Because I wanted to run it where it's more of your observations bringing to conclusions that we can take home. Okay? But by way of kind of reintroducing this topic, let's take a look at the passage in first passage there. Let's read that paragraph starting from verse 19 through 23 and it reads like this.

For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all so that I may win more. To the Jews I've become as a Jew so that I might win Jews. To those who are under the law as under the law though not being myself under the law so that I might win those who are under the law.

To those who are without law as without law though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ so that I might win those who are without law. To the weak I became weak that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that I may by all means save some.

I do all things for the sake of the gospel so that I may become a fellow partaker of it. Okay? Now, I wanted to reintroduce this study with a YouTube video that I actually showed the youth group but upon second thought I decided not to because it shows this really buff African-American dude working out.

It's a motivational video called Football Motivations. If you want to YouTube it later, you can watch it, okay? But I'm going to try my best to tell the story that this video tries to tell. And essentially it tells of a story with a young man who wants to be very successful.

He wants to make it huge in life so he goes out and searches for the guru, the guy who's made millions. So he goes to seek him and the journey just to go and seek this man is very difficult. Very busy man, highly esteemed and respected and has a lot of requests by young men.

"Hey, can you teach me your ways so that I can be just as successful as you?" Well finally this guy gets the opportunity. It's not a common opportunity, it's a rare opportunity to get a one-on-one time with this guru so he finally gets this opportunity and says, "Teach me how I can be successful just as you." And the guru says, "Well then, tomorrow early, early morning, 6am, meet me at the beach." And so he goes to the beach and he finds a guru in the water.

He's like, "The heck?" So he doesn't know what to think about it but he says, "Young man, come into the water with me." So they go in. And then the guru says, "You know what? I need you to come into the water even further." So they go about waist high.

And he says, "This is not enough. I want you to go on further with me." So he goes in about chest high. "This is not enough. I want you to go on further with me." And they go on to about neck deep. And all of a sudden, the guru grabs his head and dunks it in the water.

The young man is like flopping around, gasping for air, taking salt water into his mouth. And he's just now about to fight this guru guy and toss him over. And he finally lets go and gets up. And the guru says, "You gotta want success as bad as you want it this breath.

Otherwise you won't succeed." And then in the background, there's this football guy working out. He says, "How bad do you want it is the question." The guy's all sweaty. He's already really tired. His coaches are pushing him. He's throwing tires around. But why throw tires around? He's jumping over fences.

He's dragging heavy objects behind him. And he's doing push-ups. And he's working out until parts of the video shows him working out to the extent that he's puking on the floor. But the question of the video is, how badly do you want to succeed? So I showed that video to the youth group because I felt like in this generation, there's this lack of drive.

But when I see Apostle Paul's example in the passage from verse 19 through 23, what I see is I'm so driven, I'm so driven, this insatiable desire to see people saved, it moves me. It moves me to be a Jew. If I have to look like a Jew to win the Jew, then I'm going to do it.

It drives him. If I have to look like a Gentile, then I'll do it. And it just drives him and drives him for that end purpose. I want to win people. Isn't that how the passage sounds to you when he says, "I do all things for the sake of the gospel." When was the last time we were able to use that kind of all-inclusive term like that?

"I do everything for this purpose." Pretty crazy, right? So I want to remind you that Apostle Paul, just in review of what we did last time, he says, "To the extent that I may win some," that's verse 19, "so that I may win more, I have," what? "Made myself a slave.

Made myself a second-class citizen. Not even a citizen. Made myself property. At the service of those who I desire to save." So that's the essence of verse 19 through 23. But what were, I want to ask you guys, what were some observations you guys wrote down for that paragraph?

Just to save time, I'm going to call on a table and someone from that table, please take the initiative and just share any observation you found. Remember that observations can be incredibly obvious because it's simply an observation. There it is. Like that's how you sometimes have to do. This table over here with the young dudes.

Any observations from that paragraph? From verse 19 to 23. Thanks. Trying to take the easy ones. Just kidding. Thanks, Shane. But just from verse 19 to 20, we'll take it section at a time. Okay. So he says, "I've become all things to all men." That's a good thing to point out when he says, "I've become all things to all men," because he uses an inclusive term, all inclusive term by saying all.

And I remember asking you guys to discuss it last time, which was, can you give us a healthy balance or I guess boundary? When would becoming all things be too much? Should we be willing to give up just about everything or how do we balance that out? Anybody want to tackle that question?

Are there limits to the, "I've become all things to all men"? Sorry, one more time. Okay. Within the boundaries of God's law. Good. Within the boundaries of God's law. There's that famous passage of Apostle Paul standing before the court, all that kind of stuff. And he says, "You tell me what's right to obey you or God." So you got to stay within the boundaries of God's law because God's laws are higher.

So there's a sense in which you can say that as a parameter, but obviously there's more to say because sometimes there are scenarios in which it might not be necessarily boundaries of God's law, but it's questions of more like the gray area. So for example, I'm going to give you these.

For being Aberian, our church has talked a lot about stuff we won't do Aberian and stuff that we would do. When I was down in San Diego, right as I was leaving San Diego, our youth group was trying to make a decision, should we graffiti the walls because that's kind of like more hip.

Back in my day, hip hop and that scene was so much popular. We're like, "Man, maybe we should just graffiti the walls and dress up the sanctuary, our youth group sanctuary." And there was a debate, should we do it, should we not? But the whole desire was we want to do this to attract the young ones and get them in.

So in a decision criteria like that, how do you balance saying, "Okay, let's just be all things to all people, our generation's all about hip hop, let's deck this whole thing out with hip hop stuff." Is that an obeying God's law versus man's law kind of thing? Is there a wisdom to be said of that?

I guess a better question too, I know I'm asking a lot of questions, a better question would be in the given context of what we're studying, is there more narrower parameters of what he means by became all things to all people is what I'm trying to basically get at.

Yes? Is it something that will enhance the gospel or kind of enhance, that will highlight the gospel message amongst people or would it be something that would be a distraction? Excellent. Right. Good, good, good. Good answer. Anything else anybody want to add to that? Wisdom about becoming all things to all people.

Yes? Okay, just do what's going to help you to just stay focused on God. Okay. Yeah. So, we're talking about that because obviously in the immediate context remember that Apostle Paul is addressing a scenario where a group of people, what they were doing, it wasn't just bothering other people.

Like gosh, that really bugs me. For example, sometimes, I don't know, when we say something like that stumbles me, right? Remember that the stumbling in the immediate context isn't just a matter of like, oh, it stumbles me because like, let's say for someone asked a specific scenario, the worship music, it stumbles me because drums are too loud and it's just like really loud and annoying.

It's really stumbling, right? Stumbling was more along the case of that either tempts me to sin or prevents me to focus in terms of like prevents me as a stumbling block, a hindrance to my devotion to God, right? So, there's wisdom carried out in that because in application, essentially saying if an individual is in their process of learning the gospel, converting, coming into the church, I'll do whatever it takes to remove the stumbling block, right?

But I think there's a sense in which some people have misapplied this passage to say and because we're becoming all things to all people, then let's all become bikers because we live in a biker community. Let's become, you know, let's all dress this way because now there's wisdom in that, but that's not necessarily what Apostle Paul is talking about here.

Okay? And I would essentially say, you know, in terms of limitations, there's a difference between obviously like when people are offended by something that they should be offended by as opposed to something that's just simply my preference in what I do, right? What I mean by that is someone can be offended by what we preach.

Someone can be offended by the Bible, the gospel, church, how we do church, Christians, you know? But if that's the case, then they're essentially offended not by just that, but they're offended by God and that's just their problem. What Apostle Paul is saying is if they're offended simply by what I'm doing, being offended by preference like do I want to eat the meat or not?

Do I want to drink that or not? Something that I have a right to, something I have a liberty to do, but they're offended as in they are stumbled by that, then my limitation of law kicks in and it says now their problem is my problem. Okay? All right, I hope that helps.

Any questions about that? I just at least wanted to address the fact that there is some misapplication of this passage because in the given context, Apostle Paul is addressing, remember, what's happened all the way from chapter eight. Okay? All right. Then moving forward, let's take a look at verse 24 to 27.

He says, "Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize. Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.

Therefore I run in such a way as not without aim. I box in such a way as not beating the air, but I discipline my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified." All right. Let's talk about some of the observations that you guys have made.

So in your packet thing, I basically chopped down just verse by verse. So let's just take it verse by verse. Verse 24, that table with Mark, Eugene, Tyler, and can't see the back. Oh, Justin? What observations do you guys see from verse 24? Okay. All right. So, one thing I want to mention about, yeah, he's saying like run with purpose or whatnot.

Right now, let's try to make like, you know, that's kind of like a good summary of what he's intending to say. Right. So let's try to pay attention to just observation of what's being stated in this particular verse. Right. But that's right. I mean, Mark just essentially highlighted the command of the entire paragraph.

If I were to ask, "Hey, what's an emphasis of this paragraph?" You would look for what? The main verb. Right. And typically it's a command verb. He has a command here for us and he says run. Right. He says run. He particularly says run in such a way that you may win.

Any other observations you guys got from your table? Sorry? Discipline yourself? Okay. All right. Okay. Thank you. Now I don't want to necessarily cut hair here and I appreciate you guys, what you guys have said so far, but do you guys get the difference between when I say here's an observation as opposed to a concluding statement, as opposed to an interpretation, as opposed to looking at the passage and dwindling it down to, let's say a meditative point or something.

Right. Because for example, if I'm looking for an observation, I'm looking carefully here and it says, you know, here in this passage, one of the things that we observe is he's highlighting the fact that when there's a race, only one person wins. That's an observation because that's directly what we observe from the passage.

Right. As opposed to some of the summary statements that you guys are making as opposed to saying, oh, he wants us to train hard. He wants us to be disciplined and he wants to run with the purpose. Right. Do you guys see the difference between observation and a concluding interpretation?

Okay. So that's kind of what I'm, what I really hope to exercise today. That's why I kind of left the whole bunch of it blank because I wanted you guys to observe the details and it's good for us to see first and foremost, not like, oh, what's the point that I should take away?

We just need to stop. Sometimes we just need to do a, like a preliminary step of stopping and saying, what does it plainly say to me? Right. As in like, is this, what is it simply stating? Okay. So before we interpret, piece together, apply. All right. So any other observations from verse 24?

Did you have a hand? Okay. Good. There's an element in which, hey, if you're like in our race, you're in our race. There's participation. Okay. Good. That's a good observation. Any others? One more time. There's multiple racers. Okay. Any other observations? You run to win. Yeah. And I think you should probably underline that.

So piece that all together and you get, you actually get a pretty profound statement that's obvious, but pretty hard hitting. We're all participating. There are multiple people. But if you're in it, you should be in it to win it. Right? Yeah. So, that's kind of what I mean by, so as we're doing this, I hope you guys see, we're making observations, just listing the things that we see and then we're kind of coming out, what's his point?

And his point is now we're starting to derive it from all those things. So good. And I just want us to think about that for a moment because I started off with one of these like, you know, I tried to do my best to re-tell the story of the YouTube video, but you think about that for a moment and he's commanding us to run, but obviously he's commanding us to run in such a way where it shows deeply that you want to win it.

You know? And, you know, I remember when I first started watching sports, I always, always laugh at commentators because the commentators typically say stuff that's really obvious, you know, they'll say stuff like, oh, he's really going for it now. And I'm like, oh, so stupid commentators. Of course he's going for it now, you know, he's just playing.

And then, and then sometimes you'll find that, you know, two teams are playing and then one team wins and then the commentators they'll say stuff like, oh, this team just ended up wanting it more. This team just wanted to win. And I always thought that, oh, that's so silly.

Of course they wanted to win. But then sometimes you watch sports and you realize it's not everybody wants to win. You like watch some teams and they don't want to win at all. What they want is some players want recognition. Some players want better, you know, teammates. Some players want, you know, higher salary.

They just all they really wanted to secure their spot for next year. They want to showcase. Some players want revenge. Yeah. You've seen like, you know, you got that guy on your team who just goes nuts because he's so mad and some ref didn't call the foul and he wants revenge.

And you're like, oh my God, you're jeopardizing our entire game because you want revenge. And you realize so much, so many times in sports, you actually don't want to win. You have lots of different agendas, you know? And so I use that, I use that as a point to say, Apostle Paul is talking to a group of Christians in the church and they're fighting essentially, they're bickering.

And then they're also writing and then they're also asking him, what do we do about these people who are prohibiting us from eating meat? And Apostle Paul almost has this question of, do you have the right goal in mind? Do you want to win? What is this that you want to do?

Right? I think it's really apropos to their situation. It's a question of what do you really want? Right? What do you really want? And so that's verse 24 for us. A command that says, run in such a way that you win. Okay? That you want to win. Now we're going to unpack that with the other verses.

Let's go to verse 25. Okay. So over here with this table right in the middle, smack in the middle, verse 25 is really, really short, but please highlight any observations. So now I'm just looking for straight, what does the passage say? Do you notice any nuances? Do you have any questions?

Excellent. So he's definitely contrasting. You can just make the observation he's contrasting the perishable wreath with the imperishable. Okay? That's an excellent thing to notice. Anything else? An automatic, right when you do that, if you guys, you know, get into good Bible study habit, always ask why. So he's contrasting the perishable wreath and imperishable wreath, and you can just answer the question like, no, duh, because the imperishable is worth more.

Right? But you can ask why though. Why highlight this contrast? What is it trying to make me understand between those contrasts? Right? Okay. So any other observations from verse 25? Great. Everybody who completes in the games exercises self-control. Okay. Good. So let's talk about that a little bit more.

So self-control in what area? What sphere? All things. And I find that pretty interesting to think about because, so do this in your Bible study. So take a moment to think about that and then picture the athlete. So you realize the athlete, he's just an athlete. He plays sports.

You know, he competes. But think for a moment, that competition, what areas of his life does it affect? Everything. His diet, his sleeping pattern, his exercise regimen, his family, his entertainment, his relationships. Right? Now, I'm not a big fan of Mike Tyson, but so once in a while, if you guys kind of didn't guess, I like watching motivational videos and there is this workout montage with Mike Tyson and it's one of the most amazing things I've seen.

This guy is like a bull. I mean, when he was young, there was nothing that was going to stop him. And he just flat out said, like, I work harder than all these guys. So he was very arrogant, but he said, none of these other guys wake up at 4.30, 5.30 to run.

You know? And then that's what he did every single day. And until he won his championship, he said, basically, I didn't know a woman. I didn't have a relationship with a woman at all because I was just so focused. Now later on, obviously because of his success, it got to him, all that kind of stuff.

But you look at his workout montage, it's just crazy. His diet to who he allowed into his life, who he allowed to talk to him. He would even put limitations on what he, what would enter into his mind. And his trainer had very specific things he wanted to like brainwash Mike Tyson with.

It was really crazy, but he was so dedicated to win. It literally affected everything. Everything. It was quite crazy. Okay? On the flip side of that, sometimes you know what's really good for me in the Bible studies is whenever I start to derive like a point like this, I ask, what is the common fallen condition?

Common fallen condition, meaning typically, typically for all of us, how do we compare to this? And what's the typical fallen condition as opposed to this biblical teaching here? Teaching that if you want to compete, then you have to exercise self-control. Let me ask you guys this question. So when you think about that, the exhortation of like exercise self-control, what do you think of as a common fallen condition?

How much we lack self-control. And if you were to epitomize, describe somebody who lacked self-control, what kind of things would you say of that? Let's say this man, a guy who was really like uncontrolled, what would you say? How would you describe? Just not, okay, so not specific to this verse, but not thinking more about like just our life, common things that happen in our day.

Sloth. Sloth, good. Not necessarily getting drunk, but being subdued to mastermind things. Whether it's video games, whatever. Yeah. That idea. Okay, excellent. Yeah. So in my mind, the reason why we do that about whenever there's a principle, I try to think of the common fallen condition is because it helps me to have a more detailed picture of that whole idea in my mind, sanctification, the Bible sums up as put off and put on.

So a lot of times what's going to be convicting me is if the Bible is starting to describe to me what I need to put on, it's helpful for me to think about what to put off, right? But you think about what Jason just said, yeah, the Bible actually talks a lot about this, the man who lacks self-control, the sluggard.

As a matter of fact, I'm going to read you a passage here, Proverbs chapter 21, verse 25 to 26. Okay. Proverbs chapter 21, verse 25 to 26. It says, "The desire of the sluggard kills him, for his hand refuses to labor. All day long he craves and craves, but the righteous gives and does not hold back." Okay.

In my mind, the epitome of a man who is not self-controlled is a man who's completely driven and functions based on his cravings. I want cake. I have a race tomorrow, I eat cake. You're driven by cravings. I need to wake up or I need to sleep tonight in order to go to work tomorrow, but I want to play video games, so I just want to play video games.

I want to wake up, but I'm tired, so I stay in bed. Your life is just dictated by all your cravings, as opposed to exercising self-control in all areas. Here's another passage, Proverbs 13, verse 4. "The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied." Notice how to the lazy individual, the Bible calls him a man of cravings.

You would think someone who's a sluggard has no cravings, no ambitions. Actually it's the opposite. Lazy people actually want a whole bunch. They're just not willing to work for it. The scripture says that the lazy individual, they will never harvest, but when it comes time to reap, they'll still be looking.

Is there anything for me? Because that's the man driven by his impulses, man driven by his cravings. And you know what's really interesting? If you look in your Bible, go to 1 Corinthians chapter 10, the next chapter, right? Oh no. Okay, can I have someone read that for us really quickly?

Can someone read from verses 1 down to verse 13? Can I have, yes, could you read that nice and clear? >> Thank you. So as you read that passage, he says, the nation of Israel was an example for you. My question to you is, what did the nation of Israel do wrong?

What was the negative example that Israel set? One more time. They just ate and played? OK, they just ate and played. All right? Good. That's what it says, yeah. Anything else that you guys see? That they craved evil things. So put that together, what does it describe? Exactly what we were just talking about.

It's really interesting, but Apostle Paul is saying, don't follow the example of a nation of Israel. Why? Because a nation of Israel completely had a loss of being self-control, and rather, they were just given into their cravings. They completely lost their sense of bearings. They completely lost their sense of goal.

And if we were talking about what we were talking about just a moment ago, about having a right ambition, I gave the example of a young man who wanted success and how badly you should want it. And I gave the example of a sports team who should be wanting to win, but they weren't wanting to win.

What's really crazy is a nation of Israel was coming out of Egypt being oppressed, enslaved, and murdered, and treated as slaves. But then they come out, and you remember what happened? They wanted food, and they started complaining. They wanted a nation like other people. They wanted so many other things, to the degree they started complaining like this.

God, why in the world did you bring us out here? Can you send us back? At least back there we had food. I mean, those words came out of their mouth. People who were slaves and asking God, please deliver us. Right? They were just people driven by the cravings of the moment.

I want food? I'm going to accuse God. You don't love us. I want water? I'm going to accuse God. You're not our leader. We're going back. It's just crazy how much we're like that. But essentially, it's very indicative of how we function sometimes. All right. So in thinking about how this song connects, earlier someone made the mention of the fact that there is the observation that Apostle Paul is making this connection.

Look, if you compete in the games, you need to exercise self-control. You need to exercise self-control in all things. OK? But then he makes this contrast that those people who are exercising for a competition do it for a perishable wreath, but we, an imperishable. OK? Now, I don't want to belabor the point, but you guys can easily tell what he's getting at.

He's like, man, it doesn't make sense. You know? He's like, I observe the pattern of the world, and they're willing to sacrifice all that stuff just so they can win. You guys aren't willing to sacrifice food. Step one, an athlete should eat a healthy meal. Step one, you fail.

Right? I mean, he's seeing an inconsistency. It's like they're doing it for a smaller thing. They're doing it for a worldly thing. It just makes sense that if they are in it, that they would make these sacrifices and be self-controlled. And so on the greater level, that much more.

In our spiritual eyes, we have a worldview that we are pursuing an inheritance that is worth more than the entire world. But you're not willing to sacrifice for it. You're not willing to be self-controlled in that matter, right? OK. Let's move forward. It's about 8 o'clock now. Verse 26.

It says, "Therefore, therefore, I run in such a way as not without aim. I box in such a way as not beating the air." OK? Let's do the ladies' table in the back. What observations do you guys have from that verse? OK, good. He says what he does and what he doesn't do.

All right? What are some-- again, you can just throw out obvious ones, and that's fine. I know sometimes, like even when I'm doing my own Bible study, I sometimes wonder, like, should I write down all the obvious observations I'm making? And you'll be surprised how much benefit you'll get just from doing it.

OK? So what other things do you see there? OK. You say he makes his body his slave. OK. What else do you see? Verse 26. That's fine, yeah. It's just the beginning of 27. OK, good. So he's saying, "Run in such a way as not without aim, and I box in such a way as not beating the air." OK?

So we start asking the questions now. So you guys stated the obvious. OK, I just reread the passage to you, Pastor Mark. What are we getting at here? Is there any distinction between the two, between running in such a way without aim, boxing in such a way as not beating the air?

And you can ask the question. By giving these metaphors of the exercise and, like, boxing and stuff like that, I want to ask you, what is he specifically getting at? So let me ask that table with the ladies. OK, both of them have a target. Excellent. You guys should write that down.

And I want to ask you guys a personal question from that. I think I can jump from that to a really quickly personal application. We all have certain goals. OK? Whether it be, I want to have a specific job, I want to be a certain place in five years, I want to grow a certain way or whatnot.

But do you have a goal that you can actually verbalize to somebody? And the reason why I put it that way is because, do you have a goal that's actually clear enough in your head? And it's not, like, foggy. It's not so general. But it's specific enough that you can communicate it in specific words to someone.

And do you have that goal for your life? Not just, like, my next year, not just my career, but for your life. And I don't want to sound like a self-help guru guy or whatever, but recently, I re-read a book by Stephen Covey called "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People." And I thought it was incredibly helpful.

And then I started wondering, man, is this guy Christian? Because a lot of the stuff he says actually comes straight out of the book of Proverbs. But one of the things that he really harvests on is start with a goal in mind. So start with the end in mind, he says, as in other words.

And there's an element to which we actually need a goal. We actually need something like a target that we're shooting after. Why? Because that target helps us basically put away all the different distractions. That target actually helps us have a criteria to make a decision in life. Should I go down this road?

Should I pick this job? Should I pick that? Should I pick this? It actually gives us a criteria to make appropriate decisions. Without it, you begin to neglect. Without it, you get distracted. Without it, you get confused. You get disoriented. And all that stuff happens. So again, there are a couple of things.

A couple of things I want to highlight for you. Even in the book of Proverbs-- oh, man. I didn't write down the chapter. Somewhere in the Bible, verses 30 through 34, says this. It's in the book of Proverbs. I'll find it for you guys later. He says, "I passed by a field of the sluggard and by the vineyard of a man lacking sense.

And behold, it was completely overgrown with thistles. Its surface was covered with metals, and its stone wall was broken. When I saw, I reflected upon it. I looked, and I received instruction-- a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and then your poverty will come as a robber, and you'll want like an armed man." So the reason why I read that passage is because I find that, especially with the younger generations-- like right now, I'm working with youth group people, and I'm working with collegians.

And there's a sense in which they're definitely living in the moment. And they're definitely not capable, right now at least, of seeing a clear target to say, this is why I'm doing what I'm doing. And what ends up happening is there is this huge neglect then. And just like the author of Proverbs saying, you know what I notice is everything's overgrown.

There's stuff that's not tended to. There are broken walls, but it's just a neglect. And in the moment, they're just like, what difference does it make if I sleep a little bit today? What difference does it make if I just play today? What difference does that make? Because they're young, and they don't have the end in mind.

So the challenge for us is to truly have a goal for ourselves that is strong, that's clear, and that we preemptively start with. And I want to challenge you guys in this because if you do not have a goal-- I feel like I've experienced every single one of these.

You're either ruled by whatever is urgent. So if you get busy, you're just ruled by whatever is urgent, like now, exams, tests. That's the only thing driving you. You get ruled by other people. You get ruled by, again, your cravings. You get ruled by everything else that does not matter.

And there's just not much to show for it. But if we have a goal, you have clear reasons why. That's not for me. You have clear reasons why I can't do that. And that's the way it's supposed to operate as he's talking about that we need that kind of discipline, and we need to imitate those who are truly in the race.

All right. Verse 27. Proverbs 24. Thank you, sir. Proverbs 24, verse 30 through 34. Great passage. OK. Last verse, guys, verse 27. Table about right in front of me. Here. Can you guys share with us what are your observations in this? Yeah, this table. He makes his body a slave.

What does he do to his body? He disciplines it. So he makes his body a slave. Think about that a little bit. He says, I make it my slave. Interesting. I discipline my body. There's a question as to, in this struggle to compete, who is he competing against most of all?

Himself. Interesting observation when you think about it. You know, there's a lot of runners at our church. And I'm going to be 100% honest with you guys. I always judge them to a certain degree because I just don't get running. It just seems like an incredible waste of time.

And I'm sitting there like, you only have one life to live, man. What are you doing running around in circles? I'm so glad David's not here. And then not only that, but they run long distances. I'm sitting there like, oh my gosh, why? There literally is no point. At least with football, you're running fast, but you're getting to a goal.

You can celebrate at one point or another. But sometimes some of these people are just trying to see how far they can go. And I'm always sitting there like, OK. But it makes sense. It makes sense why. Maybe because I've never tried long distance running. Maybe it's because I've never really tried it.

But it makes sense that perhaps there is a joy to accomplishing something that's not necessarily beating another person, but it's overcoming your own limitation, overcoming your own time limit, overcoming your own pace, overcoming your own endurance. And truthfully speaking, we all would agree that perhaps in the life of faith and trying to struggle and being sanctified and all that kind of stuff, the person we're trying to fight most is ourselves.

The Apostle Paul is essentially saying that. He realizes, or he's saying, in this fight, the main battleground perhaps is our own body. And the goal then is to have mastery over it. That when we talk about self-control, he's not talking about just like, oh, I'm not going to get mad today.

But that his body is truly under the control of the Spirit and the control of what he knows to be right. And so I find, I find there are parts of me that sometimes just wants to live life where, yeah, I do as I please. Parts of me that wants to live life, if I feel like it, I want to just live in the moment.

And then I just start imagining a fight between a father and a young child, like a teenager. A teenager might fight with his parents on something simple as when to sleep. The child is getting older. He's getting into his teenage year. And he's like, dude, I'm not going to go to sleep at 10.

And the parents might fight over it. And the parents might sit there like, oh, yeah, yeah, it's cool. And then this child is sitting there saying, I can function if I sleep at 11, 12, doesn't matter. I'm going to be fine. And I start imagining that picture of the fight because it's a small thing.

It's just like just sleep. And the reason I'm talking about it is because I recently had a thing with my son. He's like, you have to go to sleep right now. I was like, I'm not tired, Appa. He's like, I know you're tired. He's like, no, I'm not. You have to go to sleep.

And I just sit there on the night. Oh, he's only four. I can't believe I'm fighting with this one. I just anticipate what's going to happen later. But the thing about it is, I mean, yeah, it's just a small thing. And there's wisdom behind both. But there's a sense in which if it is an athlete who is truly trying to win, who is truly trying to train to the best he can, then even the smallest things become big things.

It does. And so even though the runner, although he feels like resting, he's going to run. Although he feels like eating a burger, he's going to eat that salad or the balanced meal. Although he feels like he wants to stay up and hang out with all his friends, he's going to go home and rest.

Although he feels like he wants to stay in bed and veg out, he's going to get up and exercise. Even the small things start becoming big things. And so I think we have to take heed of that when he's talking about here. There's a sense in which the reason why I bring that up is because-- and I'm going to start wrapping this up-- he says, after I preach to others, that I will not be disqualified.

Now, there's an interpretive issue. What does he mean by disqualified? But before we get into the interpretive issue, I just want to conclude my point. We're talking about a guy who's just simply training. And he's trying to discipline his body. But there is a warning that you might be disqualified because of the small things he's not disciplined in.

Do you see my point? Perhaps we think it's small things. Like, yeah, well, then what does it matter? I just want to do what I feel like I want to do. It's like, why do I have to be disciplined in this? Why do I have to sacrifice this thing?

They're just all small deals. And granted, they are. That's why Apostle Paul's like, dude, this is a small deal. Whether you eat or don't eat, it doesn't make a huge difference. Whether you take that meat or don't take that meat, it's just not a big deal. But there's a sense in which the other part of reality is it is a big deal.

Because by your negligence in it, it could disqualify you. Right? All right. Now, I want to ask you this question. He says, he says, I do all this because after I've preached, I don't want to be disqualified. Now, remember that Apostle Paul said, I do everything so that I might win some.

Like, here are these people I want to save. These are the people I want to share the gospel with. But what do you think he's talking about here where he says, so that-- so that's like a purpose statement-- I discipline my body and make it my slave so that the purpose is I don't want to be disqualified.

What do you think he's referring to? Sorry, someone said something. His witness. OK? How did you get to that conclusion? OK. OK. Good. Any other thoughts about that? Joe? I was just thinking more along the lines of what you said earlier about how little things can disqualify you. So maybe I'm not succumbing to this fleshly self, whether it's in the mind or the flesh, bad habits that can develop into a full-blown sin.

OK. And eventually, you fall away and you drift. But I don't know if I'm just taking it too far. OK. No, that's a good logical thought. He's saying essentially, for him, disqualifying-- in his mind, he's picturing full-blown sin. You make smaller compromises. And that leads into a kind of character trait of sin in your life that would eventually be disqualified, right?

So yeah. So by not disciplining yourself, you're going to give in to those desires. OK. OK. OK. Gotcha. OK. Gotcha. OK. Gotcha. So I want to let you know that actually good and godly men disagree a lot about this, about this verse. And no one position is like 100% like locked down the best one.

Because actually, some people use this passage to mean Apostle Paul is genuinely saying that he can be disqualified from salvation. As in, like, there are people, like in Matthew chapter 10, who preach the gospel. And after they preach the gospel, they themselves are disqualified. They don't get to partake in the blessings of the gospel that they just gave.

And so I'm not sure if you've ever heard preachers use this and say, yeah, so don't be the hypocrites who go out on preaching, but you're really empty shells. And they'll quote this passage saying, see, Apostle Paul says, after I preach, I'm disqualified. Some people use the passage like that.

And then there are people who think that because of the fact that he's talking about joining in-- he uses the word of being a partaker in the previous verses, and he uses that. I personally, personally think that, yeah, he is talking about his personal witness, that he's talking about the fact that he's using a sports analogy for Christians who are in it, but who aren't in it to win it.

He's using a sports analogy to talk about those individuals who are also disqualified from competition. And there's a sense in which, in keeping with that whole idea, yeah, there are people in context back then-- the Olympics were actually huge during this time that he's writing. In the first century, the Olympic Games were huge.

But it was more severe, crazier sports, and the restrictions were also more intense, meaning you literally had to be a special class individual. You were like a brand. And if you can think, like today, the sports people have managers. Basically, back then, they had manager masters. And they would basically have these sports athletes train.

They would train for almost a solid year. And through that whole year, they'd put them to a gauntlet of different exercises. And if they failed any of those exercises, what would happen? They wouldn't be allowed to compete. And there's an element in which Apostle Paul, back in the first part of chapter 9, he viewed himself as someone who has a stewardship by the master to preach.

And he says, woe is me if I don't preach, because I have a stewardship, and I have to give an account of the stewardship. And there's an element in which he's fearful that should there be the lack of discipline, should there be a lack of self-control, should there be any of this, that he might be disqualified from the stewardship that he has.

That's my personal take on it. But I want to let you know, again, there are good and godly people who disagree about this passage. OK? All right. But in thinking about that, I want to conclude with this. There is an element in which today's lesson is like, I wanted to make it motivational for you guys.

Because Apostle Paul is essentially being a coach. He's like, hey, big huddle. Everybody in the huddle. Do you want to win? What do you want? Do you know what we're in here for? Have you trained? That's what he's asking. Have you trained? Everything you've invested, all that time you'd spent learning, attending Bible studies, sacrificing, meeting up with people, getting discipled, this is what we need to practice it.

He's being a coach right now. Right? And there's an element to which I want to highlight, too. It's not necessarily stated in this passage. But here's a fact. He's using a sports analogy. And I want to use an Olympic athlete. OK? Did you know that there is a lady who holds the Olympic world record for most appearances in the Olympic games?

Olympics are held only every four years. So you can imagine. You can compete only a certain number of times. And that number is eight. She made eight appearances in the Olympics. Isn't that crazy? She was a canoeing person. And you look at all these Olympic records for a number of appearances and saw these sports like equestrian, stuff that you can do for a long time.

But for your average athlete, you can imagine. How many times do you think the average athlete appears in the Olympics? Yeah, once. Once. Just because there's so many people competing just for that Olympic spot. To represent your country one time for a lot of-- maybe in the US it's not as grand, US and LA, all that kind of stuff.

But for every other country, you represent your country one time and you're like a hero of your city, right? Well, think about this for a moment. She's sitting here saying, "Run like you should win." Can I add the element? You really only have one shot? You two truly only have one life to live?

Did you know Jesus Christ had this same mentality? John chapter 9, verse 4 through 5. John chapter 9, verse 4 through 5. "We must work the works of Him who sent me. "As long as it is day, but night is coming "when no man can work." I was so tempted to write down Eminem's lyrics.

He's actually a pretty good poet. But the command today, motivationally, is, "Seriously, you have one life to live. "You're in this race. "Are you running like you want to win? "Or have you gotten so accustomed to being "in the Christian environment, it's just kind of like "you're being moved by the rest of your team, "but you're not really pulling your weight?

"Have you lost sight of the ambition? "No, I really want to attain that prize. "Or have you latched on to little side ambitions? "No, I want to stand out amongst my friends. "I want to accomplish big things in this life. "I want to have lots of money. "I want to have lots of this and lots of that." And you just latched on to little personal agendas, like you would see perhaps in basketball or whatever it may be.

Apostle Paul says, "Run in a way that you should win the prize." So that's our lesson for today, and then we're going to tackle next week Apostle Paul's warning of those who've lost sight of that. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we want to thank you. God, in our generation, Lord, we do realize we only have one life to live.

So there is huge motivation then to take in all that the world has to offer. But God, we realize from your scripture that actually we need to exercise even greater self-control, that we would be willing to deny ourselves, that we would be willing to limit ourselves, in this all-purpose of love.

God, love for you, love for the people. I pray, Father God, that if any of us have been just distracted, just distracted by the common things like work, I pray you give us wisdom and inspiration. If some of us just got tired or just way too fatigued, I pray you give us strength through your spirit.

If some of us have lost sight of the end goal, I pray, God, that your word would light a path, and God, that we would see very clearly what you desire for us. And God, we all recognize that we have a great hurdle, which is ourselves. And I pray, Father God, that we would, just as Apostle Paul did, learn to discipline our bodies, continue to strive against the flesh, and, Lord, desire to offer up to you everything that we have.

God, we thank you. We pray that you would be with us this week as we desire to apply all that we're learning. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.