1 Corinthians 9:18-27

Introduction

“A Christian is a perfectly free lord, subject to none; a Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant, subject to all.” Martin Luther

I. THE DOMINATING DESIRE

A. The desire (19-22)—“That I might win them.”

B. The Reason (23) “for the sake of the gospel”

C. A searching & convicting passage

II. DISCERNING & SELFLESS ADAPTABILITY

A. 2 extremes: too ‘black & white’ or too flexible

B. The perfect balance (20-22)

C. The clarification (20, 21)

III. DELIBERATE DISCIPLINE

A. The Isthmian Illustration (24-25)

B. The meaning (26-27)

C. The challenge

What we need are world Christians—not simply American Christians or British Christians or Kenyan Christians, but world Christians. By “world Christians,” I am referring to Christians, genuine believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the following things are true: Their allegiance to Jesus Christ and His kingdom is self-consciously set above all national, cultural, linguistic, and racial allegiances. Their commitment to the church—Jesus’ messianic community—is to the church everywhere, wherever the church is truly manifest, and not only to its manifestation on home turf. They see themselves first and foremost as citizens of heaven and therefore consider all other citizenship a secondary matter. As a result they are single-minded and sacrificial when it comes to the paramount mandate to evangelize and make disciples. D. A. Carson

Conclusion