Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20010128.htm

1 CORINTHIANS: MINISTERING TO BELIEVERS WITH DEEP PAGAN BACKGROUNDS
Part XVI: The VALUE Of Self-Restraint In Discipling Others
(1 Corinthians 8:13; 9:1-27)
  1. Introduction
    1. To be exhorted as we are by Paul to show loving self-restraint to those who are weak in the faith may be a lofty calling, but one that may not motivate! After all, who wants to restrain himself from his liberties in Christ all the time as Paul urges us in 1 Corinthians 8:13? Isn't that an unhappy, confining existence?!
    2. In exampling his own loving self-restraint before the weak, Paul revealed the great value such activity has in equipping one to be mightily used of God. That provides encouragement toward living self-restraint:
  2. The VALUE Of Loving Self-Restraint In Discipling Others, 1 Corinthians 8:13; 9:1-27.
    1. The Apostle Paul certified he had rights to receive lofty treatment from the Corinthians, 1 Cor. 9:1-14:
      1. Paul was called by Christ to be in the highest office of the Church -- that of an apostle, 1 Cor. 9:1-2:
        1. He had seen and been commissioned by Christ for the apostleship, 1 Cor. 9:1a,b; Acts 9:3-16.
        2. The conversion of the Corinthians proved Paul had God's sanction in his ministry, 1 Cor. 9:1c-2.
      2. Paul had the right to receive certain benefits of ministry from these Corinthians, 1 Cor. 9:3-14:
        1. He could receive food from them for support, 1 Cor. 9:3-4 with 2 John 7-10.
        2. Like the other apostles, including Peter (cf. Mtt. 8:14), he could marry and have his wife also supported by these Corinthian believers, 1 Corinthians 9:5.
        3. Paul could abstain from secular employment, gaining total livelihood support from the Corinthians: (a) The Old Testament set the precedent for a minister in the Church era receiving livelihood support from those whom he spiritually fed: if a minister expounds the Word like an ox expells the grain kernels from the wheat chaff for human consumption, in the process, the minister, like the ox, was to be free to partake of whatever material needs he desired as supplied by those whom he thus fed, 1 Cor. 9:6-13; Deut. 25:4. (b) Paul applied this truth not only to the apostles, but to all who minister the Word, especially the Gospel of Christ, in the Church era, 1 Corinthians 9:14.
    2. However, Paul refrained from exercising these rights to avoid becoming conscientiously offensive to the godless or weak folk he discipled to be a better discipling tool in God's hand, 1 Cor. 9:15-23:
      1. Paul tried to be free of all that conscientiously offended people who knew Scripture, the Jews, 9:15-20.
      2. He tried to be free of all that conscientiously offended people ignorant of Biblical ethics, 1 Cor. 9:21.
      3. He tried to be free of all that conscientiously offended weak believers like the Corinthians, 9:22-23.
    3. Paul had a practical use for this loving self-restraint: his usefulness to God in discipling fellow Jews, Gentiles or weak believers was directly proportioned to how self-restrained he was before each group so as to minimize his creating conscientiously offensive roadblocks to their heeding his words, 9:24-25.
    4. Accordingly, Paul buffeted his natural drives for which he had Christian liberty, choosing to be very self-disciplined in supporting himself far above that for which he was called of the Lord, 1 Cor. 9:26-27.
Lesson: Besides fulfilling the law of Christ in bearing with the weak in exercising loving self-restraint of our liberties, such restraint minimizes PRACTICAL barriers to our being useful disciplers for God!

Application: (1) Out of obedience and love for Christ, we ought to exercise loving self-restraint in the use of our personal rights so as not to harm the weak consciences of others around us. (2) Yet, there is a PRACTICAL advantage to such loving self-restraint that ADDS to a motivation to practice it: the greater we try to be winsome to others around us, and ADJUST accordingly at the cost of indulging in our personal liberties, the GREATER our usefulness to GOD in discipling other people.

Illustration: While attending the Multnomah School of the Bible in Portlant, Oregon in my late teens, our student body hosted a campus clean-up day. I was amazed to see our fatherly, scholarly, godly president, Dr. Willard Aldrich, working in the heat to pick up bottles, cans and paper trash with us. When I complimented him on this effort, he looked deeply touched, and meaningfully thanked me! I was equally amazed at his gracious response to me, and desired from then on to want to be LIKE that -- to be WINSOME by becoming more self-restricting like Dr. Aldrich was in my own life and ministry!