FBC Morning Light – March 23, 2022

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, a good Wednesday morning to you. We are in the middle of the week already, and I trust your week is going well.

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Just a couple of things I want to mention to you. This coming Lord's Day on Sunday, Gordon Taylor is going to be at our church and speaking in the morning service and I hope you'll be looking forward to that.

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I'll be taking a little vacation time, so next week's broadcasts,

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I'm not sure where they're going to be coming from. If I can get them recorded while on vacation, we'll see about that.

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Otherwise, you may be seeing reruns, I'm not sure. But anyway, that's what's coming up in the days ahead.

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Well, today we were reading in our Bible reading plan in 1 Corinthians chapter 7.

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I want to focus and zero in on verses 17 to 24. Let me ask you this, are you content with where you are?

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Are you content with the life God has given you? It's sometimes a challenging thing, isn't it?

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It depends on where you are, what stage of life you find yourself. I know that there have been times in my life, especially later in my later years, some would consider me to still be a kid in my early 60s, but since past age 40, there have been certain things that have come up in the course of my life and career and so forth as a pastor, that I've stopped to think about, what if I had gone this way?

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What if I had gone in this direction instead of pursuing pastoral ministry?

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What if I had done this instead? Would life be easier?

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Would I be better off? And things of that nature. I won't go into a lot of details of that, because I don't want to sound like I'm moaning and bemoaning, because that's certainly not my intention.

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My point is that Paul is challenging us in this passage of Scripture to be content in the calling in which we've been called.

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He first starts off talking about those who are circumcised and not circumcised. He's talking about Jew or Gentile.

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The temptation for a Gentile would have been in that time to feel like, because he wasn't born a

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Jew, he's a second -rate citizen. That's certainly not the case, but he might feel that way, because he reads the

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Old Testament, he sees God's delight in the Jews in the Old Testament and sees the ordinance of circumcision in the

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Old Testament. He might think, to really gain God's favor and to really have a good life,

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I need to go through this ritual of circumcision. Paul says, no, no, listen, that doesn't avail you anything.

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Just be content with the calling with which you were called. You were born a

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Gentile? You weren't born a Jew? Be content with that. You were born a

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Heinz 57? You have multiple ethnicities in your background? Be content with that.

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You were born in the United States of America instead of in, I don't know, what would be your favorite place other than the

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United States to be born in? Italy or whatever? Be content with where you've been born.

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Be content with the life that God has given you.

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Sometimes we can get discontent with our social background, our family background, our ethnic background, because of its limitations or because of our perceived preference for some other situation.

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Grass always looks greener on the other side, doesn't it? No, Paul says, be content with where you've been called.

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Then he moves from that to talking about those who are slaves and their discontentment with their lot in life and just longing for their freedom.

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He does say, if you have the opportunity to be free, then fine, get your freedom.

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But if that's not available to you, if that's not held out to you, he says, then be content with your calling in life.

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We live in a different culture, a different society where the practice of indentured slavery or even bondage by taking in war and that kind of thing, that slavery is gone, and thankfully it is.

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But that was the culture, that was the time, that was the place, and there wasn't anything anybody was going to do about it on just an everyday guy type of basis.

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So just pining away in discontentment that I'm not a free man isn't going to get anybody anywhere.

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Paul says, listen, be content with that lot in life. Other places, what your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.

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You can read in passages in Ephesians as well, in 1 Peter. We looked at this past Sunday in our church on this whole subject as well about our calling, our work ethic, and so forth.

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We need to be content with that area of our life, our calling. Maybe you've come to a place in your life where you say, man,

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I wish I would have had more opportunity for further education, or I wish I would have taken the opportunity

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I had to go into this field of service, and here I am, 50 years old or 60 years old, and the better part of my life is behind me, and that opportunity is gone.

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We can go with the regrets and the second guessing. Paul says, don't go there.

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Be content. Be content with your calling that God has given you. I just want to encourage you in that today.

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What is your calling? What is your calling as a vocation, as a career, a homemaker, an office worker, a factory worker, a farm worker, self -employed, construction worker, an educator?

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What is your calling? Don't look over the fence at the grass on the other side of that fence and assume that, my life would be so much better if I just would have gone here, if I could just do this.

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Not necessarily. Learn to be content where you are, and if God wants to move you into another direction, he will work out those circumstances, and he will open that door and make that way for you.

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But the first objective and desire of our heart would have to be, help me to be content with what you've given me.

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All right, let's ask God to give us that contentment today. And so, our

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Father and our God, I pray that by your grace, we would learn contentment. Sometimes it takes a lot of grace.

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Sometimes it's difficult. We can be so discontent with our lot in life. I pray that you deliver us from that and help us to learn in whatever state we find ourselves, therein to be content.

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And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, well, have a good rest of your