Sunday Sermon

Here is a rough version of my sermon notes from this past Sunday.

THE CHRISTIAN CALLING: Be A Christian Where You Are

 May 20, 2012

Text - 1 Cor. 7:17-24

Theme - Be a Christian where you are

Have you ever felt a sense restless in your life?  Maybe you were restless in your job...time of life - young student ad thinking what should I do with my life ...maybe you are pushing 50...and you are thinking, "What have I done with my life?

Often times when we get like this we think that it is time for a change...some restlessness is good...and some isn't so good...

Sometimes God puts a sense of restlessness in your life when he is calling you to something...

 But some restlessness isn't so good...we live in a culture that is transient in so many ways...people are abandoning ship all over the place...loyalty to you employer or spouse is not characteristic of our culture...the only loyalty is to self...produces restlessness...

 The Christians in Corinthians were restless...and mostly the wrong reasons...

 Some were restless with sex...the culture that they were saved from was full of sexual immorality...they were perhaps tempted with sexual immorality...their solution, get rid of sex altogether, even in marriage...some wanted to remain single, perhaps do away with marriage...some wanted to divorce their spouse, perhaps wanting a fresh start to go a long with their new found faith in Christ...others found themselves married to non-Christians and thought that it would perhaps be better for them to not be married to them...it might hinder them...

They probably thought that they needed to start all over...to make a fresh start in life with this gospel...go back to square one...

Before we judge these Christians in Corinth too harshly, I want you to ponder with me the context of these Christians in Corinth...what these Christians were experiencing.  We must realize that no pagan nation had ever experienced what they were experiencing, even the nation of Israel did not experience this.

These people where the first generation of New Testament Christians...they had no history of Christianity...they had no model church to follow...they had no expectations...

 All they had was apostle Paul who came to them with a message of hope...a message of freedom that liberated them from the guilt and power of sin and was in the process of liberating them from the practice of sin...

                                                                                                                                                                                             

But it also brought upheaval and a great deal of instability...all this was coupled with the fact that there was probably some persecution...

 And the question was, "how does this new found faith effect my circumstances?"  What do my circumstances in life have to be like in order for me to grow?"

And they thought that along with the change that was taking in their heart, change was needed also in their circumstances...

One commentator points out that "A Christian does not have to seek 'the right situation' in order to enjoy Christian freedom or to serve God's call effectively."

But they did not know that...and this morning we pick up our study through 1 Cor. in chapter 7 verse 17 which address this restlessness or this confusion that they had. Paul is seeking to stabilize these Christians. In doing so hhe calls them to contentment in their circumstances.

In essense, Paul's message to them was "be a Christian where you are" or as Alistair Begg puts it, "Bloom Where You are Planted" - we see this in verses 17, 20, 24...

John Calvin - "Paul is not categorically denying the possibility of changing our circumstances, but is seeking rather to check those impulses uncontrolled by reason, which drive many here or there, so that they are confused by their constant restlessness."

He is challenging the idea that if only we could change the external circumstances then everything would be great...then life would be so much easier...it would be so much easier to be a Christian...things would not be so complicated and difficult...

 And things were difficult...they were still being tempted with sexual immorality...some relationships they have before they were Christians were being strained...

 Non-Christian spouse was getting upset at the fact that their spouse came to Christ...things were not all rosy and perfect...as some like to make the Christian life to be...

 Things were hard...living for Christ is difficult...it is the best life you can imagine, but it is not the easiest life.  This was what they were experiencing.  It would be so much easier if my circumstances  could change...

 Do you ever think that way?  It is very natural for us, isn't it?  It is very easy for us to blame our circumstances for our lack of faith...and so we get restless about our circumstances...when we are kids, we long to be older...

When we are in school we long to be out of it...when we are single, we think "just if I could get married, life would be so easier"...we long to be married...when married long to have kids...

As Alistair Begg askes, "Contentment is a rare commodity, isn't it?"

To live radically as a Christian is not always about changing your circumstances, but being changed inside...

 T. S. Elliot once said - "Everybody wants to change the world, very few men want to change themselves."  

So Paul is calling these Christians in Corinth and us here this morning to be content with the circumstances of their life...to bloom where they are planted...but how do we do that?

I. Recognize that God's sovereignty extends over all circumstances of life (17)

There are 3 words that I want to focus on:

1) Assign - notice what Paul says in verse 17...this word is used elsewhere in the NT...Mark 6:41; Rom. 12:3; 2 Cor. 10:13

 So what Paul is saying here that God has assigned a life for you where you are...where you are right now with regards to your jobs, your spouse, your kids, your address, your church, your personality, your gifts and abilities, have been assigned to you by our sovereign God...

 One commentator - "The circumstances of daily life are no less a matter what the Lord in his purposes, not ours, assigns to each."

So what this means is that God wants you to serve him where you are right now. We are often so discontented with our present circumstances that we fail to fully live for Christ where we are...

He is telling them and us to live for Christ where you are.  Trust Christ as you live for him...trust that if your circumstances need to change, he will guide you along...

2) Call - notice the second word "call"...this word is an important word in this section...it is used specifically 8 times in these 8 verses...

Now as you stuff each time this word is used in these verses, you get the sense that it can have two different meanings...

i) Primary - we see this meaning in verses 18, 21, 24...Paul is talking about a                               time when these people were called and the state that they found                                       themselves in when they were called...

I believe that Paul is referring to when they were first called to Christ...and the                state that they were in at the time, whether married, unmarried, married to a non-                  Christian...they were to remain...

 Paul has already described this call in chapter 1:9...

 Romans 1:6; 8:30...calling is the outworking of predestination...where predestination of God passes over into time and starts the process by which the individual is drawn from sin and to faith in Jesus Christ... 

 Effective call - "Effective calling is an act of God the Father, speaking through the human proclamation of the gospel, in which he summons people to himself in such a way that they respond in saving faith." - Wayne Grudem

You might ask, are not all people called?  I guess there are two aspects of this primary use of the word call..

 a) General Call - it is an invitation to all persons to repent of sin, turn to Jesus Christ, and be saved...we see this in Matthew 11:28; John 7:37; Luke 14:15-24

But in John 3:19 they ignore the call...

 b) Specific Call (effective call) - As Boice points out, this "...call is internal, specific and effectual.  It not only issues the invitation but also provides the willingness or ability to respond."

 -Greatest Bibliical illustration is John 11:38ff

 -This is what the Holy Spirit does today...Boice points out "the Holy Spirit operates through the preaching and teaching of the Word to call to faith those whom God previously has elected to salvation and for whom Jesus specifically died."

I read about an older Christian who was asked to give his testimony...He told of how God had sought him, how God had loved him, called him, saved him, delivered him, cleansed him, and healed him - a great witness to the grace and, power, and glory of God.

But after the meeting a rather legalistic Christian took him aside and criticized his testimony, as some Christians life to do...

He said, "I appreciated all you said about what God did for you.  But you didn't mention anything about your part in it.  Salvation is really part us and part God.  You should have mentioned something about your part."

"Oh yes," the older Christian said.  "I apologize for that I really should have said something about my part.  My part was running away, and his part was running after me until he caught me."

This describes you as a Christian...if you are a Christian here this morning, this is how it generally played out in your life...this is how you were called...you were called                       specifically and effectively...

Dear fellow Christians, isn't this the root of our contentment?  That we do not                  have to earn favor with God, but that Christ as earned it for us?

That God sovereignly by his grace called you to belong to him...this is the                        primary sense of calling...

 ii) Secondary - notice verse 17...calling in the sense of place in life...the place where God has called you to live...the place where is has called you to work...the spouse you married...the kids you have...all of this is also from the sovereign and providential hand of God...

One commentator points out that "God assigns everybody a place in life and calls each one to his particular function.  The fact that a new believer is in a particular position, at the time of his conversion, is not therefore an accident.  God's sovereignty does not come into play when an individual's spiritual life begins; it has governed everything from the beginning of creation. "

He is commanding them to remain there...unless of course they involved in something that was illegal or immoral when they became a Christians...

This calling does not just apply to pastors or missionaries...what you are doing                now God has called you to do...

3) Walk - here we see our responsibility...do you see the tension here between the sovereignty of God and our responsibility? 

God has assigned, God has called...now we are to walk, or as the ESV puts it "lead the life..."  Just because God is sovereign over all your circumstances, does not mean that we are not responsible...

God sovereignty fuels our Christian life...it fuels our contentment...

Someone once said, "Wherever you are be all there.  Live to the hilt where you know the will of God is."

We always think that we have to go somewhere else in order to be able to serve God more fully...but that is not true...God has providentially and sovereignly called you where you are right now in life...where you are right now, you are to serve Christ...

 We are to obey Christ where we are...that is God's will for you...and we must be content with that...

 Be content with the fact that God has sovereignly placed you where you are to live for his glory...recognizing this and letting this sink deep within our souls works contentment in our lives...

We must learn to be content because we know that God is sovereign over all things...Paul learn this in his life...Phil. 4:10-20

II. Recognize that the needed change is inward (18-20)

 Paul begins unpack his principle by applying it to two hot potatoes in the first century...these were not marginal issues...

As one interpreter put it, "they were two of the most divisive phenomena in the society of the early church...circumcision represented the greatest religious barrier in the culture of the day...slavery represented the biggest social barrier of the culture of the day...

 We have seen before in Scripture of the fact that circumcision was a big issue...if you were sitting in the church at Corinth and you heard this letter read and you heard what Paul said in verse 19, that...you would be blown away...

Scholars point out that in the Jewish mind circumcision was in a sense everything...it was an external mark of the covenant, signified their place among the people of God, it accompanied with it the blessing of the covenant...

That is why we see that in the first century Jewish Christians tried really hard to get Gentiles to become circumcised...they thought they were outside the covenant blessings of God...

 But if you were a Gentile in the first century, the mark of circumcision was seen as the mark of a despised people...

 But what Paul is saying here is that external circumstances are not important, but what is important is the change that the Holy Spirit is making in your heart...

 You know what, this was prophesied in the OT which it foretold of a New Covenant that God was going to make...Jeremiah 31:31-34

It is this inward change that enables us to obey where we are...the way that these huge barriers are to be broken is not by any external change or by the lowest common denominator, but by a change of heart so that the Jewish Christian can love the Gentile Christian as they are and the Gentile Christian can love the Jewish Christian as they are...

 Outward appearances...ethnicity...personality...is not what unites us...it is the change in the heart that enables us to obey Christ where we are...

And the church is the only place where this can happen...this is what is to unite us...not our backgrounds...not our preferred methods of educating our children...not our race...not our vocations...not the amount of kids we have...

It is the divine change in our hearts that enables us to accept each other as we are...our focus is not trying to change people to be like us, but change that is needed in our own hearts...

We do not need to change our external circumstances...but God is wanting to work in your own heart...

 We are not to be worried too much about our external circumstances and always wonder if God wants me to have a different job or live in a different place...our focus must be on what God is doing in our own heart...  

III.  Recognize that we are slaves of Christ, not man (21-24)

Here Paul highlights the second application which represents the biggest social barrier in the first century...SLAVERY

Scholars point out that in the Roman culture at that time up to 50% of the population were regarded as slaves...

 So there would have been slaves in Paul's congregation...just imagine how radical that must have sounded to their ears...doesn't sound that way to us...because we are not slaves...

Now scholars point out that people became slaves by either being born into a family of slaves, or people who sold themselves into slavery, or through the sale and theft of children, or by being a captured prisoner of war...

 You have to understand there was a huge variation as to the treatment of slaves...some  where brutalized and tortured or used as sex objects...

 But at the other end of the spectrum, some slaves were even more educated than the free person...

Most often they would gain their freedom by having an owner who felt that it was a matter of public honor to be know to treat their slaves fairly by either allowing them to go free for they loyal service or by allowing them to pay for their freedom...

 Or others gained their freedom from their owners because the owners found it to expensive to provide shelter, clothes and food for their slaves...

 It is noted that the manumission of salves reached a level in the first quarter of the first century that led Augustus to impose legislation restricting the number and ages of those freed...

 So, what is Paul saying here?  Irrespective of your circumstances, it is still possible to live for Christ...in all circumstances of life, you belong to Christ first, not man...

 As Begg points out, "The issue is not that you change your external circumstances, but that God changes the attitude of your heart...only sin can keep us from obeying and serving the Lord, our circumstances cannot."

 Don't become slaves of the prevailing culture...your priority, wherever you find yourself is your relationship to Jesus Christ a Lord...

 This applies to the mother who is busy raising her kids...to the father who is busy providing for the family...we need to stop blaming our circumstances for not being able to serve the Lord more fully...

 This is the needed change that the gospel brings...I believe that if you call yourself a Christian and are a very discontented person, you probably so not understand the gospel properly...

 Because in the gospel, life becomes all about Christ and not about you...it is about treasuring Christ and all that God is for us in Christ...

 Paul is calling us to be content with the circumstances of our lives...to bloom where we are planted...