, but this is called a foreshadow and it’ll be a callback. So there you go. All right, I’m the captain now.

Well, the part of the gospel that we’re going to be learning about today is how it applies to our life through love, how we’re supposed to love other people. Okay, so, as we put on our grace glasses, it tells us we look at the whole world differently, so we see ourselves differently. We see that we’re loved and that God has grace with us, but then we also see how we’re going to respond and how we’re going to treat people. So we’re going to learn how to choose loving others instead of being selfish. Sounds simple, but we’ll see the reason why it’s so important. And

it’s kind of a lot like last week, if you remember, with us last week we learned that the way we treat others is more important than what we want or what choices we make with our freedom in Christ. Excuse me, so last week it was in regard to the eating meat sacrificed to idols. So Paul says, yeah, you’re free to eat meat sacrificed to idols, but be careful what you do, because sometimes you might not be loving the person next to you, even though you’re allowed to do such things. So we talked about things like movies and different choices that we can make, that we’re absolutely free.

You are free, but you can’t just do anything because sometimes it’s not love and so we’re supposed to use our freedom, but we’re under a law to Christ to love people as he has loved us. So it’s not a law like you have to do this. It’s a law like you’ve been loved, and that’s now your new identity, and so you’re gonna love others like you’ve been loved. So that’s now your new identity and so you’re going to love others like you’ve been loved. So it’s a different kind of law. So our identity now is love. So the love of Jesus needs to be shown in what you do. That’s your identity. It’s who you are. It’s not whether you feel like it or like it. It’s who you are.

Just like a frog ribbits, right? What sound do turtles make? They croak, do it? Do it? Okay? Everyone go up to Taylor later and say give us the turtle sound, because now I’m really curious and that’s all I’m thinking about. Okay, we’ll have to figure it out later. Amy knows it for sure, I know, but I’m not teasing Amy right now. Okay, okay, all right, loving isn’t just something you’re going to choose to do, but you are. But it’s who you are. It’s who you are.

So, this new command that Jesus tells us how to live this life in John 13, 34, it says a new command I give you that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another. Now, this is different from the old covenant of law which said love God perfectly and love others perfectly. Now, that command you can’t do. Let me prove it to you. Do you love God? Yeah, I love God. Well, let me rephrase that the right way. Do you love God the way he deserves to be loved all the time, from the moment you’re born to the moment you die? No. So do you love God? No, according to the law, we’re not successful at that. Do you love other people? Barely

so? That’s the law, sometimes right, but the way they deserve to be loved from the moment you breathe your first breath to the moment you die. Do you love everyone perfectly? No, we don’t do that. That’s the law and that is the standard for every human being. But it’s a good thing that we’ve been saved from the law. The law is still perfect, the law is still good, but Jesus said that’s not gonna work. I have to love you first, and I got to put my love inside you and then you can just be who you are, and that is going to be a loving person. It’s going to start coming out of you like fruit. So this new command is to let Jesus live through you.

The word let is the most important thing. You’re either going to take control of your life and try to live your life the way you want it, holding things back, or you’re going to let Jesus live through you. It’s a letting go, it’s a surrender, it’s a releasing of control and we hate that because we love control, because every time we’ve been out of control in our lives, people have generally hurt us. So we try to take control of our lives and guard ourselves from being hurt and protect ourselves. And Jesus is like I really wish you would trust me. I love you, I really do care about you and allow me to live through you. So it’s the let is the key word here. Let Jesus live through you.

The love we have for others is the love he has for us first. So we never have to source this love in ourselves. We receive this love first and then it can flow out of us. And that’s the gospel of grace in action, in action. Action is the key word there. Some people say grace is passive. You grace people. You’re a bunch of sloppy, agape, lazy, bump-on-a-log Christians. You just sit there on your couch and think Jesus will do everything for you. But nothing could be more wrong. Nothing could be further than the truth, because we have to make active choices to love others. So we make active choices to actively love. We live a life of active love. You let everything be done, everything you do be done in love. So it’s so active that it literally is everything that you do is supposed to be done in love. Today, we’re going to learn how to take control of our lives by choosing to live a life of faith and humility, saying I’m the captain now. Like you’re grabbing someone by the face saying I’m the captain now, okay. Like you’re grabbing someone by the face saying I’m the captain now, we’re going to love Okay. So we actively receive this. We actively receive his love every day too. Okay, in fact, at the end of this chapter, we’re going to see an athletic analogy. So anyone like sports I super love sports. Football, basketball, those are my things. Golf I super love sports. Football, basketball, those are my things. Golf. Well, we’re going to see today we’re going to see an athletic analogy talking about this, but we’re actually going to.

Before we get into 1 Corinthians and read chapter 9, we’re going to start in the book of Philippians to learn about humility and love, which is the way of Jesus. So this is how Jesus actively shows love, and it’s through the word humility. This is how Jesus actively shows love and it’s through the word humility. Okay, then we’re going to see how Paul lived it out as an example to the church in Corinth his humility which showed love. So we start in Philippians, chapter 2, verses 3 through 11. So here is the grace of God lived out.

This is how to actively be loving, or let the love of God flow through you. It says let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself. So that’s humility. That’s what humility looks like esteeming others better than yourself. I mean you don’t care about yourself at all. No, you’re just not thinking about yourself before you think of everyone else. So let each of you look out, not for his own interests, but also for the interest of others. See how it’s active. Look out for other people. Don’t just sit there as a bump on a log doing nothing. Think about, look out for how you can serve other people. Don’t just sit there as a bump on a log doing nothing. Think about look out for how you can serve other people. Then he says let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. So now this is how to apply the gospel. Okay, let this mind, because the gospel is always. We got to change our minds. Let this mind be in you.

Who, being in the form of God, did not consider. So that means Jesus had no thought of self-importance. So Jesus was the master of his mind. Right, he knew who he was in the spirit, but he bossed around his mind. He told his mind this is what we’re going to think of, I’m the captain. Okay, because even he was man. So he had flesh he could have had. I am God, hear me, roar, I am God. And he was fine with being God. But he had no thought that he had to build himself up or prop himself up. So he had no thought

of self-importance. That’s the definition of humility. Do you have thoughts of self-importance? That’s not love, the next thing. But made himself of no reputation. He had no thought of self-value. He didn’t have to worry about how valuable he was. His value came from God loving him. So he knew God valued him. He didn’t have to try to build up his own value. We don’t have to build up our own value. We can leave that in our father’s hands.

Then it says taking the form of a bond servant. Taking the form of a bondservant, that means a slave, a willing slave. So that means he had no thought of self-will. Do you see how he’s bossing his mind around? He’s saying this is how I’m going to think. It’s not about what I want. I’m a bondservant. I choose to do everything. My father says I’m in charge of what I do. I’m a bond servant by will. I don’t even think about what I want, though. I think about only what he wants, no thought of self-will.

And then it says and coming in the likeness of men, so he identified with men because he loved them. He identified with them, these stinky flesh bags he loved and he thought about them, and he identified with them. He left his perfectly sanitary heaven and came down to be born in an animal trough, dirty from the beginning, and he lived as the dirtiest in the dirty, like poor, you know. And that’s how he identified with us. He came to be one of us and, being found in appearance as a man, it says, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. So he had no thought of self-preservation. Right? You see how Jesus is defining for us what humility looks like, what loving humility looks like. I don’t worry about myself, I don’t think about my reputation, I don’t think about my value, I don’t think about self-preservation. And so what happens to Jesus? Therefore, god has also highly exalted him and given him the name that is above every name Amen, right, yeah, he is the perfect man. He is the perfect God and he showed us how to live with perfect love. Okay, so now we turn in our Bibles back to 1 Corinthians. So, with that as our context, we’re going to look at 1 Corinthians, chapter 9. So what’s the issue?

Well, in that day, teachers, traveling preachers, would travel around on their donkeys and on their horses and walk around and they would travel through. You know, it doesn’t matter what religion. They were not just Christian, but they were basically like traveling philosophers going through and they would go through each city and they would go there and they would stand up in the city square and they would start teaching their philosophy and arguing with people and preaching, and if you liked them, you could give them money. That was the culture. They would put a little tip jar and it’s like donate to Nate Hubble and they would give to tips. Okay, so the way they showed their appreciation was by paying them money. The better the message, the more they paid Like, the better, you’re saying, the more tips you got. Does that work out that way? No, so they had this little economy of traveling philosophers making their living trying to impress people with their speeches.

Paul didn’t do ministry like that. That was the worldly way of thinking. So, paul, he didn’t even accept their money. He’s like keep your dirty money. No, he just said you guys keep your money. He loved them. He’s like I love you guys like Jesus does. So he didn’t even accept their money. But the culture created this problem where they had a hard time accepting him because he didn’t require money, because culturally they’re like well, the better preachers cost more money, so you must be a terrible preacher.

So Paul is going to write. He writes this chapter to show them that he is an example of love, selfless love for this church. He’s not trying to impress them and he’s not trying to gain for them. Why? Why is this all important? So that then they can take this example and then they can choose to love others with this active life of love that Paul has given them. An example, a life of humility and love Make sense. So that’s what we’re going to learn.

Okay, so it begins here. Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ, our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord. So he asked like four questions to these guys. Apostle means sent one, so Paul was sent specifically to these guys. So they should know how special that is. God sent them a special teacher and pastor, somebody who loved them. He shared with them the gospel. They got saved by listening to his preaching. So he feels like their father and they could treat him like a father. And now they’re treating him poorly. They’re saying Paul schmall, he’s nothing, we don’t need to listen to him. So look what he says.

My defense to those who examine me is this Do we have no right to eat and drink? That means buy our own food. Are we supposed to just be hungry and die? Do we have no right to take along a believing wife, as do other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas? So Peter and James, and the brothers of Jesus, which is interesting that Jesus had brothers and sisters? So you know Mary wasn’t the virgin forever. Your Catholic friends will love that.

So he’s saying I should be able to support my wife. He didn’t have a wife, but he’s like I could have a wife and you guys aren’t supporting that, but I should be able to eat and drink. I should be able to eat and drink. I should be able to have a wife, he says. Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working? Whoever goes to war at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Who tends a flock and does not drink of the milk of the flock? We all understand that right. You guys tend your flocks and you drink. Very applicable to our day and age.

So do I say these things as a mere man, or does not the law also say the same also? For it is written in the law of Moses you shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain. Is it the oxen God cares about, or does he say it all together for our sakes? So basically, when you would have your ox, you would you know, with all your ox, as you do, you have your oxes and they smush on the grain and it gets it out of its grain husks, and then you’re really mean to put a muzzle on them so they can smell all the nice grain. It’s like smelling just like, I don’t know, wheat. I guess they would really love that, they’d love to eat it. But you’re like no walk and you can smell it, but you can’t have any. He says that’s really mean.

So he says is this really about oxen? He says it’s for our sakes. No doubt that it is written, for he who plows should plow in hope. He who threshes in hope should be a partaker of this hope. If we have sown spiritual things to you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things? If others are partakers of this right over you, are we not even more so? All of this means that the church should have taken care of them.

The church should have been willing to pay Paul, but they didn’t.

And Paul didn’t even ask them to. He was too busy helping them to understand the love of God and the grace of Jesus. He wasn’t thinking about himself, but they should have been taking care of him. But his mind was focused. He was too busy sharing the grace of Jesus with them. So he was purposefully actively loving them, and that keeps him from being worried about himself.

But the issue has come up. So he’s explaining to them why they should have been concerned about this, but they weren’t. He says this nevertheless. We have not used this right, but we endure all things lest we hinder the gospel of Christ. So he’s saying it’s fine, I’ll work, I work my own job. Do you guys? Anyone? 22 Jesus points available here. Anyone know what job Paul had when he was working Ten maker? Ten maker Ooh, I have to spread all those, so each of you get one.

He was a tent maker, so he was spending his time making tents so he could provide for himself because the church didn’t come alongside him. And he’s saying it’s fine, I’ll do it, I don’t care, I’m not even worried about myself, but it would have been nicer for him to have more time to disciple people, more time to pray, more time to do the things he was really called to do. But he had no problem with it. So he says do you not know that those who minister the holy things eat of the things in the temple and those who serve at the altar partake of the offerings of the altar?

Even so, the Lord has commanded those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel. But I have used none of these things. Nor have I written these things that it should be done so to me, for it would have been better for me to die than that anyone should make my boasting void, for if I preach the gospel. I have nothing to boast of, for of necessity it is laid on me. That means I have to preach. Yes, woe to me if I don’t preach the gospel, for if I do this willingly, I have a reward. But if, against my will, I’ve been entrusted with a stewardship, what is my reward then? That I preach the gospel, I may present the gospel of Christ without charge.

So all of this means that Paul’s entire focus was loving them. That’s it. He knows that his reward is in loving them. So he has no problem sacrificing and not being paid. He said it’s right that pastors be paid, but he’s like he was too focused on loving them. He’s not talking about treasures, like treasures in heaven or like rewards or fancy things. He says his treasure is to do the will of God, which is to love these precious people that he cares about, to love them as God loves them. And so Paul loves these people like God does, and he says that the loving them is his reward. He loves loving them so much that he finds great value. He knows the love of Jesus is coming to him and that he is letting it flow through him to the people in his church.

When he didn’t demand to be paid. The love of God was made clearer to them. That’s what he’s trying to teach him here. He wanted them to understand the love of God and when he says you don’t have to pay me, they see that love is free. You don’t have to pay for love, guys. That is a big lesson in here. You don’t have to pay for love God has promised you. He loves you. You don’t have to do a single thing to ever earn that love. He can’t love you anymore. You could do everything right and do miracles and give your life for the turtles and the people and all the stuff here on the island. You could be the most perfect person and he will not love you one bit more than he loves you right now in your mess. He loves you so much. This is what the purpose of this is. This is the free grace of God. He gives his grace to us, his love, for free.

But they misinterpreted this the church did because they were thinking like it was how the world works. It’s authority. When someone’s in authority, you have to pay them. You have to pay them attention. You have to pay them respect. You have to pay them respect. You have to pay them authority. You have to pay them money. And Paul said I’m flipping that all upside down. I am an authority over you, but I’m showing you that the authority of Christ is completely upside down. The greatest has to become the least, and the whole purpose of the kingdom is to love one another. And so he was showing them the greatest amount of love he could. He said I love you guys so, so much, and I’m proving it to you by showing you that love is free, because that’s the way God’s love works.

All right, so the next little section here is about Paul’s flexibility in ministry. It’s another way that his love was going to shine through as he was teaching them about God’s love. It’s his flexibility. Have you guys ever heard the term blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be broken? Right? I was watching a football game last night and a guy’s leg snapped in half. It gives you the heebie-jeebies, okay.

So it says for though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all. I have made myself a servant to all, okay. So what does that show? Paul is focused on others. This shows his humility Again. Always others focus. I don’t have to love them, I don’t have to tell them anything. But I’m free. And I am free I can do whatever I want. But in my freedom I choose to become a servant of everyone. I freely offer myself. No one is making me, even God, except that pesky love of God that fills my heart, makes me choose to love others and sacrifice daily for their good. That pesky love of God, I hope you guys feel, that pesky love of God that will not let you continue living self-focused, selfish lives. That I might win the more. That’s Paul’s purpose in being flexible. And to the Jews I become as a Jew, that I might win the Jews. To those who are under the law, as under the law. That I might win those who are under the law. To those who are without the law, as without law. But he clarifies not being without law towards God, but under law towards Christ. Okay, so, yes, we are not under the law. So what does that mean? You can go do cocaine with the guy who’s doing cocaine to show them the love of Jesus. No, yeah, that’s a weird church.

No, remember the love of God, the law of Christ. We learned about this two weeks ago. The law of Jesus was believe in Jesus. That’s the first law that we’re under now. So we’re not under any of the Ten Commandments or that law, but we’re under this law. Believe in Jesus and let his love that you believe now, let it flow through you to love others. So love others as I have loved you. Believe and love, that’s what we are as Christians. That’s our law, so we are under that law when we’re dealing with others.

So he’s basically saying you can do whatever you want, as long as it’s loving. As long as it’s loving I’ll say it again for the people in the back as long as it’s loving, you are free. He says that I might win those who are without law To the weak. I become as weak that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men that I might by all means save some. Now this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I might be a partaker of it with you.

Okay, so this isn’t being fake. This isn’t being fake. It’s identifying with people and relating to them, understanding where they’re coming from, listening to them. Do it as much as you can, up to the point of doing something that dishonors God, so you can sit with them in a bar, you can be with them where they’re at. You can love on them. Just don’t sin with people. Don’t go sit and sin with them. Sit with them where they’re at, listen to them, understand their context. Don’t make them feel bad about where they’re at or what they’re struggling with or the words that they say, and we do this so that we can share the truth and get people saved.

You know what instantly turns people off when we, as Christians, get offended. Don’t get offended. Why are we offended? That unbelievers act like unbelievers? Shouldn’t we expect that? And then Jesus says you were like that, you were an idiot, and I came and loved you and rescued you. So you should absolutely never get offended by anything any unbeliever does. Sit with them, bear with them, love on them, listen to their words it doesn’t matter what they say or how they say it and then speak truth in love as a response. That’s how you can respectfully share the gospel, and that’s what he’s saying here. So we can share the gospel as much as we can. So that’s the mission Love others so we can share the good news of Jesus with them. That’s what we’re doing here.

Now let’s look at the athlete’s example. Paul’s going to give us an example from athletics. Do you not know that those who run in a race all run? You’re like duh, right, I guess if you’re not running in the race, you’re running it wrong. But one receives the prize. Okay, run in such a way that you may obtain it and everyone

who competes for the prize is temperate in all things.

Now, paul loved sports. He was a huge football fan. How do I know this? Because he talked about sports 12 times and mostly it was about running, wrestling and gladiators and, as we all know, that was football and get out. Just kidding, just kidding, all right, where am I? You distracted me, see, look at you. Well done, I can see why he’s always distracting you with his little comments. We love you, Mark. Okay, so he’s saying be temperate in all things.

So it’s not simply discipline, okay. So people sometimes think that being a Christian means you have to be super disciplined and you get these really legalistic militant groups that are like come to our church camp and we’re going to teach you how to be like climbing through the mud, and what was that place called? There’s a documentary she watched recently that was like one of these horrible places and they’re like trying to get you to be this like special forces for Jesus. This is not simply talking about discipline. It’s not trying to source goodness from our flesh or hard work or efforts. We got to make that distinction. That’s not what Paul is saying here. But it is training, and what I want you to see is that it’s training in grace. Okay, so we have to discipline our lives to not live by the flesh anymore but to live by the Spirit, and that does take a discipline. That’s why Paul said it’s no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. That doesn’t just happen. The truth of it happens. But we have to learn.

The Bible says three times in the New Testament to renew your mind, to train your mind, to take every thought captive. That’s because it takes discipline to learn anything. If you want to learn how to fly, you got to practice. You got to learn how to fly. If you want to learn how to drive, you got to. Some of us learn how to drive and practice Down here in Texas. I’m not sure if they practice or learn, but and you can see the results are it’s terrible right. So if you just try to be a Christian, you’re going to fail miserably.

He says there is a discipline. And the discipline is this you are going to wake up every morning and the first, your default position is I got to work for what I get from God. Today, I got to do, do, do. What am I going to do today for Jesus? I’m going to read my Bible, I’m going to pray, I’m going to tell 10 people about Jesus and I’m going to walk three old ladies across the street. And that’s how we wake up every day and it takes discipline to every day.

Move away from this performance-based religion and move into a relationship with Jesus where we open the word to receive and celebrate what Jesus has already given to us and we share the gospel because we’re overflowing with love and we’re not thinking about ourselves. That is this massive change. That takes discipline. It takes discipline. I’m meeting with many guys throughout the week and we get together and we study the same thing every week the grace of Jesus. Why do we discipline ourselves to do that? And it’s hard work and we spend an hour, hour and a half, two hours, sometimes, three hours sometimes going through it. Why do we do that? Because it’s disciplining our mind to think rightly, according to truth, because our mind’s all squirrely and it’ll go all over the place.

But this is the discipline he’s talking about. It’s the discipline of a grace-centered life. It takes discipline Because you will naturally be religious no matter what. So he says now, they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. So serving God in the spirit matters. Your life will matter. Your spiritual life matters most, more than your physical life. It is eternally valuable. And see, he’s not talking about physical discipline here, or else he would say it would be a physical prize. But it’s not, it’s a spiritual thing.

He says, therefore, I run thus, not with uncertainty, but I fight, not as one who beats the air, but I discipline my body to bring it into subjection lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified. And the word disqualified in Greek means not to stand the test of fire like metal. So if a metal was good, they would put it in the fire, it would heat up and it wouldn’t break or bend or whatever the metal would do. So what he’s saying here is I have to practice and fight to maintain my confidence in Jesus alone. You have to practice it and God will give in Jesus alone. You have to practice it and God will give you little tests, different things that come by, and the test is am I going to rely on myself or am I going to trust in Jesus? Am I going to have self-trust or Jesus-trust? Am I going to depend on my wisdom or the wisdom of Jesus? Which one am I trusting in? God says if you want to know the wisdom, I’ll tell you, but are you even going to trust it? Are we even going to trust it? I have to practice and fight to maintain my confidence in Jesus alone. The flesh always wants me to trust in it, because since I was a kindergartner, everyone in school said you can in it. Because since I was a kindergartner, everyone in school said you can do it. And then you know Nike, every commercial just do it. And so our entire. And then you know the devil, even his whole thing is just do it without God. You don’t need God. Just do what makes you happy, dude. And we fall for it. So we have to be vigilant and continue to trust in the work of Jesus alone.

Does anyone ever struggle with? Am I really saved? Am I doing the right thing? What should I be doing? If you look to yourself to answer that question, well, what have I been doing? Am I saved? Well, am I a good person? You’re barking up the wrong tree. You’re walking down the wrong path. You never look to yourself. Who do you look at to determine if you’re saved? Jesus? They literally fought wars about this in the 1500s. In the Reformation, there was the big majority of the church that was like no, you gotta do what the church says. And then the Bible’s like no, look to Jesus and your confidence is in Him alone. And we’re still fighting that battle today. We must be vigilant to continue our trust in the finished work of Jesus. And then we gotta grow in grace and be trust in the finished work of Jesus. And then we got to grow in grace and be strong in grace. That’s how you grow and be strong, like working out well, that’s you grow in faith.

Disciplined in this text. Here is actually a weak translation. So the word actually means I give a black eye to my body. The Greek is give a black eye Like okay. The Greek is give a black eye Like okay, paul. What are you saying then? And then the next word is I bring it into subjection. So I give a black eye to my body and I bring it to subjection, which means I lead it around as a slave. So Paul’s saying I give myself a black eye and I lead myself around as a slave. You know what he’s saying. I give myself a black eye and I leave myself around as a slave. You know what he’s saying. I’m the captain now. I’m the captain now.

Body, you want to live life for your pleasure. Flesh, you want to do things your way. You know what? Boom, black eye. You know, put a slave. No, we’re doing things my way.

Which?

Who am I really?

What’s my real identity?

I’m a child of God.

I am His. And you know our flesh

isn’t evil. Our flesh is actually neutral and Jesus says he loves your body. He saved your body, he’s cleansed your body, so your body’s pure. It’s the temple of God. God loves your body, but your body’s not in control. I’m the captain now. Jesus says I live in you. I’m the captain now.

Your body’s not evil, it’s just going to try to take control if we don’t keep our hope centered on the grace of Jesus alone. It wants to jump in and start living by law and performance, because that’s what our body understands and our brain understands. Look, I can do it. I can live life the way I want to live. That’s what our body thinks, because that’s how every human being thinks, and that’s how the world works. But it’s not how the gospel works. It’s not how God works and that’s how the world works, but it’s not how the gospel works. It’s not how God works.

Remember what Paul already taught us at the end of chapter 6 in 1 Corinthians. If you’re in your Bible, just go back. This one should be highlighted from a few weeks ago. He said for you were bought at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are. They belong to God. Your body and your spirit were bought at a price. Jesus loves them, so offer them to him. God owns both your body and your spirit. God loves both your body or your spirit. Have you ever gone to the store and bought something you didn’t love? You’re like I hate this, let me buy it. We respond to God’s love, this act that he did of purchasing us, redeeming us, by offering him all of ourselves as a living and loving sacrifice of praise. He is worth it. He is worth it. He’s worth it. You guys are blessed because God loves you and he’s bought you. You will never disappoint him. You are so loved by him.

As the team comes up here to sing a song for us, I just want to spend some time praying for you guys. Father, we set our eyes to you, jesus, because we are just barely scratching the surface of how much you love us. We are barely understanding the depth and the width and the height of your love. But I know, I know. I know that your spirit is working in every single person here to help us understand and believe in the truth, that we are loved, that we have value and that, jesus, you are with us and the things you have promised us, they are true.

And so, jesus, I pray that we would respond to this love by offering you every thought, every moment, every word. We offer you our lives as empty cups. Jesus, use us and Jesus, we regret the times that we have not chosen to live by love. We regret that because we didn’t run the race, we sat down and sat on the bench and sat on the sidelines just thinking of ourselves and Jesus. We repent of that. Lord, we want to get up and start following you, even if we just start following at a walk, not even a jog right now, but just keeping our eyes on you. Jesus, take us by the hand and lead us in the way that we should go. Jesus, we trust in you and not ourselves. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.