Living to Win (Series, "Go For the Gold" Message 1)
July 31, 2016 – Communitas Group Lesson
Mike McDaniel, Lead Pastor
Grace Point Church of Northwest Arkansas
Icebreaker: What was your favorite sport growing up? Did you excel in it? Was it a team sport or something
you played simply at school?
Transition: Sport and exercise should be a lifetime part of who we are and what we do. Peter, John and Paul
all drew from sport exercises to communicate the value of living out the Christian faith. Before you dive into
the text, draw out your own similarities between sport or exercise and walking in your Christian faith. Use a
white board or just have someone in your group record the similarities.
HEAD Questions:
1. What game is Paul referring to when he talks about wreathes or crowns, training and winning? (V. 25a)
2. How intense did the athletes go in their training (how many months, what did they do and how did they
live)?
3. Read the following passages on “discipline” and consider any observations you can make about personal
spiritual disciplines: Proverbs 23:12; 1 Timothy 4:7; 2 Timothy 1:7; 1 Corinthians 9:25a
4. How and why is the "crown" used as a metaphor in the life of a Christian?
HEART Questions
1. How were you most challenged in this message?
2. What is your biggest hindrance or excuse for not exercising your faith (through giving, serving, praying,
telling, going, believing, etc.)?
3. What does this phrase say to you personally: "Living the value of the 'No' so you can live the opportunity of
'Yes'?"
4. Read verses 26-27 again. What are the two exhortations Paul gives for how NOT to live your faith (aimless
living or being disqualified from the reward)?
HAND Questions:
1. What is something I need to say no to so I can say yes to God and living out my faith well?
2. Is there something you are procrastinating on in your faith, that if you are going to be counted as a runner,
you must get up from procrastination and start running?
3. If you could take one or two steps this week to exercise your faith more what would those steps be?
Read 1 Corinthians 9:24-27.
NOTE TO LEADERS:
You will see a new division to the group questions. Suggest using these divisions in personal Bible study, as well. You
might point out these three different questions headings to your group, so when they are doing their own Bible study
they can use the same method.
Head Questions are cognitively-related, helping us dive into the context and history of what is going on in the text.
Heart Questions are more personal observations. What is God saying to you through the questions?
Hand Questions are application-related. How will this passage and the truths I discovered transform my life?
Remember, one of the reasons Grace Point exists is to "promote transformative communities with one another.”
Don’t forget each Sunday’s message is available on podcast by Sunday afternoon. If you need or want to re-listen to it
before your group. Video versions are available by mid week on the app or on the MEDIA link on our web site. Visit
www.GracePointChurch.net/media for links, or use the Grace Point Church mobile app (search Grace Point AR in your
app provider).
Passage background:
I Corinthians 9:24–25. Paul’s commitment to this course of ministry did not come easily. It required personal discipline
(strict training) like that of an athlete who strove for supremacy in his field (cf. 15:10). To that end Paul willingly gave up
certain privileges which might otherwise be his to enjoy so that he could win the prize. The prize for Paul was not the
temporary crown (stephanon) bestowed by men (in the biennial games near Corinth the “crown” was a pine wreath) but
the eternal crown bestowed by Christ (3:13–14; 2 Cor. 5:10). Paul’s crown would be the consummation of the reward (1
Cor. 9:18) he partially enjoyed, the opportunity to glory before Christ in those he had been able to win (2 Cor. 1:14; Phil.
2:16; 1 Thes. 2:19).
9:26–27. Paul’s dictum of becoming “all things to all men” (v. 22) could have been construed as the aimless capitulation
of an unprincipled man. But it was just the opposite! Every move made in the course of his race was calculated to
further his pursuit of the prize (cf. Phil. 3:13–14). Every blow struck was meant to land squarely on his opponent and
send him reeling from the contest (cf. Eph. 6:12; James 4:7). To achieve this, Paul would not let his body master him (cf.
1 Cor. 6:12); sometimes he denied even its demand for rightful privileges and pleasures (8:9) for a greater good (10:33).
Paul was competing well himself and had called many to join him (the word preached is k?ryxas, the noun form of which
signified a herald who summoned contestants to a race), but that did not guarantee him a victorious finish. He held out
the possibility that even he could be disqualified for the prize. The single Greek word translated by that phrase
(adokimos) literally means “unapproved.” In other contexts it was applied to the unsaved (e.g., Rom. 1:28; Titus 1:16).
Here Paul was not addressing the issue of salvation, nor for that matter was even the prize specifically in mind. Rather,
he seemed concerned with continuance in the race.
Like the brother who had indulged in immorality (1 Cor. 5:1–5), Paul’s life could be cut short by the disciplinary
disapproval of God. God had disciplined in the past (10:6–10), was disciplining in the present (11:30–32), and would
discipline in the immediate future (5:5). Paul was concerned that some might not be able to say with him one day, “I
have fought the good fight, I have finished the race” (2 Tim. 4:7), but would find themselves cut off in the midst of the
contest by the disciplinary action of God.
(Walvoord, John F., and Roy B. Zuck, Dallas Theological Seminary. The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of
the Scriptures. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985.)