What are we training for? . Are we training ourselves to be worldly, or are we training ourselves to be godly? . Are we training ourselves to resemble the culture, or are we training ourselves to resemble the Christ? . Do we have a healthy spiritual diet and exercise routine? . In short, are we Cross Training? . Sermon Text & Audio (w/ Sources): bit.ly/C4C-Cross-Training

1. CROSS TRAINING 💪✝💪
1 CORINTHIANS 9:24-27
ALPHA BAPTIST CHURCH BIBLE STUDY 8.1.18
DANNY SCOTTON JR

2. WHAT ARE WE TRAINING FOR?
• To be worldly or to be godly?
• To resemble the culture, or to resemble the Christ
• Do we have a healthy spiritual diet and exercise
routine
• Are we Cross Training?
💪✝💪

3. EVERYONE IS TRAINING FOR SOMETHING
• What are some things in our lives that we have trained for?
• To be a good student
• To be a good athlete
• To be a good employee
• Seems that most objectives require us to develop and maintain good habits
• Not doing so not only results in the failure to reach the objective, but success in
reaching another objective
• One can fail to be a good student, but succeed at becoming a good video game
player
• Our habits direct towards a desired objective or towards another objective
altogether

4. EVERYONE IS TRAINING FOR SOMETHING:
NO NEUTRALITY
• To Pharisees who were saying he was driving
out demons by the power of Satan, Jesus
emphasizes that there is no middle ground.
• “Whoever is not with me is against me, and
whoever does not gather with me scatters.”
Mt 12:30, NIV
• Similarly, we are (imperfectly!) training
ourselves for one objective or another

5. SO WHAT ARE WE TRAINING FOR?
TO BE FAITHFUL FOLLOWERS OF THE LORD
• If we have unhealthy spiritual habits,
are we not training ourselves to be
spiritually unhealthy?
• If we have godly habits, are we not
training ourselves to be godly? (cf. 1
Tim 4:7)
• Cross Training = developing and
maintaining godly habits in order to be
faithful followers of our Lord, forever

6. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE FAITHFUL?
• Abel brought God a better offering (Heb 11:4)
• Enoch was commended as one who pleased God (Heb 11:5)
• Noah built an ark (Heb 11:7)
• Abraham left his home country (Heb 11:8)
• “All these people were still living by faith when they died” (Heb 11:13, NIV)
• Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice (Heb 11:17f.)
• Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau (Heb 11:20), Jacob blessed Joseph’s sons (Heb
11:21)
• Joseph spoke about the Exodus, etc. (Heb 11:22), Moses’ parents hid him (Heb
11:23)
• Moses led his people (Heb 11:24f.), Rahab welcomed the spies (Heb 11:31f.)
• What is the pattern?

7. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE FAITHFUL?
BIBLICAL FAITH = “BLIND FAITH”?
• Active Trust For Good Reason
• *E.g., we put our active trust in buses (we wait for them at specific times even though we cannot see
where they are)
• *E.g., we put our active trust in phones and the internet though many of us cannot perceive exactly
how they work
• *Not in the original presentation (I explained these examples verbally)

8. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE FAITHFUL?

9. BELIEVE IN VS. BELIEVE THAT
• J. Warner Wallace recounts a true story about
believing that vs. believing in a bulletproof vest
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDRRJZ6rJBY
• Believing that requires intellectual agreement
• Believing in requires corresponding action.
• Biblical faith is not
merely agreeing that Jesus is the Savior, it is
putting our active trust in Jesus as the Savior.
• True faith is not merely thinking that Jesus is
Lord, it is living like Jesus is Lord.

10. “GRACE” AND “FAITH”
• In The Godfather, people ask the Godfather
for a favor and they are to respond with
loyalty
• Similarly, in the Roman Empire, there were
(more powerful) patrons who did favors for
(less powerful) clients
• In response to the favor (Gk. χάρις | charis
= “grace”), clients were expected to
respond in good “faith”(fulness)(Gk. πίστις |
pistis)
• To be unfaithful was to be ungrateful

11. GOD’S GRACE, OUR GRATEFULNESS
• The New Testament writers use this patron-client
language when speaking of grace and faith.
• In response to the “grace” of our Godfather, that is,
our Father God, we are to respond with “faithfulness.”
• Because God graciously sent His Son to die for our
sins, that we may have everlasting life, we ought to
respond faithfully – with loyalty, praise, and gratitude
to our Lord
• To be unfaithful, is to be ungrateful

12. FAITHING IN THE LORD
• Speech (noun)
• Speak (verb)
• One who speaks = speaker
• Faith (noun – Gk. pistis)
• English Verb?
• Verbal form of “faith” (Gk. πιστεύω |
pisteuō) is often translated believe
• More literal: “faithing,” “one who faiths”
• Jn 3:16 “… whoever faiths in Him”

13. JESUS: LORD & SAVIOR
• We cannot accept Jesus as
our Savior but deny Jesus as
our Lord
• If we profess that Jesus is
Lord, we must be faithful to
our Lord
• Faith and love towards God
entails faithful, loving
obedience (cf. Jn 14:15,
Rom 1:5, 16:26, Jas 2:14-26,
1 Jn 2:3-6, 1 Jn 5:3)
• Trust & Obey

14. CORINTHIAN CONTEXT
• When you get a letter, where do you start
reading?
• Ancient letters were read out loud
• Corinthians have just heard the previous
“chapters” and “verses”
• Corinthian church was “out of shape”
• Especially concerning matters of sexual
immorality (1 Corinthians 5, 6:9-20, 10:8,
etc.) and idolatry (1 Corinthians 8, 10:7,
etc.).

15. GIVING UP OUR “FREEDOM” FOR
CHRIST’S FREEDOM
• “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but
not everything is beneficial.” (1 Cor 6:12, 1 Cor
10:23).
• Paul tells them to control their “freedoms”
regarding matters related to sexual immorality
and idolatry – for the sake of true freedom in
Christ
• In chapter 9, He uses himself as an example (esp. 1
Cor 9:19-23).
• He becomes a “slave to everyone, to win as many
as possible” (1 Cor 9:19).

16. PAUL TO CORINTHIAN CHURCH: GET IN SHAPE!
• Paul is urging the Corinthian church
to practice self-discipline while putting
others before themselves, in order to be
the most effective ministers of the
Gospel as possible.
• In doing so, He uses athletic metaphors
that would be very familiar to them, to get
them to focus on their spiritual fitness.

17. RUN TO WIN!
• “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” (1 Cor 9:24, NIV)
• More literally: Run to win!
• We’re not actually in a race with each other
• But just like runners strive to run as hard and
as fast as they can to win first prize, we, too,
should run as hard and as fast as we can
• We have to give our best
• Doesn’t God deserve our best?

18. TRAINING FOR THE GAMES WAS NOT A GAME
• Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict
training (1 Cor 9:25a, NIV)
• More literally: Everyone who competes exercises self-
control in everything
• Olympic Games: most famous of four sacred games,
started in 776 BC (1 Corinthians written around AD 54-
55)
• Isthmian Games: second most famous contest, held
every two years in Corinth
• Mandatory to train for at least 10 months (or be
disqualified)
• Required disciplined diet and exercise

19. SPIRITUAL DIET
• It seems to me that we have to be careful about what we feed
our souls.
• Can someone truly call themselves a vegetarian if they always
eat meat?
• Can I truly say I am trying to be healthy if I am always eating
junk food?
• Can we truly expect to have spiritual health if we have a
worldly diet?
• On a daily basis, am I consuming more about
culture or more about Christ?
• A lot of things that are bad for us look good to us (cf. Gen
3:6)

20. “YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT”
• Seems that what we consume can influence
our conduct
• Relatively harmless example: Duke Starting 5
Haircut (2015 National Champions)

21. “YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT”
• What we consume in the media and elsewhere
can influence us, to the point where we say, “Hey, I want to be
like them! I want to be like Beyoncé! I want to be like Drake!”
• Don’t you think that what we consume can influence much
more than our hairstyle?
• What influences us more: culturally-inspired opinions, or
the divinely-inspired Word?
• Are we more influenced by Hollywood or by the Holy One?
• We need a steady diet of Christ – the Bread of Life (John 6:25-
59) and the Living Water (John 4:10f.) – that we might say,
“Hey, I want to be like Jesus!”

22. SPIRITUAL EXERCISE ROUTINE
• We need disciplined habits of study
• We need disciplined habits of prayer
• We need disciplined habits of faithful
obedience
• Like an athlete, in our Cross Training, we
need to exercise self-control with
a disciplined spiritual diet and exercise
routine.

23. AN IMPERISHABLE CROWN
• They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get
a crown that will last forever” (1 Cor 9:25b, NIV)
• Believe it or not, the crown the athletes were competing for
was not made of gold; it was made of celery!
• Paul is basically telling the Corinthians, if the athletes go into
strict training for a crown of vegetables, shouldn’t we go into
strict training for a crown of everlasting, heavenly glory?

24. DIRECTED DISCIPLINE
• “Therefore,” he says in verse 26, “I do not
run like someone running aimlessly;” (NIV).
• Not like someone who doesn’t know
where the finish line is.
• He is not someone who just goes out for a
jog every once in a while.
• Everything he does is for the sake of the
Gospel (cf. 1 Cor 9:23).
• Training to win takes discipline.

25. GOING THROUGH THE MOTIONS
• Paul continues (1 Cor 9:26b), “I do not fight like a boxer
beating the air” (NIV)
• Corinthians knew that fighters couldn’t effectively train,
just by shadowboxing
• if we are Cross Training, we can’t just go through the
motions
• Just because someone is in a gym, that doesn’t
necessarily mean they are training hard
• Just because someone is in a church, that doesn’t
necessarily mean they are training hard

26. MASTER THE BOD(ILY LIFE)
• Paul concludes this section: “No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave
so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the
prize.” (1 Cor 9:27, NIV).
• In the boxing world, the verb translated “strike a blow” = give someone a black
eye.
• Metaphorically = “to put under strict discipline.” (BDAG)
• Making his body his slave = mastering his body, making it obey him
• Body = bodily life
• Paul is essentially saying: I put every facet of my daily life “under strict
control” for the purpose of the Gospel.

27. DISQUALIFIED?
• Paul does this so that after he tells others
to go into strict training, his own training
will not be found to be failing the test
(or “disqualified,” Gk. ἀδόκιμος |
adokimos)
• Scholars disagree on the meaning of
“Crown,” “prize,” and “disqualified.”
• If the imperishable crown is eternal life, it
might seem like Paul is suggesting that
some people will somehow lose their
salvation

28. GRACE AND FAITH REVISITED:
GRACE = UNMERITED FAVOR
• Grace, by definition, is
unmerited, unearned favor
• The grace of God is a gift, not
something we work for.
• So, if we can’t earn it by works,
we certainly won’t lose it by
failing to do works.

29. GRACE AND FAITH REVISITED:
BIBLICAL FAITH IS FAITH IN ACTION
• However, as we’ve already said, the grace of God is
something we must respond to with faithfulness –
with active trust in God, which includes faithful
actions.
• If a husband is faithful, he necessarily demonstrates
his faithfulness by his actions.
• If a wife is faithful, she necessarily demonstrates her
faithfulness by her actions.
• If a follower of Christ is faithful, they necessarily
demonstrate their faithfulness by their actions

30. PERSEVERANCE OF THE (TRUE) SAINTS
• The New Testament tells us that those who have
true faith will persevere in faithfulness to the end
(Jn 6:39, 10:28, etc.).
• The New Testament also tells us that on the Last
Day, there will be many who just went through
the motions, but had no real relationship with
Christ.
• To these superficial followers, as we read
in Matthew 7 (Mt 7:21-23) Jesus will say, “I never
knew you.”

31. AM I IN THE RACE?
• Are I running or just going through the
motions?
• Can I truly say I give my life to Christ if I
am not truly trying to live my life like
Christ?
• 2 Corinthians 13:5 “disqualified” = “not
standing the test” (BDAG) [adikomos] (cf.
1 Cor 9:27)
• So again I ask myself, am I truly Cross
Training? What am I training for?

32. WHAT IS HARD TODAY, CAN BE ROUTINE
TOMORROW
• Every single thing I do, I should do
to the glory of God? (cf. Col 3:17)
• Every facet of my daily life needs to
be brought under control for the
sake of the Gospel? Easier said
than done.
• Driving was hard first, now it is
probably routine

33. HOLY HELPER
• Paul reminds us in Galatians 5:22-23 that
the fruit of the Spirit is…
• If we don’t resist (cf. Ac 7:51), we can be
empowered to have Christ-like self-control
by the Holy Spirit.
• So, though it may seem hard, especially at
first, we have a Holy Helper to help us in our
Cross Training

34. CONCLUSION:
CROSS TRAIN TO BE CROSSFIT 💪✝💪
• What are we training for?
• Are we training ourselves to resemble culture or are we training ourselves to resemble
Christ?
• Are we developing and maintaining worldly habits or are we developing and maintaining
godly habits?
• If we profess that “Jesus is Lord”, we ought to be Cross Training as hard as we can– to be
faithful followers of our Lord forever.
• We must have a healthy, spiritual diet and exercise routine, so that we might bring every
facet of our lives under control for the sake of the Gospel – with the help of the Holy
Spirit.
• We must Cross Train so that we may be found to be Cross Fit – and hear Jesus say on the
Last Day, “Well done, good and faithful servant!” (Mt 25:23, NIV).