Sermons
“Plowing in Hope”
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As the screen says we're gonna be reading from 1 Corinthians chapter 9, the 1st 13 verses.
243 Corinthians 9:1 to 13.
Am I not free?
Am I not an apostle?
Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?
Are not you my workmanship in the Lord?
If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you.
For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
This is my defense to those who would examine me.
Do we not have the right to eat and drink?
Do we not have the right to take along a believing life as the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?
Or is it only Barnabas and I who have?
No right to refrain from working for a living.
Who serves as a soldier at his own expense?
Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit, or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk.
Do I say these things on human authority?
Does not the law say the same?
For it is written in the law of Moses.
You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the green.
Is it for oxen that God is concerned?
Does he not certainly speak for our sake?
It was written for our sake because the plowmen should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop.
If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you?
If others share this rightful claim on you, do we not, do not we even more?
Nevertheless, we have made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.
Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings?
Someone commented last Sunday that I didn't preach at all.
Why in the world is the congregation supporting me if I'm not preaching?
So this Sunday, I've decided to even it out.
So both of the sermons today will be twice as long.
Actually, I'm not preaching in the evening.
Alex Dvorak's preaching in the evening.
So there'll be at least one good sermon today that you'll hear, and I think you'll enjoy his sermon this evening.
Back in the late 1800s when I was just a wee boy.
We lived, uh, my family did, on 2 acres of land in central Illinois.
2 acres that I've described from time to time as being the two most labor intensive acres on God's earth.
Seems like there was always work to be done.
And uh my parents apparently were unfamiliar with child labor laws.
So we worked, and on one occasion, I remember, uh, the grass had gotten a little high on part of the, the acreage there and it had been cut and it was heavy, and Cheryl and I had been sent out or given the job of going out and raking that grass up in piles so it wouldn't kill the grass with its heaviness.
And so uh she and I rake grass.
It was in the evening.
And you can tell that's not us for two reasons.
One, Cheryl's never been a blonde, and secondly, I've never been that cute in my life.
That's AI generated.
Um, but we were raking grass and as we're raking grass, as sometimes small kids tend to do, we started thinking about maybe making some money off of that grass that we would gather it up and piles and bundle it and And we lived out in the country, so there were farmers who were always going by, and some of them most likely would be willing to buy that grass and feed it to their cows.
And so as the piles were getting a little bigger, we started thinking about all the money we were going to make and by the time we got done, this is what it looked like.
We were practically going to be millionaires off of all the money that we were gonna make selling that grass.
Well, then the sunset.
And all of that was quickly forgotten.
We never got a nickel from all that work.
Well, I don't know, we might have gotten some allowance.
But we didn't sell any grass to farmers for their cows.
But the idea that we were gonna make lots of money spurred us on.
We raked with all of our being because we were going to make money.
That, that kept us going uh until it was time to go in for night.
Well, what keeps us going as Christians?
What is it that keeps us staying faithful to the Lord?
Perhaps for years and years, a task that is no doubt difficult, as you're well aware, the life of a Christian is challenging, and the fact is, many Christians give up and they surrender to the world, they surrender to Satan.
They don't finish the course.
I've entitled our study this morning, plowing in Hope, and you may have already, even without the scripture reading, you may have already thought of 1 Corinthians chapter 9 because that expression, the plowman should plow in hope is taken from Paul's writing there in 1 Corinthians 13.
1 Corinthians 9 is actually one chapter in a trilogy of chapters, 89, and 10, that all deal with the same basic subject and that is the eating of food offered to idols.
It appears as though the Corinthians had sent a letter to the apostle Paul.
They'd asked a number of questions, and Paul begins here in chapter actually.
Even in chapter 7, he begins to respond to those questions.
One of those questions or more seemed to have been about meat offered to idols.
Can you eat meat sacrificed idols or is that sinful under any and all circumstances?
And so Paul answers that question.
In this trilogy of chapters beginning in chapter 8.
In chapter 8, Paul basically deals with the attitude of the Corinthians for one another.
It seems like some of the brethren there in Corinth who were a little more mature, had a better understanding of things.
They were exercising their right to eat meat, sacrificed idols, at least under some circumstances.
But there were other weaker Christians who would be encouraged to do what they still believed would have been uh idolatrous.
And so Paul writes about their attitude, their concern for one another in chapter 8.
Don't cause your brother to stumble by the exercise of your liberty.
Paul ends the chapter, chapter 8, by saying, therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat lest I make my brother stumble.
And you might imagine that as this epistle is being written, uh uh read rather to the Corinthian church, that some of the Corinthians may have thought, well, that's fine for you to say, Paul, you're willing to give, but you're asking a lot from us.
And so in the second chapter of this trilogy, Paul basically says, I have done what I'm asking you to do, not with reference to eating meat sacrifice to idols, but in a different area of his life.
Paul had gone to Corinth in the 43nd missionary journey, and he had established the church there, spent some time at least 18 months or more, with the congregation there.
And Paul makes the observation in chapter 9 that while he was working with the Corinthians, he didn't take financial support from them.
But in the beginning of chapter 9, he affirms very clearly that he had the right to do that.
In fact, Paul is suggesting in this chapter that he gave up the right to support, financial support from the Corinthians so as not to create any kind of obstacle for the brethren.
That's what he'd asked them to do for other brethren in chapter 8.
Don't cause an obstacle, a stumbling block in front of others by the exercise of your liberty.
And then Paul in chapter 9 says, and that's what I did.
I didn't take support even though I had the right to do so.
And he argues from about 3 or 4 different sources.
He begins by talking about other brethren and apostles.
In verses 3 through 6, he mentions other, others who took along believing wives and, and supported and were supported and those who uh were supported uh in eating and drinking, refraining from a secular job.
Paul made tents when he needed to.
But there were other apostles and brethren who didn't work secular jobs.
They were supported for their work in the gospel.
But then Paul also mentions that just from common experience, we understand that individuals need to receive some sort of reward for their efforts.
The, the soldier doesn't go and serve at his own expense.
Somebody pays his, his way.
Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit?
You plant a vineyard because you want to Harvest the fruit from that vineyard.
Who tends a flock without getting some of the milk?
These are situations where people are benefited by their work or in their work.
And then Paul appeals thirdly to the old law itself.
He quotes from Deuteronomy the 13th chapter in verse 4, kind of what we would consider perhaps an obscure uh regulation that has to do with the muzzling of oxen when they're treading out the grain.
Do I say these things on human authority, he says.
Is it just, you know, secular ideas here?
No, not at all.
Does not the law say the same?
For it is written in the law of Moses, you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.
And then Paul says, is it for oxen that God is concerned?
Do you really think that regulation is only about oxen?
I've often wondered about that because Paul makes the application to preachers, and I don't know if he was trying to draw a parallel between dumb oxen and preachers.
There may be some sort of similarity there, I don't know.
But at least Paul says this, this regulation, the principle of the regulation really applies to more than just oxen.
In fact, he goes on to say, it was written for hours, say.
Because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher, thresh in hope of sharing in the crop.
And so Paul took the principle of the regulation regarding oxen, that the oxen should be rewarded for his work.
Don't muzzle him, allow him to eat as he works, and he applied that same principle to the plowman and to the thresher.
In the greater context of chapter 9, he's talking about those who labor in the gospel, but he uses this example in order to suggest that there needs to be work.
There needs to be motivation in order for people to uh commit themselves to labor.
The end of that trilogy in chapter 10, Paul then gives some specific instructions regarding under what circumstances it would be permissible for Christians to eat meat that had been sacrificed to idols.
And I'm not gonna go into all of that because I want to focus on this principle from chapter 23.
What keeps us going as Christians?
What is our motivation for serving the Lord?
Paul says the oxen needs to hope to eat.
The plowman should work in hope of sharing in the crop just as the thresher would.
And so there's more, maybe more than one answer to the question of why it is that we continue to faithfully serve the Lord, but Paul suggested that hope, hope is an important motivation.
The Christian lives in hope of an eternal reward.
There are certainly so many beautiful scenes that you have perhaps seen in nature.
Many of us have traveled to the various places, national parks, and even in our own area, we see the beauty of the world around us.
We live in a beautiful world and it's a world where there are lots of good people.
You perhaps like I have, I've read of stories of people who go out of their way to help strangers.
It was interesting.
Debbie was reading a story to me yesterday about a car that had flipped over and it was on fire.
The occupants were still in the car.
And people were driving past.
Nobody stopped until finally a trucker stopped and he went and pulled the people out of the car, went back to his truck and got the fire extinguisher, and he put out the fire uh in the car.
But he didn't know these people.
He knew they needed help and so he went and helped them, and there are lots of good people like that in the world.
But we are reminded, I'm sure.
That this is a broken and cursed world.
That there are lots of things that are not particularly beautiful in this world inhabited by sinful people.
We often mention those who are traveling.
Not to keep track of where you are every second of your life or not tracking your phones, but because people sometimes die in traffic accidents.
People are sometimes seriously injured.
In vehicle collisions.
And so we pray for travelers that they'll be safe as they travel to their destination and come back to us.
We know that there are sicknesses that are debilitating that change the course of, uh, course of a person's life, that sometimes people are injured and, and that makes a big difference in their lives.
They're never quite the same again.
Sometimes there's Senseless violence that takes place.
Sometimes people do terrible things to other people.
For money Because of hatred.
Sometimes for no apparent reason at all.
They will engage in behavior that causes terrible suffering, even death to others.
If you just spend a little bit of time reading on the internet or paying attention to some of the things that are going on in our society around us, you know that this is true.
I am sometimes amazed, dismayed.
At what people are willing to do to one another.
Cruel violence sometimes takes the lives of innocent people who just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.
They didn't do anything to the person who ends up killing them.
They just happened to be there and, and somebody decided to take a life.
No sympathy, no mercy, no compassion.
We live in a broken and cursed world, a world that's filled with sin.
And we're not isolated from it.
We understand that.
There are injustices of all kinds.
And I'm not just talking about Uh, institutional injustice.
I'm not talking about somebody who's gone to jail.
They were innocent, and the courts sent them there because of the corruption of people involved in the process or whatever circumstance.
I'm talking about injustices that take place every day on the street and in the workplace, in families.
Because people are taking advantage of one another.
We live In a broken And cursed world.
And in light of those things, it's not all that difficult to understand or to realize why so many people suffer from depression.
If that's all you see day after day, if that's your life, if that's all that you're looking at, be very depressing, I would think.
Many people are focused only on this present world, and they see the horrible ways.
That people often treat one another.
And people whose lives are filled with suffering and pain and injustice may begin to feel hopeless.
Well, what I can't change this.
I just, it's not worth living.
In fact, sometimes.
They feel so hopeless that they'll they'll, they moved to attempt suicide and sometimes unfortunately, they're successful.
No hope.
No hope.
On December 25th, 27, The Japanese military attacked Pearl Harbor.
And they sank several ships, including the USS West Virginia.
In the West Virginia, there were 224 men who were trapped under the water level in this ship.
And they're still alive.
But it's virtually impossible to rescue them.
Can't cut into the hole under the water, you can't.
Reach the hole on top.
Anything that was done would have killed these individuals.
And they were tapping on the ship.
On the metal And that tapping could be heard by those who were stationed up on the hall or around.
They could hear the tapping.
There were men who were wondering.
Do you know that we're alive down here?
Is there any hope that you can rescue us?
And unfortunately, there really wasn't any hope.
Things were chaotic because of the attack and all the people had been killed and the various damage had been done.
It wasn't that People didn't care, but it just wasn't going to be possible to rescue them by any way that people could think of.
They lived for 21 days.
Can you imagine?
Being in a situation where your only hope is somebody else helping you.
And you're waiting.
And you're waiting.
And there seems to be no help coming.
I think that there are people today.
Not trapped in ships necessarily, but people who also feel the same way that they feel that they are, that there's no help for them.
They feel hopeless.
What keeps us Going As Christians I mean, Christians also see the broken world around them.
I didn't tell you anything so far that you didn't already know if you paid attention to the news or what's going on in your neighborhood or at your workplace.
Christians also see the broken world.
Christians are not promised that the evil actions of others will never affect them.
They're not promised that they'll never suffer in life.
In fact, Paul says if anyone wants to live godly, he's going to suffer persecution.
So it's not like we are isolated from the difficulties in the And the bad things of this world.
So what keeps us going as Christians?
Well, Christians have what unbelievers don't have.
And that's hope.
The apostle Paul talked about in 24 Thessalonians 153, some individuals who had died and the Thessalonians were concerned that because the Lord hadn't returned, that these Christians who had already died, they might miss out on the resurrection.
And Paul assures them that that's not the case.
And he says in verse 215, we don't want you to be uninformed brothers about those who are asleep.
He means dead, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.
Paul says, we're not in that class, but there are people who have no hope.
And so when they die, There's no hope for them.
In 24 Corinthians 26 chapter and verse 19.
In a chapter in which Paul will affirm the certainty of the general resurrection that Christians, uh, when we die, that eventually we'll be resurrected and we'll have a different body, uh, an immortal body, a body of power and honor and glory, not the kind of body that we have here.
He says, if in Christ we have hope in this life, only we are of all people most to be pitied.
Paul says, if you don't have any hope beyond this life, And he's even talking about Christians.
Then you're to be pitied And I think we understand why he says that.
Peter wrote in 1 Peter 1 and verses 3 and 4, a passage that I want to kind of dissect a little bit because he writes there about our living hope.
But notice, he doesn't just say that we have a living hope ahead of us.
He says we were born again to a living hope.
We were born to this living hope, and he describes it in verse 3 and 43.
I'm going to take the passage and separate the verses because I want you to see that Paul Peter talks about the living hope in verse 3, but then he defines it specifically in verse 4.
He says, we're born again to a living hope.
Verse 4 to an inheritance.
We're born again to this living hope because it's an inheritance.
When you are born into a family, you become an heir.
And all those who have become Christians have been adopted as sons.
That's one figure.
We're born again, another figure, but in either case, we become heirs.
Of this Reward And Peter describes it there in some words that are interesting.
He says that this inheritance is imperishable.
Vines suggests that that just means not liable to corruption or decay, incorruptible.
It means that our inheritance is not something.
That's going to decay and, and eventually rust or uh waste away in that sense.
Not many things in this world, if anything, that you can say that about, is there?
Most of the time when people get large inheritances, often they blow right through it.
It's gone.
If you inherit things, what, what happens to those things?
If you inherit a brand new car at the death of a family member and they pass along to you this brand new car, how long will that car last?
Before it deteriorates.
Turns into rust and dust.
And so it is with this world.
Everything is liable to decay.
But not our inheritance.
It's imperishable.
And Peter says it's undefiled.
The word that's used there means free from contamination.
You know, there are not all that many things in this life that are absolutely pure.
In fact, if we were to think of it in a spiritual sense, sin permeates almost everything.
In this world But our inheritance.
will be absolutely pure.
Most of you know that Debbie and I keep chickens.
And I didn't know this before we started keeping them, but I've become very much aware of it since then.
They create dust.
The chicken coop is covered in dust.
It comes from the bedding.
It comes from their wings and feathers.
It comes from, I guess, multiple sources.
But when you go out, if I go out there, I have to go out in one of my older coats because no matter what I touch, I'm gonna have dust on me.
It's everywhere.
And that's the way this world is in terms of contamination and defilement.
It's everywhere.
We have to work hard to be pure and holy, to be undefiled.
Our inheritance, Peter says, is undefiled, no contamination, totally pure.
You know, I said that there are some good people in this world.
But the fact of the matter is there are a lot of evil people, people who practice sin.
This world is contaminated.
But our inheritance is not.
If you think of some of the most disgusting, dismaying things that you've read about or seen in, in the way that people act, none of that will be in heaven, in our inheritance, part of our inheritance, because it'll be undefiled, it'll be pure.
And finally, Peter says it's unfading.
The Greek word that's translated and fading is the word from which we get amaranth.
Uh, the name of a flower, and that flower has become a symbol of Lasting beauty, perpetual beauty.
The idea that something never fades, it never becomes less, loses its luster.
You buy flowers for your wife, you husbands, bring home this.
Bunch of roses and you stick them in a vase.
And you can do some things to prolong the beauty of the flowers, but what happens to them eventually?
They lose their beauty, they lose their luster.
They'll dry up, they'll fall apart.
But the inheritance of heaven.
is unfading.
You buy a new car?
And just love the fact that it's shiny and everything's clean, no dust, no nothing, it even smells different.
How long does it stay that way?
Before the paint starts to dull, get scratches in it.
The word that's translated here means won't wear out or waste away.
It's the idea of maintaining its beauty forever and ever.
There's nothing on earth like that.
In fact, I don't know if you noticed this, but Peter really defines what our inheritance is by telling us what it is not.
Because there's nothing on earth that compares to what he's trying to describe.
So all he can do is say it's not like what you see here.
It's not a broken And cursed place for inheritance.
And so he encourages his readers a little bit later on in the same chapter.
Therefore, preparing your minds for action and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you with the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Paul also described our hope.
He described it as eternal life.
Paul will talk about different things as being part of his hope.
Hope involves a number of things.
There are things that are associated with eternal life, but he says to Titus in chapter 3 verses 5 through 7, so that being justified by His grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
In Acts 24th chapter, as Paul speaks, defends himself.
He says that he had a hope in God which these men to whom he's speaking themselves accept that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust.
The resurrection precedes the inheritance in heaven, as Peter says, kept in heaven for you.
First Peter 1 and verse 4.
The resurrection is necessary because our bodies.
are mortal Flesh and blood And Paul says flesh and blood can't inherit the kingdom of heaven.
And so there'll be a resurrection.
And our bodies will be changed.
Made fitting For the inheritance that awaits us.
In the book of Romans, Paul used a number of words to describe what eternal life is like.
Words really fail us.
But listen to what he says as he contrasts the fates of two different groups.
He says he will render, God will render to each one according to his works, to those who by patience in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality.
He's going to give them eternal life.
Does it seem to you that eternal life is being defined there as glory and honor and immortality?
He then talks about those who are not seeking an eternal life, but then he also concludes, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good the Jew first and also the Greek.
All of those words are designed to describe your hope.
If you are a Christian, what you have to look forward to.
Well, I appreciate your kind attention.
I want to conclude.
By making the observation that our hope of eternal life means that our efforts, the keeping on as Christians, are well worth the reward.
Paul would say to the Corinthians at the end of that resurrection chapter 1 Corinthians 15, therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord, your labor is not in vain.
Don't give up.
It's worth it.
The reward that lies ahead.
We're going to inherit an eternal weight of glory.
Paul writes to the Corinthians in his second letter in chapter 4, so we do not lose heart.
Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.
For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us in eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.
As we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen.
For the things that are seen are transient.
But the things that are unseen are eternal.
When people say they don't have any hope, it's because they're looking right here.
They're looking at this world.
Our hope is in the next life.
And so we're looking at things that are not seen here in the world.
We're looking at things that last unlike the things of this life.
Do you have hope?
Do you have the hope that Christians have?
The apostle Paul wrote And Titus one, as he began his epistle to Titus, he introduced himself as he typically did in his epistles.
Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth which accords with godliness.
In hope of eternal life.
It's interesting that the first couple of verses there are not really a sentence, they're a phrase.
It's basically Paul in hope of eternal life.
And he goes on to say, which God, who never lies promised before the ages began.
Ever hope for something?
That somebody had said they would do for you or give you.
And then they didn't And your hopes were dashed.
Didn't receive what had been promised to you.
Someone may have lied or for whatever reason didn't deliver.
Paul, in hope of eternal life, which God promised before the ages began, God who never lies.
There's hope It can be your hope.
But you have to serve God.
You have to be part of his family in order to have that inheritance.
If you've not become a Christian, if you've never been made a part of God's family, he's never brought you into that family as a spiritual son or daughter, then This is your time.
Because this morning you have the opportunity.
Now, to obey the gospel.
To be born again, as Peter says, to a living hope.
And it is that hope.
That motivates us day after day to do the things that Christians should do, to live the way that we should.
We need that hope.
Do you have that hope?
If you need to obey the gospel this morning, Expressing your faith in Jesus Christ is the Son of God, having repented of your sins.
The baptistry is ready.
We can immerse you this morning, bury you, as Paul writes in Romans 6, into Christ.
You become a part of God's spiritual family, and you have that inheritance.
Stored in heaven for you.
If we can assist you this morning in claiming your inheritance.
Then we invite you as we stand to sing.
- 2025.01.26A-PlowingHope.mp3 (11.83 MB)
