Last week I shared the importance of intentionally
planning to reach our audience… As a coach I always tried to go into a game
with a game plan… it would be designed to take advantage of our strengths and
to avoid our weaknesses… and it had to take into account the other team’s
strengths and weaknesses… an awareness of who we were and who we were facing…
The Apostle Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians that when it
comes to “away games” we need to be aware of the other team’s strengths and
weaknesses (culture.) In chapter 9 he starts with a self-awareness (game plan)
for how he will conduct himself (vss. 1-18) and then discusses the way he
viewed the “other team” (vss. 19-23.)
Take time to read the passage… and check out how The Message
words verses 19-23…
19-23 Even
though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have
voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of
people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living
immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn’t take on their way
of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to
experience things from their point of view. I’ve become just about every sort
of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life.
I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I
wanted to be in on it!
I love the wording at the end… “I did
all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted
to be in
on it!” As believers we are called to “be in on it” and not just talk
about it. Yes, we are good at sharing that God so loved the world, but not
always so good at joining in with Him in doing so.
(Note: loving the world and loving the things of this
world are two different things…)
But being “in on it” - in the game - means we have to
gain wisdom and understanding of the others and be willing to do anything short
of sin to reach them! I love the way our pastor in Alabama words it when talking
about their community… “We want to make it hard to go to Hell on Sand Mountain!”
How about you? Do you have a heart for the “other team’? Do you
want to make it hard for them to go to hell? Well understand that the Gospel
needs to go forth in a culturally attractive way… anything short of sin…
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