Good morning, it's good to be with you again. As Tom said, to those of you whom I haven't met, my name is Nathan Barzee, and I'm a pastor at Christ the King Church out in Newton. Can I ask you to stand up once more for the reading of God's Word? Our passage this morning is from Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 7, verses 17 to 24. But as God has distributed to each one, as the Lord has called each one, so let him walk. And so I ordain in all the churches. Was anyone called while circumcised? Let him not become uncircumcised. Was anyone called while uncircumcised? Let him not be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing. But keeping the commandments of God is what matters. Let each one remain in the same calling in which he was called. Were you called while a slave? Do not be concerned about it, but if you can be made free, rather use it. For he who is called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord's freedman. Likewise, he who is called while free is Christ's slave. You were bought at a price. Do not become slaves of men. Brethren, let each one remain with God in that state in which he was called. This is the word of the Lord. Have a seat and let's pray once more before we come to this passage. Father in heaven, you are good to us, you are gracious to us, and not least in the fact that you have revealed yourself to us and have given us your word that week after week we might sit underneath it and that you, Holy Spirit, might be at work through it. Lord, that is our prayer this morning, that you would send your spirit into this place. And we pray that with boldness and with confidence because it is a thing that you have promised to do. Jesus, you said before you went to your father that it was actually good that you go because you would send the comforter, you would send the advocate, you would send the Holy Spirit to remind us of everything that you taught. Your word promises that it never goes out and then returns to you without accomplishing its purpose. And so, Father, we pray that you would accomplish your purpose with us this morning as we attend to your word. I pray, Lord God, that the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts would be acceptable in your sight. Oh, Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen. Well, so in Newton, we've been doing a series this summer in Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, and we've gotten to chapter 7. And if you're familiar with 1 Corinthians, you might know that 1 Corinthians 7 is one of the hardest chapters in the Bible. It is one in which Paul deals with questions about being married and being single, with being divorced, with being widowed, with being married, to those who have walked away from the faith. In other words, he deals with some of the most personal and even some of the most painful topics in all of scripture. It is really good. It is really good that the Bible talks about things like this. so that we know that God's word addresses the realities of the lives that we actually live. Having said that, most of the chapter, I would be very reluctant to preach as a guest preacher, because I don't know your stories as well as I think I need to, to preach most of these texts. Maybe with the exception of this one, right in the middle. Right in the middle, Paul actually puts his main point, he actually puts the kind of general principle that he's trying to work out in the rest of the chapter. And even though he's not in this section talking about matters of sexuality or marriage or divorce, he is nonetheless getting right to the heart of the matter. See, in this chapter, he's responding to a letter that the Corinthians had written to him. If you look back at verse 1 of chapter 7, he says, now concerning the things of which you wrote to me. So he's now responding to a letter. And most scholars think that the rest of that verse, it is good for a man not to touch a woman. Most scholars think that that's a quote from their letter. A lot of translations will actually put quotation marks around it. Paul is responding to what they said to him. It is good for a man not to touch a woman. And in most of the chapter, he practically works through questions pertaining to sexuality and marriage and gives pretty much a qualified no to that statement. He basically says, that's not quite right. There might be circumstances, but that's not a general principle for Christians. But here, in verses 17 to 24, He digs beneath the surface and he gets at the question underneath the question. Because see, what the Corinthians are suggesting to him, the Corinthian church, we know for the rest of the letter, was really into being seen as being wiser than other people, being more spiritual than other people. What they're suggesting when they say, it is good for a man not to touch a woman. What they're saying is, listen, real Christians are past all of this physical stuff, right? They're past all of this sexuality stuff. Marriage is an earthly matter, and we're past all that, right? They're suggesting to him that there are circumstances that are holier than others. There are ways of living life that are holy. There's a way of living life that real Christians, the holy ones, will pursue. And right here in the center of the chapter, Paul addresses that directly when he says, in fact, there are no circumstances that are holier than others. Every Christian is called Every Christian has a calling from God. What Paul is gonna say in these verses is that whether or not you are called as a Christian, whether or not you are living your life as a real Christian doesn't depend on the circumstances of your life. On the contrary, you can serve God. You can live as a Christian. You can live a fully faithful life, as you're called, from any circumstances. The only thing that depends on your circumstances is how that service plays out, how that life plays out. And Paul is going to say it can work in any set of circumstances. So let's take a look at this. Paul in verse 17 lays out the general principle. He says, "...as God has distributed to each one, as the Lord has called each one, so let him walk. And so I ordain in all the churches." This reference to all the churches is In some ways, a little bit of a dig at the Corinthians. You get the sense from this letter that they think they're kind of special, that they're kind of unique. And it's kind of his way of saying, listen, you're not unique. You're not unique in that I'm saying this to you, because I say this to all the churches, and you're also not unique in needing to hear it. He talks here about walking as the Lord has called each one. So let me pause here and ask, how do you think about what you are doing with your life? How do you think about how to decide what to do with this life that God has given you? Most of us at some point in our lives have been asked, what do you want to be when you grow up? And some of us, even as old as we are, are still trying to figure that out. What do I want to do with my life? You listen to the world around you, you get all kinds of different advice. You should think about doing something that will bring you security, a stable income, something you can make a living. something maybe that is fulfilling to you, something that's challenging, right, that uses your talents. Maybe it's something that'll bring you fame or fortune or prestige or status, right? Those are the kinds of things that we tend to hear and tend to think about. It's not very often that we use the language of being called. Or, if we do use that language, because it hasn't gone away completely, you do sometimes hear about people having a calling, right? But in what context do you tend to hear that? Usually it's people who might be called to full-time ministry. Or maybe it's a calling to an artistic pursuit. You'll hear that kind of language sometimes. Artists, other uniquely talented individuals are said to have a calling. Have you, have each of you, Has everyone in this room ever considered that every single one of you, by virtue of being a Christian, is called into a particular life? And I want to be clear that in talking about being called, I am not just talking about your job. I'm not just talking about paid employment. Paid employment might be one of your columns. But there is all kinds of unpaid and vital work. Raising children, caring for aging parents, being a neighbor, being a friend or a roommate, all the different relationships. But most of us actually have multiple colleagues in our lives. But have you ever thought about that idea? that these places where God has put you are, in fact, the colonies. We live right now in such an exceedingly mobile culture. We probably have more freedom to choose what we will do with our lives than any culture, than any society has ever had before. And so this is a really important question for us. How do we think about what to do with our lives? How do we think about how it is that God has called us? Verse 17, I actually like this translation here in the Pew Bibles you've got here, the New King James. I really like how it talks about how God has distributed to each one and has called each one, because it really gets at this idea, which is definitely in the Greek, in the text, that the calling is both universal, every Christian has a calling, but this idea of distributing or sort of parceling out gets at the idea that the calling on your life is particular to you. It's similar to the way later in the letter, Paul's going to talk about the body of Christ having many members, many different gifts. They're all different, but they're all essential. Something similar is going on here. So how do you think about this? So one very famous way of thinking about calling, there was a German theologian named Friedrich Bichner, who the quotes that he gave, he said, the place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet. That's not bad. That's not bad. That gets at the idea of, you know, one of the ways that God calls you is you look at, you know, what am I drawn to? What do I love to do? And what does the world need? And where do those intersect? And others, you know, kind of building off that idea have added in There's what you love to do. There's what the world needs There's also what you're good at and then sometimes what you love to do what you're good at those aren't necessarily the same things Then there's also what do you actually have the opportunity to do? Which to be blunt about it could mean what will someone pay you for? and You know, and sort of the sweet spot, the sweet spot is if you can get like the intersection of that Venn diagram, you know, something that you love and you're good at it, someone will give you a job and the world needs it. You find all four of those things and you say, ah, there's my calling. That sounds great. And if you land there, if you find that, give glory to God, give thanks. You are one of the fortunate few. Because I want you to know, not everyone gets that. Not everyone gets all four of those. And many might have that at some point, but it won't last. One of the things that we're going to see as we look at how Paul works this out with his two examples, circumcision and slavery, is the idea that every Christian is called and called into what you are doing, where God has put you. But that doesn't mean that you are locked in to just one thing for your entire life. And that's a really important point. The basic point, just to return back to what Paul is saying to the Corinthians, the basic point that Paul is saying here in response to their idea that surely there are circumstances, there's a way of living life that is holier than others, they suggested, you know, without marriage, without sex, right? His response to that is, no, no, no, no. Any set of life circumstances, wherever you find yourself, God can use that. And God is calling you to serve him in some way from those circumstances. So your question, the question you should be asking yourself, at least in the short term, the immediate term, is not how do I change my life circumstances? It's how is God calling me to serve him from right here where I am now? He uses two examples to work this out. He talks about circumcision. He talks about slavery. Why does he bring up circumcision? So, in his day and age, circumcision could be socially advantageous or disadvantageous. In a pagan society, and this is probably the context for the Corinthians, they're in a very gentile, pagan culture, being circumcised could be socially disadvantageous. There would be an incentive to cover up the fact that you had been born a Jew and that you were circumcised. Now, we also know from a lot of the New Testament that there were many people who were teaching that in order to be a real Christian, since Jesus was the Jewish Messiah, being a real Christian meant becoming Jewish, like all the way, including being circumcised. And so, both of those ideas, you know, there could be pressures to be circumcised, to not be circumcised, and Paul is simply saying it doesn't matter. Now, Paul was raised a Jew, Paul was raised a Pharisee, you know, he's not going to say that circumcision is completely meaningless. But with regard to your status before God, with regard to whether you're living a faithful Christian life, with regard to whether you're actually a Christian, Circumcision doesn't mean anything. What he says is that what matters is keeping the commandments of God. That might sound a little strange. After all, wasn't circumcision a commandment of God? Why is he saying that one is meaningless and yet keeping the commandments of God is what matters? And the reason is that for Paul, obedience to God doing what he says, following his word, he doesn't equate that with works of the law, like circumcision. For Paul, obedience, faithfulness to what God says is always the fruit of salvation, not the means to it. It's the inevitable result of being a Christian, not the way that you get in. One of my favorite places in the Bible that talks about this that we will be singing later, Psalm 78. It talks about the reason that we tell these stories to our kids. This is right at the beginning of Psalm 78. The reason that we tell our children these stories is so that they will set their hope on God and not forget the works of the Lord but obey all of his commandments, right? And it's in that order. Set your hope on God. Don't forget what he has done for you. And then you'll be able to obey, right? It's not the other way around. It's not you obey and then God cares for you. It's he's cared for you first. And on that basis, you can obey. Paul goes on now to talk about freedom and slavery. It needs to be said that the slavery that he's talking about here is not at all slavery the way it was practiced in this country. He is not here talking about chattel slavery as it was practiced for hundreds of years in the West, where people were treated as property, Two ways that we know that. One is that he mentions the idea of being able to attain your freedom, which would not have been an option under child slavery. And the other is simply that scripture rules out freedom. that form of slavery, again and again and again. It's throughout scripture. I'll just mention two texts quickly. One, in Paul's letter to Timothy, he gives one of those lists of people that will not inherit the kingdom of God. These lists sort of show up in different places. And in 1 Timothy 1, he includes enslavers in that list. The other one I'll mention is that in Deuteronomy, this is interesting. In the law given in Deuteronomy, theft is never a capital offence. The restitution for theft is always you have to give back what you stole or give back the value or twice the value or something like that. It's never a capital offence with one exception, and that's kidnapping. If you steal a person, that's a capital offence. And chattel slavery, as it was practiced in this country and throughout the West for hundreds of years, depended on stealing people from their homes, from their families. So this is not what Paul is talking about. What Paul is talking about was the more common practice in the Roman world, where people would sometimes have to sell themselves into slavery, or they might become a slave by being taken captive in a conflict. But they did have the opportunity to work or buy their way out of it. Verse 20. is as close as Paul gets to saying that simply you should stay as you are or stay as you were when you were called. So verse 20, he says, let each one remain in the same calling in which he was called. Thankfully, we know right away that he doesn't mean that you cannot change your circumstances because he gives this exception. If you have the opportunity to become free, avail yourself of that. I'm really thankful for that exception. I'm really thankful that he put that in there. I don't know about you, but a lot of us have testimonies, have stories, you know, that when we were called, when we became Christians, we were middle schoolers. I am really glad that I'm allowed to progress beyond middle school, because middle school, yikes. Couldn't pay me to go back there. Those of you who are in middle school, I'm sorry. It'll be over soon, I promise. Paul's point, again, just like he said before, circumcision is nothing, uncircumcision is nothing, is simply that your status with regard to the world… whether you find yourself a slave or free, that does not determine your status before God. And it doesn't determine the question of whether you have a calling from God and whether you can serve him in your current circumstances. He goes so far as to say, he says, look, if you were called when you were a slave, well, in reality, you're free. In Christ, you're free of all things. And on the other hand, if you were free, According to the way the world thinks about freedom, when you were called by Christ, well, guess what? You're a slave to Christ. You're in his service. I love how Augustine talks about being a slave to Christ. He says, in his Confessions, which is a prayer, he says to God, in your service, there is perfect freedom. Paul is reminding us that freedom, the way the world thinks about it, typically freedom from constraints, freedom to do whatever we want, really isn't worth that much. What matters is what is freedom for? What have you been set free for? What have you been set free, what have you been called to be? That's the question that Paul wants us to wrestle with. In chapter 6, he talks about how he has freedom to do all things, but he won't be mastered by his freedom. That's a pretty insightful comment. A lot of us know the experience of having so many options, so much freedom, that we feel like we're dominated by our own desires. And Paul says, no, no, no, because I know what I'm free for. I know who I'm really following, who I'm really serving. Paul wraps up his argument here in verse 24. He says, brothers, let each one remain with God in that state in which he was called. There's a couple of different ways to think about this verse, and they're both beautiful. The word remain there, remain with God, that is the same word that the Gospel of John uses again and again and again. Most significantly, when Jesus himself uses it, to say not simply remain, but abide. Abide in me. It's the same word. The calling ultimately is to abide in God. As I said before, having a calling, considering that your current circumstances, whatever they are, are a calling from which you can serve God right now, that could feel somewhat suffocating if we thought that that meant that a calling locks you into doing one thing forever. One thing that I often tell young people as we talk about vocation, I help to lead a nine-month fellowship that spends an entire academic year talking about questions about work and vocation and rest and the things that we're talking about here. And one thing that I often encourage them, because they're usually very early in their career. They're in entry-level jobs. They're in jobs they might not like very much. They're in jobs that they definitely don't want to stay in forever. Or they're struggling to find work. Or, as I said before, they're struggling with the other callings in their lives, whether it's roommates and friends and family or dating or early marriage, right? I mean, all of these different ways that God has called us to serve him. And one thing that I often tell them is that you have to be able to hold together in your mind the idea that God is calling you to serve him from where you are right now. but that he may call you to do something else in the future. It's okay to hold those things together. You know, you think about the ways that God called the people of Israel. You think about the way that he called Abram out of a very comfortable existence in earth and called him to go. He didn't tell him quite where, right? Go to the land that I will show you. and trust him. Think about him calling the nation of Israel and how like there was that pillar of fire by night and smoke by day and when it moved, they moved and when it stopped, they stopped, right? The calling was simply to stay with the cloud. The calling was simply to stay with God. The calling is simply to abide in him and to find your rest and your hope and your confidence there. If you draw your life from God, you know, when Jesus says, abide in me, it's when he says, I am the vine and you're the branches. If you draw your life from God the way a branch draws life from the vine, then you will always have a home. You will always have a place in him, even as the circumstances of your life change and might change radically. The other way to read this verse, Some translations, if you have a New International version, it actually says something a little different. It says, brothers, as those who are responsible to God remain in the station where you were called. You go, well, that's kind of weird. Where did responsible come from? That word doesn't show up at all in the translation that we read. And the reason is because there's just this little Greek preposition there that in this translation is with, with God, but it can also mean before God, and very much, you know, this is very much before in the sense of being before someone to whom you're responsible. If Paul wanted to say, you are responsible to God, this is how he would say it. He would use this preposition. So some translations, like the NIV, have translated it that way. But this is also beautiful. And here's the reason, that the idea of being before God, being responsible to God, that's calling language too. That's the language of the prophets. Every single one of the prophets, when they were called, they had an experience of being before God, being in His presence. So much so that Jeremiah, when he's challenging false prophets, one of the things that he says is, when were you ever before God? Right? That's his point is you didn't have that calling that I had. You're a false prophet. Every one of the prophets was before God was called and was given the spirit, right? The spirit rests on the prophets and is given to them as a guide, as a counselor, right? And the beautiful thing is that in the New Testament, We see the lavishness of God's grace as God's Spirit is poured out on all of His people. Not just particular individuals called as prophets, but on all of His people. Your calling comes with the Spirit. In other words, if the main thing that Paul wants us to do is to abide in Christ, What Paul is saying here is that God has not just given you a calling and then said, OK, let's see how you do. God has given you a calling, and then he has also given you himself. He has given you everything that you need to be faithful to this calling. And Paul reminds us that this wasn't free. Verse 23, you were bought with a price. It's something he said earlier. In in this letter in chapter 6 when he said you are not your own you've been bought with a price God is Not only our Creator he is also our Savior And he is our Savior at the price of Christ's blood shed for us We're reminded that Christ That God was in Christ making peace By the blood of his cross. And he did this before he called you. So again, it's not that God has put the law out there and said, let's see how faithful and obedient you can be to this before I'll save you. He saves you and then you obey. It's not that he has given you a calling and says, let's see how you measure up. He has given you himself with that calling. The way Paul puts it in his letter to the Romans is really worth remembering and really worth memorizing, right? He who did not withhold his only son from us, how will he not also graciously give us all things? So my encouragement to you as you think about what you're doing with your life is to think about the calling that you have. The calling that you have now, the callings that you have now, the callings that you will have in the future. But as you do that, you can do it with hope, you can do it with confidence, you can do it without the paralysis that sometimes comes when we think about what we're doing with our lives. Because you can have confidence, you can have hope and assurance that God has given you his spirit to be with you as you think through those things. Amen? Let's pray. Father in heaven, I thank you that you are a God who... Scripture makes pretty clear that you don't need us. You did not need to create the world. It's not that you were lonely or bored. You did not need to save a people that had turned away from you. But you have done these things. And then, against all expectations and sometimes to our confusion, you have called us into your service. You have promised us that even as we sometimes stumble and fail, you already know. You already know all of our weaknesses and all of our failings and you love us anyway. You died for us anyway, knowing everything that we would do. And so I pray, Father, that you would give us wisdom and discernment, yes, to work out how it is that you are calling us. But more than this, I pray that you would give us hope. And I pray that you would give us confidence. And I pray that you would make us bold to serve you in the circumstances where we find ourselves today. Father, I thank you that the resources to do all of this have been given because you have given us yourself. You have poured out your spirit on all of your people. For these things, we are grateful. We thank you in the name of your son, Jesus Christ. Amen.