Taking Aim
The Healthy Christian • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 5 viewsWhat is a healthy Christian? What should churches be thinking about and focusing on? In this introductory sermon, we will set the course for a 12 week series called The Healthy Christian. Specifically, this passage lays out the necessity of Christ-followers to leverage their lives for the sake of God's Mission. We will Take Aim and discover three keys to developing a missionary mindset that will lead us toward our goal.
Notes
Transcript
INTRO: How many of you have set some goals for 2025? Maybe you have a goal to lose weight (that’s popular). Maybe you have a goal to get a job or to learn a new skill. Perhaps you have a goal to be more financially healthy- pay off debts and such.
Having goals is great- but if we hope to achieve our goals, what do we have to do? We cannot just keep doing the same things we’ve been doing, right? We cannot expect to lose 20 lbs and keep eating pizza and ice cream every day! If we keep doing the same things, we can expect the same results.
Accomplishing goals means that we make necessary changes- changes at the start and changes along the way- that keep us on track. Now I know that when some of you hear ‘change’ you get a little nervous. But hang with me.
I want to first paint a picture of a single reality right now at LRBC.
Last year, we baptized 4 people. 2 were children of members, 1 was a person who came from a different denomination and baptism by immersion was necessary to join. This is about the same as the number of funerals for members that we did.
We have about 150 active members on our role at LRBC. That means, that we have about 37 members for each baptism we had last year.
I’m concerned that we are not as healthy as we might think ourselves to be. And part of the reason for this is that we have to have the right scorecard.
Now, there are great things going on here at LRBC- we have solid bible teaching, engaging children’s programs, generous missionary support, and a friendly, outgoing congregation.
But these things all have to be positioned and leveraged for our main purpose- a purpose that is greater than any activity or program we can put on. My hope and purpose for this sermon series is to help us as a whole to Take Aim. What are we aiming at? We are aiming to become healthy Christians.
This sermon series will take us through the month of March. I’ve asked all of our youth and adult Sunday School classes to study the passages that I’ll be preaching so that we can grasp and wrestle with what it is that God has called us to. Let me give you an overview:
We will start with our Goal of Becoming Healthy Christians and work backwards to practical application steps.
Beginning today, we will spend this month looking at the Mission of Healthy Christians. (This is our ‘Why?” Why do we exist? / What are we about?)
In February, we will look at the Milestones of Healthy Christians. (Markers/ How we know we’re achieving our purpose)
In March, we will look at the Methodology of Healthy Christians. (Strategy or How we go about achieving our purpose)
Think of this like a journey that we are all taking together. Imagine that we are all talking about this trip. The first thing we do is figure out where we are going. With that in mind, let us open our bibles to 1 Cor. 9:23-27
23 I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it.
24 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.
25 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.
26 Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air;
27 but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.
[PRAY]
The message is titled, “Taking Aim” and I want to show the missionary mindset of the Apostle Paul with the hope that you and I can set out sights on the goal of Christian health.
We are going to approach this by breaking down Paul’s statement in v. 23. Let’s begin by looking at the first part:
I Do All Things…
I Do All Things…
What “things” is Paul talking about? To answer this, we actually need to look back to the preceding verses. (READ 19-22)
So for Paul, he says specifically that:
He gave up his freedom.
IOW, Paul didn’t owe anyone anything. He could very well ignore the needs or condition of others. He was not forced to leave his home or church and sail through treacherous seas and eke out a living making tents so that he could share Jesus. He knew that he would face persecution. He knew he would be rejected. He knew it would not be easy. but he willingly gave up his freedom.
ILL: This is a difficult concept for us in America. We are Free! We let freedom ring and sing songs about how “I did it my way...”
But Paul says I do all things…looking back, we see that he chose others over himself. How?
To Jews who were under the Law, Paul went to them, celebrating their feasts, festivals, and traditions and helped show them Jesus Christ as Lord and Messiah.
*NOTE* He didn’t trust in the Law, but these religious traditions were not sinful in themselves, only as one trusts in their acts over God’s provision.
To Gentiles, he didn’t allow his own religious traditions to hinder a relational opportunity to share the hope of Jesus with sinners.
*NOTE* He didn’t go around sinning, but he also didn’t get so worked up over their sinfulness that he put up barriers that would prevent people from hearing what he had to say.
Paul summed it up this way, I have become all things to all men o that I may by all means save some.
Here’s my translation:
I leverage my life- my work, my energy, my resources, my time, my education… everything I have, I leverage so that some who are sinners may be saved.
He fought temptation, put off sin, persevered! I do all things.
Ok, so let’s ask ourselves some tough questions:
How much of yourself do you leverage for the Gospel?
What are you willing to do for the sake of the Gospel?
Are you willing to give your time? Money? Energy?
As we take aim toward our goal of healthy Christianity, we must recognize that a healthy Christian is one who is 100% all in. Like an athlete whose identity is in the sport, a healthy Christian lives, eats, breathes, sleeps, works, and plays the leveraged life.
If you are a Christian, there is no part of your life that is not off the table for the sake of the Gospel.
And that takes us to the next section. Paul says, “I do all things...”
For the Sake of the Gospel...
For the Sake of the Gospel...
IOW, There is a purpose for ALL my actions and that purpose is the Gospel. What is the Gospel?
It’s the good news of Jesus Christ! But let’s not gloss over this. The good news of Jesus is that the world is broken and sinful. The rebellion of men against God has separated us and because God is holy and just, that rebellion must be punished.
But this punishment is one we cannot pay ourselves except to spend all eternity in hell. That’s grim. But God loves us so much, that Jesus, the Son of God stepped in. He took on humanity and humanity’s sin and shame. He made a way through His own blood to save the very ones who hated Him.
We’ll talk more about this as we go, but folks we must understand that the Gospel is the Mission of God. Jesus came to seek and save the lost to the glory of God the Father.
So, get this. God is glorified when sinful men and women hear the good news of salvation, repent from their sins and place their faith in Jesus alone for salvation!
But here’s the thing: Paul could not save anyone. Peter could not save anyone. I cannot save anyone and neither can you! Only Jesus can!
But Paul leveraged everything he had and did so that he could tell the good news! So that he could share the hope of Christ and see God in heaven glorified.
You know something? We were created to give God glory. In fact, Jesus said the greatest commandment was to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. The second is to love our neighbor.
I’m going to tell you right now, I cannot love my neighbor unless I love God. And I love God because He first love me! I am not compelled to share the gospel with my neighbor except by the love of God in me.
And it’s because I know that without Jesus, my neighbors will spend eternity in hell that I have a burden for them. It’s because I know that they have a disease called sin and the only cure is the blood that was shed on Calvary. It’s because I know that the Gospel is what saves, not Marc.
Oh, friend, what would it look like if we did ALL things for the sake of the Gospel? How many of the 4000 lost people in our community might hear the GOOD NEWS and turn to Christ if only we would leverage our lives with the understanding that the GOSPEL REALLY SAVES!
Church, imagine if we took aim and became healthy Christians!
“I do all things for the sake of the Gospel...”
So that I May Become a Fellow Partaker of it.
So that I May Become a Fellow Partaker of it.
This is an interesting ending to the sentence. Paul clarifies it though as we work toward v. 27. (READ 23-27)
Paul likened this to running a race. Races have winners. Winners get prizes.
ILL: Have you ever trained for a race? Or maybe you trained for another sport… why did you work so hard? For a trophy? A medal?
But in order to race, we must be focused and disciplined. We must say no to certain things and yes to the right things. Leveraging your life for the Gospel yields something greater. We get to be partakers of the Gospel that we live for.
You might be thinking? What? I am a partaker… I prayed. I go to church. I sing… sometimes.
Is Paul saying he feared losing his salvation? I don’t know if it’s quite that cut and dry, so let me try to explain what I believe he’s getting at here. I think Paul is saying that if our lives are inauthentic.. that is we are playing a part, then we could certainly live a life that looks Christian, but is in fact not.
Jesus said in Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.”
If we understand salvation right, we understand that we are given the Holy Spirit, thus the desire of God to see sinners come to repentance and faith. An authentic Christian life is one where we are one with Christ- we have put to death the old life, and now Christ lives in us!
Jesus said it this way:
5 “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
Healthy Christians are those who are living out their purpose. They are one in Christ and their lives reflect the witness and testimony of God at work in them. Again, we’ll look at some of these milestones later in our study. But let me give you a little quip that might help:
A Gospel that takes ROOT will produce Gospel FRUIT.
Why let go of your freedom? Why abide in Christ? Because the GOAL is greater.
Have you considered eternity?
