Being Content as a Status Quo Christian
1 Corinthians 7:17-24
1 Corinthians 7:16-24 (NIV) 1Co 16 How do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or, how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?
17 Nevertheless, each one should retain the place in life that the Lord assigned to him and to which God has called him. This is the rule I lay down in all the churches.
18 Was a man already circumcised when he was called? He should not become uncircumcised. Was a man uncircumcised when he was called? He should not be circumcised. 19 Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God’s commands is what counts. 20 Each one should remain in the situation which he was in when God called him.
21 Were you a slave when you were called? Don’t let it trouble you--although if you can gain your freedom, do so. 22 For he who was a slave when he was called by the Lord is the Lord’s freedman; similarly, he who was a free man when he was called is Christ’s slave.
23 You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men.
24 Brothers, each man, as responsible to God, should remain in the situation God called him to.
INTRODUCTION: For our purposes this morning, and in order to establish the context for our passage, we need to look at the previous verse ¡V 1 Corinthians 7:16 (NIV) 1Co 16 How do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or, how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?
In this verse, Paul proclaims that a believer in a spiritually mixed marriage needs to be at peace in that marriage, if at all possible, for they do not know how God will use them in the marriage. They could well be the instrument of salvation for the rest of their family.
With that in mind, Paul now expands that principle here in these verses, taking our ¡§ignorance¡¨ concerning what God could and might do, and applying it to other areas of our lives.
PROPOSITION: GOD WANTS US TO BE CONTENT WHERE WE ARE SO THAT HE CAN USE US AS HE WISHES.
I GOD¡¦S SOVEREIGN DIRECTION OVER OUR LIVES ¡V 1 CORINTHIANS 7:16-17
A Nevertheless/But as (kjv)
1 Reference to verse 16
a 1 Corinthians 7:16 (NIV) 1Co 16 How do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or, how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?
b If we believe that God may use us in a household where everyone does not know Christ
2 Need to apply the same principle to other areas of our lives
B Retain our place
1 Seems as though everybody wants to get ahead
2 Time magazine recently wrote about our young people coming out of colleges and universities
a Taking longer to get through college
b Having no clear plan for college education
c Not sure of career path
1) Trying several
2) Not holding any one down for long
d Not sensing their own adulthood
3 There is no foundation of purpose
4 Paul tells us that we are to retain our place in life
a Our heavenly calling does not set aside our earthly responsibilities
b We need to be Christians where we are, not where we think we should be
C Our assignment and calling
1 Scripture says that we have been assigned by our Lord
a Apportioned to use
1) Kind of like baking a cake
2) Get the right ingredients
3) In the right amounts
4) Under the right conditions
5) And ¡V you get a cake
ILLUSTRATION: Then there was the time when I asked my wife to get me some soft-serve ice cream from a Chinese Buffet. The particular buffet had some ¡§sprinkly stuff¡¨ you could put on the ice cream to make it more ¡§sundae¡¨ like. I had happened to spy some crushed nuts, and so I ask Sherry to please put some of those on the ice cream for me. Well, when she brought this back, it had vanilla soft-serve, chocolate syrup, rainbow sprinkles, and or course ¡V NUTS! It looked beautiful. I took my first mouthful and immediately realized that what I though was nuts had actually been crumbled up bacon. Ice cream with nuts is a treat, ice cream with bacon is a tragedy!
b What I am trying to say is that a little of you where you are is a good thing for God, but a little of your where you should not be could be detrimental for the cause of Christ. God apportions our use
2 The Scripture says that we have also been ¡§called¡¨
a This word carries with it the thought of an invitation. In other words, God calls us to something
b Where we are is where God has invited us to be
1) We need to be careful that we do not accept the assumption that we are in the wrong place.
2) We are not ¡V we are in the right place because it is the place God has portioned us out to be in and has invited us to serve Him in!
3) Our job is to live out our faith there
4) Our job is to fulfill our calling there
WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND THAT WE WHO WE ARE BASED ON OUR REGENERATION, NOT OUR SITUATION!
3 God assigns and calls based on His love for us
a God¡¦s love ALWAYS does what is good for us
b God¡¦s love ALWAYS does what is best for us
c God¡¦s love ALWAYS does what is right for us
II OUR CONTENTMENT IN GOD¡¦S CHOICE FOR OUR LIVES ¡V 1 CORINTHIANS 7:18-22
A Contentment comes when we realize that pleasing God is more important than external activities
1 God does not require external above internals
a 1 Samuel 15:22 (NIV) 1Sa 22 But Samuel replied: "Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.
b Mark 12:30 (NIV) Mk 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’
B Contentment comes when we realize our purpose in life is to honor, serve, and speak for our Lord
1 God placed us where we are
2 God must have had a good reason for doing that
3 Look for the reason God had for placing you where he placed you!
SOMETIME WE ARE TOO CONCERNED ABOUT WHAT WE COULD DO FOR GOD THAT WE MISS THE OPPORTUNITIES RIGHT IN FRONT OF US
ILLUSTRATIONS:
We missed him. Our chance to change things came and passed and we did not know it was there. A dark-skinned little boy sat through Sunday School classes for three years at a great Baptist Church (First Church, San Antonio) but some one missed him. His name was Sirhan Sirhan, and at age 24 he shot and killed Senator Robert Kennedy. In a welter of words and the shudder of grief throughout our nation, the persistent thought keeps recurring...someone missed him.
Dr. Jimmy Allen, former pastor of First Baptist Chruch, San Antonio, Texas in Pulpit Helps, May, 1991.
In 1269 Kublai Khan sent a request from Peking to Rome for "a hundred wise men of the Christian religion...And so I shall be baptized, and when I shall be baptized all my baron and great men will be baptized, and their subjects baptized, and so there will be more Christian here than there are in your parts." The Mongols were then wavering in the choice of a religion. It might have been, as Kublai forecast, the greatest mass religious movement the world has ever seen. The history of all Asia would have been changed.
But what actually happened? Pope Gregory X answered by sending two Domnican friars. They got as far as Armenia, could endure no longer and returned home. So passed the greatest missionary opportunity in the history of the church.
R. Dunkerly, in Resource, No. 2.
C Contentment comes when we realize that our identity is in Christ, not our situation
1 This is why Paul tells us to remain/abide ¡V to abide and continue where we are
2 This is why Paul tells us not to let these thing trouble/care not ¡V draw us in a different direction
3 Situations change, but who we serve does not change
III OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO GOD ¡V 1 CORINTHIANS 7:23-24
A To understand our worth
1 The Bible says that we were bought with a price
a We had no part in the buying
b We were bought with something valuable to the buyer
2 Christ was valuable as the Son of God to God Himself, and it was Christ and his blood that was used to purchase our salvation.
B Being bought by Christ, I am not to be enslaved by man
1 We have been freed from the slavery of sin
2 We have been freed from the slavery of this world
3 We have been freed from the slavery of our flesh
C Understand His call to serve
1 It is no one else than God who calls us to service
2 God expects our faithful service
3 Each has a responsibility to God
4 God¡¦s call elevated my work ¡V I work for God
5 God¡¦s call sanctified my work ¡V I work for God
PRACTICAL THOUGHTS:
„Ï Psalms 84:10 (NIV) Ps 10 Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
„Ï Living out our faith where we are is Godly living
„Ï Living out our faith where we are provides a testimony ¡V perhaps the only testimony there
„Ï Missed opportunities are missed because we are not content where God has us
„Ï God gave something or great value to have you just where you are.
