So it's good to be back here. We're going to continue in our study of 1 Corinthians today. And it's a great message, I think, from God's Word today, great truth in God's Word today that we'll be talking about. So let me pray and then we'll jump in here. Father in heaven, we come before your holy throne. We cry out to you just what we just sang, that really our whole lives would be centered on you. We would be driven to live the life you've called us to out of our love for you. Father, help us to love you with all of our heart, with all of our mind, with all of our soul, with all of our strength. Help us to become the followers of Christ you want us to be. Help us to push the world behind us and set our hearts and minds on things above, not on things of this world, and that we would be faithful and that we'd finish the fight well as well. So Lord, thank you and we just pray that you would speak to us through your word this morning and that you would change us from the inside out. In Jesus' name, amen. So let me set this up. Let me ask you this question. Where were you when God called you? Where were you when God saved you? Do you remember when you were saved? Where were you? What did life look like? Where did you live? What relationships were you surrounded by? Maybe you were married. Maybe you were single. Maybe you were incarcerated when you were saved. Maybe you were at one of the missions when you were saved. What kind of work were you doing? Can you remember back to what that was like? What was life like when you were first saved? What was your circles and all that? And I pray you were all saved. Amen. Yes. But the reason I ask you that, because the main point of this message is this this morning, is that there's a call. There's two types of calls on our life. There's a call to salvation. Good to see you Chandler, by the way. Are these your parents? Grandparents, praise God. Good to see you both. So there's this calling when we were saved, right? And then there's a calling to ministry after we're saved. You all know we weren't just saved so that when we die, we go to heaven, right? The only reason we're still here is because God has a work for us to do. So we were saved, we were called to salvation, and then we were called to a good work for the kingdom of God. And the message you're gonna see today that Paul's making, because see, the church in Corinth was, as any churches, they were confused, they were saved, and they're like, what should we do now? Should we be married? Should we be celibate? Should we be single? Should we all become missionary? Should we all quit our jobs? I mean, all these things are going on within the church of Corinth. And Paul's saying, slow down, stay faithful. Your first calling is your call to serve the Lord where you are. Are you good with that? That's the first place we're called to be ministers of the gospel is where we were saved. What was the environment? What were our relationships? Our neighbors, our co-workers, maybe incarcerated, whatever, we're supposed to first and foremost be faithful where we're called. Now let me qualify that. Does that mean God doesn't call us on to other places and other works and other ministries? No, it doesn't. But he's just saying here, first and foremost, stay faithful where you are and let God confirm and lead you into other works as he desires to. Does that make sense? All right, so let's open our Bibles. We'll get into this in the Word here. We're in 1 Corinthians 7. I'll see if I got my PowerPoint delivered, which I forgot to send to John. And John, thank you. He got it all put in here. So 1 Corinthians 7, 17 through 24, and Bobby's going to open the word for us this morning. So as Bobby's coming up, let me just remind you. So right before this, as Pastor Tyler taught, he's dealing with this issue of marriage, right? About stay with your spouse, even if she isn't an unbeliever and all that. Stay put within your marriage context. You don't need to be divorcing your spouse and becoming single and celibate and all that. Then he takes a break here to talk about a bigger picture of staying put. And then as Pastor Tyler will bring up next week, he gets back to the marriage context. So with that, please stand for the reading of God's word. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Good morning. We're in 1 Corinthians chapter 7, verses 17 through 24. Nevertheless, each person should live as a believer in whatever situation the Lord has assigned to them. Just as God has called them, this is the rule I lay down in all the churches. 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. Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God's command is what counts. Each person should remain in the situation they were in when God called them. Were you a slave when you were called? Don't let it trouble you, although if you, although if you can gain your freedom, do so. For the one who was a slave when called to faith in the Lord is the Lord's freed person. Similarly, the one who was freed when called is Christ's slave. You were bought at a price. Do not become slaves of human beings. Brothers and sisters, each person as responsible to God should remain in the situation they were in when God called them. This is the reading of the word from God. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Bobby. Appreciate it, brother. So I want to set a little bit more of the historical context for you. And the Church of Corinth and really all the churches that were planted at that time were a beautiful picture of God's grace and mercy. It's an incredible thing because you see people of all different types were coming together and living within unity of the body. I mean, it was unheard of. The Romans were very prideful people. The Greeks were very prideful people. And they would only typically associate with their own kind. So if you were a Greek, you only associated with Greeks. If you were Roman, you only associated with Romans. And if you were a Jew, you only associated with Jews. Are you with me on this? And then even with each of those tribes, those nationalities, there was a class system that was established. So the wealthy associated with the wealthy, the poor with the poor, and so on. So it was a very separated class-driven system. But the beauty is Christ came and destroyed all that. He destroyed all that. And because we all know at the cross, the ground is level. And he was calling people into a saving relationship from all these different people groups and all these different classes. And they were being united together in one body within what was called the church. Isn't that beautiful? And so that's what's going on. And all these people are living together and worshiping together. and being this body that God called them to be. And we saw it with Jesus himself. If you look at the gospels, he ministered to anybody and everybody. He didn't have any distinctions of who he shared the gospel with. He talked to men and women, rich and poor, people in deep sin, prostitutes, tax collectors. He shared the gospel with the Roman centurion. He shared the gospel with whoever God the Father brought across his path. And so that was the beginning of this whole thing called the church. But what we're seeing here, brothers and sisters, is that because God was doing this miraculous work of bringing this body together in unity, Satan was attacking. See, Satan will attack whatever God wants to bring together. Now, where would you think the first place that Satan attacks within the Christian world? Marriage, I heard marriage. Within the marriage, that's the first place he attacks. Where God loves marriage and loves that sacred covenant that he designed before the fall, he loves marriage, he loves that unity, he loves that, In fact, he created a marriage before he created the church, amen? Yeah, so as you're learning from Pastor Tyler and the creation story, so he comes after and he wants to break up marriages as much as possible. And he'll use anything he can to destroy marriages. Anger, jealousy, revenge, monies are big things that destroy marriages, worldliness, adultery, right? So he attacks the marriage. That's going on in the church in Corinth, but that's going on in the church today. And the second place he attacks is the church itself. He doesn't like when a group of believers get together with all different backgrounds and worship the King of King and the Lord of Lords. He just doesn't like that. So he attacks the church, and what we see exactly going on in Corinth is that he's trying to break up the church by some people believing you should be married, some people believing you should be single, some people think that you should all become Jews, you should all become Gentiles through circumcision or uncircumcision. All the slaves should be free, everybody should be united under this class system. And so he's attacking the church in all these different ways, trying to get the church to break apart. And we know what he's doing is as he brings up these little seeds and these lies within the church, he wants all the people in the church to look up or down upon each other. Are you with me? It's elevating self or looking down on someone or actually elevating yourself and being full of pride. And so if you can get this dynamic going on, this sinful dynamic within a church, you will have division. And he loves, by the way, here's a warning to us all, he loves when we whisper behind each other's backs. Do you know what, did you see what he got? Did you see what she's doing? Did you see, you know, all those whispers are just, you're just being Satan's mouthpiece to create division within the body of Christ. If you have anything to say about anybody in the body of Christ, it should be encouraging words to help each other live the life he called us to. Don't fall into that. And the goal of that, of course, is to divide us. So that's what's going on in the church of Corinth So let's get into the scriptures here. You can picture that now. So here's the first thing. He said, by the way, he's going to say this three times in this text, the same truth. It says, nevertheless, each person should live as a believer in whatever situation the Lord has assigned to them, just as God has called them. And listen to this. This is the rule I lay down in all the churches. Do you see that? He lays this down in all the, this isn't a specific teaching for the Corinth. A church, it's a teaching for all the churches, including the Oasis. So let me just kind of talk to you about this a little bit. Just like in Corinth, what happens when someone is saved, quite often people think that they should become full time vocational ministry people. Are you with me with this? OK, you know what? I need to quit my job. I need to go to Bible college. I need to become a Bible counselor. Anybody hear these before? You know, just because you're saved doesn't mean you're called to full-time vocational ministry. Are you okay with that? In fact, let me put it this way. Very few of us are called into vocational ministry. It's to be faithful where you're at. So for most people, when they're saved, the first place of ministry is where? In the home, thank you, Demetrius, it's in the home. You all know, I've shared my testimony, the first five years of my salvation was the hard work of saving my marriage and training my kids. That's where God called me for the first five years of my salvation, because my family was a mess, which is all on me. But for most people, that's what happens when you get saved. It's repairing the marriage and repairing, instructing your children, right? And then for most people, when they're saved, which is what this text is about, is this a call to be the ambassador for Christ where you are. If you're incarcerated, if you're at the mission, wherever you worked and lived, that is the place where God wants you to be the ambassador for Jesus Christ. Most of us are gap people. Gap people are the people that stand between the gap of those that are vocational ministers and the lost. And we have much more access to the lost in our lives than those that are in full-time ministry. Does that make sense? What my mentor told me is we're good for nothing. The gap people, Tyler's paid to be good. Sorry. Yes, so this is the rule for all the churches. And then he gets into some specific examples here that I'll share with you. And just some detail, then we'll get in some good application here. It says, so here's one of his applications for the Corinthians. 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. So here's Satan coming in and attacking the church, trying to divide Jew and Gentile. And see, some of the Gentile Christians were saying, you Jews should be uncircumcised because that would give you a bigger audience for the gospel, right? And by the way, they had a medical procedure for the Jews to reverse circumcision. I don't have any slides for you. Praise the Lord. Yes, thank you. But I'm sorry, that was rated R. I shouldn't have said that. I remember I'm a little tired. I said a little grace today. Yes, I am. But I just want you to, but there was a medical procedure. I looked up this in the historical lab. They had a medical procedure and some Jews were getting uncircumcised so they could fit within the Greek culture for worldliness because that's where the money was. And you'd say, well, how in the world would it matter if someone was circumcised or uncircumcised? You got to remember historical context, they didn't have running water. So these big cities would have the Romans would bring the aqueducts in so they had common bathhouses for men and common bathhouses for women. So the men would hang out in the bathhouse and their bathhouse. And so everybody would know if you were circumcised or uncircumcised. Do we need to get any deeper than that? So the identity was some of the Jews were being tempted to be uncircumcised so that they could be more successful within the Roman Greek culture. But here in the church, they were using that same push to say, listen, you should get uncircumcised so you have a bigger audience for the gospel. On the other hand, how Satan works, the Jews are telling the Gentiles, no, no, no, no, we shouldn't be uncircumcised, you should be circumcised. I mean, come on, we're the chosen nation. We're the ones that God gave the law. We're the ones that had the temple. We're the ones that have the promises of God. You got to align with us better. So you should all be circumcised. So it's a division going on. And so what does he say? He says, circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God's commandment is what counts. Now Paul's not saying for the Jews that the command for circumcision is nothing. He's saying that these externals that you're focusing on, don't get lost in the externals of identity and circumcision and uncircumcision. Don't get lost in this identity of Jew and Gentile. The reality is, is that our focus, our identity is only found in Christ, yes, God, and Jesus Christ. Don't get identified with all these different little sects and subgroups within the church. You have to be identified. We are all Christ followers. And the Word of God, we need to obey all the Word of God and not get stuck on this identity issue of Jew and Gentile. And so he goes back to this for the second time now, the same kind of a statement is that each person should remain in the situation they were in when God called them. Each one should remain in the condition in which he was called. So if you were circumcised when you're saved, be faithful where you were called. If you were uncircumcised, stay faithful where you were as a Gentile and share the gospel where you're at as well. Why do you think that's so important? Why is it so important that we are faithful where we're called? Because we have a greater platform for ministry. I mean, trust me, no Jew is gonna be listening to any teaching from a Gentile in those days. In fact, if a Gentile went into a Jewish house, the house was considered to be defiled. The best person to share the gospel with a Jew was a Jew. They would receive them. Another reason it was better for a Jew to share the gospel with other Jews is because they knew what we call the Old Testament. They knew the Word of God. The Gentiles didn't know that. They didn't have that platform to share with a Jew how the prophecies in the Old Testament were clearly the coming of the Messiah was Jesus Christ, that he was to be crucified, and all the rest of the truth from the Old Testament. So he's saying, Jews, don't try to become great, don't become uncircumcised so you can talk to the Gentiles. Be faithful to where you're called and share the gospel with the Jews. And the Gentiles, the same thing. I mean, the Gentiles are coming out of horrendous sin patterns, prostitution and all the rest of the stuff we've already talked about. And so they're going to go talk to a Gentile about, hey, listen, I lived in that life. I did the drugging and the drinking and the sexual immorality. I know what that type of lifestyle promises. And it will fail you every time. It will never deliver the peace you're looking for. So they have a great platform to talk to the Gentiles about why they should leave their lifestyles, why they should repent and confess their sins and turn their lives over to Jesus Christ. You with me? Alright. So he's trying to get them unified in the gospel. So what about you? What's your place of ministry? What are the people, groups around you that you should be sharing the gospel with? We have to think about that. Do people in your circles even know that you're a believer? Do they see in you the hope, the joy, the peace, the love that they're looking for? That's the question. You know, I'll tell you just a kind of a funny testimony. You know, when I was first saved, you guys all know I own a business. And when I was first saved, when I was 32, so it was 30 years ago now, I just automatically thought I had to sell my business. I didn't think a Christian could own a business. I know it sounds silly, but I just didn't think that. And I thought that I should go on the missionary field. That should make you all laugh. And so I went and talked to some very wise believers in our church from the marketplace, and they said, we don't want to insult, you know, I was still full of pride because I was a new believer, but I don't want to insult you, but what in the world would you do on the mission field? You don't even know the Bible. You got to go teach them plastics engineering? And they brought this truth to mind, be faithful where you're at. And the reality is why it was so important to me is see, I had relationships with my employees, my customers, my vendors, they knew who I was, and they were seeing the changes in my life, praise God. And so now I could go start talking to them. I had relationships where I could start talking to them about what happened to me, my testimony, and invite them to Bible studies. And four of my employees joined me for a Bible study. We met at Harner's every Friday morning for five years. And two of them got saved and two did not. Two got religious, two got saved. But, and there's many others that got saved because I was faithful where God had called me. Does that make sense? Good thing I didn't go on the mission field. So that's the first one. Let's go on to this other one. He says, when you were a slave, when you were a slave, when you were called, don't let it, let me say this again. Were you a slave when you were called? Don't let it trouble you. Do you see that? Now, I think in their culture, in our culture, this can be a little offensive. What do you mean, don't let it bother you that I'm a slave, right? I mean, the God of the universe, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords has set me free and adopted me as a child. How can you say it's okay if I remain in slavery? So I'm gonna get into something here with you a little bit. You all heard of social justice? I would think so. Kind of a big deal in our time. This is a social justice issue of the time, right? All the slaves should be set free. Is that a good thing for slaves to be set free? Yeah, the scripture says so. Although if you can gain your freedom, do so. It'd be a good thing for you to be free. But he's, now let me ask you this, we're gonna, don't let me run out of here till I get through this whole message. So is Jesus for social justice? I would say that he, his plan is bigger and better than social justice. His plan is much bigger and better than social justice. Because here's the problem, social justice is a counterfeit. Sorry, it's a counterfeit. It will never satisfy. And let me give you an example why it won't satisfy. Let's say everybody in this world has the same education, is given the same income, and lives in the same homes. Can you picture that? Would we all then get along? What's the problem? What's the problem? Well, but there's a bigger problem. Our hearts, we're all still sinners. So here we are, we all get the same paycheck. We all have the same education. We're all living in the same size house. We're all driving the same cars. We're all wearing the same clothes. Maybe some of those spacesuits you see in the future movies. But the problem is we're all sinners. So guess what? I'm still gonna covet my neighbor's wife. I'm gonna wanna have a little more than you so I might steal from you. It doesn't create the utopia that you would think social justice would. So Jesus has a better plan. It's a bigger plan. Did Jesus overthrow Rome? Did he desire to overthrow Rome to create social justice? Did he ever say we need to set all the slaves free? No, he didn't do any of that because his plan's bigger and better than social justice. And by the way, if you look at the history of the world, whenever some culture believed they could set up this social justice issue, this uniformity of provision and care for mankind, they always failed. And you know why they failed? One is what I just told you is that we're all still sinners and we can't live under that. But the second thing, the people in the government that are ruling these things become corrupt and they all become Dictators. And when the people come in thinking they're all gonna get the same thing and they're gonna have more freedom, what actually happens in the history of the world is these people that come under these cultures actually have less freedom and more persecution under these dictators. Look at Venezuela. You can look at countries that are going through it right now. They're starving to death because they believe that if the government took over everything and they would provide for the people, then we'll all be happy and live happily ever after. It doesn't work. Because it's a country run by sinners, filled with sinners, and they all rebel against it. But thankfully, Jesus has a better plan. And by the way, you know why we're drawn to social justice? You know why we're drawn to living in a world of utopia? Because that's what we were created to live in. We were created to live in heaven, in the presence of God. And the only picture we get of a micro picture of this world is the church. You know, look at the early church. The early church was these believers coming together, rich, poor, Greek, Roman, Jew, all different, kind of like the oasis, the melting pot of all these people types. And they were all meeting together daily, sharing meals together daily. And those that were in need, the ones that had excess, were selling what they had to provide those who had needs. Isn't that beautiful? That's God's way. It's not... It's thy kingdom come to earth as it is in heaven. He wants us to bring his kingdom to this world to show that yes, utopia is possible even amongst a group of sinners through what he's created the church by the Spirit of God through the Word of God. You okay with all this? Let me just prove it to you a little bit more. Jesus said, here's a picture of Jesus before Pilate. My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders, but now my kingdom is from another place. He says, I didn't come over here to create this utopia on this fallen world. Otherwise, my followers would rebel and we would overthrow Rome. Could Jesus overthrow Rome? He had the angelic army with him. He could overthrow Rome, he could overthrow anything he wanted to, but he said, that's not my way of bringing utopia to the world. A perfect world. Because what did Jesus know is that nothing lasts from outside behavioral reform and forced reform within the people. Are you with me on that? See, and Ephraim already noted the point. What we need is changed hearts. That's the only thing that's gonna change the world is changed hearts. So how about this? Have you ever had any New Year's resolutions? Oh, I'm gonna start eating healthy. I'm gonna start walking 10,000 steps. I'm gonna start reading more, right? And how long do those last? January 2nd, maybe 3rd, I don't know. They don't last because you're trying to force behavior. But if we have changed hearts, see, Jesus says, I want to change the world, not from external laws and pressures of political systems. I want to change the world through changed hearts as people are born again and become followers of Jesus. Did it work? I already told you. You saw it in the early church. By the way, I praise God it happens in this church. There's a lot of that going on you don't all know about. People are getting cars, people are getting licenses back, people are getting medical bills paid, people are getting education paid for. There's a lot of needs in this church that are being dealt with through this body. And I'll tell you, I praise God that we have a church that has real needs. The other church that I went to before this, when we gave money, they would buy a new espresso machine, or we'd open up a new donut shop, or whatever we did in that other church, or buy new big leather couches that nobody sat on. The good thing is here is when we give this church, we meet practical needs of a body. It's awesome. It's a picture of the church. And that's the world that Jesus wants us to embrace. For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost. That is what Jesus's ministry is. It isn't external reform. It's a miraculous work of transformation through people becoming new creations in Christ. No political system will ever change the world. How about this? Have you ever seen the change of the world through one believer? How one believer's impacted the world? Have you seen that in your own life? How about how you've changed, how you have impacted the world through your salvation? Just imagine if thousands of people get saved, what would happen to the world from a social justice standpoint? How about this? By far, by far, do you know this, that hospitals, Most hospitals, most orphanages, most missions, most prison ministries, most feeding of the poor, most saving of the unborn, all comes through Christians, not the government. Not the government. Christians build hospitals, Christians build orphanages, Christians build rescue missions, Christians build Wayside Cross and Lifespring. It's Christians. It's the change from the inside drives the outside, and that's how the world changes. Don't be deceived. Don't believe a counterfeit. We all want to change the world. You want to change the world? Start, what's the third verse on here? Jesus' great commission was, I want all of you to get involved in political organizations. I want you to start stapling signs on sticks and attending all the protests. No, He says, go and share the gospel with all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you. That's how you change the world, is through the gospel. Are you okay with that? Do we stand up against injustice in our culture? Yes, we do. Of course we stand up in injustice. Should we be fighting to save the unborn? Yes, we should be fighting, and we do. But you have to remember the big picture. He's saying, don't be focusing on your slavery alone. If you can get free, it's great. But the reality is 50% of the population at that time was in slavery. Who's going to share the gospel with them? Other slaves will. He said, so you know what? We need some of you guys to kind of hang in there. If you can get free, do so. But if not, we've got a great work for you to do. Start sharing the gospel with the other slaves. OK. It just it just breaks my heart to see people deceived about what the cause of their life should be. So he continues here. He desires them to be free. Says the verse 24 for the one who was a slave when called to faith in the Lord is the Lord's freed person. Similarly, the one who was free when called in Christ is Christ slave. You see that? Let me just share you a few real testimonies about people that focused on the right thing and they were faithful where they were called. These are real examples of people. Two car mechanics were saved. Two car mechanics. Jimmy's being, no, I'm just kidding, Jimmy, I won't pick on you. But one believed after he was saved that being a car mechanic was a meaningful task and below him as a Christian. And he wanted to go on to do other things. Are you with me on this? The other car mechanic that was saved believed that this was the place he should stay. This was his place of ministry. And this car mechanic lived in a small town, and what he studied, what he memorized, what he meditated on was the Proverbs. And he became one of the wisest men in this little town. And all the people would bring their cars in to get their cars fixed by this car mechanic. But the reality is they couldn't wait to talk to him about their life problems, their life challenges, their life issues, because they knew he was one of the wisest men in the entire town. Do you see the difference? He saw his place to be faithful where he was called. Another one is two janitors were saved. Same kind of situation. And we have a man that wants to be a janitor here this morning. Where's my brother at? There he is. He just got promoted to a janitor. You too? Yeah, this brother right here. He just talked to me. He's grateful. He's looking forward. This is calling on his life. And Otis is here, too. Isn't Otis here? Otis is another one that found that out. But this one man said, this is below me. I'm not going to be cleaning up other people's messes now that I'm a child of God. This other janitor said, no, this is my calling. This is my place of ministry. He worked in this big, tall office building. And he'd be working there in the evenings. And a lot of the young executives have to work late at night because they're trying to get ahead in the world. This janitor was just humming along, you know, singing the songs and just cleaning up. And these young executives, all stressed out, trying to get ahead. And they eventually asked him, he said, hey, I don't get it. You know, I'm an executive, you're a janitor, and you have more joy than I have. That gave him the platform. He would share the gospel with these people. A lot of them came to Christ. He had huge Bible studies. And a lot of these young executives finally found the peace they were looking for. Third one, two teachers. These two teachers were saved, and the one teacher says, I can't work within this oppressive, controlling public school system. I mean, they won't let me do anything. I'm going to leave and go work at a Christian school. Another teacher said, no, I feel this is my calling. Even with all the hand-tying and restrictions, she stayed in that school. She prayed for her students, and many students came to her and talked to her, and she shared the gospel and prayed for them, and they received Jesus Christ. The other one had to go work in those Christian schools with all those spoiled kids. I'm kidding. My kids went to my kids' Christian school, too, for a while. They're very good. Believe me, if it's public versus Christian, hands down, I wouldn't have my kids in the public school. Sorry. Business owners. This one business owner got saved and did what I almost did. He sold his business and went into vocational ministry, and it didn't go so well. It didn't go so well because that really wasn't God's calling on his life. Now don't get me wrong. I know some other business people, including William Thrasher, who left the marketplace that went on. God had called them into full-time ministry. But this other one did not, did the same thing. He started witnessing to employees, customers, vendors. Some of his employees got saved. He started Bible studies and there was a whole change in the corporate culture by him staying there and being faithful to his call. And Al's one of those guys too. So anyway, my point is be faithful where we are. I think you got the point. And then he goes on here for, he said, the one who was a slave when called to faith in the Lord is the Lord's freed person. Similarly, the one who was freed when called as Christ's slave. What's the point of that? Just stay with me for a few more minutes. Am I working you hard today? Okay, so he says, truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever. The son remains forever. So if the son sets you free, you'll be free indeed. So what is he saying? You were bought with a price. We were all born into slavery, amen? Slavery to Satan, slavery to sin, slavery to self, amen? And that's what he's talking about. He said, so no matter where your vocation is, or your place in life, or your education, or your tribe, or whatever else, you were in a deeper slavery than ever before. You were saved. Right? And I've set you free from that. And he said, stop looking at your, don't be deceived that nothing in the world will free you from slavery. We all know that. Amen. Did we go to things of the world to set us free? It never works. It never sets us free. He said, only the son sets you free, then you'll be free indeed. It's only through the gospel of Jesus Christ that we are truly set free. And he says, don't look at your standing in the world. Look at your standing in heaven. Are you with me on that one? Don't be so horizontal. It's meaningless. The reality is that you've been set free by Jesus Christ. You're a child of God, an ambassador for Jesus Christ, and you have a great work to do, and that is your primary identity, not janitor, not teacher, not car mechanic, not business owner. It's a child of God, an ambassador for Jesus Christ. I think that's enough. Looking at my notes. Do you have enough for this morning? And he closes with this last part. Third time he said the same thing. Brothers and sister, each person as responsible to God should remain in the situation they were when God called them. So here's my application or challenge to you. Are you faithful where God called you? Are you ashamed of Jesus? Jesus said, if you're ashamed of me on earth, I'll be ashamed of you in heaven. Just preaching at this memorial service, I used a verse that we studied on Easter, but he says, I don't want you to have the grief that others do that have no hope. Do you know that people are dying and they're facing eternal death and damnation? Doesn't that break your heart? Doesn't that grieve you? And so there's circles of people around you that have never heard the gospel. And they don't even know you're a Christian. I'm not saying it's true for you, but it could be true for you. Share the gospel with those around you. Thank you. I love you all. You know that, right? I love you. Yeah, let's pray. Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for your Word. It is so good. It is so satisfying to our souls. We pray that we would take these truths away. I pray that each one of us would just be determined, determined and diligent to be better witnesses in this lost world, in the circles of people around us, workers, neighbors, roommates, whatever it is, Lord, help us to be faithful to share the gospel and be the gospel. We love you, Lord Jesus. In your name we pray, amen.