
What’s the win?
Introduction:
What would you say is essential to the Christian life? Is it adherence to religious activities you think are important to God, like attending church services, baptism, or communion, or following a long list of “thou shall not?” These things are merely excess activities—not the true essence of Christian living. Once we peel away all the excess activities we tend to cling to, we can experience the intimacy, assurance, joy, and fulfillment that comes with Christian living the way God intended and how we win.
Bottom-Line: In the areas of life that matter the most. What’s the win?
Something To Talk About:
Followers of Jesus are called to center their lives on Christ, which requires self-control and discipline. This is not vain religion but actually a pathway to true joy in Christ, the ability to love one another in the community, and the ability to cross cultural lines with the gospel. Our natural self will run aimlessly; Paul invites us to instead run with purpose to receive the prize.
- If you don’t know what the win is, it’s hard to know if you’re winning: Most people never define the win in the areas of life that matter most. And here’s the real tragedy: where some of you are right now. You’ll adopt somebody else’s if you don’t define the win for yourself. You will date like everybody else dates. You will spend your money like everybody else spends their money. You will spend your time like everybody else spends their time. You will parent either like you were parented or react to how you were parented, or you will simply take your parenting cues from everybody else around you. You’ll work like everybody else. You will be inclined, and we’ve all been there, you’ll be inclined to blame and compare yourself through life, especially when you begin to feel like, and you may not use this term, but you have some term that parallels it. When you begin to feel like in any arena of life, you’re not winning, you’ll blame and compare, and the problem may be you never decided what a win was to begin with.
- Paul’s win was to win as many people as possible to Jesus: Paul says that not only is he a bondservant of Jesus, he also makes himself a slave to everyone. What does that mean? It means that Paul determined, in his freedom in Christ, to serve others. Why did he do it? To win or save as many as possible. Paul’s priorities in life were to win others for Jesus. Not everyone you witness to will become a believer. So, we don’t have an unrealistic goal of winning every one. Our goal is to win as many as possible. To bring as many people to heaven with us as we can. As we’ll see, that is an important part of running the race for every believer. In case you’re wondering if we have to do the same things as the apostle Paul, Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 11:1, And you should imitate me, just as I imitate Christ. So each of us should have the goal in our minds every day. God, help me do whatever it takes today to win as many as possible. How can we do that?
- In the areas that matter most…there is a price to be paid. What comes next is for you whether you’re a Christ follower or not, and what comes next is really for all of us because the Apostle Paul knew what we know intuitively. It is not enough to wish. It’s not enough to want. It’s not enough to desire. He now dips into this sports metaphor that the people in his context understood and that we understand to some extent. He goes right into this after saying, this is the win. Everybody lines up, everybody runs, one person finishes first, and that person gets the prize.is much more to being a born-again, Holy Spirit-filled believer than having a Bible knowledge of Who He was and is. Because the Holy Spirit’s way is so very different from the way of natural and worldly thinking, it is not surprising that true Christians are persecuted, scoffed at, and misunderstood in today’s society. There is an anti-Christ spirit that is at work in the world today, and its very purpose is to oppose and try to quieten us down so that the Message of the risen Christ Jesus will not be spread abroad. To become effective and fruitful for the purposes of God will mean there is a price to pay. It will cost us to be a Christian.
Discussion Questions:
- What is a “win” in your life?
- How can a Christian win?
- How does God equip a Christian to win?
- What is the role of reading, memorizing, and obeying God’s word in winning the race?
- Is winning those far from the heart of God the most important win?
- What are those areas in your own life where you struggle with “wanting all the glory?” How do you fight against that in order to give that glory to God?
- What is important about building a team?
- Is our relationship and walk with Jesus real enough to make us want to be more effective in our being a positive witness of Jesus?
- Are we willing to pay the price that Jesus talks about in Scripture?
- What is the biggest takeaway from this week’s message?
Take one thing home with you:
If you like stories that end well, you’ll love Christianity. One of the great themes of our faith is triumphant hope—an unshakeable assurance that things will end right. Amid struggles and storms, battles and trials, we focus beyond the present moment, and we see victory. We see relief because, in the end, God wins.
No matter what the situation or circumstances, God wins. Whether we like the ending or not, God wins. No matter when it happens, God wins. There is no alternate ending. God will not be worried about ratings, or viewership, or whether the ending is popular or even if it is politically correct. Amidst all the negative in the world, there is hope, which is found in Jesus Christ. All our earthly problems, financial and job pressures, emotional and physical challenges, relationship problems, wars, etc., will end. Evil will be no more, and we will live with God forever.
In the end, God wins. Jesus is the incontestable champion. He’s the hope of humanity and the best news we must share.