Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction, Outline, & Prayer

There are some things in the Bible that are hard to understand.

Even the Bible itself makes this claim, through Peter about Paul’s letters: “There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction.”

(2 Peter 3:16–17).

Often ignorance and instability described me in my spiritual infancy.

I am still prone to wander into ignorance and instability when I’m lazy and want my own way.

As I attempted to humble myself to this text and compared myself to how I’m being obedient to the Word of God, I realized I fall so short.

I’ll be preaching on 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 but let’s begin by looking at some of the details of the letter.

From the first and second verse of chapter 1, we find that Paul wrote to a church…a group of people…a group of Christians calling on the Lord in becoming saints.

However, Paul’s motive for writing was that there were contentions and divisions among them: “Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

For it has been declared to me concerning you…that there are contentions among you.”

Paul names several contentions throughout the rest of the book: to wear or not wear head coverings; can you eat food offered to idols; and finally the seemingly controversial topics prophecy, tongues, liberty and law in Christ.

However, the most alarming one for him was divisions within the church.

To put it in a modern context from verses 12 and 13, the followers of Christ at Corinth and the postmodern church would say: “I am of Cephas.

I am for black lives.

I am of John MacArthur.

I am of Barack Obama.

I am of Dan Shambro.

I stand for refugees.

I am of Apollos.

Or I am of Christ.”

To both them and us, Paul asks then: “Is Christ divided?

Was Paul crucified for you?”

Or is asking now: “Were you baptized in the name of John Calvin?” Do you confess Francis Chan as Lord and Savior?

I can only assume that this letter is Paul’s answer to that list of doctrinal disagreements to churches like ekklesia and the one at Corinth.

Corinth wasn’t a healthy church, and we aren’t sinless people.

The modern church isn’t healthy either.

We can follow after all these doctrinal truths and absolutes, in which I wouldn’t be at ekklesia if we didn’t have them.

So hear me out: all these examples can be heightened or lowered to the realms of licentiousness or legalism.

However, I want to challenge us how to love in light of what we believe.

Even more importantly than preaching those doctrinal contentions, we must preach Christ crucified, the love that God showed all people (from verse 23).

We as a church lean toward a set of doctrinal distinctions, but the other guys do, too.

And what is cool about those that may contend with our beliefs—they are probably preaching Christ crucified, also.

We are of Christ, first and foremost!

And that is what matters.

So with that in mind, let’s read the text, as you can find it in chapter 9 verses 19 through 23.

There are Bibles for you to take in the back of the sanctuary as a free gift to you, if you don’t have one.

You can also follow along behind me on the screen as we read the text together:

“For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.

To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews.

To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law.

To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law.

To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak.

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.

Point 1: Being Free From All Men (v.

19)

“For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.”

What does it mean to be free from all?

In the next chapter of 1 Corinthians, in the second half of verse 29, Paul writes, “For why should my liberty (or freedom) be determined by someone else’s conscience?” (1 Corinthians 10:29).This is a rhetorical question.

He already knows the answer because he answered it with the statement from the verse we are looking at.

Why should the ability to do or not do something be controlled by the thoughts and opinions of others?

They shouldn’t; “I am free from all.”

Am I to be pleasing God or am I to be pleasing others?

I think the answer to this question is a “both-and” type an answer.

Let me explain: I am BOTH a son to my parents AND a brother to my sister.

I am to be pleasing to BOTH God AND others.

I am BOTH free from all AND servant to all.

We are to love BOTH God with all of our heart, soul and mind AND our neighbors as ourselves.

We can’t walk in fear of the people around us because they are different from us.

We are called to love our enemy, despite our contentions with the ways of the world.

We may contend on the eternal, spiritual and religious things, but we must realize we are more alike than we are different—we are both made in the image of God.

We are to be BOTH a servant to all AND also a servant of God.

Becoming a servant to all is part of our new, re-created souls, which gives glory to God.

Since Dan asked me to BOTH preach from the Word of God AND share my personal testimony let me try to illustrate point #1 with a little bit about myself.

The most important people in my life are my church, my parents, and a few of my best friends scattered across the world.

If I haven’t met any of you yet, know that I will because that’s the way God created me to be.

I am 100% extroverted and love meeting new people.

Uncomfortable situations are comfortable for me.

My parents adopted me from the Philippines when I was 1 year old.

I always remember growing up being there for BOTH the people in proximity to us, our neighbors, AND those in relationship to us, our family.

At different times, I recall us opening our home to one of my best friends who was without a home and one of my drug addicted cousins and her children.

My parents seemed to have always made it to my sister’s and my sporting events.

I remember my dad flying to bring back my sister from the Philippines.

I remember all the long telephone conversations my mom had with her parents, siblings, nieces and nephews, trying to console them in their circumstances.

I’ve learned so many invaluable traits from my parents.

I’ve heeded many life lessons from them but also from the new found faith in Christ throughout the past 9 years.

Then in college, I really took pride in thinking independently.

I’ve slowly grown to think in an opposite direction other than what I was taught.

I adopted stances in opposition to what my parents thought on issues like multiculturalism, politics, and the contentions among the Christian faith.

My head puffed up; I know more!

I received one of the first college degrees in my family.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve felt more distant with the two earthly people who exemplified Christ-likeness and taught me how to be all things to all people.

There was a distance that has grown when I acquired this puffed-up knowledge.

Until recently, I realized I wasn’t being like a son to my parents, but yet I wanted to be all things to all people.

Some may say, I’m an adult and can think for myself.

I would get contentious with them over trivial things, though: how they organized their basement, how Donald Trump claimed this or that, or how we should advise our parentless 17-year-old cousin.

I’d get so upset about those things that when conversation did happen it was shortened by anger because I didn’t want to listen.

Rather than being gracious, I was contentious.

I was positionally a son to my parents through adoption but not spiritual brother to them.

My withheld actions were demeaning to them.

Not being able to be all things to all people, I couldn’t even be something to someone.

I needed to be BOTH their son AND their brother-in-Christ.

I definitely did not love them with the love of Christ.

I couldn’t have consciously preached on this passage unless I sought reconciliation and forgiveness in my relationship with my parents.

As the Apostle Peter has called out in me, “There are things from God’s word that will be hard to understand, or more accurately put, challenging to apply to my life.

And because of my blinded eyes through self-righteousness, I would be ignorant to his Words.”

By the grace of God and after all of this internalized failed communication with my parents, I was backed into a corner with nothing to do but turn from my ways.

I needed to go to them, love them, confess to them how I’ve abused them with my words and was thankless for all the acts of kindness they’ve shown.

I realized I needed to bestow honor onto my parents.