1 Corinthians 9:1-27

24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.

1 Corinthians 9:24-25

is the take away from this that faith in Jesus is always characterized by success snatched out of jaws of defeat,

is the guarantee we'll win whatever races we enter into in life if we follow Jesus

No matter how many people we have to step over

One thing we know about life is to expect hardship

Like with what Paul does this morning
The Christian faith isn't about coming first
It's about finishing the race not giving up or giving in

getting over the line

pointing the way of God's sufficient grace
where Jesus is the supreme object of our desires

only Jesus wipes away every tear
only He is the voice that orientates us right
He is the truth of all things
He is the one who creates human differences

God is purposely in the situation

There 's also a word that runs through today's passage that comes from pointing the way of Jesus

Freedom

The Bible is clear in Jesus
We are free

Forgiven, set free from the bondage of sin and death
Free from the curse of the law
Freed from the rule of Satan to now know the rule of Christ

set free from so much
So why is our impulse to turn our freedom in Jesus
into a whole new way of slavery

Why is it we turn our freedom from sin
To justify something the Bible very clearly tells us is a sin

How is it that when we are given so much
We trust so little

Someone puts it this way "In that we don't want to renounce our allegiance to Jesus, but we want to protect what we feel is our own. We are not sure that the Lord can be trusted with some of these things, so we look for help elsewhere. And if there is no obvious source of help we worry."
In 1 Corinthians 9 we cover a lot of ground
That's impossible to work through all of it this morning

So here in this section of his letter to the Church in Corinth Paul tackles a painful question

in fact he takes on those who were trying to undermine his place and his authority - his relationship with the Corinthian Church

with the false teachers who were teaching that they had a better way, that the Corinthians had already spiritually arrived and so they could do as the liked