“STAND OR FALL!”1 Corinthians 9:27 - 10:13

THE POINT: 1 COR. 9:26-27So I run with purpose in every step. I

am not just shadowboxing. I discipline my body like an athlete,

training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after proclaiming to others I myself might be disqualified.

Corinthians Paul“Freedom!

Privilege!”“I’ve got rights!”“I do what I wanna

do!”

“I’m the slave of all!”

“I’ll give up my rights!”

“I discipline myself!”Immature Mature

1 Cor. 10:1-11 A High-stakes Race

 I don’t want you to forget, dear brothers and sisters, about our ancestors in the wilderness long ago. All of them were guided by a cloud that moved ahead of them, and all of them walked through the sea on dry ground.

…Yet God was not pleased with most of them, and their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.

1 Cor. 10:1-11 A High-stakes Race

10:6 These things happened as a warning to us, so that we would not crave evil things as they did

10:11 These things happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us who live at the end of the age.

1 Cor. 10:1-11 A High-stakes Race

1 Cor. 10:1 For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers…all passed through the sea;

Col. 3:3 For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.

1 Cor. 10:1-11 A High-stakes Race

1 Cor. 10:2 And all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea;

For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ

Galatians 3:27.

…the people of Israel could not bear to look at Moses’ face. For his face shone with the glory of God, even though the brightness was already fading away.

2 Corinthians 3:7

Romans 8:26 And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us …

1 Cor. 10:1-11 A High-stakes Race

1 Cor. 10:3-4 And all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ.

Deut. 8:3 And He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.

Luke 4:4 The Word of Godis our spiritual food!But it only lasted ONE

DAY!

1 Cor. 10:1-11 A High-stakes Race

1 Cor. 10:3-4 And all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ.

Jn. 4:10 Jesus said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water… Everyone who drinks of this water shall thirst again; 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

Jesus Christ offers permanent relief from

your thirst!

1 Cor. 10:1-11 A High-stakes Race

1 Cor. 10:1 All of them were guided by a cloud that moved ahead of them…

and all of them walked through the sea on dry ground…

10:1

But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.

Galatians 5:18 Unpredictable Leadership!

1 Cor. 10:1-11 A High-stakes Race

And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19

1 Cor. 10:1-11 A High-stakes Race

1 Cor. 10:5 Yet God was not pleased with most of them, and their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.

1 Cor. 10:1-11 A High-stakes Race

These things happened as a warning to us, so that we would not crave evil things as they did1 Corinthians 10:6

Deut 1:2 It is eleven days' journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea. v.3 And it came about in the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, that Moses spoke to the children of Israel…

The Context: 1 Cor. 9:26-27

So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing.

I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after proclaiming to others I myself might be disqualified.

“DEPRAVED”

1 Cor. 10:1-11 A High-stakes Race

1 Cor. 10:7 or worship idols as some of them did. As the Scriptures say, “The people celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged in pagan revelry…”

Idol worship today?Col. 3:5 “Consider yourself dead to… greed, which is idolatry.”

What is Idol worship?Anything that takes first place in your life other than God

If Christ isn’t Lord of all,

he isn’t Lord at all.

1 Cor. 10:1-11 A High-stakes Race

Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day 10:8

1 Cor. 10:1-11 A High-stakes Race

Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents

1 Cor. 10:9

“There’s nothing here to eat!And we hate this food!”They were never

sick!

1 Cor. 10:1-11 A High-stakes Race

10 Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyerDissatisfaction led to

revoltNum. 16:41

Rejection of spiritual authority is ultimately rejection of God’s authority

Descent into Depravity…

For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened…

Therefore God gave them over… Romans 1:21, 24-25“adokimos” — depraved,

disqualified, worthless, without value…

Corinthians Paul“Freedom!

Privilege!”“I’ve got rights!”“I do what I wanna

do!”

“I’m the slave of all!”

“I’ll give up my rights!”

“I discipline myself!”Immature Mature

Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.

1 Cor. 10:12

No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it. 1 Cor. 10:13