Don't Lose Your Assignment Series

DON’T LOSE YOUR ASSIGNMENT!

I Corinthians 7:17-24

S: God’s Call

C: Being content in God’s Call

Th: Live the Difference

Pr: We are live contented in our calling.

?: Where?

KW: Circumstances

TS: We will find in our study of I Corinthians 7:17-24 three circumstances in which we are to find contentment.

The _____ circumstance is…

I. Marital Position (1-16)

II. Racial Position (17-19)

III. Social Position (20-24)

PA:

· Be content in your calling.

· Be content in how God made you.

· Use what God has given you and where He has placed you.

Version: ESV

RMBC 30 May 04 AM

INTRODUCTION:

Have you ever noticed that some people are never content?

ILL Notebook: Satisfaction (cold hash browns)

John was working as a short-order cook at two restaurants in the same neighborhood. On a Saturday night, he was finishing up the dinner shift at one restaurant and hurrying to report to work at the second place, but he was delayed because one table kept sending back an order of hash browns, insisting they were cold. He replaced them several times, but still the customers were dissatisfied.

When John was finally able to leave, he raced out the door and arrived at his second job. A server immediately handed him his first order.

"Make sure these hash browns are hot," she said, "because these people just left a restaurant down the street that kept serving them cold ones."

Well, some people just never are satisfied.

But you know, I like to think that I am like the apostle Paul.

He said that whatever state he was in, he was content.

And I would like to say that I, too, have learned to be content in any state I’m in – whether it is New Jersey, Pennsylvania or New York.

Seriously, though, we have all come across people that just are not happy.

They are controlled by envy – everybody always has it better than them.

Or they are possessed by an uncontrolled ambition – to be better than everybody else.

Or perhaps they have a critical and complaining spirit – according to their experience, there is always something wrong that someone should do better.

TRANSITION:

But, you know…

1. As believers in the Lord Jesus, we live differently.

We do not live lives characterized by envy, ambition and a spirit that is critical and complaining.

Rather, we are to be different.

We are to be content and satisfied.

Two weeks ago, we discussed a specific area where the believer must be different.

The area is purity.

You see…

2. We live differently when it comes to purity.

We do not live according to the popular musical title of “Anything Goes.”

For the believer, it is not anything goes.

Rather we live a life that is characterized by holiness.

And when it comes to our sexuality, specifically, we are to follow the advice from Randy Alcorn’s book, The Purity Principle, where it says…

“Purity is always smart; and impurity is always stupid.”

We do not give in to the philosophy of the world that rejects God’s design.

For purity is safe.

Impurity is risky.

Purity always helps us.

Impurity always hurts us.

You see..

3. Because the Lord Jesus has invested in us, we have a high calling (6:19-20).

Remember Paul’s words…

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

We have been bought with a price.

This means that we must use our bodies, not for our own benefit, but for the high calling of Christ.

We have responsibilities that can and will make an eternal difference in others.

So, we cannot become so self-absorbed in our own thinking and desires that we miss what God has for us.

Instead…

4. WE ARE TO LIVE CONTENTED IN OUR CALLING.

Sometimes this is very hard for us.

You see, we want our own way.

We want to do what we want to do.

We want to become what we want to become.

God, however, often has different ideas about what we should be and what we should be becoming.

This is where we must be willing to accept the situation in which God has placed us.

This being so…

5. We will find in our study of I Corinthians 7:1-24 three circumstances in which we are to find contentment.

The reason the issue of contentment is discussed in this letter to the Corinthian church is this fellowship of believers had misinterpreted and abused the Christian concept of freedom.

Their new found freedom in Christ was misinterpreted to mean freedom to do as they pleased.

What they missed was that this freedom was not given them in order to satisfy themselves, but rather, it was the freedom to do as God pleased.