There is no secular work for the Christian.

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Sermon by Ben Hedrick @ FBC Newton, NC 10-25-2020 (sermon didn't have a title, had to make one)

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Good morning, everyone Thanks for preaching my sermon for me Tommy. So this will be this will be short.
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I'm sure he never does that to anybody else But by way of introducing myself
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I want to bring you greetings from Emmanuel Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky and and also let you know the significance that Pastor Tommy has had in Emmanuel's life as a church family
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Providentially speaking in God's providence and care Emmanuel probably would not exist if it weren't for Tommy's love for people and love for people that are hard to love and he served a small dying church filled with Elderly Saints called
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Emmanuel Baptist Church in downtown Louisville that had been overlooked by so many people Was being overlooked by the association the association to ask them to close multiple times.
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They were hanging on and Pastor Tommy is the one who came in and started to teach to teach those brothers and sisters the truth and the gospel and the word and others followed with him and I've not only benefited from that over the last 20 years being a member at Emmanuel being a deacon at Emmanuel being an elder at Emmanuel being on staff as a pastor at Emmanuel and now being a business owner at Emmanuel I Also have benefited because my wife came to know the
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Lord because of those efforts by Tommy and Eve She was a piano player in the church
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She was a music student at the University of Louisville and she was literally coming to get a paycheck to play the piano
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No one could play the piano in church. They needed to sing hymns So they decided to put an advertisement at University of Louisville and hope they could get a piano player to come plunk out the hymns on Sunday and she thought that was pretty easy money and Sorry to come in to play the piano thought she was a
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Christian and was influenced by the people who had started to come to Emmanuel and so if in all in all honesty
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Thank you, brother. Like my my family would not exist if it had not been for your love and compassion
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So I I want to give Tommy Thanks for that and to also encourage you that your pastor is one who loves the
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Lord and he loves you And he has always loved people and I'm not saying that you're hard to love people
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But he even loves hard to love people and I'm sure that there are some of those in Newton Conover at least
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So, thank you. It's it's an honor to be here It's an honor to speak to you from God's Word this morning and I want you to open your
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Bibles to 1st Corinthians 7 1st
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Corinthians 7 and if you'll stand with me, I'm gonna read from the ESV 1st
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Corinthians 7 starting in verse 17 and ending in verse 24 and verse 24 is where we're gonna
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Spend most of our time this morning. This is the Word of the Lord Only let each person lead the life that the
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Lord has assigned to him and to which God has called him This is my rule in all the churches was anyone at the time of his call already circumcised
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Let him not seek to remove the marks of circumcision Was anyone at the time of his call uncircumcised let him not seek circumcision for neither circumcision counts for anything nor Uncircumcision, but keeping the commandments of God Each one should remain in the condition in which he was called.
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Were you a slave when called do not be concerned about it But if you can gain your freedom avail yourself of the opportunity
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For he who was called in the Lord as a slave is a freed man of the
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Lord Likewise he who was free when called as a slave of Christ You were bought with a price do not become slaves of men
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So brothers in whatever condition each was called there let him remain with God father
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We thank you for your word, which is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path apart from it We'd be wandering in darkness.
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We would have no knowledge of who you are and what pleases you what causes you anger
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We would be wandering in darkness knowing that you exist because of your glory and all of creation
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But not knowing what we could do to make right all of the wrongs that we know in our conscience
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Thank you for your word We pray that you would teach us from your word in the power of the Spirit so that we would live lives as Brothers and sisters in the local church, but also as missionaries in this city and all across the earth
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You have promised us That the knowledge of your glory will fill the earth as the waters cover at the sea and we pray
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Lord God that that day Would come quickly and that you would use us to accomplish it in Jesus name
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Amen, you can be seated. I Didn't just grow up in Baptist churches both my parents grew up in Baptist churches and my grandparents actually grew up in Baptist churches, too
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So I'm I'm like a third generation Baptist you could joke and say that I'm Baptist born and Baptist bred and when
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I die, I'll be Baptist dead So I'm pretty familiar with Christian lingo and how
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Christians talk about themselves and how they talk about the world and one way that is very very common for Christians to talk about themselves and to talk about their churches is the language around ministry and calling
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When I say ministry Here's here's an example when I was 17 years old.
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I was called to the ministry and You probably know what that means
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You know what? I meant when I when I experienced that when I was 17 when someone says that what they mean is
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I Want to be a pastor That's that's the ministry. I want to work in a church
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I want to actually gain my income by being a pastor or a missionary or a church planner
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I want to spend my life in a not secular vocation
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I'm called to the ministry that secular vocation also is kind of Very familiar language with us.
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We would say I you know, I work as a doctor. I work as a lawyer I work in a manufacturing plan.
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I work in retail. I work in these jobs and it's a it's a secular job Say it's a it's a secular job and When we say that what we mean is will these other jobs?
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ministry jobs have a sense of in some way being more important or more significant and that kind of talking about Christian life about The life of the local church is very common and I think that you probably
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I would assume that you probably kind of yeah I know I've experienced that I've probably said those kind of things and and no one no one
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At least in my experience would go so far as to say Yeah a pastor is closer to God than a person who works as a doctor or a lawyer or a
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Manufacturing worker they wouldn't say that the pastor is closer to God. That's not what they mean They wouldn't they wouldn't say that being a pastor a missionary is more important Say it is important, but it's not more important.
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It wouldn't go so far as to say that outright, but this language of Ministry and calling the way that we use it is really unhelpful
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It's really unhelpful and it's unbiblical and that's what I want to look at 1st Corinthians 7 and show that to you
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And I want to kind of tease it out a little bit and tell you why I think it's unhelpful Why it's unhelpful is because it it functionally relegates the vast majority of Believers to a benchwarmer position in the
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Christian life It relegates the vast number of brothers and sisters to think of themselves as like they're the junior varsity team on the team of the
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Christian life and the varsity players are the pastors the church staff and The missionaries and the church planters.
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That's the varsity crew They're like the Navy SEAL team in the Battle of the
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Gospel in the advance of the kingdom and we're back here Benchwarming we're working secular jobs.
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The best thing we could do is work hard not steal not be lazy Get a good paycheck so that we can give to those who are really on the front lines they're really doing the work the a team that's out there and That relegates the vast number of because it vast number of Christians because it's always going to be a minority of believers who serve in those roles the vast number of Christians Will work eight to five jobs 40 hours a week
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Owning a company or working for a company and they'll spend the vast number of their waking hours doing that and if they think that that is a sidetrack or a
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Distraction from the advance of the kingdom the vast majority of time that Christians live their lives all across the face of the earth
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Is offline? It's a necessary evil We're just trying to be faithful, but don't really understand how this kind of helps the advance of the gospel aside from I get to make some money and give it away at the offering time and The best -case scenario is a
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Christian is like I'm just trying to work hard. I Really like being involved in church programs, which is good.
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I Get a raise every once in a while because I'm honest. I don't lie and I don't cheat. I don't steal But oftentimes it can look like a
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Christian who's just living for the weekend and their job is Some kind of drudgery.
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In fact, there's a there's a song I'm going to read you the lyrics to it I think it's pretty comical, but you'll understand the vibe you've experienced it.
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You know, the you know the phrase thank TGIF. Thank goodness Thank goodness. It's Friday But that mentality about work is very very common.
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Here's the lyrics of the song. Oh, I've been working a week. I'm tired Yeah, I've been working a week and I'm just living for the weekend.
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Hey, hey, I got some money to spend I just got paid got some money and I can't wait at six o 'clock
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I'm out of here working all the time work is such a bind got some money to spend I'm living for the weekend when it gets too much.
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I live for the rush got some money to spend living for the weekend Oh, man. Yeah, I've been working a week.
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I'm shot. Yeah, I've been working a week for what just living for the weekend And then he repeats eight times living for the weekend living for the weekend
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You get the point right he You have to work So that you can have money to do what you want to do, but works not what you want to do
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It's what you've got to do Until you can get to the weekend and then you get to spend the money that you made at your job
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Did you see how that relegates your job? Just something that you have to do in order to do something that you want to do.
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I would rather I would rather you brothers and sisters and Christians everywhere see their job not as something that they have to do in order to do something that's important But something that God wants them to do and has equipped them to do and has given them his spirit in order to do with excellence and skill and success as an act of love for their neighbor and as the
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Primary way God wants you to advance his kingdom. He actually puts you in your job
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For a purpose and it's not So that you can spin your wheels hoping to do something else on the weekend or later on in life
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So do you see how this this language is? It's well meaning we understand what we mean by it
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We don't mean anything hurtful or harmful But do you see how it can be harmful you see how it is unbiblical
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I want to show you how it's unbiblical because we haven't seen the Bible yet. You just been listening to me talk so far 1st
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Corinthians 7 verse 24 so Brothers and that you can read that as so brothers and sisters so church family in whatever condition each was called
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There let him remain with God Here, here's my main point this morning
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I've always I'm always helped when a pastor tells me what he's trying to tell me Then he tells me and then he reminds me what he told me.
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That's that's helpful so here's my main point your ministry to love God to love your neighbor and to Love the nation's is not dependent on your job your geographic location or any life condition
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Your ministry to love God love your neighbor and love the nation's is not dependent on your job
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It's not dependent on your geographic location, and it's not dependent on any life condition.
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God is with you, no matter your calling or your condition.
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We're going to see that in 1 Corinthians 7. And I want to just kind of like in the way that you would walk through a very, very beautiful garden, and you would stop and pause to look and gaze on something that catches your eye.
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The Bible is a beautiful garden. We're walking through 1 Corinthians 7, and we're going to stop and pause in verse 24, three different places.
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Here's where we're going to stop and pause. Whatever condition each of you was called, let him there remain with God.
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Those three important phrases. The first is whatever condition. Whatever condition each was called.
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You do not need to change your circumstances or your position in order to serve the
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Lord. This is really important because it's the exact opposite of the way things were in the
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Old Covenant. If you remember in the Old Covenant, there was a temple, right? The temple was built to very exacting specifications.
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Who dwelled in the temple? The Lord dwelled in the temple.
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And around the temple, there was an entire colony, really, of priests who lived and ministered.
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They offered sacrifices. There were particular specifications about the sacrifices you need to make in certain circumstances.
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And you had to make a pilgrimage to the temple at certain times of the year to offer particular sacrifices in order to worship
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God. So you had to move locations in order to worship God.
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You couldn't offer sacrifices yourself. You had to go to a priest who was your intermediary between you and God.
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You had to be at the temple with a priest offering a particular sacrifice in order to worship
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God. In order to serve God. And that's not the case anymore in the
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New Covenant. Jesus has fulfilled all of this. We don't have a mediator. The book of Hebrews says there's no mediator between God and man except the man
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Christ Jesus. And where is he? What town does he live in? Where do you have to go to talk to him?
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You can talk to him anywhere. That's profoundly significant.
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The fact that every believer has access to Jesus Christ, the Lord of heaven and earth, at every moment, simply by speaking to him in prayer.
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And that every moment, wherever you are, no matter your job, no matter your condition in life, you're filled with the
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Spirit. You're given the gift of the Holy Spirit. Now here's what I want you to see in the
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Bible. I want you to see this. This is really significant. And we're going to look in three different places.
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The first thing I want you to see is that every Christian is a minister. Every Christian is a minister.
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Look to Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 12. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 12.
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In Ephesians, the apostle Paul is giving instructions to the church. He's writing to them about the importance and the significance of many things.
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And in chapter 4, he's talking about unity in the body. And he's talking specifically here in these verses about the role and the place of leadership in the local church.
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And in chapter 4, verse 12, he says this. To equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.
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In verse 11, right before that, he says that this is the role of apostles and prophets and evangelists and shepherds and teachers.
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The shepherds and the teachers equip who? The saints.
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For what? The work of ministry. So I know that I checked this with Pastor Tommy last night.
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And he said that many of you will be reading the NAS. And I was like, oh man, I might be making some points that I have to explain a little bit differently.
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Does the NAS say the work of ministry or the work of service? Service. That's actually really helpful to my point.
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Because ministry is just a word that doesn't really exist in the Bible. In fact, the word is actually service.
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So the ESV is not helpful here. The NAS is more helpful. It's the work of service.
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Your pastor is to equip you. Your elders are to equip you. Your pastors and teachers are to equip you so that you can do the work of the ministry.
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There is no such thing as the ministry in the Christian life aside from what every
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Christian who has the Holy Spirit is called to do 24 -7 every day of every moment of their entire life.
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They are to do the work of service. And your pastors and your teachers are to equip you for that work.
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They're to equip you so that you can do that ministry. Do that work of service. Now, here's another important thing.
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This service, what the ESV translates as ministry, that is the labor and the work of a priest.
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That's what a priest does. In the Old Covenant, the priest did the work of sacrifice.
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The priest did the work of offering. The priest did the work of praying. The priest did the mediating work.
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In 1 Peter 2, look to 1 Peter 2. Flip over to 1 Peter 2. In 1 Peter, our brother, the
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Apostle Peter, tells us something very significant about the Christian life. 1
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Peter 2, verses 4 and 5, he says this,
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As you come to Him, a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God chosen and precious.
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You yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood.
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To offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
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That's the purpose for which God in Christ has saved you.
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Is to make you into a royal priesthood so that you would offer sacrifices.
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And that's the work of ministry. That's that ministry that God has called you to.
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It's the ministry of a priest. Now, you may think, okay, well, I'm tracking with you here.
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The Apostle Paul says that the pastors are not the ministers. They're not the servants.
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They're not doing the service. They're equipping every believer to do the work of ministry, the work of service.
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Okay, I follow that. And now this work of ministry and the service is what a priest does.
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And every believer is a priest. We're all, every Christian, every brother, sister is a priest of the living
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God. And we're doing this priestly work of ministry and service. I follow that. That means
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I should attend a program on Monday night at the church building, right? That's what that service is, right?
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It means I should be a volunteer in the church functions and be involved. Now, there's nothing wrong with that.
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Nothing wrong at all being involved in church programs. But that's not what the Bible is talking about.
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The Bible is actually talking about your entire life. Every waking moment.
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And look at Romans 12, verses 1 and 2. This beginning of chapter 12 in Romans, the
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Apostle Paul is transitioning from making deep, thickly reasoned arguments about who
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God is and what He is doing and how we're made right with God. And he's just kind of wrapped up.
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Well, what's the role of Israel in all of this? I thought they were the people of God. And how should we think about them?
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So, Paul's been making tight arguments all along. Until Romans chapter 11.
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He wraps that up. And in chapter 12, he kind of steps back. He steps back after praising
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God in all of His glory. I'm actually going to read those verses. In verse 33 of chapter 11.
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This is the summary statement of all of the thick theology of the beginning chapters of Romans.
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It culminates with Paul worshiping God and saying, Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and character of God.
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How unsearchable are His judgments. And how inscrutable His ways. For who has known the mind of the
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Lord? Or who has been His counselor? Or who has given a gift to Him that He might be repaid? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.
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To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen. It's a majestic summary statement.
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That Paul just bursts out in glorious worship. After all of this rich theology.
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And then he transitions in 12 .1. And he says, I appeal to you therefore brothers. By the mercies of God.
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And this you can rightly translate this. In view of God's mercies. He's just painted a landscape.
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A majestically glorious landscape of all of God's mercies. All of His sovereign mercy.
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It's all in view. You're looking at it. You understand all of it. And now that you see all of it.
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In view of God's mercies. I appeal to you to present your bodies.
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As a living sacrifice. There it is. That sacrifice language. That's what priests do.
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They make sacrifices. And in the new covenant. Because of what Jesus has done.
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And in the fullness of the Spirit. You brother and sister are a priest of the living God. And what kind of sacrifice are you to offer?
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Is it a few hours a week on a Wednesday night? Is it participation in an evangelism program?
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Is it attendance at a Bible study? Is it sharing the gospel once or twice during the work week with a co -worker?
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It is those things. But it's way more. It's not just those things. And if you think about the
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Christian life. As a church member. Who's not a staff member in the church.
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Or a leader in the church. Or a missionary. And you think of your Christian life as a summary of your service to God.
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And you're cutting out the vast majority of your life. As a priest. Making sacrifices.
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And you ought to think of yourself as a living sacrifice. Holy and acceptable to God.
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Which is your spiritual worship. Your body. Every moment. Of every day.
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Is to be lived as a sacrificial offering. To God. Because you are a priest.
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You don't offer animals. You don't cut open doves. Or sacrifice cows. At an altar in Jerusalem.
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Located at the temple. You live every moment. You wake up every day.
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You offer your whole body. Every action. Every member. Every.
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Both arms. You only have two. Your mind. Your thoughts. Your emotions.
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Everything that you are. Is to be lived as a sacrificial offering. To God.
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Now that's important. That's important because that's the background. That's the undergirding pillars.
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The foundation by which Paul can say. You don't need to change your circumstances. Why would you need to change your circumstances?
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Why would you need to change your condition in life? The two examples that he uses.
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In 1 Corinthians 7. If you want to go back there and look specifically. He uses two specific circumstances.
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And says that these things don't matter. The first is circumcision. The second is slavery.
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Those conditions were really really important. In the minds of the believers in Corinth. You can't read through the
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New Testament. Without coming across this argument of. Should we be circumcised? Should we not be circumcised?
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The importance of circumcision in the Old Covenant. You can't. You can't overstate the significance of circumcision.
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In the Old Covenant. You guys are in Genesis. You've just gotten through. I think where you are is.
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You've just talked about the importance of circumcision. And the covenant promises. Massively important. Paul says something that would have gotten him.
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Stoned by a Jewish audience here. He says something that's just really.
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Really dismissive. And really radical. He says circumcision counts.
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How much does it count? Nothing. It doesn't get you in covenant relationship with God.
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It doesn't gain you standing before the throne of heaven. It accomplishes nothing.
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Circumcision counts for nothing. If you were circumcised. When God called you. That's fine.
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You don't have to undo that. If you aren't circumcised. When God calls you. That's fine.
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You don't have to go get circumcised. You don't have to change your condition. In order to be a useful priest of the living
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God. You don't have to change your condition. The second one is slavery. You can imagine how that question would come up.
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I don't even have control over my own time. How can I possibly serve God as a slave?
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I've got to get out of slavery in order to serve God. This vocation right here. I can't serve
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God in this vocation. This vocation won't work. Not compatible with kingdom advance. Paul says no.
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You don't have to undo it. If you can undo it. That's really good. You should undo it. But if you can't.
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You're still useful to God. You don't have to change that condition. That's the first thing.
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You bring holiness to your surroundings. You don't have to change your surroundings.
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In order to access holiness. You are the salt and the light of the earth.
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For you, brothers and sisters. It is no longer do not taste.
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Do not touch. That's the old covenant way of holiness. But Jesus has changed everything.
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In the old covenant, you were defiled. By being in a certain place.
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At a certain time. Touching a certain thing. But now. Just like Jesus in Luke 8.
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Where he was in a crowd. Jostling around. And the woman who had an issue of blood. The physicians couldn't heal her.
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No one could heal her. She thought that Jesus could heal her. And she reached out in the crowd. And she touched
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Jesus. And what happened? Jesus was defiled. Right? No. He wasn't defiled.
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He felt power come out of him. And the woman was healed. He. He was the one who was contagious to her.
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Her unholiness was not contagious to him. His holiness was contagious. We're all familiar with contagious language now.
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Right? If we weren't before, we definitely are now. This is really significant.
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That where you go. As a priest of the living God. You bring holiness there. You bring the presence of God there.
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You are a representative of truth there. You are no longer affected by the unholiness that surrounds you.
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You bring the effect of holiness to those around you. Just in the verses preceding this in 1
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Corinthians 7. It's the believing spouse that makes the unbelieving spouse holy.
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It's the same principle at work. You don't have to change your marriage condition in order to serve God. You don't have to unhitch from the unbelieving spouse.
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That was the question. How can I serve the Lord if my spouse doesn't believe? That seems like something that would drag me down.
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I said, no. Don't divorce your wife just because she's not a believer. Don't divorce your husband because they're not a believer.
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You make them holy. You can ask Pastor Tommy what that means later. But the principle that I want you to see is that who's contagious?
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The priest of God is contagious. They bring holiness. They bring salt. They bring light.
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And you, when you're called by God in whatever vocation, whatever condition, God calls you there and wants you to remain there so that you bring salt and light exactly where you are.
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The new life is the life that is doing the contagious affecting. The unbelievers are affected by the believers.
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Now, here's an illustration of this. In this passage, we're talking about circumcision, and we're talking about slavery.
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Those aren't really live conversations for us. We're not thickly involved in the
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Jew -Gentile divide here in Newton, Conover, North Carolina. Newton, Conover, North Carolina was probably heavily involved in the conversation about slavery generations ago.
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Not really right now. We're not having to wrestle with, I'm a slave. What do I do in following Christ? But we do wrestle with vocation in following Christ.
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In my experience, that's where we have the most common conversations.
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The story of this is a friend of mine in Louisville who was dramatically converted. He was a heroin addict and just a good -for -nothing young man who was converted.
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And he recovered from his heroin addiction, and he began to grow in the knowledge of the gospel.
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I was meeting with him regularly. We were studying the Bible. He was increasingly understanding theology.
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He was growing more and more in love with the gospel and the church and living faithfully.
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He was repenting of different things that he has done. He was paying back money that he owed to former employers that he'd stolen from.
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And he was surrounded by people in Louisville who went to Bible college and seminary. And he got this idea as a new believer that, man, if I want to be a real, mature, solid
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Christian, I should probably go to Bible college and seminary, right? And that's a fine thing for some people to do.
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It's a very fine thing for some people to do. But it's not the default path of growth and grace for every
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Christian. And for this brother, I told him, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
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He wasn't going because he wanted to. He was going out of a sense that that was the default pathway for Christians.
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You had to change your condition. You had to go move to a different town. You had to go attend this school or this institution in order to gain this kind of knowledge that's only accessible there if you're going to be a believer.
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That's fundamentally counter to what Paul is teaching here in 1 Corinthians. It's like you don't have to change your condition in order to be a servant of the
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Lord. You don't have to change that condition. And I think that at some level, when
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I was a teenager, I got this vibe from church life that, man, if I really wanted to be a believer as a teenager, if I really wanted to be useful to the kingdom,
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I'll be a pastor or a church planner. That's what's really useful. But Paul tells us that whatever condition you are when you are called, you should stay there.
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That's the second phrase that I want to see. We spent some time thinking about whatever condition. And then
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Paul says, each was called. The verse again, whatever condition each was called, let him there remain with God.
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What is calling? What is he talking about here when he says calling? Now this one can be a little bit tricky because Paul uses that word in a couple of different ways in this short section.
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The first way that he uses it, he means you're calling as a
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Christian. So 1 Corinthians 7 verse 17, only let each person lead the life that the
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Lord has assigned to him and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches.
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Was anyone at the time of his call already circumcised? Let him not seek to remove the marks of circumcision.
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You can go through and see all the times call is mentioned. It's mentioned in verse 20, each one should remain in the condition in which he was called.
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Verse 21, were you a slave when called? Verse 22, for he who has been called in the
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Lord as a slave. So he's talking about here, he's talking about calling as a
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Christian. The fact that God calls those who come to faith in Jesus.
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Apart from this call of God, no one comes to faith in the gospel. No one is interested in it.
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No one understands it. Everyone has deaf ears to it. But God, in his sovereign mercy, makes certain people alive to hear this call.
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And he calls them to himself through Jesus. And when God calls people, they fall in love with Jesus and they are enraptured with the gospel of the kingdom and they want to give themselves to its advance.
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That's the calling that Paul is talking about primarily here. This is the calling that he's referring to in Romans 1 .6.
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Turn there. Romans 1 .6 says, Grace to you and peace from God our
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Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. No, Romans 8 .28,
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sorry. That one's a good one too. Romans 8 .28,
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and we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose.
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This in the New Testament is the call that God places on people in order for them to follow after Jesus.
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But Paul uses that language in another way as well. In 1
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Corinthians 7 verse 17, he uses it to indicate that God has a call on you for your vocation.
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Your position, your condition in life. God doesn't just call you to Jesus Christ, he calls you to a task.
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Verse 17 of 1 Corinthians 7, Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned.
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Assigned to him. What does the NAS say for that? Assigned. So it says assigned. That's good. Only let each person lead the life that the
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Lord has assigned to him and to which God has called him. You see how he's using those terms assigned and called?
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Pretty much similarly. God has assigned you to something, and he's called you to that something.
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Now this is the doctrine of vocation. It's actually really appropriate for us to be looking at this passage at this time of year, the end of October.
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If you're not very familiar with the Reformation and the significance of the Reformation, Martin Luther recovered this doctrine of vocation in the
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Christian life. And what he did is he restored the dignity and the holiness of what every
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Christian does in their everyday work life. And he emphasized this reality that God calls
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Christians to do all kinds of things. And this is not how I grew up.
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This is not how I grew up. I grew up thinking that if you got a call from God, it was to sacred work and not secular work.
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And then if you don't have a call from God to be a pastor or church planner, then you just kind of figure out what you want to do with your time, what you love to do.
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You kind of follow the advice of those around you. If you do something you love, you'll never work a day in your life.
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You've probably heard that. You're finding out what your career will be. But that search for a career involved a lot of advice.
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It involved a lot of thinking. It involved a lot of planning. But for me, it didn't involve a lot of, well, what does God want me to do?
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Because that was secular stuff. If I was asking what
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God wants me to do, I was thinking about missions or church work or church staff.
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That was the sacred stuff. But this is not how 1 Corinthians 7 would have us think about calling.
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Yes, God calls you as a Christian, but he calls you into a line of work. He equips you for that work.
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He's the one who's knit you together to give you propensities or desires for certain kinds of work. People who end up engineers are oftentimes a little bit different.
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You might experience that. People who end up being teachers, people who end up being teachers, they have a love for people and a love for children and a love for knowledge, and they light up when they see people grasp a truth that they're trying to explain or a math figure that they're trying to help them understand.
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And they love that dynamic of seeing people come to understand. Like, who gave them that desire? Who made them that way?
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God did. God did. And don't think that that's just sacred, secular, natural dynamics that you're just to figure out on your own or kind of end up somewhere.
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Within the calling as a Christian is an assignment or a calling from the
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Lord for a vocation. Have you thought about your secular job, quote -unquote secular job, as your calling?
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If you have, that's great. If you haven't, you're missing out tremendously. God has knit you together.
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He's given you experiences. He's given you skills. And he has called you to love your neighbor with those skills.
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And every Christian, whether they're a medical doctor or a florist or a car repair tech or an hourly worker in a retail fast food job, whether they're a farmer or a general contractor or a teacher or an entrepreneur, the primary way that those
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Christians are going to love their neighbor is not by participating in church programs, though that's great and good and necessary.
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The primary way they're going to love their neighbor is by doing their job well and with excellence and with love for their neighbor.
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A medical doctor says, I'm going to love my neighbor by providing the most excellent medical care available.
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I'm going to stay on top of knowing all of the trends in medical science and advances so that I can love my neighbor so that my neighbor gets the best medical care available in this whole world.
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I want to love my neighbor in that way. A florist, a florist who arranges flowers, understanding the beauty of aesthetics and the impact that those things have on people when they see them or smell them, loves their neighbor by increasing a sense of beauty.
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God is the one who made this world. He thought it was good to have all those varieties of flowers. He knows that red and purple clash and that other colors that I don't know because I'm not a florist or an aesthetic person, they go together well.
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I don't know how to build it. I just know when I see it, that looks good. I don't know how you did it, but it's marvelous.
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And it increases the quality of life for those that experience that. That's neighbor love.
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Do that with excellence. A car repair guy who doesn't rip people off telling them they need more than what they need.
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Everyone's afraid of that when they go take their car to the mechanic. Someone you can trust who does what you need and gives you the advice that's good and necessary.
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That's neighbor love. That's excellent work. If I didn't have a place to go take my car to get it repaired, do you know how much time
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I'd have to spend fretting about it and planning to take it somewhere and getting advice from someone. Is that guy a cheat? Is this person a cheat?
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Are these people trustworthy? I'd have to spend a tremendous amount of my time that I'm not able to spend on other things. But when you're a faithful servant that's loving your neighbor, you are serving them well.
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A retail worker showing up for work so that you can go buy the TV set on Black Friday. You're loving your neighbor.
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Serving well. A general contractor who nails things together well and plans the execution of a project well and repairs things that are wrong.
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A farmer who feeds us. That's neighbor love. A teacher who teaches children.
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Teaches whether it's their children or whether it's the children in the community. Whether it's university students interacting with people who are soaking up knowledge at a rate that is unique in human development.
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And they're doing it in a way that is loving and kind and truthful and aware of God and His creation.
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That is loving your neighbor. An entrepreneur who sees what's needed and how it's not being met and creates something new whether it's a company or a product in order to love his neighbor.
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That's neighbor love. Those are not just the regular everyday secular activities that you might end up doing that hopefully you find joy in.
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Those are callings from God that He has fitted you for that you ought to think about your life in that way.
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In the midst of whatever condition you are when you are called the God of heaven and earth brother and sister the
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God of heaven and earth has promised to be with you. That's what makes your secular work sacred.
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Everything that a Christian does is sacred work because they're a priest loving God with their bodies.
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Offering themselves as a living sacrifice to God. You are not just offering yourself as a living sacrifice when you are involved in church programs though those are good.
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You are offering yourself as a living sacrifice in every moment of every day.
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So in whatever condition that's the first thing we looked at whatever condition each of you was called each of you was called remain with God that's the last thing we're going to look at remain with God and this
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I can't understate can't overstate how powerful this is.
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Just stop and think about what the Apostle Paul is telling us. God don't just slide over that God this is this is the living and the true
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God this is the maker of heaven and earth this is the one who holds the stars in balance by the word of his command he's the one who is the reason why you can go to sleep and wake up he's the reason why the weather and the earth continue in their regular cycles it's his faithfulness that causes us to live and move and have our being he's the one who sits in the heavens and he does whatsoever he pleases and we are thankful that his pleasure is to do us good every day of every moment of our lives that he's not a tyrant who sends down lightning bolts from heavens in order to torment us he is a good and kind and loving all powerful
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God who bends the whole universe to the word of his command and he's kind and lowly and he dwells with his people now this is profound in whatever condition circumcised, uncircumcised slave, not slave whatever job
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God calls you there and when he calls you there when the God of heaven and earth calls you there he is with you there you don't have to go somewhere else to get with him you don't have to go to Jerusalem to the temple to meet with a priest in order to be with God God comes to you where you are and he is with you remain there with God you don't have to go somewhere else you don't have to get a different job you don't have to get a different spouse you don't have to get surgery done to yourself
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God is with you right where you are he makes you holy and he makes everything your hands touch holy because his purpose is to own all of the earth and to cover it with his glory and he doesn't do it in some kind of foggy, mystical sense that consists of the meditations and the thoughts of people's minds he does it through hands and feet and action we have a triune
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God who came down from heaven to earth and he took on human flesh and he died on a cross for your sins he rose up from the dead and he called his brothers friends after the resurrection and he grilled fish for them and they sat around a fire and they ate a meal this is a very physical
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God that we serve and your whole life everything that you touch everything that you think about everything that you do you ought to think of that as a calling from God to love your neighbor the creator
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God himself Yahweh Jehovah the living and true
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God is with you how in the world could there be secular work there is no secular work for the
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Christian there is no vocation that is closer to God Pastor Tommy does not have more access to God than you he's not closer to God than you you don't have to come to him to pray for you so that's good he loves to do that I'm sure of it
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I've experienced that myself he would love to pray for you but his prayers are not heard more closely by God than yours
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God doesn't bend his ear towards Pastor Tommy for you he bends his ear to you for you because he is with you there is no vocation that's closer to God we all have the same access you are just as dependent on grace as any follower of Jesus Pastor Tommy doesn't find it any easier to read his
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Bible everyday than you do he's not holier than you he doesn't have more victory over sin than you do by virtue of his job on staff at a church
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Brother Nate was telling us about this he's just a regular guy he has the same sins that you do he has the same temptations that you do we're all made out of dust we're not any different than each other the only thing that makes us different is the fact that God has come down and he has called us out and he has set us apart and the
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Bible just overwhelmingly says he does that to every brother and sister without distinction and each one of us he sins out with our whole bodies so that we would offer sacrifices and your pastors and leaders are meant to equip you to do that they're not to sideline you in doing that your condition your work wherever you are called you are to remain there with God God is with you wherever you are every
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Christian is seeking to love their neighbor whether you're working in the marketplace as a boss, a supervisor whether you're a shareholder in a company whether you're a customer buying a product work excellently do justice that means be fair don't cheat people don't pull one over on them walk justly exercise creativity exercise creativity notice what kinds of needs people have think of how you can meet those needs set your hands and your feet in order to serve in the home this is really common actually in the times that I've done marriage counseling with brothers and sisters a husband will be giving himself to all kinds of ministry and service in lots of ways and he'll be really block -headed towards his wife he's like,
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I'm just trying to love my neighbor I'm trying to love my neighbor I'm doing all this really important things out here and then you kind of lean over and you say your wife's your neighbor she is right?
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she's the closest neighbor there's not a five foot gap between your house and her house her bed is your bed she's not less than your neighbor she's not more than your neighbor she is more than your neighbor in many ways but fundamentally she is at least your neighbor are you loving your neighbor?
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in the home husbands loving their wives children loving their parents it's all neighbor love you can summarize the
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Christian life by saying that every Christian is to love your neighbor as yourself that's not my summary that's
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Jesus' summary love your neighbor as yourself whether you're in government you're a state representative you're a mayor, you're on the city council
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I don't know if there's anyone here but often times it's very easy to get frustrated with politicians what would it be like if we cultivated a culture in the local church where God calls people to be state representatives and senators where God calls youth in the church to love politics not for the sake of gaining their own advantage or getting a lot of reputation or thinking that people will think a lot of them like as a love of neighbor if you're frustrated with the corrupt politicians how are we going to get better ones?
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Christians being called into those roles this is what
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Paul addresses over and over again marketplace, home, and government marketplace, home, and government he does it over and over again why?
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because God is with believers in every single one of those places you're a priest in every single one of those contexts that's the vast majority of contexts that Christians will find themselves there are exceptions there are single brothers and sisters but even there
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God is with you but you can address jobs, family, and government and address the vast swath of believers
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Christians in every context the vast majority of them are in those conditions and God is with you there be faithful there, be a sacrificial offering there function as a priest there
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God is with you you're not just loving your neighbor every Christian is seeking to glorify God you glorify
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God with excellence you glorify God by doing all the things that your job entails all the things your role entails as a customer or a consumer and doing those with excellence and love and thankfulness and kindness and fairness and justice
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God is glorified in the fair dealing of His people with others you gain for yourself a reputation that honors
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God your good works commend the gospel another story, this is a friend of mine who owns a business in Louisville and he regularly has the most trouble with his young Christian employees that may sound counterintuitive you may think, well the young Christian employees ought to be the best employees, right?
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well, often times young Christian employees in this context they share the gospel with the person they're working next to and they don't do their job they're the worst workers on the shift they're the ones that people are having to go but they're like, oh
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I'm supposed to share the gospel here it's like, well yes, but you're also being paid to do a job and you've got to do the job and when that person has to leave or gets fired, they often times think of themselves as a martyr or as a victim because they were sharing the gospel they got fired for sharing the gospel, it's like no you got fired because you were a horrible employee that's a sacred, secular divide right there, it's like my job, my only role here, the only way
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I can glorify God here is to share the gospel with people and surely that's a good thing, right? it is a good thing but it's not the only thing that you're doing in your job you're hired to do a job if you do it well and with excellence and your boss is pleased with your work and you commend your character to him how much do you think he'll be inclined to listen to what you have to say?
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much more inclined to listen to what you have to say these things work together you are glorifying
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God not just with the words that come out of your mouth, it's not less than that but it is also your action, doing all of your work with excellence and love, gives glory to God alone who's the only reason why you do not use what you have to abuse others, take advantage of others, lie and cheat and steal, the only reason you're not like that is because of the grace of God in Christ Jesus who's transformed your life every moment of it, no matter what your job or vocation
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God is with you, remain with God you see how even the danger of leaving it, he's putting out remain, stay in that condition,
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God has you there for his purposes apart from the mercies of God, we would not work excellently, we would not love our neighbor and we would not glorify
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God, but in the mercy of God, that is exactly what we are called to do in boldness and in truth is also how you glorify
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God the unique access points of conversation and truth that you have in your career your vocation pastors don't have access to that Pastor Tommy is not going to be welcome to corporate boardrooms in Charlotte or in Newton Conover or in any major city, business people often times disdain non -profit workers because they're not effective they don't get things done, they talk, talk, talk talk, talk, talk, talk, they're all about talking and not about action, we're the ones who are highly effective and productive we get things done, we answer our emails we execute projects, we make profit, we're the movers and the shakers who's going to share the gospel with them?
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You're going to have to get things done, be a mover and shaker and do your work excellently, gain an audience and a standing with them, you ought to want to do that, you ought to want to do that boldness and truth your excellence gives you standing and opportunity and access into places that other
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Christians wouldn't, who's going to share the gospel in the surgery room? Who's going to share the gospel in the back halls of the courthouse and the capitol building?
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If you let all the scoundrels serve in all those roles they'll be scoundrels
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Christians don't pursue those roles they'll just be scoundrels running all the companies, scoundrels being all the politicians scoundrels being all the successful people and Christians being left behind stay where you are work hard, do it for the glory of God, for the love of your neighbor gain access through your excellent work, be bold whenever you have an opportunity this is what
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Solomon in the Proverbs says the man who is excellent in his work will stand before kings, that's just the natural way of things if you're good at your job you're going to find success you're going to stand before people that others won't have the opportunity to stand before, this is what
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Paul was praying for he asked the church in Philippians to pray for him, pray that I would have a door of opportunity to proclaim the gospel and in that opportunity that I would have boldness to speak and in my boldness that I would have words, we've all experienced different mixes of that we've prayed for opportunities then oh man the
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Lord gives a huge providential opportunity to share the gospel and you're overwhelmed with fear and you don't take it, you let it pass by and you feel guilty as a
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Christian should I should be bold, I should take advantage of that opportunity and then sometimes you have the opportunity, you step out in boldness and you fumble over your words like a kindergartner you didn't understand what you said let alone the other person, you didn't have words to speak you just messed it up and that's why opportunity beauty, boldness and words, all of that and the
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Christian should look for that and pray for that in the midst of their excellent work it's not one or the other it's both and so this passage has been helpful for me just in saying it slowly so brothers in whatever condition each was called let him there remain with God and in closing
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I want to give you four different ways to think about this closely as you read that passage later on today or tomorrow or again when you're reading through the
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Bible and you come across it if you're a worker you're an employee somewhere, you're a worker and you are an employer somewhere
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I hope you think about your work a little bit differently, that you work a little bit harder that you think about what you're doing in terms of am
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I loving my neighbor well don't let all the scoundrels be all the bosses and run all the companies love your neighbor by pursuing that kind of success it's not just vain glory that would make someone want to run a company or be successful you may say
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I want to run this company so I can serve more people so we can grow our product serve our neighbors and love our neighbors well
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I want to do it out of love for God and love for my neighbor I want to pursue excellence not because I'm proud and I want people to think
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I'm awesome but because I want people to love the Lord, my God and I want to serve
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Him to the best of my ability. Get promoted gain influence use your influence to love even more people and in the midst of all of that speak boldly of Jesus whenever you have the opportunity.
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God wants you exactly where you are to thrive and to excel and to bring
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Him glory and increase your ability to love your neighbors. Parents if you have kids who are thinking about what they're going to do with their lives cultivate in your kids an understanding of calling that has room for architects and plumbers and mechanics and doctors and lawyers and politicians the city of Newton needs you to do that do you want all of those people to be scoundrels and selfish unbelieving
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God haters do you want your city to be run by those people I would say no, you don't want that who's going to do it then who's going to do it then you ought to think
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I want my children to do that I want my children to love God and love their neighbor in those ways
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God will call the vast majority of believing children into roles like that yes
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He calls some to be church planters and pastors and that's glorious, God will always do that He won't call most people into that can you think about how deformed the church would be if most everybody was a pastor can you see how ineffective the church would be if everyone was a pastor getting paid by the church you are all scattered out through all this city salt and light and the nooks and crannies of every job and company that exists here we ought to pray that that would increase and that God would call our children into those things love
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Newton by doing that if you're a youth you're thinking about what am I going to do with my life seek the
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Lord He could call you into numerous things and not one of them is better than another one not one of them is more sacred than another one
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He may have knit your mind together and knit your heart together and given you a particular kind of body for purpose in loving
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Him and loving your neighbor that you don't even have a category for right now but I would introduce you to that category think about that category think about how you can advance the kingdom through a career and a vocation that you may not have thought was something that was holy and sacred before church leaders love
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Newton by equipping the saints for the work of ministry which is more than just participation in programs participation programs are great church programs are good but love
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Newton by equipping the saints to glorify God and love their neighbor in all of these different careers and vocations and I think particularly now in your context right now you're in a condition right now
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I was thinking of this just as we were singing this morning you're building this if there's a thing that American Christians kind of think is we can't do ministry without this it can often times be a building right is a building helpful?
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yeah it's helpful can you do a lot of things with a building? you can do a lot of things with a building is it necessary to love
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God and your neighbor? no it's not you don't have to have a building in whatever condition you are
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God is with you 1st Baptist Newton He is with you whether you're worshipping here or whether you're worshipping there or whether you're worshipping outside wherever you are
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He is with you His presence with you is not dependent on you having a building your effectiveness in reaching this community with the gospel is not dependent on you having a building it's dependent on God's spirit working in you and through you it is dependent on that and guess what nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus nothing can and buildinglessness can't asbestos can't that's great that's the building's condition particularly it can't it can't thwart you it can't hamper you it actually in God's providence might release you maybe
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I'm not saying necessarily I don't have a word from the Lord on that but maybe you're thinking about these things in a way that's imbalanced and unhelpful so think think about your role in advancing the kingdom in relation to your job your job's not dependent on your church having a building give yourself to love your neighbor glorify
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God advance His kingdom and do it right where you are when God called you God is with you right there be excellent in your work and God's kingdom will advance through you you're a minister and a priest let me pray
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Father we thank you for your majestic work in saving people like us who had nothing to commend ourselves to you we had no history we had no privilege we had no we had nothing to offer you that you would choose us and yet you in your sovereign mercy reached down and snatched us out of the pit and set our feet on solid rock you transferred us from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of your beloved son and we found redemption and the forgiveness of our sins in His name we thank you for that we thank you
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Father that you've not just immediately ended our life and taken us to be with you even though that would be glorious but you've left us here you've not left us as orphans you've left us here with a purpose and a task you've left us here with our skills and our abilities and our mind and our thoughts and our loves and our desires and our muscles and our hands and our feet and you've expected us to work to work and to be faithful to love our neighbor with everything that we have and I pray