hey welcome to the Vive Church Channel I am so thrilled that you found us I believe as you dig into this content God is going to reveal more of himself and speak to you directly mobilizing you and accelerating you in your life God bless grab your Bibles out let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter 9 I'm going to continue in our second installment in our evangelism series called excuse me we're talking about news so good you cannot keep silent and I want to bring the second installment from 1 Corinthians chapter 9 let's Center oursel in verse 19 it says even though I am a free man with no master I have become a slave to all people to bring many to Christ when I was with the Jews I lived like a Jew to bring the Jews to Christ when I was with those who follow the Jewish law I too lived under that law even though I'm not subject to the law I did this so I could bring to Christ those who are under the law when I'm with the Gentiles who do not follow the Jewish law I too live apart from that law so I can bring them to Christ but I do not ignore the law of God I obey the law of Christ when I'm with those who are weak I share their weaknesses for I want to bring the weak to Christ yes I try to find common ground with everyone doing everything I can to save some verse 23 I do everything to spread the good news and share in its blessing what a great passage of scripture we have to dissect today and I want to do that with a very simple title for this message that I've entitled I've got good news I've got good news you prepared and ready for the word all right be a Friendly Church Embrace somebody handshake somebody and then take your seat thank you thank you thank you so I met a celebrity this week it's kind of cool little celebrity encounter I was on my way back to the Bay Area and I walked onto the flight only to see and I don't expect all of you to know who this person is but I knew straight away I saw James Hetfield who is the lead singer of Metallica where's the woops at who who knew about that yeah I I walked past and uh I don't know if if I was more excited or my wife is more excited cuz she is a Metallica a fan don't let her nice you know Meek velvet hammer exterior fool you she will she'll throw down with the Metallica and I was super pumped I'm like that's cool how cool I was in proximity with a legend a musical Legend and uh you know he was in first class so I went to my economy class seat and uh it something absolutely magical happened and I don't know if you've experienced this before but as I'm I'm sitting in my seat preparing I get a little notification that says hey congratulations you've been upgraded I instantly thought God is good but as I went to take my new seat 1A I realized it was right next to James headfield I thought this is God this has to be God there is no way I deserve an upgrade I didn't do anything to earn this upgrade and yet here I am being positioned right next to James headfield my thought began hey we're an evangelism series maybe this is an application moment maybe God is going to give me an illustration where I lead a rockar to the Lord and I had this great story I could bring to you on Sunday where James headfield came to Christ didn't happen like that I I don't I don't know about you but does anybody he the kind of person that gets real weird around celebrities all of a sudden you your weirdest version of your s comes out why like I'm literally sitting there just trying to think of all the conversation starters I'm trying to think how I'm going to kind of bridge into a conversation he's right next to me he's across the aisle there's many opportunities what snack you want to share I don't know what you want to do I'm literally just trying to rehearse and maybe that was the problem I over rehearsed what I was going to do I'm trying to think of ways should I comment on his tattoos should I talk about the kind of songs should I just play one on my phone you know what I mean like a super fan I'm literally texting Eric from from Oakland campus cuz he's a Metallica fanatic and I'm trying to phone a friend help what do I say he said take a photo great advice Eric that's super cool but I'm like I kept like kind of intimidating myself and before I knew it the plane landed and we're standing up we're getting the luggage out I thought this could be the moment I could do something and yet you know how crazy it is when the plane lands everyone shoots up and they're ripping bags out and pushing you down the aisle and the the moment was getting lost and I knew what I wanted to say I'd worked it out I wanted to say I like your music that was going to be the introduction I like your music but the moment wasn't there it was going to be weird and as we're walking up the jetway I thought this is my last chance so I looked at him by now he pulled out a cigar and I thought this guy is so rockar like he's ready to light at the moment he gets off the plane he needs it and I look at him he looks at me and I say I like music I mean I like your music he pulled his moistened cigar out and said cool and then just walked off evangelism is [Music] hard it's hard I wonder if maybe my assignment today maybe my job is to reorient our approach to evangelism I'm very well aware that the the idea of evangelism alone where may just evoke in you excitement or anxiety depending on your particular personality type because some of us even the idea of talking to a stranger can get us a little sweaty anybody a little sweaty right now yeah I wonder however if what creates the tension around evangelism or even the hesitation with evangelism is not so much what to say or how to say it but who to say it to in fact I feel like I could maybe appropriate this biblical expectation of evangelism because in Mark chapter 16 we know that we don't get out of the responsibility of evangelizing in Mark 16:15 Jesus makes it clear go into all the World preach the good news to everyone and while this is a command and certainly a commission by Jesus I want to make sure that I appropriate what the world actually means because my question to you is before we go to the world have you been to your world you see while the power of the Gospel is certainly in what Jesus did it's most potently presented through what Jesus did in me this is what we discovered last week in John chapter n with the previously blind man his testimony was I was blind but now I see so the gospel cannot just be a story that we tell the gospel is essentially my story that we tell are you here so knowing this we have to kind of appropriate the going into the world Which is far less about ministering to some random celebrity that you meet on a flight and way more about reaching your family reaching your community reaching your workplace with the gospel now I know what you're thinking Pastor that's cool um but my workplace is hostile give me the random celebrity on the flight but I I hate to tell you but God has positioned you uniquely to reach your world and if it is a little hostile and intimidating or you might potentially lose your job if you talk about Jesus you're in good company because what we're going to find In this passage of scripture is the Apostle Paul who who in this letter writing to the Corinth Corinthians he's writing about Corinth Corinth as a social setting was much like the Silicon Valley it was hostile to God there was a lot of sexual immorality religious diversity and Corruption that was going on however it was also a strategic location since it was the heart of a very very important trade route in the ancient world and true to Paul's nature he liked to plant churches that wouldn't just influence that City but he liked to PL plant churches in cities that would influence the world it's a great strategy in fact the apostle was so strategic when it came to sharing the gospel he he he Reveals His strategy here in chapter nine a strategy that I want us to come around today that may actually equip us with a deep strategy on how we present the gospel how we can also evangelize are you ready to go on the journey let's learn some strategy from the Apostle Paul because if we go back to our passage of scripture in First Corinthians we're going to find Paul presenting several distinct settings in which he operated from starting from verse 20 he says uh to the Jews I became a Jew to those under the law I became as one under the law to those outside of the law I became as one outside of the law and to the weak I became weak several distinct settings that represented portions of both Paul's past and his present which is actually important to understand now I need to be very very emphatic here and I need to inform you that what Paul is presenting is one thing he he's talking about how to how to bring the gospel what he is not doing is he is not presenting an adap adaptation to the gospel but an application of the Gospel this is very important for us to comprehend if we're going to actually approach this text correctly what he says in a little verse later he says I have become all things to all men that by all means I might save some now I want to clarify because Paul is not presenting that his approach was to be a chameleon in certain settings he wasn't watering down the gospel he he wasn't making the gospel more palatable to his audience he wasn't changing the gospel he was changing his approach are you with me I'm not and Paul's not giving us permission to change the gospel he's not suggesting that we compromise or we adjust our message to please a particular audience this would only dilute the gospel you do not get permission to dilute the gospel there may be intimidating situations that would want you to dilute the gospel I remember specifically one such situation I back when I was a youth pastor we used to do these youth outreaches called your dream seminars and we just get kids to dream bigger for their life and we had this one opportunity to bring the the conference to a public school a major public high school in our city and we had kind of been around Christian high schools and everything had been conducive to preaching the gospel now we had got an inroad into a public high school the first one and they were cool with whatever we wanted to preach I was like man this is like a one-time opportunity because after I preach they will not be cool with me preaching it I guarantee you and so I went for it I'm telling you I delivered my best Straight clear message from John 1416 I know you know John 146 sorry you know that scripture I am the way I am the truth I am the life no one comes to father but through Jesus making it very very clear the sermon went off with the students not so much with the teachers remember there's one kind of mildly upset uh PE teacher physical ed teacher came up to me afterwards and he said you know what the problem with Christianity is he like kind of angry he's like it's so restrictive he used this weird word I remember it really distinctly he said it's inaccessible he said I believe that there are many ways to God and everybody's version of God is the same God one of those people and I remember having to be very tactical with my response because there were students around I wanted to be respectful but I wanted to be corrective as well and I picked up on that word he used accessible and so I said you know what I agree I I do believe Jesus isn't accessed any way you want but let me tell you you've confused access with accepting because while Jesus isn't accessed any way you want he is accepting of who you are right now he is very much accepting of you the way you are but he's very clear on how you access him there's one God one name one Lord one savior one door very very narrow it's essentially what we find in Romans 10:9 by the way where says you if you declare with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart God raised him from the dead you will be saved it requires you to believe it requires you to confess that name not a name but the name Jesus in order for you to be in the body of Christ there is a lot of woke IDE ology out there even in the church things like belong before you believe that is impossible believing in Christ is the doorway to belonging with Christ you you can't get that I know we want to make it so open and easy but that's diluting the gospel Paul is not advocating you dilute the gospel he was actually confronting if anything this inclusive ideology that tries to infiltrate the church but affects the potency of the Gospel it even tries to infiltrate the church tries to to come in you have no idea how many emails I will get on people saying I don't like VI church it's too exclusive because we've got membership I'm like what what do you mean it's too exclusive like we're just following Jesus didn't you just read Romans 10:9 confess with your mouth believe in your heart two steps same with VI Church profess Jesus as Lord commit to being a giver lar lar very easy but there is a step a decision that I have to make I can't just I can't just water it down I've got to actually hold true to the word of God and we got to hold a step to say this is now my I wasn't in but I'm now in I wasn't in it's not like we present a gospel where everyone's in everyone's here no no if you follow these steps what Paul is not doing is he's not diluting the gospel he's not making an adaptation he's making an application let let me unpack exactly what that means because he says I have become all things to all men and that he what he does is what reveals the goal so that I might win some this this is important to grasp because Paul understood something fundamental about people Paul was very good sociologist he he understood people he understood the society he wasn't removed from it he was very much in it and what he understood is this that people don't care what you think about their eternity if you don't care about their current reality he didn't just bring this message about where are you going when you die he brought an application of the Gospel that met them right where they were at see this is not the gospel the gospel isn't what Jesus is going to do the gospel is what Jesus has already done for you and Paul understood that I'm not going to stand on a box and yell at a crowd where they're going or what God's going to do in the end time he he was revealing what God's already done for them they would simply believe applying the gospel it's not that standing on a street corner telling people to repent or you going to go to hell it's actually finding common ground it's called it's finding common ground you might think that standing on a street corner telling people they're going to go to hell is effective it's not what is is the strategy that Paul presents here he says I I do everything to find Common Ground let me let me show you because truth is Paul was pretty good at this too in Acts 17 what we find is we find Paul evangelizing to the Athenian council at a place called Mars Hill this was a place where the scholars would gather kind of an intimidating place you had people like Socrates and to would argue at Mars Hill they would philosophize and they would talk about life and they would talk about Concepts and people's minds would melt so these ideas that came out of these great Greek scholars in this circle called Mars Hill and here's Paul showing up ready to present the gospel not a played down gospel not a a an adjusted version or a safe version of The Gospel he wanted to bring the full unadulterated Gospel of Jesus Christ and Paul something clever let's check it out together in Acts 17 in verse 22 it says so Paul standing in the midst of the area of pgus said men of Athens I perceive that in every way you are very religious for as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship I found also an altar with this inscription to the unknown God what therefore you worship as unknown I Proclaim to you this right here is the Apostle Paul's strategy for applying the gospel he he's on his way to take the gospel to the highest thought Center to the most cerebral setting that he could find to not just go to the unintellectual but to go to the intellectual and he finds himself there on the way he's looking ABC always be collecting that's helpful he he's on his way and he sees a man there's a lot of it's a lot of Idols huh and what he doesn't do is he said you stupid people believing in so many gods you don't know what no he didn't do that he looked and he noticed one particular Idol because of their Superstition just wanted to cover all bases the unknown God we've named everyone we can think of but just in case as a cover all the unknown God we want to worship them too Paul's like brilliant that's my wedge that's my moment so he brings that he said hey I notice you have a lot of religious you're very spiritual there's even this one God the unknown God let me tell you about that God he is not the unknown God he is the supreme god he is over every God he found common ground and elevated in fact another occasion in Acts chapter 22 you'll find the Apostle witnessing in front of the Jewish Council and strategically he he draws on his Jewish upbringing and his education in the Hebrew language and he uses it as a strategic bridge to his audience let me show you he says says this in verse uh acts 22:1 it says brothers and fathers hear the defense that I now make before you and when they heard that he was addressing them in the Hebrew language they became even more quiet and he said I'm a Jew born in Tarsus and cicia but brought up in this city educated at the feet of gel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers being zealous for God as all of you are this day he didn't commend them for their misplaced uh Zeal he he commended them for their Zeal and said like your Zeal I'm also zealous he bridged the Gap he strategically used something that he' learned over his life the Hebrew language to apply the gospel just can I show you one more paor strategy just a couple of verses later if you go down to verse 22 you're going to find this he says in verse 23 sorry he says then he called the two he's using his Roman citizenship now he said he called the two centurions and said get ready 200 Soldiers with 70 Horsemen and 200 spearmen to go as far as cesaria at the third hour of the night let me give you some context the Jewish leaders were so upset with Paul's message that they tried to beat him they tried to kill him they put him in prison but then he claimed hey are you going to beat actually the Romans they used the Romans again against him he said hey are you going to uh crucify a Roman citizen without a fair trial this freaked them out cuz it was illegal all of a sudden he's gone from prison to now 470 armed men guiding him to the governor 400 he used it strategically not just to get out of a hairy situation but to get in front of a dignitary and he's got an armed guard 470 armed soldiers guiding him it says also provide mounts for Paul to ride on and bring him safely to Felix the governor and he wrote a letter to this effect Claudius lasus to his Excellency the governor fix greetings this man was seized by the Jews and was about to be killed by them when I came up upon them with the soldiers and rescued him Having learned that he was a Roman citizen Paul's strategy was to consistently use his obscure upbringing his random upbringing as an opportunity to appropriate find common ground and apply the gospel I tell you that because there is some weird upbringing that you have that you don't know why like why did you go to that high school why were you brought up in that town why is your first language different from your current language what what why do you have such a unique upbringing I want to suggest that it's strategic by God that you may just find common ground with somebody that what you thought was obscure was an opportunity by God to find common ground so that you can apply the gospel you ever had a coincidence you know know what I mean like a random conversation somewhere and just find out you know somebody that knows somebody or you've been somewhere that they've been and it just like feels like it ain't coincidence it's strategic by the Holy Spirit to allow your circumstance your upbringing your random collection of Life events to be the Common Ground there like the avenue to apply the gospel now you may remember last Sunday I told you about my street witnessing experience which really consists of standing outside of nightclubs at 2: a.m. telling people how sinful they are okay we were actually tasked with a sentence and this is how we would open up the the sentence was if you were going to die tonight where would you go now it wasn't just Street witnessing we're actually taught that in preaching school as well God bless the assembl of God we we we're taught that this is how you close out a sermon you you say if you're going to die to night where would you go in youth ministry I don't know why it got this way it was like if you're going to walk out these doors and get hit by a truck I don't know why we always pick the truck I don't know very gruesome but the sentiment was almost scare people into a decision you want to be sure could happen today where would you go the problem with this is it's very ineffective in a lasting transformation you see Paul suggests A Better Way what if the gospel isn't about telling people where they need to be going but you're revealing you know where they've been instead of saying hey do you know where you're going what's better is I know where you've been it's the gospel is hey you've been anxious so have I the gospel is like hey you're feeling heavy you're feeling rejected I've been there you're walking through addiction I I I know what that feels like that's the gospel how's that the gospel because it's saying hey what you've been through I've been there but I've got good news for you I I've got good news for you uh I know where you're at I once had no hope I once looked at life as Bleak I once thought is there even any meaning I've been where you are I'm not worried right now where you're going right now I want to know where you are because people aren't so much concerned with eternity if you're not concerned with their reality and their reality may be addiction their reality may be pressure their reality may be anxiety their reality may be a very dark place that you're trying to get them to see forever when they want you to see right now and what Paul did did was brilliant he's like I'm going see you right do you know what Paul's testimony was I persecuted the church I would think if we're writing the gospels we might just clean everything up and just start it at Paul's conversion Paul just popped on the scene and was a man of God and loved the church and fought for it no no but it it expands it to his background which was a persecutor of the church but what that allowed Paul to say was you were angry with God so was I you thought you were zealous so did I I know where you've been but I have good news and the good news is God metant me where I was at I didn't need to come up to God he came down to me he met me right where I was at and if he met me he can meet you I'm not changing the gospel I'm applying the gospel it's an application this is the gospel going back to our main text I want to show you because what if evangelism is revealing that I've been where you've been but I I have good news you know you're going to read throughout the New Testament I want you to do some homework and I want you to identify how many times the Apostle said my gospel my gospel they didn't say the gospel it wasn't a story was my story my gospel my good news is what Christ did in my life let me prove it just with this passage with a different emphasis same passage but with a different emphasis that so often is easy to miss I want to put this up because I highlighted some particular words here and the words that I highlight I want you to pay attention to it says even though I am a free man with no master I have become a slave to all people to bring many to Christ when I was with the Jews I lived like a Jew to bring the jeed to Christ when I was with those who followed the Jewish law I too lived under the law even though I am not subject to the law I did this so I could bring to Christ those who are under the law when I am with the Gentiles who do not follow the Jewish law I too live apart from the law so that I can bring them to Christ but I do not ignore the law of God I obey the law of Christ when I am with those who are weak I share in their weakness for I want to bring to weak to Christ yes I try to find common ground with everyone doing everything I can to save some I do everything to spread the good news and shareing its blessing jump down to verse 26 so I run with purpose in every step I'm not just Shadow Boxing I discipline my body like an athlete training it to do what it should otherwise I feared that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified Paul puts an emphasis on I not where are you going what are you expecting but I know what that's like and I've seen what God's done and if God's done it for me I dare say he can do it for you see Paul understood something significant about evangelism evangelism isn't telling people what they should be evangelism is revealing to people who I've become it's ineffective to tell people what they should be but what's very effective is you begin to reveal who you've become this is what Christ this is what Christ has done the Apostle kept revealing who he had become because of what Christ had done what an empowering message that because God has given me some common ground it may not be the same addiction that you face but I was once addicted to affirmation I might not have exactly the same experience but I know what it feels like I've been there in a similar way I know what it feels like to have loss I know what it feels like to be anxious I know what it feels like to not have hope but I've got good news cuz Christ met me there and now I'm free I was blind but now I see [Music]