Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / November 6, 2022 | 1 Corinthians - Singleness in Christ

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November 6, 2022 | 1 Corinthians - Singleness in Christ · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: I have to let you know, I'm rocking on like two weeks of whatever it is that is going around right now in the sickness world.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: So if I faint, um take that as a sign and you can figure out what that sign is, right?
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um glad to be back with you though.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: I've really enjoyed going through 1 Corinthians with everybody.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: And um uh Jim last week uh had a really fun message and um was talking about marriage, right?
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: And uh for some of you that message uh didn't apply as well as it might have for others because you're not married.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so this morning we're going to continue on in chapter seven, and we're going to look at uh really Paul's kind almost, he has this long almost treatise on what it means to be single and what it means to be married, and in particular, how under a certain set of conditions, it seems that the Lord says that being single is the best way to go through life, which might be surprising for some people, and especially in our culture where we tend to view being married as sort of like the ultimate, you know, end goal or relationship for some people.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh for those who are single, they can often feel left out of that conversation.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so we're going to talk about what it looks like to be single, uh, but more important than that, looking at marriage and singleness from sort of this divine, this heavenly viewpoint, instead of looking at it from uh really just this temporal or temporary situation that we're in.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: And the one of the most startling texts that we could even talk about this morning is the one we're actually going to start with, and it's not in 1 Corinthians, but it's in the book of Matthew.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: And it helps us to sort of get oriented to what Paul's talking about because it sets our sights beyond this world.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: If we go to Matthew 22, verses 29 through 30, we see Jesus answered them, You're mistaken because you don't know the scriptures or the power of God.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: For in the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: If you're not familiar with this text, it might be, like I said, startling to you, but what it's saying is that when we go to be with God in heaven, that we are no longer married.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: If you're married right now, your marriage lasts until death.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: But marriage is something that God created for us while we're on this earth and is not an eternal distinction of our relationships.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I'm gonna talk more about that later because um for myself who's married, uh, being married other than serving Christ is the greatest joy in my life.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is um a sometimes a troubling thing for me to consider.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: But I have to understand uh that God has is bigger than I am, he knows more than I do, and he understands the way the world is supposed to be orchestrated.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so we're gonna look at these things together, but it's important for those of you who are married to understand you were born single, some of you have remained single for your entire life, but everybody in heaven is going to be single.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: We'll still have these relationships, but we have to be able to think of our relationship with God from an individual perspective, right?
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: So, with that, right, let's go ahead and get into the text, and we'll be starting in 1 Corinthians chapter 7, verse 7.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: This is following after what Jim discussed just uh last week.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so Paul is sort of responding to this idea that there are those in the Corinthian culture who are, if you remember, verse 6, finished flee from sexual immorality, and then some have responded by doing so and staying away from sexual relationships in their married relationship.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says that's not a good idea, but now he's going to, in chapter 7, get into sort of this broader, he's like, but you need to see the bigger picture behind marriage, the bigger picture behind singleness, the bigger picture that is um over and above whatever relationship you have, and if you are married to somebody.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I wish that all people were as I am, but each has his own gift from God.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: One person has this gift, another has that.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: I say to the unmarried and to widows, it is good for them if they remain as I am.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: But if they do not have self-control, they should marry, since it is better to marry than burn with desire.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: Paul in verse 7, here, you're good.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: If you've been with us for this first Corinthians series, this is something he has said before.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: I wish other people emulated my life.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: I wish those of you in the Corinthian society, I wish you acted like I did.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not a prideful statement that he's making, but rather as one who is an apostle of Christ and is living the life that Christ has called him to live, he says, I want you to, as sort of the closest thing you can see to living like Jesus, I want you to act like my life.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: And we know that Paul, um, the debate about whether he was once married or not is kind of an interesting one.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: But certainly, for all of the ministry that we read about, Paul is single.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: Paul is single just like Jesus was single.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, I wish that all people were as I am.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: And what he means is in the context, he says, I wish people were single.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: And another thing that is interesting, which might go against how some people think of this relational status, is he talks about it as a gift, right?
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: Each person has this gift, another has that one.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul is seeming to say that celibacy, the idea of remaining single and also sexually pure, being a virgin, that these things are a gift from God.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: And that for some people, and some of you in the audience, I know are this way, you have found living the single life to be something that is easier for you than it is for some of your friends.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: But regardless, Paul is saying that for some people being single has been a gift.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: And not everybody has the gift of being single, but it should be thought of that way.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: It is not the sort of default position, and then you get married and you've been successful.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: But rather that being single, Paul says, is a gift from God.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: He does give context, though, and he understands that life is complex.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: And he says it's not as simple, though, as just I'm single and I'm married.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: It is good for them to remain as I am, single.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 9, but if they do not have self-control, they should marry, since it is better to marry than to burn with desire.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: And here's this relates to what Jim talked about last week, but there's just this very practical consideration, which is that the single life is an intentional decision, as Paul is contriving it, right?
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's an intentional decision, but that there are some people who recognize that that road is not an easy road to walk, and that it is better for them to get married so that they don't burn with passion and forsake the things in chapter six about getting into all sorts of sexual immorality.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: So as we kind of close this passage here, we have to see these two things, right?
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: Paul is going to talk a lot more about the distinctions between these two, but both are intentional decisions.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: If you are single, that is an intentional decision.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: And if you are married, that is an intentional decision.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: And both of them have their values, and both of them are difficult in their own ways.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: As we move on, Paul says, um, and by the way, I had to skip verses 10 through 16.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'll probably cover that in a podcast at some point, but we're kind of trying to stay with the theme here, and so we're jumping to verse 17.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Let each one live his life in the situation the Lord assigned when God called him.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: This is what I command in all the churches.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: Circumcision does not matter, and uncircumcision does not matter.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: Keeping God's commands is what matters.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: Let each of you remain in the situation in which he was called.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: Were you called while a slave?
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: Don't let it concern you.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: Brothers and sisters, each person is to remain with God in the situation in which he was called.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: If you're playing along at home, right, you're going to pick up that in this passage, Paul repeats three different times a theme that he already introduced.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: If you remember in the first passage, he says, It is good for them to remain as I am.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: And now he is going to take that idea and he is going to hammer it home, right?
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: Let each one live in the situation that the Lord assigned him when God called him, right?
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: This is what I command in all the churches, meaning this isn't something, this isn't a piece of advice just for those in Corinth.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says, What I'm commanding here is something that is good for all Christians, in all places, in all times.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 19, he gets into a matter circumcision, which was dividing people that would have been a Jew and a Gentile sort of thing, right?
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'll talk about that in a moment.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: Says keeping God's commands is what matters.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: Second time, let each of you remain in the situation in which he was called.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: A startling claim, but a couple weeks ago I addressed sort of how Paul is handling and reworking this human institution into something that is glorious for Christ.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: But even here he says and is addressing the roughly third of the Corinthian population that would have been a slave, the roughly third of the Corinthian population that would have been freedmen, those who had previously been in this sort of economic slavery, and then understanding to the other third who had never been in it what it was like for the other 67%.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: Brothers and sisters, each person is to remain with God in the situation in which he was called.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: So what is Paul saying here?
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: Basically, he's saying, you guys need to pump the brakes.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: You're living your lives.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: Acting like it's a rat race.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: Acting like you are always trying to climb the ladder.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: Acting like no matter how your life looks right now, you are always striving so hard to get to the next thing.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: And when it comes to the immediate context here, right, this is a broad claim that he's going to specify in a moment.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: But when it gets to the broad statement that he's making here, he says, if you were circumcised or uncircumcised, if you were slave or free, he says your identity is in Christ, it's not in your circumstances.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: Your identity is in Christ, it is not in your circumstances.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, your circumstances were something that God assigned to you when he called you, right?
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: Called you being sort of this euphemism for those who have come to Christ under the sovereignty of God.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: When you believed in Jesus, you came as an individual with an individual background and individual likes and dislikes and all this history, and you brought that into the kingdom of God, and it's for the kingdom of God.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so your circumstances are not the thing that define you, but your relationship with God.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: And that now is going to be the sort of the twist that he makes is his connection with the audience.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Remain as you are.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: Do not take the advice I'm giving and think that you must dramatically alter your life.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: Once you come to know Christ, you should be obedient to him and you should change the way you are acting morally.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: But to think that God has you on some sort of fast track to the C-suite misunderstands what growth in Christ looks like and what it means to advance in the kingdom.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: So Paul is saying that you are to remain as you are in the way that the Lord assigned you when God called you.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: I think that there's a German theologian named Carl Barth.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: He was a contemporary with Dietrich Bonhoeffer and part of the emergent church over in Germany when they were fighting the Nazis.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: And he says this a Christian is not called to be circumcised or uncircumcised, free or slave.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: He is called precisely in the state in which he is.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: He must always be true, not to the state, but to his calling within it.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: And this man with this historical background in history, kind of a wordy explanation to basically say, God called you, right?
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: He redeemed you from the life of sin and slavery that you were in.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: And now that you are in his kingdom, right, we need to be careful that we do not consider our lives to be about climbing the ladder or doing all of these things that are good.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, even in that same passage where Paul is giving this general claim, he tells slaves, if you're able to get your freedom, you should take it.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: So it is not that we're to be lazy either, but rather we should have an understanding of this future state that we are in with Christ that affects our current state.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: Paul, if you are surprised, is still going to be connecting this back, though, to being single and being married.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: He's going to talk with those who are now engaged.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: The phrase back then would have been betrothed.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: This is the state that like Mary and Joseph were in, right, when she becomes pregnant with Jesus.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: Betrothed is like, um, if you turned our modern engagement up to 11, right?
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's not married just yet, but it's a pretty significant commitment, right?
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: Paul, though, says, now about virgins, I have no command from the Lord, but I do give an opinion as one who, by the Lord's mercy, is faithful.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because of the present distress, I think that it is good for a man to remain as he is.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: There's that phrase again.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Are you bound to a wife?
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: In this situation he's talking about, betrothed, do not seek to be released.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: Are you released from a wife?
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: Do not seek a wife.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: However, if you do get married, you have not sinned, and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: But such people will have trouble in this life, and I'm trying to spare you.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: Now you could take that, right?
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: That last verse.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: Paul sounds like some cynic of marriage.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: But that's not the case.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: We'll get to it in a moment.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: But he has he has a good case, and he's making a fair statement, right?
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: Now, verse 25, he says, I have no command from the Lord, but I do give an opinion as one who by the Lord's mercy is faithful.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: This has nothing to do with Paul's authority.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: Some people have taken this to be that, well, uh, you know, when we talk about inerrancy, meaning that the Bible is without error, that it is uh a verbal, plenary inspiration, that it is God's word, all of the Bible is, and that every word is divine.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: Some people would take this verse and say, well, obviously here Paul is talking about something that he says he doesn't have authority over.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: What Paul is saying is that Jesus did not talk about being single very often.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so he's treading into a category here that there is not divine revelation on already.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so Paul, as an apostle, understanding that he is the mouthpiece of Christ, is going to give something that is basically proverbial in its instruction.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: Meaning, like the book of Proverbs, it is wise.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: It is not a command for every single person.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: But basically he's saying, if you follow what I'm saying here, it is the wise choice.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: If you consider my words and understand where I'm coming from, he calls it an opinion, but he has the authority to give an opinion as the one who is speaking on behalf of God.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so, nevertheless, what is Paul's opinion?
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: Because of the present distress, I think that it is good for a man to remain as he is.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so here now we get specific with this command.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: Broadly, it was that your circumstances don't define you, but your relationship with God.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: And now Paul is going to get down into the weeds and he's going to talk about, though, those circumstances, the real situations for those who don't just, or for those who know that being married and being single is not some philosophical status, but it is a real experience and one that can often be fraught with difficulty.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: Are you bound to a wife?
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: Do not seek to be released.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says, don't take my comments about singleness and think that you can just, you know, exit all of your relationships.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: He's going to say later, he says, if you get married, which is the better choice for some people than being single, he says, There's no sin in that, and that is a good thing.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, after all, the marriage relationship reflects Christ's relationship with us.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's a beautiful thing, nothing to be ashamed of.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: So he says, if you're already heading down that path, and certainly if you have already made that commitment, he's like, this instruction is not to dissuade you from that.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: But if you're not in that path yet, if you are single, he says, perhaps consider not seeking a wife or a husband.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: If you do get married, you have not sinned.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: And if a virgin marries, she has not sinned.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Don't be troubled by this, but such people will have trouble in this life.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm trying to spare you.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: What is Paul talking about here?
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: It seems up to this point, almost as if he is taking this marital union, which in so many respects is uh the prevailing um identity of many Christians.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: Most Christians are married, and it seems like he's turning it on his head.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: What does he mean?
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: He's about to lose some people.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: He says, This is what I mean, brothers and sisters.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: The time is limited.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: So from now on, those who have wives should be as though they had none, those who weep as though they did not weep, those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice, those who buy as though they didn't own anything, and those who use the world as though they did not make full use of it.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: For this world and its current form is passing away.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: You might imagine if you were talking with Paul and you'd be like, hey, Paul, you seem to be saying stuff about marriage.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure I understand.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: And he's like, the current form is passing away.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: You'd be like, hmm, okay, yeah.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: The single guy, right, talking about marriage in this way.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: But remember, Paul has a point here.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: What is he talking about?
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: Paul is trying to lift us all up.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: He's trying to give us a better vantage point, right?
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: You might think, for example, let's say you were you were hiking out in the mountains and you you walked off the trail and you got lost, and uh you didn't have a map with you, and so you were looking at your surroundings, and you saw all the different paths that you could take, going through the woods, not really having a good idea of where to go.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: You you start walking down each of these paths individually, and then you double back.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: You want to see where they go, and then you go back to your spot.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: And once you might have examined every single one of them, taking a long time, then you might pick a path.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: Or you could go to the highest point in the land nearby, and you could survey the situation around you, and you could see from there, perhaps civilization, perhaps where the path was leading, before having to walk down it at all, and you might be able to pick the right path before walking down any of the wrong paths.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: Paul is lifting us up and he is elevating us.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: And the question that you're gonna have to ask yourself is Am I comfortable with the altitude?
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: Because he is going to take us up very high, up into almost the heavenly realms, where he is going to ask us to examine our relationships from an eternal perspective.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: He says, You are a temporal being.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: You are one who has an eternal soul, but is living a defined life here on earth, and that defined life is supposed to be lived in a certain way.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so Paul gives five different things that are supposed to be different.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: The time is limited.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: So from now on, those who have wives, as though they had none, those who weep, as though they did not weep, those who rejoice, as though they did not rejoice, those who buy as though they didn't own anything, and those who use the world as though they did not make full use of it.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: For in this world, its current form is passing away.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what he's not saying.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: Paul is not saying the end is coming tomorrow, Jesus' return is imminent, therefore you should completely alter the way you live your life because tomorrow we're done.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: Some people live with such a you might call a realized eschatology that they abdicate the responsibilities that they have in this life until Jesus does return.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: This was the problem with the Thessalonians, those in Thessalonica.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: Paul wrote to them in 1 Thessalonians and he tells them about the return of Christ.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: And then in 2 Thessalonians, he goes, wait, wait, wait, some of you like quit your jobs.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, What are you doing?
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, you've still got a life to live until Jesus returns.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: So Paul is not saying that Christ's return is imminent, right?
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: But it is eventual.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: It is coming, it is going to happen.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: And because of our knowledge of that future time, it affects how we live in the current time, or it should.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: So the five things.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: Those who have wives as though they had none.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: Also, what he's not saying.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't get divorced.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't leave your spouse.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: He's saying no, you have to understand the hard truth that was in Matthew.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: Whether you are engaged or you've been married.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: For 60 years, your marital relationship is going to last until death.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: And after that point, it will be as if you did not have a spouse.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: I know that's uncomfortable for some of you, but we have to understand that when we get to heaven, our relationship with Christ, and furthermore, our relationship with Christ now, it is an individual one.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: There are far too many people, husbands and wives, who have based their faith on their spouse's relationship with Christ.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: And for those in the audience who are uh, you know, middle schoolers and teenagers, as you're beginning to understand what it means to make your faith your own, you have to understand your faith is an individual faith.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: It is not the faith of your parents.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so we have to be living in our spiritual lives, right, as those who almost do not have a spouse if we are married.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: It does not mean we get to set aside the responsibilities that God has given husbands and wives, which are beautiful in their own right.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: But he says, hey, you must have your focus on the future.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, and you can kind of combine two and three, those who weep as those who did not weep, those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: There's a great temptation that we have, that we define this life by its joys and sorrows.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: That we decide that the way we are going to view this life and its success and failure is based upon the good things and the bad things that happen to us.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: And what Paul is saying here is if you can look beyond, for those who are married, the deepest personal relationship that you have, he's like, then you should be able to look beyond even the deepest joys and the highest the highest emotions that you have in this life.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: That your relationship with God now is beyond your joys and sorrows.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: It runs deeper even than that.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, Paul is taking us up to a very high place, and he says, the future is over there, and we're trying to walk this path together so that we get there.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: And when we get there, we're ready to be there.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: And there are some people who have started going on all these other paths because they don't realize what the future holds.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: It is deeper than your joys and your sorrows.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean that you're not supposed to have those deep emotions.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus wept, Jesus rejoiced.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: You can have deep emotions, and this life is about them because we live in a broken world that is uh interspersed with moments of glory.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: But nevertheless, we have to look ahead.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: For those who buy as though they didn't own anything, uh, as one commentator said, you must not be consumed by consuming.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: That there are some who view this consumerism and this materialism and the things that they possess and the things that they own as ends in and of themselves.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: And we're reminded once more that the things that you invest in in this life, right, ultimately they will perish.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: It is the things that are invested in eternity that will bring a great return.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: For a lot of you who are invested right now in this life, you know that things are perishing already.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: So this is an easy application to understand.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: But what Paul is saying here is that, again, remain as you are.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: Understand the things the way that they should be.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: Not that you quit buying groceries or you stop buying a wonderful present for yourself or someone else, as God would allow, or that you don't enjoy the fruits of labor, any of these things, but rather keep it in perspective.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: Fifth and finally, those who use the world as though they did not make full use of it.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: A rather confusing phrase which I can simply define is if you've ever had a surgery and your doctor has given you a heavy painkiller, it is good once a day, it is not good ten times a day.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: The world that we live in is to be used.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: We talk a lot about being distanced from the world, but we're not to remove ourselves from it.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: Once more, and you can finish almost the sentence for me.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: We live with the future in mind.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: So as we go now to our final passage, though, um, we're gonna bring all of these things together.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: Paul has talked about being single, he's talked about being married, he has talked about remaining as we are, yet having a focus on the future and allowing that to affect our relationships.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: But in this final passage, he is going to get the most specific about what it means in this life to make the intentional decision to be single or the intentional decision to be married.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: Then we'll talk about these things as we finish.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 32, I want you to be without concerns.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: The unmarried man is concerned about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: But the married man is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife, and his interests are divided.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: The unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the things of the Lord, so that she may be holy both in body and in spirit.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: But the married woman is concerned about the things of the world, how she may please her husband.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: I am saying this for your own benefit, not to put a restraint on you, but to promote what is proper, and so that you may be devoted to the Lord without distraction.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna finish out with that final verse, that we may be devoted to the Lord without distraction, but know that that is the reason that Paul has written everything up to this point.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna see he goes back and forth here multiple times, right?
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: He compares and contrasts the life of a single person who is living the way that God has called them to, versus the life of a married person.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, primarily, there is a difference in focus.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: He says, for those who are unmarried, they're able to focus on the things of the Lord, right?
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: They're able to focus on the things of the Lord.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: But to those who are married, they focus on the things of the world.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: The things of the world.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: These are the two contrasts that he makes.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: So now we get to Paul's what could be interpreted by some as a cynical statement when he says, those who are married, I'm just saying, be careful, I'm trying to help you avoid trouble.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: Well, this is the trouble he was talking about.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: He says, if you are living your married life the way that God has called you to live it, it means you are devoted to your spouse.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: You are living sacrificially for them.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: You potentially you have children that you were also then caring for.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul, who was single and was then also one who was shipwrecked, was whipped, was tortured, was stoned, experienced homelessness, and he was destitute, and was a traveling tent maker and was an itinerant evangelist moving around from country to country every few years.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I thank the Lord I didn't have to bring a wife and children along with me for all of that.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: Because he understands what would be of what would have been asked of him to care for them.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, I think, I don't feel like I'm going outside the text to say, Paul, when he says, I wish you could be like I am, he says, I am free to serve the Lord in a way that those who are married cannot.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: Now then we get to though those who are married.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: And he says that there's a difficulty here, that their interests are divided, right?
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: That they are not able to live with the future in mind.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: They are not able to live with a focus on things which are eternal, primarily, which is that the beautiful marital relationship, even in and of itself, is going to end one day.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: And they have not focused on their relationship with God or their service for God or the eternal things of God, but rather they are focused in the here and now.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: And while it is okay, as Paul says, to keep an eye on this world, he says we must keep another eye.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: Kind of look goofy.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: Got eyes going either way.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: Keep another eye, though, on the future.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: All of these things, as I've said, Paul is bringing up so that we may be devoted to the Lord without distraction.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: So here I want to finish with you.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I have a message for single people, I have a message for married people, and I have a message for everybody.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: So, if you're single, and that includes uh whether because you haven't done it intentionally or you are there despite your best efforts, uh that includes those who are single because they are perhaps um younger and haven't begun dating, single for those who have been dating for a while but aren't married yet, those who have been single for a long time, or those who are divorced and are currently single.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: This applies to every single one of you.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: I am sorry that the way that the world operates often makes you feel like a second-class citizen because you aren't married.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: I am sorry that singleness is not often seen as a viable option for how you should go through life, and you often feel so much pressure from people, oftentimes it's loving relatives, who are asking about your relationship status.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's not fair to you, and that's not biblical either.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: I can understand the care that somebody would have and wanting you to be able to experience the joy of a marital relationship, but I want you to hear the words of Paul when he says it is an intentional decision to be single, or it can be if you choose to make it that way, that it is something that can be a gift from the Lord, but and here's my big but you're supposed to use your situation and use your freedom and use the purity of loyalty that you have to serve God's kingdom.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean you need to become Mother Teresa, but it also doesn't mean that you need to use all of your freedom to just uh, as he says, make full use of life and abuse life.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: That there is a purpose behind it.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so if you're single this morning, and I know you often feel like we don't talk about singleness, I'm talking about singleness.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I want you to know, though, that there's a purpose behind it.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_00: You can have confidence in it, but you do have a mission.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: For those who are married, right, you understand perhaps what Paul is saying here better than others, and the longer you've been married, you probably understand what Paul is saying here better than others.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: When he says your interests are often divided, your life is more complex.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: Your life is you have financial and emotional and social worries that don't always affect those who are single.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: You have responsibilities that aren't always attached to those who are single.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so, because of that, you understand what it looks like when your attention becomes divided.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: And what Paul is saying here is that we must be so careful.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: We cannot lose sight, right, of the future for what is happening in the present.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_00: You must be able to sort of lift yourself up out of the situation and carry with you all the responsibilities that you have, by God's grace you have, and by the power of his spirit that you can still maintain and understand that there is something greater, which is your individual relationship with Christ.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so, with that, to the final piece, a message for every single person, which is you should be devoted to the Lord without distraction.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_00: Your relationship with Christ is more important than any other relationship in this entire world.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: Your obedience to Christ is more important than anything else that you could do in this world.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: The things that you spend your time on in this world for the Lord are more valuable and eternal than any other temporal thing that you can spend your time on.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: And there are a lot of people, Paul here in 1 Corinthians 7 is talking about relationships, but there are a lot of things that distract us from being devoted to the Lord holy.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: And if I can sort of kind of lay out the bumpers here for a moment, right?
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: We are supposed to be devoted to the Lord, but remember he also says, remain as you are.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_00: This is not dramatically changing your station in life in order to adopt these things.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_00: You can be devoted to the Lord without distraction wherever you are.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_00: You don't need to hit a certain plateau, you don't need to hit a certain level platform, a certain income status, a certain relationship status, a certain social or emotional status.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: You don't need to hit any milestone before you can say, I can have a relationship with the Lord.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: You can have it right now.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: But too many people do not consider their individual relationship with the Lord.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: They place their hope in other things that are not as important, even though they are still important, and because of that, they lose sight and they become blinded.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: So, be devoted to the Lord without distraction.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: As we turn together as a church to the Lord's table here, we're gonna have an opportunity to focus on these things, right?
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna step off for a moment, and I uh this is what I want you to reflect on, right?
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: Just the slide that you see, and if you wouldn't mind keeping this slide up there during the time of reflection, think about what it means to be devoted to the Lord without distraction.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_00: If you are single, think about what that means for your current life.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: Are you honoring him with your body and your spirit?
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: And if so, how can you be dedicating yourself to the ministry of God's work?
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_00: Not that everybody needs to come and work at a church, by no means, but that where you are, where God has planted you when he called you, how can you be devoted to him?
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: And if you are married, what are the distractions that you have in your life currently, and how can you be devoted to the Lord even more so?
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: How can you lift his relationship above the other relationships in your life so that you understand the importance of your specific, your individual, and eternal relationship with Christ?
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_00: Setting aside all of these other things.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_00: Let's reflect on that, and when I come back up, we'll take the Lord's Supper together.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_00: In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul says, For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_00: On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, This is my body which is for you.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_00: Do this in remembrance of me.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_00: For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_00: Would you bow your heads with me?
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, we proclaim your death until you come.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_00: And God, as we think about the future and your future coming, Lord, we ask that we would allow it to affect our lives now.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_00: God, not that we would change everything, but wherever you've called us, Lord, wherever you have assigned us, as you say, God, may we thrive there in our individual relationships with Christ.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: And Lord, I pray for those who are single that they might understand the purpose that you have for them.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, that they would understand what it means to live intentionally a single life.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_00: Father, if they eventually get married, that's their decision and one that, Lord, is certainly not a sin.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_00: But that in the time that they are single, God, that they would know what it means to have this singularity of purpose for your kingdom and find beauty in the freedom that they see there.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, for those who are married, I pray that we would be able to see our relationships in a healthy context.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_00: That it reflects, God, your love for us and how we treat our spouse.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: But yet that relationship is not eternal.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: Or at least the marital relationship is not eternal.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, what is eternal is our relationship with you.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I pray that you would help us to understand the importance of that and that we might live our lives in a way that reflects that.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_00: Father, finally, I pray that you would help us by the power of your spirit to remove from our lives any distractions that are keeping us from being able to follow after you.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_00: Father, you are good to us far better than we deserve.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you for the body and the blood of Jesus Christ that has saved us from our sins so that we might be able to have that relationship with you.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_00: God, we love you and we thank you.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's in Jesus' name we pray.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, everybody.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_00: Have a great week.