Our Candidate for Senior Pastor continues thru our Witnesses In A Watching World message series, by calling our attention to 1 Corinthians 7. Through the tough but timeless themes of love and contentment, and the sacredness of marriage – we get a glimpse into sexual holiness being often misconstrued in today's culture, where the physical is celebrated over the spiritual, and the quick fix is preferred over the lasting covenant of a God-designed marriage. In our exploration of scripture, we see that our pursuit of holiness is not a desperate chase for salvation, but a profound expression of our unity with Christ.
Our Candidate for Senior Pastor continues thru our Witnesses In A Watching World message series, by calling our attention to 1 Corinthians 7. Through the tough but timeless themes of love and contentment, and the sacredness of marriage – we get a glimpse into sexual holiness being often misconstrued in today's culture, where the physical is celebrated over the spiritual, and the quick fix is preferred over the lasting covenant of a God-designed marriage. In our exploration of scripture, we see that our pursuit of holiness is not a desperate chase for salvation, but a profound expression of our unity with Christ.
Good morning, aren't you glad as mercy is more, me too. Me too, I'm Pastor Corey Colraby. I am so honored and privileged to be with you all this morning here. My family and I have had a good weekend. I get to meet many of you and spend some time with the elders and their wives and the deacons and their wives, but I look forward to meeting more of you, hopefully today after the service.
Speaker 1:I probably should have said this in the first service, but my wife Dawn is with me here today. They love when I do this, when I point them out. But go ahead and raise your hand. There's my wife, dawn, and my oldest daughter is Megan, next to Dawn, and then Lexie's, my next oldest there. Go ahead and wave Lex, not there, yeah. And then my mom Don't tell them any stories, mom. And then we have my son, drew. He's there, and then Georgia is our last one.
Speaker 1:But you know, as a young pastor, almost 20 years ago I pastored a wonderful little church. I'm going to tell you the story because I was relieved with the call to worship today and how Paul did such a good job with it. I pastored a small little church in South Georgia, a little town called Tifton, georgia, and as usual that week, I filled out the bulletin as we normally did and I put in there for the call to worship, I chose Revelation 411. And if you know Revelation 411, you know that Revelation 4 is one of those passages. It's a rare glimpse into the heavenly worship. There's not very many places in Scripture we get to glimpse into worship, into heaven, but that's one of them, and so I chose that. It's a passage that has Jesus around sitting on the throne, and then you got the living creatures, the 24 elders and the angels, and they're all praising Jesus Christ as the creator of all things. It's a passage of glory and majesty and it's got a heavenliness about it.
Speaker 1:Well, that week I was filling out the bulletin and somewhere between me and my administrator there was a typo that occurred. And so Elder Burt Hopper stands up on Sunday to do the call to worship and as he steps up to the pulpit and I'm thinking he's going to lift us into the heavenlies he doesn't read Revelation 411, he reads what's in the bulletin, romans 411, which that passage has the word circumcision in it three times, and so I remember being horrified inside. The best part was the congregation just took it on the chin and they just went on and sang the opening hymn. It was without fault. But I later asked Burt. I said, burt, did you not question that verse? I mean, you know, he said I was just doing what I was told.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm telling you that because I'm coming to 1 Corinthians, chapter 7 this morning and if you've been in this series as we approach this passage here, you're going to see that it's about marriage and divorce and sexual immorality, and it mentioned circumcision, not three times, but six. So buckle up, we're. It's a got a Romans 411 beat to it. So normally I'd preach one of my greatest hits, so to speak, as an introductory sermon. But when Elder Phil Smith asked it'd be okay to preach the continuation through this series, I said sure, and that's important because every passage points to Jesus Christ. Amen, right. And so God gives us His word. He gives us His word, which is breathed out by Him, and it's profitable. It's profitable for our instruction, it's profitable to make us wise unto salvation. It's profitable to grow us in the faith and to equip us for every good work.
Speaker 1:Now, as we come to 1 Corinthians, chapter 7 this morning, I just want to remind you of ancient Corinth and what it was like. I think the simplest way and the quickest way to explain it. It was like our modern Las Vegas what happens in Corinth stays in Corinth and that's the reality of it. It was a city that was riddled with sexual immorality, sadly like much of our nation today. And so the apostle Paul writes this letter, and one of the key ideas through this letter and you see it in the beginning of this letter is he wanted to remind these Corinthian Christians and he wants to remind us here in Tampa this morning. He said to them you know, you're not just in Corinth, you're in Christ, you're in Christ Jesus. And so you see that in chapter 1, verse 2, where he addresses them, he says to the church of God, to the ecclesia of God, to the called out ones of God, called out of a life of sin, called out of this spiritually rebellious world of sin, called out for God's holy purposes. What holy purposes? To know God, to glorify Him, to enjoy God. Sadly, I went to church I did not know God was to be, enjoyed, the gospel, so that we can enjoy and delight in God and that we can then honor and glorify Him. And he called these Corinthians there at the beginning of chapter 1 and the greeting to those sanctified. To those sanctified, meaning made holy by God's saving grace.
Speaker 1:There was nothing inherently great about these Corinthian Christians in and of themselves. They were sinners like everybody else, but it was God's saving grace that it intervened in their life and made them holy. That's what made them saints. And notice their sanctified.
Speaker 1:Paul says back in chapter 1, verse 2, not just away from something, but they're sanctified in Christ Jesus, in Christ Jesus. In other words, that means that they had been spiritually united to Jesus Christ by faith. They're spiritually united to Him by faith. Jesus puts it like this in John 15, I am the vine, you are the branches. Apart from me, you can do nothing, any men of course. You can do nothing to glorify God, you can do nothing to please God, apart from being spiritually united by faith to Jesus Christ. And so, apart from me, you can do nothing. But connected to Christ by faith, united to Christ by the grace of the Holy Spirit, we can do all things. Through Christ, who strengthens me, as Paul puts it, we can do all things. Peter says the same thing in his letter.
Speaker 1:Second Peter, 1, verse three his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. God has given us everything we need right now to live a godly life, a life pleasing to him. Yes, we still battle sin, but we're saints who battle sin and that is very important for us to realize In the Christian life we're to live out of our identity. Satan and the world is always trying to shape you and mold you and get you to let them define who you are, but God has defined us as saints. It's very humbling to think about. You know, saint Cory, that just doesn't sound right to me. In one sense right. But in light of Christ, that's what God has done.
Speaker 1:And Paul is charging them, not to earn their salvation but to live up, live it out, work it out, glorify God. You're called to be saints, he says in chapter one, verse two. So live it out, act like it. Corinthian Christians, that's Paul's point. He's addressing this letter because they're not living out, they're not living out who they are in Christ, and he's calling them. Many passages of scripture comfort and there's some comfort in this one too, but this one, primarily, is a challenge. It's a challenge to rise up and live out a holy life. He's reminding them you're the light of the world. Let it shine. Let it shine in that place of Corinth. You are the light of the world, you Christians. And so in called Scripture, the Delodles is what is in God's name Yesterday, and it stands before the Nunu, a mama in知道, and better than me, that's it. We should know that God's going to take us to the final destination. P send us.
Speaker 1:Our next stop is Dunn такб двEE вами. Digitally. Article no-transcript, typing in Buddha's praise. Okay, I'm hitting things, no-transcript. And he's going to take that calling of God upon his people and he's gonna apply it to love and marriage and singleness and sexuality and even social status. And so I'm going to take us through three points this morning.
Speaker 1:I want you to be aware from the very beginning I'm gonna spend the vast majority of my time on point one. I sometimes like to tell that to people so they don't panic. When I go to point two, I'm not gonna let your roast burn, so I'm gonna spend most of it in verses one through nine, but I do wanna touch on the rest of the verses, 10 through 24, as well. Pray with me, if you would, father. We come to your word and we ask Lord that you would give us eyes to see the beauty and glory of Christ, and that you would grant us the grace and the power to live out this holy life. Stir us up unto holiness in Jesus' name, amen. Well, the first thing I want you to see from our passage this morning. I want us to focus first on the verses one through nine. God has called us to holiness. God has called us to holiness in our sexuality. To be more to the point here, in 1 Corinthians seven. I'm gonna read it to you, the first section Now, concerning the matters about which you wrote.
Speaker 1:You see they'd written them a letter. Now he's responding. They wrote to him. It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman, but Paul says, because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights and likewise the wife to her husband, for the wife does not have the authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise, the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.
Speaker 1:Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement, for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer, but then come together again so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. Now, as a concession, not a command, I say this I wish that all were as I myself am, but each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another. To the unmarried in the widows, I say that it's good for them to remain single, as I am, but if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry, for it's better to marry than to be a flame with passion. The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of the Lord endures forever. God's people said amen.
Speaker 1:So first God's called us to holiness and our sexuality. That's what we see here, the heartbeat of scripture throughout, one of the key heartbeats. When God calls us people out, he calls them to live a holy life. When he saves them out of the world and calls them into a covenant with him. Be holy, for I am holy, says the Lord. Be holy, for I am holy, says the Lord. You see it, leviticus, you see it in other places throughout the Old Testament. The apostle Peter emphasizes it in his letters, quoting that very thing. The writer of Hebrews in chapter 12 of that New Testament letter says strive for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. You see, that's not because we work to earn our salvation when we strive for holiness. That's evidence that we have been saved. It's evidence that we have been united to the Lord, jesus Christ himself.
Speaker 1:The psalmist would talk about the beauty of the holiness of the Lord. Think about that. Holiness is beautiful. It's beautiful the world mocks it, but it's beautiful. It's what makes God truly stunning and lovely and beautiful in every way and it's what makes the Christian life the same way. That's what makes the Christian life beautiful. In many other places throughout Scripture we see this heartbeat. I am be holy, for I am holy, says the Lord, and Paul's pressing this in.
Speaker 1:You've seen in recent weeks, in chapter 5, paul had to deal with the issue of incest in the Corinthian church. He had to deal with the issue of prostitution in the church Because, you see, it wasn't just, there was a problem of sexual morality in the city of Corinth, it had come in to the church. Dl Moody said the place for the ship is in the sea, but God, help the ship if the sea gets into it. Well, the sea had got into the ship. The world had got into the church in a way that was unacceptable and it was a threat to the witness of the gospel. You have to remember you may remember from many weeks ago that the temple of Aphrodite was there in Corinth and they had a thousand prostitutes working at that temple.
Speaker 1:Human and sexual immorality were bound up in that day, and even in the Old Testament days it talks about bail worship. Same thing, sexual immorality bound up with worship. And so what we have here in our country since the 1960s some called it the sexual revolution, but it's nothing new. It's the same old, worn out pagan dog making another lap around the track. It's nothing new. Sexual immorality has been with us since the fall.
Speaker 1:And I want you to notice in your text. Look at what threatens sexual holiness In verse one, what threatens it here Paul's pointing out as bad philosophy which results in corrupt theology, wrongly thinking about God and the Christian life. A sane was floating around the Christian church and they wrote to Paul to ask him about it. He'd quote it's good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman, and they're talking about a married man here. It's good that a married man would not have sexual relations with his wife.
Speaker 1:Well, greek philosophy tended to elevate the soul and the spirit and denigrate what we would call the creation and the body. But that's not a biblical view. If you denigrate the body, you're going to do one of two things. You're going to be very harsh on the body and beat it into submission, or you're going to be very loose with the body because you're going to say, well, if the body's bad by definition, I'm either going to beat it into submission and treat it very harshly, or if the body's bad, why should I worry about what I do at all? Because it doesn't matter, it's already bad. So who cares? Either way, that's not a holy biblical vision of a human being. Sin has affected both our bodies and our souls and our spirits.
Speaker 1:Paul wants to correct that, he says in verse two, but in so many words. On the contrary, on the contrary, don't think like that. He says Corinthians, christians, listen, you got to face the hard reality that there is powerful temptation to sexual immorality. You got to face that reality. Each married man, he says, should have sexual relations with his own wife and each married woman should have sexual relations with her own husband and neither should have it with anyone else. That's what's good. That's what God says is good, not abstaining from sexual relations within marriage. That's not good. When, you excuse me, when you abstain from sexual relations in marriage, paul says that's not right. That's not God's vision for your marriage and what you're doing is you're threatening the holiness of the church because you're now tempting one another into sexual temptation. There were worldly attitudes toward bodies that was threatening their holiness as well. Verses three and four Husbands and wives need to realize, contrary to how the world thinks about things, that as a married person listen, as a married person your body is not your own.
Speaker 1:That's very shocking to some Americans. In fact, your body is not your own. Your husband or your wife, paul says, has conjugal rights. Wow, conjugal rights. Sexual relations within marriage, therefore, are not to operate with a punishment and reward system. That's not right. No, there's a certain authority or claim that your spouse has over your body. Now, this has to be properly understood. It can be misunderstood, but we're constantly told in our culture my body is my body and that's the end of it. But that's not how God sees it. As a husband, I do not have authority over my own body to use it however I want. No, my wife actually has conjugal rights to my body and no one else. She doesn't have the authority over her own body to use it however she wants. No, God says I have conjugal rights over her body and no one else. No one else.
Speaker 1:In American culture we're taught that sex is primarily about self-satisfaction. But that isn't God's design, because a self-centered approach to the Christian life, or a self-centered approach to life at all, will never satisfy the human heart, because God has designed it that way. Sin always leads sooner or later to misery Always, and selfishness is our core problem as sinners and we still battle that, even as saints in Christ. God has designed sexual relations. God has designed them to be very pleasurable and satisfying. Indeed, if Proverbs, chapter 5 and the song of Solomon are to be taken seriously and they should what we see in those places is that sexual relations within marriage is to be an erotic feast. Some people that have never read the Bible may be stunned by that. That's the vision that the Bible has An erotic feast, sexual relations within marriage. That is not dirty. That is not dirty. Sex was God's idea and, yes, sinners abuse God good gifts. That's our natural nature to do that. But after he created Adam and Eve, he looked upon all of creation, including think about sin, including Adam and Eve's naked bodies and their sexual nature, and he called all of creation very good, very good.
Speaker 1:The Bible teaches in both the Old and New Testament that the first and greatest commandment is that you and I would love God with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength. And then the second commandment right, we're to love our neighbors ourselves. Well, paul is trying to get them to apply that to their sexuality. And so, in marriage, that means that our first concern has to be to glorify God. And then, secondly, we're not to be demanding from our spouse in this way. We're not to be domineering and abusive in this area. That's out of bounds. We're to serve our spouse in this important way. We're to be concerned with their conjugal rights. That's the right perspective Not to take this and make it into something that we demand, but to take this and realize that this is an area that we're to serve our spouse out of consideration for them.
Speaker 1:And Paul's point, don't miss it when that's functioning like it's supposed to, it promotes holiness because it decreases sexual temptation. It decreases sexual temptation. Not to serve one another in marriage in this way is, as Paul says in verse five to deprive one another. You can also back in chapter six. It was translated to defraud. When we don't honor the conjugal rights of our spouse, we're defrauding them. That's very strong language and you see, satan wants nothing more for you, married folks, than to drive a wedge to make into your relationship in such a way that he would make your sexual relationship unsatisfying and not a feast, because you know what? Then he has you vulnerable, then he has you vulnerable in a place where he can tempt you much more powerfully, and that is not a good place to be. And I want to explain this for just a moment. This begins long before entering the bedroom.
Speaker 1:I want to emphasize this idea of the Bible's view of sexuality within marriage as a feast, a good and holy feast. It's something that the apostle Paul would have been aware of. He was aware of Proverbs, he was aware of the song of Solomon, the song of songs, and Dr Robert Rayburn emphasizes the same thing, the period in Thomas Watson. Here's what he wrote it's not having a wife, but loving a wife that makes a man live a holy life. It's not having a wife, but it's loving a wife that makes a man live a holy life Married men. If you want a holy sexual life, tenderly love and serve your wife. Tenderly love and serve her. Watson says he who loves his wife, whom Solomon and Proverbs five calls his fountain, will not go abroad and drink of muddy, poisoned waters. Pure conjugal love is a gift of God and it comes from heaven. But like the holy fire, it must be cherished so that it does not go out. He who loves, not his wife, is the likeliest person to embrace the bosom of a stranger. The same is true for the wife loving and serving your husband. You see, this is what makes the One-Flesh Union a joyful celebration and a feast rather than a mere self-centered biological act. You see, that's what Satan in our culture is trying to reduce it to Just a biological satisfaction in some way. And when marriage ceases to be a feast in Corinth they turn to prostitutes. In America they turn to pornography and moral flings in the hookup culture and, yes, some, even today, turn to prostitutes.
Speaker 1:But Dr Rayburn pointed out something very fascinating. Cs Lewis lost his wife Joy all too early and that was a very painful loss for them. But here's what he said, cs Lewis for those few years, she and I. Her name was Joy, for those few years Joy and I feasted on love. Still cranny of heart or body remained unsatisfied. That's a remarkable thing. Rayburn says that's it, that's the way to think about it.
Speaker 1:There's a feast here, a feast for both husband and wife to enjoy, and it requires a great deal to put on a feast so that it may be enjoyed by those who attend. Rayburn says listen, the table must be set, the food must be purchased and prepared, the wine chosen, the guest invited, the music and lighting provided for. The more feasts one prepares, the better at it one becomes. And the more a feast a couple put on together, the more they know what food and drink, what music and lighting, what settings on the table will be most pleasing. Know to feast well, enjoy that special pleasure. Much attention to detail is required, but when the details are mastered, what pleasure follows? What am I trying to say? What's Paul trying to say, if you take his comments in light of the broader scriptures? Feasting in the bedroom begins by taking the garbage out. It begins by helping with the dishes. It begins by listening well to your husband or wife. It means, men, to be tender and gentle with your wife, ladies. It means supporting and encouraging your husband.
Speaker 1:Twenty years ago I heard a wonderful sermon. It's one of the best I've ever heard. Frankly, the LA pastor, black pastor, evie Hill. He preached his own wife's funeral. At her request it's online on YouTube. I highly recommend it. It's one of the most powerful things I ever heard.
Speaker 1:He came from a life of very little. She came from a very not just a well to do, but very high society. She came from very well, well connected and very high society. And one time Evie wanted to invest in a gas station. He was a pastor, but he thought you know, I want to invest in this gas station. So he goes to his wife. He asked her. She said I don't think that's a good idea. What do you think he said? You know what he said. He did what most men would do he blew that stoplight. He did it anyway. He lost his shirt. And then one day his wife's at home and she realizes oh, the electricity. The electric company cut off our electricity.
Speaker 1:When Evie Hill got home that day, he says in that sermon at her funeral she could have let me have it, she could have given me the I told you story. According to Evie Hill, he said in that moment, knowing where she came from and where he came from, she could have crushed me in that moment. But as Evie entered his house and he clicks on the light switch and no lights came out, he said, about that time his heart began to sink in discouragement and feeling shame. What did he see At that moment? He saw that his wife had prepared him a nice dinner, complete with a white tablecloth and lit candles. What does that mean? This is what promotes the one flesh union as a feast. It begins way before two people in our bedroom. That's what I'm saying. That's what the Bible teaches. It's about loving and serving one another graciously, even right in the face of failure. Isn't that what our Savior did for us? That's how to shine the light of Christ and fill our homes with the aroma of Christ.
Speaker 1:Verse 7 through 9, paul makes a couple of points. I'm just going to summarize it real quick for you. He basically, in so many words, says this singleness is a good gift from God, marriage is a good gift from God. They're both a good gift from God and you need to just discern which gift God has given you. And if you don't have the gift of singleness, well then, pursue marriage. It's really that simple. Both are good. You can glorify good in both lives. But I just want you to see that God calls us to holiness and our sexuality. Secondly, I want you to see that God has called us to peace in our relationships. This is verse 10 through 16. I'm going to read it to you.
Speaker 1:To the married I give this charge, not I, but the Lord. The wife should not separate from her husband. But if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband and the husband should not divorce his wife. To the rest I say I, not the Lord that if any brother has a wife who's an unbeliever and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband's made holy because of his wife and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean. But as it is, they're holy. But if the unbelieving partner separates, that means divorces. Let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace. Wife, how do you know whether you will save your husband, husband, how do you know whether you will save your wife? So God has called us to peace in our relationships.
Speaker 1:You can imagine what was happening in Corinth. People were getting saved by the gospel. They were already married, but their spouse did not know the Lord, and so all kinds of questions came to their mind. Should I remain unequally yoked? Should I as a Christian? Am I supposed to be in one flesh union with an unbeliever? What does that mean for my children? How does God see my children? All these things were getting stirred up.
Speaker 1:Paul just basically keeps it simple. In so many words. He says this no, don't divorce your spouse. Don't divorce your unbelieving spouse. God did not save you to bring the gospel into your home, to bring up your marriage and your family. That's not its purpose. So remain married. But if they leave you? And the apostle Paul may very well have been married many scholars think he was because rabbis were required to be married. We do not know for sure, but we think he may have been and probably was she either died or maybe she left him after he got converted radically. But whatever the case, if they're willing to stay together, paul says stay together with them and notice his reason verse 14, for the unbelieving husband has made holy or sanctified because of his wife and the unbelieving wife has made holy or sanctified because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean. But as it is they're holy. As it is, your children are sanctified.
Speaker 1:Now what does that mean? It means, I think, primarily two things. One, they're made holy or sanctified in the sense that now the believer in that marriage and in that home has a godly influence on the unbelieving spouse and upon the children. But I think it goes beyond that. I think it's also bound up with this idea that now God, because of that one believer, god now sees the entire household differently. He now views that whole household as a covenant household, and by that I mean that entire household is in a special relationship now with him. It doesn't mean the unbelieving spouse is yet saved, that's not what it means. But it does mean he has a special interest in the unbelieving spouse and a special interest in that Christian's children. And that's why, by the way, in Presbyterian circles and in other traditions we baptize infants, because we believe that they're born into the covenant, into a covenant household. They're made holy. In that sense God deals with whole households and not just individuals. But what does this mean practically for the Christian? I'm going to keep it as simple as I can with this because of time, but I thought about this. What does it mean, especially for the Christian there who has an unbelieving spouse, whether it's the husband or the wife?
Speaker 1:Mother Teresa was asked once how can I change the world? And her answer to that person was go home and love your family. Go home and love your husband. Go home and love your wife. Go home and love your children. That's what Paul's getting at. You are in a covenant home now, christian and Corinth. Go home and love them. You can influence them. You can't control them. If they leave, let them go. God wants you to be in peace. He understands it's not your fault, but love them and do what you can. Do what you can. So the Lord has called us to peace. Lastly and thirdly, god has called us to contentment in our circumstances.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to read this last section to you. I'm going to trust that you can glance with your eyes and see that it's there what I'm going to say. But you'll notice this in this section, paul's given the primary principle, really in one sense, of this whole chapter. This is what it is. Wherever you are in life, if you're on the mountaintop, in the valley, if you're somewhere in between, regardless of where you are, serve God right there, because that's where God has assigned you. And yes, sometimes God assigns His people to difficult spots in life. We can look at the cross and see the spot. Jesus was in for us and for our sake. But he puts us in difficult spots. And how can we serve God right wherever we are? Because we will not have contentment until we receive where we are in life right now as an assignment from God. When we fight that assignment, we're never content. But when we say, okay, lord, I'll receive it from you, I don't really like it, to be honest, but I'll take this assignment. How do we serve Him right where we are?
Speaker 1:Verse 19, keeping the commandments of God. That's why we learn our Bibles, we learn the Ten Commandments. We learn what that means more and more throughout the Christian life. But in other words, paul is saying to these Christians bloom where you're planted, bloom right today where you're planted. Focus on keeping the commandments. Get rid of the if the grass was always greener or I'll be happy when. Serve God right where you are Now. If an opportunity opens up, you'll see. He says, take it, but your mission is to serve God, whether that opens up an opportunity or not.
Speaker 1:Notice Paul mentioned circumcision here in verses 18 and 19. I'll just summarize what he's basically saying. He's saying Jewish Christians, quit trying to become Gentiles. You don't need to do that. Gentile Christians, you don't need to become Jewish Christians. None of that matters. That is not your identity in Christ. You are in Christ. You are God's children. That's your identity. You're saints through Christ. Stop worrying about what other people think. Stop worrying about that. That's what he's getting at and what matters to God. That's what you want to focus on, not what other people think, but what on God thinks. What does God? What matters to God? Paul says it's obedience to God, that obedience that flows from trusting Him. That's what matters to God.
Speaker 1:He even says in verses 21 and 22 that even if you're a slave a slave's slavery was more complex in the ancient world than what we experienced here in our own country but slavery regardless could be miserable and oppressive. Even if, because in the ancient world sometimes people would take on too much debt, get overwhelmed, they'd have to go work off their debt. So you may be a slave for seven years to work off your debt. You didn't have a credit card, your body was the credit card. So they had that kind of slavery, and there were other kinds too. But my point is, it's all the same If you're not where you want to be, even if you're a slave. You know.
Speaker 1:Paul says in verse 21, if you can get your freedom, take it. But know this today, right now you are valuable in the eyes of God. Your social status does not determine your value in the eyes of God. He wasn't making light of slavery at all. He was just saying you can glorify God wherever you are, no matter how bad it is, and he gives a dignity to every life.
Speaker 1:And lastly, and perhaps most critically, we see here there's one more thing. You need to see Verse 23,. Remember you are bought with a price. We are bought with the blood of Christ. We are not our own. Our life is not our own.
Speaker 1:If God wants to assign us to a hard spot to glorify Him, then let us say amen, god. Let us, as Mike Milton used to say, let's take off our crown. God is king, we're not king. He makes the sovereign assignments, ultimately, not us. Mike Milton says let's get on our knees and get some of me. Lord, if there's any way, you can take this cup from me, but not my will, but your will be done. And then let's take up our cross and see that there's a divine purpose in our sufferings and hardships and afflictions in life. And when we're in a tight spot, our mission remains the same to glorify God. That's the point, that's the secret to contentment in life, and until we receive that from God, we'll always be fighting it.
Speaker 1:Yes, we can try to improve. Yes, we can take avail to opportunities. God has us right where we are today to serve Him. You're saints. Let's live it out. Dear Christians, to the glory of God, let's pray. Thank you, father, for your goodness and your grace. And we ask now, father, as we think about our life, that you would continue to grow us to be more and more holy. Help us, lord, to have a biblical understanding and view of human sexuality. We thank you for the good gift and we thank you for the gift of singleness and the gift of marriage, and we thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit that's within us, that helps us to live in a way that's pleasing to you. We ask it in Jesus' name. Yes, people said Amen.