-Transcript-
00:25 Amen. Glory to God. Welcome to the program.
00:30 Welcome to the cafe. Pastor Clark Covington here with another episode of KJV Cafe. I’m so excited to be here today.
00:35 I thank God for the opportunity to be here today to share with you from God’s Word what God is doing in the lives of believers to help them win souls.
00:48 The idea is that when we’re saved, we are born again. We are born again to be fruitful.
00:55 You know, I was born, amen, January 1st, 1980 in Louisville, Kentucky. That’s probably more about me than you wanted to know, but there you go.
01:04 My mom said I was named after Lewis and Clark, but I’m skeptical because in Louisville, there’s all this Clark Parkway, Clark Drive, Clark Street.
01:15 I think she was just in the car on the way to the hospital and she saw Clark Road or something so I’m going to name him after a street sign. So thanks mom one way or another.
01:24 But you know what? When I was born, I think the idea was, hey, one day this young man will grow up and have kids of his own.
01:33 And I remember when I had a little boy, CJ, my dad said to me, oh, this is great. Now the name will live on. What he meant was now CJ, when he grows up and if he has a family, which Lord willing he will, if the Lord tarries, that his name will carry on, right?
01:51 My name to his name and my dad’s name, you see, well, is that not how God the Father views us? That when we’re born again, that we might be fruitful for him, right? That we may become evangelists for him.
02:04 And I don’t mean just people in the ministry, I mean everybody. And I’m going to talk to you today here by the scriptures here about how we can witness to people.
02:15 And I’m going to read the scripture and then we’re going to go and look at how we can each individually be a witness to people.
02:21 And you might, you know, through this, you might come up with some really interesting evangelistic ideas for this year. I really believe this.
02:32 It really, this is, I was telling the congregation as I preached this last week of all the messages I’ve preached and say the last two or three years, I think I’ve thought about this one the most in terms of just thinking about application.
02:40 I was just laying in bed at night, just praying this back to God, praying the scripture back, praying to God, asking him for guidance on how I could be a witness.
02:47 So without further ado, let’s get into the scripture. 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, 1 Corinthians 9:19-23.
02:53 For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all that I might gain the more. And unto the Jews, I became as a Jew that I might gain the Jews to them that are under the law as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law to them that are without law as without law being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ, that I might gain them that are without law to the weak became I as weak that I might gain the weak. I am made all things to all men that I might by all means save some.
03:31 And this I do for the gospel sake that I might be a partaker thereof with you. Wow. Well, of course, the verse that always kind of sticks out of my mind is first Corinthians nine chapter, 1 Corinthians 9:22
03:50 I just didn’t want to butcher that to the week became I as weak that I might gain the weak. And then here it is. I am made all things to all men that I might by all means save some.
03:59 So I don’t know if the word is alliteration or some literary thing, but you’ve got these three alls. I am made all things to all men that I might by all means. So he’s made all things to all men and all men and women truly that I might by all means by any mean, by all means save some.
04:21 And so you’ve got all, all, all, and then you have some. And the contrast is incredible because as you read it, you say, you know, that should say that I might save all, but Paul knew that not all would be saved. And Paul knew it was a task to witness to people back then.
04:33 Paul knew it was difficult and challenging to be a witness. Even back in Bible times when people could say, Oh, Jesus of Nazareth, yeah, I’ve heard of him. Yeah.
04:41 I met him. Yeah. I saw him or my brother or my cousin was at the feeding of the 5,000 or, or, uh, was there at the Beatitudes, uh, there, uh, when he was preaching, amen, uh, you know, in those times it was difficult to save just like it is now in those times there was unbelief just like there is now.
04:55 And so Paul rightly says he’s going to do all these things to save some, but going back to you here for a minute, you know, it’s a new year. I’m a big new year person. I always like to go through,
05:10 Oh, you know, new year’s goals and what can we change in the new year? Because, uh, you know, if you know me, you know, I like to stay busy and because I like to stay busy throughout the year, I don’t have that much time, I guess, to reflect and set goals.
05:24 So I always like to really, you know, do that hard stop and say, what are we going to do in the new year for work and for family, you know, but most importantly for the ministry and the last couple of years,
05:34 especially Lord has really put all my heart that evangelism should be the biggest deal in this new year. And not just evangelism, but think about personal evangelism. It’s easy to say, okay, I’m going to be involved with evangelism at the church.
05:50 I’m going to do what the church wants to do. I’m going to do what the church tells me to do. But personal evangelism is doing things on your own to help win souls.
05:57 An example of personal evangelism, and this is a simple one that maybe the Lord will have you to do here. If you have social media, you have a Facebook profile or Instagram or what, Twitter or whatever, write your testimony.
06:14 And if you don’t want to write, hit record and make a video.
06:18 You don’t want to be on video, make an audio, share your testimony. Just explain to people, hey, I just, I want to take a minute and tell you how good God’s been, what God’s done for me.
06:32 You know, our testimony is, is helping us to be a witness, you know, what does a witness do? They testify, right? So we witness Christ in our life, amen, and we testify to his glory, amen.
06:38 And so I could give you many examples of testimonies that I’ve given. One would be deliverance from alcohol. When I was young, I was a heavy drinker and I hated, I hated it and I hated myself and I got right with God, so to speak.
06:52 I mean, not perfect, but I asked God to help me and he got it out of my life and I quit cold turkey. Oh, amen. I quit cold turkey.
06:58 About 30 years old. I said, no more. Nope.
07:03 I asked God to get it out of my life. He did. He removed it.
07:06 He removed the desire for it really. And when I go to the men’s mission, I’ve had an opportunity to preach there a few times. I’ve told the men that I certainly was very close to sitting where they were.
07:15 This is a men’s rehabilitation program. And I’ve told them, I could be in your seat. They think, oh, who’s this guy? This preacher guy in a suit saying he could be in my seat.
07:22 What does he know? Oh, I could have. I could have. Amen.
07:25 And now, did I do that on my own? Did I just wake up and I wiped from my brain the desire for alcohol and from my body the desire for that and the habit and ritual that went around that that had been ingrained for over a decade?
07:38 Did I do that on my own? No. God did that. God did that.
07:43 And God did that miraculously by the working of the Holy Spirit. As I surrendered to him, he did that. And he gets the glory, amen.
07:50 People should say, thank God. If people saw me today that I was around when I was involved with alcohol, they would say, that is a miracle. That is God.
07:59 Because there is no way that God, that anyone but God could do what he did. That’s a testimony. And that’s a simple, you see what I did? I took one little thing and testified about it.
08:09 So that’s an example of personal evangelism. And whatever it is that you want to share, please share it. Don’t go to your grave with a testimony.
08:19 Don’t quench the spirit. If God’s been good, please tell people that God’s been good. Oh, Brother Clark, I might make him uncomfortable or I might get weird at work or at school.
08:27 Let it get weird at work, at school. Jesus Christ, they got weird with him when he talked about God and how he was the son of God. And it didn’t stop him.
08:35 Don’t let it stop you. And the Bible tells us that if you’ll be ashamed of him, he’ll be ashamed of you in front of his father. So go ahead and preach it, amen, even if you’re not a preacher.
08:43 And again, some people say, well, I get shy in public. I used to teach public speaking. And I can testify to this, that many students were terrified.
08:50 Many very, very smart students were terrified to get up in front of people. That’s fine. Write it and share it.
08:57 You don’t want to write. Make a video. Do a piece of art and then tell the story behind it or whatever it is.
09:03 That’s an example of personal evangelism. But getting back to Paul here, Paul is not talking about personal evangelism as a whole as I’ve been talking about, but Paul succinctly here is sharing that he himself brought himself down to various levels so that he could be a witness to others,
09:22 that he became all things to all people, that he could save some. And we’re going to get in, in latter episodes here of KJV Cafe, we’re going to dive into what he did and what that means.
09:33 And I’m excited to do that in detail. But for now, I just want you to think about this, this idea of becoming something to someone so that you could help win them to the Lord.
09:44 And before we get to, you know, the whole crux of him being relatable, let’s look at the context of the scripture.
09:55 So 1 Corinthians 9, Paul is writing a letter to the church in Corinth, telling them essentially he is worthy of being an apostle and he’s worthy of receiving a gift from the church or support from the church.
10:12 But then he’s saying, I won’t let you do that because I glory in God providing for me. And so what he’s doing throughout chapter nine is he wants to let the people know and through this letter, also us here today,
10:23 I believe by the work of the Holy Spirit, God wants us to know that Paul did not want to hinder the gospel message going out to the people by anything he did.
10:33 So he wouldn’t be accused of having any gain. You know, if you’re like me, you can be skeptical. And in a business world, you have to be skeptical as a business person here.
10:41 Like Paul, I work for my living and then I preach as a calling, amen. And I’m, you know, as a business person, you have to be, you know, you go into a situation, you know, you could, you know, it could be your business on the line. It could be your livelihood.
10:53 So you have to be skeptical. You have to question things. And so what would someone do in Paul’s time? They would say, what is this man profiting from this? Because we know people are profiting from selling idols and statues.
11:07 We know other people are profiting from getting gifts or some people don’t want to work or whatever it is. And Paul said, no, I’m going to go ahead and make those tents. So you can’t accuse me of not working.
11:19 And I’m going to go ahead and take nothing from the ministry. So you can’t accuse me of having any kind of motivation, right? To do anything wrong. Not only did he not take money, but he also wasn’t trying to take like pride or accolades he wasn’t trying to make anything of himself.
11:32 In fact, he was lowering himself down as Christ had. Paul was holding himself accountable to preach the gospel without making any appearance of corruption or falsehood. And I think the main point here is that there was no appearance of it.
11:45 You know, my old preacher, Pastor Mike wrote from at the time we were at Glory Bound Baptist. He’s now at New Buffalo Baptist, but Brother Mike would always talk about how it’s not even evil. It’s the appearance of evil.
11:58 And he’d give this example of going to a restaurant and, you know, he was go there because they had a special, you know, and hey, preachers, we love a good special at a restaurant, amen.
12:08 And they would sit him like in a certain section that might be near the bar, because that’s where they would put people at that time of day. And he would say that he didn’t like that.
12:17 And he wouldn’t go there anymore, I guess, because he didn’t want the appearance that he was like belly up at the bar or something, right? He was not drinking. He was not doing anything wrong.
12:26 But he was making the point that he did not want to appear or have the appearance of doing any evil.
12:37 And I thought that was an excellent example. It’s like, not only do we not want to do anything bad, we don’t even want to appear to be doing anything bad.
12:43 And Paul is saying here, he doesn’t even want to appear to be taking anything, even though he gives a great account in 1 Corinthians 9 of why he’d be worthy of taking things that other apostles were taken care of by the church.
12:50 You know, if I meet a preacher today that is full-time in the ministry and the church supports the preacher, I don’t resent that preacher for that position, amen.
13:01 Even though I have to work, I can see, I can totally see. I mean, imagine you have a congregation of 30, 50, 100 people, and they’re going to the hospital, they need counseling, there’s a funeral, there’s a wedding, there’s Sunday school to teach, there’s a bus ministry.
13:18 I can totally see how that quickly evolves into something that a pastor can just sink their teeth into and do God’s will and the church is giving and, you know, they’re making enough to like live okay in America, which is a pretty high standard.
13:31 But nonetheless, I mean, you know, nothing wrong with that, amen, in my opinion. And Paul was not criticizing the apostles that were provided for by the church. He was just simply saying he was worthy to be one of them, but he wasn’t.
13:43 And at that time in chapter eight, the previous chapter, they were getting into this idea, I have to think the church of Corinth was doing this because Paul’s addressing them about it, is it bad to eat the meat of idols, like is that bad?
14:00 And it’s not bad, okay, and for time’s sake, I kind of have to wrap it up, but Paul was saying that even though it’s not bad, don’t go near it if it’s going to offend your brother and sister in Christ.
14:12 And in order to not go near something that you know is okay for you, just to help a brother means that you really need to think of that brother or sister before you think of yourself, which gets us into the kind of mind frame that we’re going to talk about the rest of this week on KJV Cafe as we look at this great letter from Paul.
14:28 So tune in next time. Take care, God bless, amen.