WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.440 Please turn up 1 Corinthians 7, the passage that was read for us a bit earlier on. 00:00:11.279 --> 00:00:16.480 You may know that old quip when somebody has stopped in the street and asked directions how 00:00:16.480 --> 00:00:21.679 ! to get to somewhere. Could you tell me how to get to such and such a place? And the person says, 00:00:21.679 --> 00:00:29.920 I wouldn't start from here. And everybody laughs. It's all very funny. But of course, the humor 00:00:29.920 --> 00:00:36.260 or the idea with the quip is that you have no alternative but to start from here because 00:00:36.260 --> 00:00:43.840 here is where you are. And when it comes to what it means to live the Christian life, 00:00:44.060 --> 00:00:53.299 we are always starting from here. And here, if we're honest, is very often not where we should be. 00:00:54.159 --> 00:01:00.979 And yet, it is where God meets us because that's where we are. It's where God meets us, 00:01:01.019 --> 00:01:03.819 and that's where He calls us to follow Him. Look at verse 17. 00:01:04.319 --> 00:01:11.379 Only let each person lead the life. Different translation. Only let each person walk in the way 00:01:11.379 --> 00:01:23.199 that the Lord has assigned to Him. He's saying, live the life that God has assigned to you wherever you are, 00:01:23.439 --> 00:01:31.959 starting from here. Where were you when the Lord called you? Halfway through a divorce? 00:01:31.959 --> 00:01:45.339 married to an atheist? In the throes of an affair? At an AA meeting? Where are you now? Where are you this 00:01:45.339 --> 00:01:55.099 morning? Well, wherever that is, Paul says that his rule in all the churches is that we should take it 00:01:55.099 --> 00:02:02.319 from here. Here's where we are. Let's go. Now, that's not what people usually think, is it, 00:02:02.319 --> 00:02:06.159 when we talk about the Christian faith? When we talk about what it means to belong to God, 00:02:06.319 --> 00:02:10.879 what it means to be part of a church, what it means to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. If you were to ask 00:02:10.879 --> 00:02:16.139 the man on the street, the ubiquitous man on the street, his attitude would be something along the 00:02:16.139 --> 00:02:23.500 lines of, well, I might consider the church when I've sorted myself out a bit. The idea is that you've 00:02:23.500 --> 00:02:30.520 got to clean yourself up a bit before you come to God. We should become the kind of people that God is 00:02:30.520 --> 00:02:35.939 on the lookout for. What would they be? Moral people, decent people, stand-up upright people, 00:02:36.139 --> 00:02:41.520 and probably, you know, if we throw in a bit of religion as well, that's not going to do any harm, 00:02:41.520 --> 00:02:51.759 is it? But the opposite is actually true. God takes the initiative. God calls us from where we are, 00:02:51.759 --> 00:02:58.299 from here. That's been a theme in this letter. The Corinthians were all over the place morally. 00:02:58.439 --> 00:03:05.060 We saw that back in chapter 6, the section from verse 9 and following. You were, and he lists a 00:03:05.060 --> 00:03:09.979 whole load of really unsavory things that marked their lives, and then he said, but you were called 00:03:09.979 --> 00:03:16.739 by God, and God has cleaned you up. You can't miss the calling language in these verses that were read 00:03:16.740 --> 00:03:24.280 to us this morning. Eight times, call, called, calling in as many verses. God takes the initiative. 00:03:26.180 --> 00:03:28.400 And it makes total sense when you think about it. 00:03:30.400 --> 00:03:35.000 The fact that God takes the initiative, it couldn't be any other way when you think about it. 00:03:35.000 --> 00:03:40.280 Biblically, you see, the Bible talks about our salvation as a rescue. If you are drowning, 00:03:40.740 --> 00:03:45.520 the emergency services don't expect you to get yourself to the shore before they offer you help. 00:03:45.520 --> 00:03:50.240 The emergency services don't come to the edge of the water, and they see you bobbing around out 00:03:50.240 --> 00:03:55.120 there or, you know, under the water, and they think to themselves, you know, well, let's wait and see. 00:03:55.840 --> 00:04:00.200 No, they get after it, and they go and they rescue you because you can't help yourself. 00:04:01.080 --> 00:04:06.620 Another image, much more striking image that the Bible uses, is that we are spiritually dead. 00:04:06.620 --> 00:04:13.960 If someone has a heart attack, the medics don't arrive and stand there and hope for the best, 00:04:14.039 --> 00:04:17.560 you know, wait for them to get up before they begin to do their treatment. Of course they don't. 00:04:17.819 --> 00:04:23.600 They get in, and they do their work. When we are helpless, we need others to take the initiative, 00:04:23.819 --> 00:04:29.699 and that is what God does. We have no other option when it comes to spiritual things. When it comes to 00:04:29.699 --> 00:04:35.519 us and God, there is no alternative. We can't get ourselves right with Him. He has to take the 00:04:35.519 --> 00:04:40.599 initiative, and that's what He does. He calls us, and He does that from wherever we are. 00:04:41.379 --> 00:04:47.620 However immoral, however unsavory, the self-righteous and the proud, and He takes us from there. 00:04:47.620 --> 00:04:54.019 Can I say to you this morning as well, that's actually the offer of the Christian gospel. 00:04:54.939 --> 00:05:02.060 God calls, and you respond. Whatever state your life is in this morning, God will deal with that 00:05:02.060 --> 00:05:07.060 in due time, but you come to Him with your nothing, and He gives you His everything. 00:05:07.939 --> 00:05:14.439 He'll count Christ's death to you. He will clothe you in His righteousness. What that means is, 00:05:14.439 --> 00:05:21.560 He will deal with your sin, and He will make you fit for His presence by uniting you to His Son 00:05:21.560 --> 00:05:28.779 through your faith. That's your response. You respond in faith. He does everything that is needed, 00:05:29.180 --> 00:05:34.740 and at that point then, you give yourself to a life of following Him, putting off sin, 00:05:36.139 --> 00:05:43.620 choosing obedience, and that's the journey all of us are on, every single one of us, putting sin to death 00:05:43.620 --> 00:05:49.600 and living according to God's design. And when you do that, you should expect your life to change. 00:05:51.040 --> 00:05:55.899 Change is inevitable if that is what you are doing, because God is at work in you by His Holy Spirit, 00:05:56.079 --> 00:05:58.620 transforming you from one degree of glory to another. 00:06:01.259 --> 00:06:06.540 So there is change. He meets us where we are. He gets about changing us, but here's the thing this 00:06:06.540 --> 00:06:13.340 morning. There are some things that you don't need to change. That's what Paul is concerned with. 00:06:13.339 --> 00:06:18.439 In our passage this morning. Remember, this letter is Paul's response to issues that the Corinthians 00:06:18.439 --> 00:06:23.699 have raised in a previous correspondence, and there are clearly some in Corinth who think that 00:06:23.699 --> 00:06:31.739 it's more spiritual to stop doing certain things and to start being and doing other things. We saw last 00:06:31.739 --> 00:06:36.000 week how some people are saying, if you're going to be a Christian, you need to choose to be celibate. 00:06:36.099 --> 00:06:42.359 That is what real holiness looks like. That is a better way. And Paul says, no, sex and marriage is good. 00:06:42.360 --> 00:06:49.379 Others were saying that God has called them from being married to an unbeliever, and they think, 00:06:49.500 --> 00:06:54.460 well, we should divorce that unbelieving spouse because they are unholy. That's a better way. And 00:06:54.460 --> 00:07:00.520 Paul says, no, if they'll stay with you, you stay with them. Remain married. You sanctify them. 00:07:00.840 --> 00:07:02.439 They don't defile you. 00:07:02.439 --> 00:07:09.000 In this passage from verse 17, it might sound like a change of topic from that, but it isn't, 00:07:09.540 --> 00:07:13.699 because Paul is still addressing this idea of what it means to be a faithful Christian, 00:07:14.160 --> 00:07:20.360 what it looks like when God meets you where you are to live in a way that pleases Him. And he picks 00:07:20.360 --> 00:07:26.199 on two further areas where the Corinthians have got confused. The Corinthians have created unnecessary 00:07:26.199 --> 00:07:31.839 barriers to, you might say, enjoying Christ, experiencing the fullness of the blessing of 00:07:31.839 --> 00:07:37.219 living in obedience to Him. They've created, therefore, unnecessary barriers to acceptance 00:07:37.219 --> 00:07:44.360 in God's kingdom. And there are two of them, ethnicity and social status. Ethnicity and social 00:07:44.360 --> 00:07:50.579 status. Those are big concerns alongside what the Corinthians think it means to follow the Lord Jesus. 00:07:50.579 --> 00:07:58.359 Now, acceptance. When you think about it, acceptance in our culture today, with whatever the in crowd of 00:07:58.359 --> 00:08:04.300 your choice. It could be a gang. It could be a private members club. However, wherever along the 00:08:04.300 --> 00:08:10.919 line it might be, gangs, teams, members clubs, they require us typically to be from a certain background 00:08:10.919 --> 00:08:18.419 and to adopt certain behaviors. Well, look at verse 17. It is not that way with Christ. 00:08:18.420 --> 00:08:26.300 Walk in the way that the Lord has assigned. Live the life that God has given you where you are. 00:08:26.879 --> 00:08:31.420 And He says, don't make it about these two things. Don't make it, number one, about ethnic status. 00:08:32.420 --> 00:08:38.080 Ethnic status. Look at verse 18. Was anyone at the time of His call already circumcised? 00:08:38.399 --> 00:08:45.279 Let him not seek to remove the marks of circumcision. Was anyone at the time of His call uncircumcised? 00:08:45.279 --> 00:08:53.299 Let him not seek circumcision. In Paul's Jewish worldview, it's very simple. The world is divided 00:08:53.299 --> 00:09:00.699 into two groups, Jews and Gentiles, circumcised and uncircumcised. And in the Corinthian church, 00:09:00.779 --> 00:09:07.980 they have both. And actually, that is a remarkable thing. These two groups naturally hated one another. 00:09:07.980 --> 00:09:14.659 From birth, the division between Jew and Gentile was hardwired into their thinking. But now, 00:09:14.960 --> 00:09:21.860 in the church, they are one. They are united through faith in the Lord Jesus. They don't stop being 00:09:21.860 --> 00:09:28.139 ethnic Jews or ethnic Gentiles, ethnic in the sense of ancestry and peoplehood. Those remain. But their 00:09:28.139 --> 00:09:36.340 status as Christians takes priority. Now, it's possible in Corinth that there were some Jews who 00:09:36.340 --> 00:09:41.600 were trying to hide their ethnic origin for the sake of getting ahead in Gentile Corinth, 00:09:43.100 --> 00:09:48.799 while some Gentiles perhaps chose or advocated for circumcision as a sign that they were really 00:09:48.799 --> 00:09:57.959 spiritually God's children, truly a part of His special people. But Paul undercuts all of that. 00:09:58.039 --> 00:09:58.719 Verse 19, 00:09:59.419 --> 00:10:04.579 For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but keeping the commandments 00:10:04.579 --> 00:10:13.539 of God. See what he's done? Paul has said, whatever these other things that you want to set alongside 00:10:13.539 --> 00:10:21.779 faith in Christ and obedience to His Word, nothing. Don't count for anything. Now, we, 00:10:23.059 --> 00:10:30.319 unless you are ethnically Jewish, I don't think we can appreciate just how staggering this really is. 00:10:31.639 --> 00:10:37.319 Circumcision was what marked this group of people out as special. It was what marked them out as truly 00:10:37.320 --> 00:10:44.879 belonging to God. It was vital to their heritage. It was a really significant thing. And here is Paul, 00:10:44.940 --> 00:10:59.920 he's saying, it's nothing. That is, it is any claim to worth before God on the basis of this ethnic marker, 00:10:59.919 --> 00:11:11.139 it just vanishes in Christ. And so, it's important that we recognize that beyond the distinction between 00:11:11.139 --> 00:11:19.459 Jew and Gentile. Your ethnicity is neither a benefit nor a barrier to Christ and to a life of godliness. 00:11:20.759 --> 00:11:28.360 It is no benefit or barrier in the community of the called, the washed, the sanctified, and the justified. 00:11:28.360 --> 00:11:36.139 God doesn't care where you come from. He doesn't care about the color of your skin, 00:11:36.279 --> 00:11:39.879 except that it is the skin that He uniquely gave you as a gift. 00:11:42.019 --> 00:11:48.080 When it comes to your culture or your traditions, where those things dishonor Him, they need to be 00:11:48.080 --> 00:11:55.519 left behind. And where they glorify Him, He is delighted. But He doesn't choose you on the basis of those 00:11:55.519 --> 00:12:03.639 traditions. There was a time when Britain was a Christian country in the sense that the Bible 00:12:03.639 --> 00:12:13.039 influenced our culture, our laws, our traditions, and that was the whole piece. Jerusalem, of course, 00:12:13.100 --> 00:12:18.840 we were told would be built on England's green and pleasant land. But you didn't need to become 00:12:18.840 --> 00:12:24.320 British to be a Christian. And while, of course, we want to pray that God will roll back the secular 00:12:24.320 --> 00:12:28.680 liberal project that has taken a hammer to so much of that culture and those traditions, 00:12:28.680 --> 00:12:32.340 we still won't require Britishness for salvation. 00:12:34.580 --> 00:12:40.860 The evils of things like apartheid and segregation, especially when they were expressed in the church, 00:12:41.340 --> 00:12:48.759 made some people think that Christianity was white man's religion. No. Ethnicity is no benefit 00:12:48.759 --> 00:12:56.240 or barrier to God. Don't try and downplay or deny where you are from. This is what God, 00:12:56.360 --> 00:13:05.360 verse 17, has assigned to you. Another element of Jewish ethnicity involved a significant religious 00:13:05.360 --> 00:13:10.879 component, of course. And the same thing applies in that regard as well. Some in the early church said 00:13:10.879 --> 00:13:16.700 that faith in Christ was important, but it was insufficient. And to be a real Christian, to be a true 00:13:16.700 --> 00:13:23.560 son of Abraham, you had to be circumcised as well as believe in the Lord Jesus. But Paul says circumcision 00:13:23.560 --> 00:13:31.360 is nothing. If that's the case, that simply can't be true. So yes, it is the case that a Jewish family 00:13:31.360 --> 00:13:37.759 had many spiritual advantages. Paul makes that point in Romans chapter 9. This didn't make them 00:13:37.759 --> 00:13:42.000 superior to anyone else who had put their faith in Jesus, however they got there. 00:13:44.620 --> 00:13:52.059 We are all one in Christ Jesus. And for us today, as we raise our children in the Lord, 00:13:54.439 --> 00:13:58.480 the children of Christian parents have great spiritual privileges. 00:13:58.480 --> 00:14:04.399 And we really want them to grow up and have boring testimonies. 00:14:06.080 --> 00:14:09.840 They go off to university and they go to a university. They're having a mission at the 00:14:09.840 --> 00:14:14.019 university and some bright spark thinks it'd be a great idea if somebody stood up and gave their 00:14:14.019 --> 00:14:21.019 testimony, if they told their story of how they came to faith in Christ. And somebody from our church, 00:14:22.139 --> 00:14:25.539 because they've got a bit about them, let's say, I don't know, they turn up and they're going well. 00:14:25.539 --> 00:14:30.079 And so they say, I think they'd be a good person to give their testimony. And somebody goes along and 00:14:30.079 --> 00:14:37.379 they said, tell us how you came to Christ. I grew up in a faithful covenant home and I've never known 00:14:37.379 --> 00:14:42.059 a day when I didn't know and love Christ. I think we should get someone else for the testimony. 00:14:42.439 --> 00:14:47.179 They don't want to hear that. That's not the dramatic story, but it's the story that we want as parents. 00:14:49.459 --> 00:14:55.439 But that doesn't make them any more worthy of God than others. 00:14:55.539 --> 00:15:00.699 If you grew up in a sound church and you were nurtured in the catechisms and you attended the 00:15:00.699 --> 00:15:06.860 right youth camps, if you were the president of your Christian union, great, great, well done. 00:15:07.199 --> 00:15:13.179 But you can't point to any of those things as earning special merit before God. The only thing, 00:15:13.240 --> 00:15:19.219 do you see what the only thing is? Verse 19, the only thing that matters, keeping the commandments 00:15:19.220 --> 00:15:26.139 of God. It doesn't matter what life God has given you. What matters is whether or not that life is 00:15:26.139 --> 00:15:35.220 submitted to God's Word. Can you see? It's really simple. All of these things, all of these badges 00:15:35.220 --> 00:15:40.500 that our culture loves to put us in silos and say, we're this kind of person, we're that kind of person, 00:15:40.500 --> 00:15:46.940 it all gets separated between those that submit their lives to God's Word and those that don't. 00:15:48.559 --> 00:15:56.100 Don't make ethnic status an issue. Remain as you were when you were called, Paul says. 00:15:57.480 --> 00:16:03.159 The same is true, point number two, of social status. Social status. Verse 21, 00:16:03.159 --> 00:16:07.240 were you a bond servant when called? Don't be concerned about it. 00:16:09.759 --> 00:16:15.559 A bond servant is a slave. One-third of the Corinthian population at the time were slaves. 00:16:15.980 --> 00:16:21.079 Slaves were not legally persons, so they had none of what we now call human rights. 00:16:21.740 --> 00:16:30.919 They were classified as property. That meant they had zero social status. Because they lacked worth in 00:16:30.919 --> 00:16:34.259 the eyes of the world, they could easily, of course, assume that it was the same with God. 00:16:34.699 --> 00:16:38.699 Because everyone else thinks this way about me, well, God must think that way about me as well. 00:16:38.719 --> 00:16:44.339 We do that, don't we? We believe what others say about us. We adapt to how we are treated by 00:16:44.339 --> 00:16:51.259 other people. We easily assume that everyone thinks that what those people think about us, well, 00:16:51.919 --> 00:16:59.000 God must think that. We project it onto Him. We take what we've been told about ourselves by others, 00:16:59.000 --> 00:17:03.340 and we think that's who we are. It's obviously wrong-headed. 00:17:05.640 --> 00:17:16.000 Whatever status the world affords or doesn't afford you, don't use that as a gauge of value in real terms. 00:17:19.779 --> 00:17:25.680 Whatever the world, whatever status the world affords or doesn't afford you, don't use that to gauge 00:17:25.680 --> 00:17:34.220 your value in real terms because it says nothing about your value in the eyes of the only person 00:17:34.220 --> 00:17:42.600 who really matters, the God of heaven and earth. What the world around you thinks of you is irrelevant 00:17:42.600 --> 00:17:46.560 to God, and He's the only one who holds the keys to eternity. 00:17:46.559 --> 00:17:55.299 Now, that works both ways. The world could celebrate you to the treetops, and you could think 00:17:55.299 --> 00:17:59.480 you're rather great, but all the while you're actually an enemy of the Lord of heaven and earth. 00:17:59.720 --> 00:18:06.480 The world could despise you, think that you're nothing, but all the while you have the smile of God 00:18:06.480 --> 00:18:13.940 on your life. Our problem is that we often get those confused, don't we? We think that power and wealth 00:18:13.940 --> 00:18:18.500 and success according to the metrics of the culture, well, they must be a blessing of God, 00:18:18.820 --> 00:18:26.019 but that might not be the case. If riches are a snare, which the New Testament tells us they are, 00:18:26.080 --> 00:18:31.279 if it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, how do you know that your wealth is a 00:18:31.279 --> 00:18:39.059 sign of blessing and not something that actually keeps you from God? We think that poverty and strife 00:18:39.059 --> 00:18:44.559 put us at a disadvantage and are a sign that God doesn't care. But if you're a believer in the 00:18:44.559 --> 00:18:51.379 Lord Jesus, God loves you, and while your situation may be hard, those struggles don't put you at a 00:18:51.379 --> 00:19:01.500 disadvantage eternally. The point is this, whatever social ladder our culture holds up doesn't apply 00:19:01.500 --> 00:19:08.799 in God's kingdom. All the way through the gospels, Jesus goes out to the poor and the needy and the 00:19:08.799 --> 00:19:18.640 marginalized. Jesus really cares about those that others don't. So, while none of you are slaves in 00:19:18.640 --> 00:19:25.460 the sense that Paul is describing here, if you are poor, don't think that you need to climb the social 00:19:25.460 --> 00:19:33.759 ladder in order for God to accept you or so that you can live a full Christian life. You are a freed 00:19:33.759 --> 00:19:39.140 man in the Lord. That's the language that Paul uses here. You are free as it relates to the Lord, 00:19:39.579 --> 00:19:50.519 so don't worry. No one owns you when you're in Christ except Him, and that is incredibly liberating. 00:19:51.180 --> 00:19:57.900 The ground is level at the foot of the cross of Christ. Now, it doesn't mean that we need to pursue 00:19:57.900 --> 00:20:02.779 poverty or we need to stay in poverty, just as Paul says here that the slave didn't have to stay in 00:20:02.779 --> 00:20:08.000 slavery if he could get out of it. There is no particular virtue in poverty for poverty's sake, 00:20:08.240 --> 00:20:12.579 but don't think that you need to change your social status in order for God to be pleased with you. 00:20:14.440 --> 00:20:18.680 You don't need to better yourself in the eyes of men for you to experience God's favor. 00:20:18.680 --> 00:20:25.299 In fact, if you think this way, you're simply swapping one kind of slavery for another. Look at 00:20:25.299 --> 00:20:29.720 verse 23, you were bought with a price. You were bought with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus, 00:20:29.860 --> 00:20:36.000 and that redeems you from every other form of tyranny or slavery or any of that sort of thing. 00:20:36.799 --> 00:20:41.840 And so he says, do not become bond servants of men. You've been set free in Christ. Don't choose 00:20:41.839 --> 00:20:49.659 slavery to someone else. If you live for earthly status, you're enslaving yourself. You're enslaving 00:20:49.659 --> 00:20:55.179 yourself to the approval of men. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ doesn't only liberate 00:20:55.179 --> 00:20:59.919 us from all sin, it liberates us from the opinions of those around us. You were purchased out of that 00:20:59.919 --> 00:21:06.439 slavery at the price of Christ's blood, as I've said, so just leave it behind. You might have no 00:21:06.440 --> 00:21:12.120 earthly status. The Corinthian slaves were seen as property, but in Christ, God loves you, and He has 00:21:12.120 --> 00:21:17.180 freed you, and He has freed you so that you can keep His commandments, not so that you can be controlled 00:21:17.180 --> 00:21:28.320 by the opinions of others. There is no class system in the kingdom of God. You might want, you should, 00:21:28.400 --> 00:21:32.279 I suppose, want to work your way out of poverty for the sake of those who depend on you, 00:21:32.279 --> 00:21:35.700 but you don't have to do it for God's sake. 00:21:37.940 --> 00:21:42.779 The point is that you are where you are, under the hand of God, 00:21:43.119 --> 00:21:50.759 and in Christ, you have all the resources you need to be content to live the life that God has assigned to you. 00:21:54.019 --> 00:22:00.000 It should also be said that it works the other way. There is no inherent virtue in being poor. Many of you are 00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:04.960 wealthy by any reasonable standard, and there are plenty of people who think that you should feel bad about that. 00:22:06.940 --> 00:22:14.259 Plenty of Christians who want to make you feel guilty because you've been materially successful. 00:22:15.460 --> 00:22:22.079 You also have what you have under the hand of the sovereign provision of God. So thank Him. 00:22:23.059 --> 00:22:27.660 Be grateful. That's what you do when someone gives you something. You don't feel guilty. You say, 00:22:27.660 --> 00:22:35.259 thank you, and you enjoy it, and you're generous with it. But you too need to live the life that God has 00:22:35.259 --> 00:22:44.960 assigned to you. One commentator says this, cultural values that venerate or stigmatize people according 00:22:44.960 --> 00:22:52.300 to their genealogy—that's their ancestry, their family line—their genealogy, their work, their wealth, 00:22:52.299 --> 00:22:59.059 or education—do not affect a Christian's worth, and they should not infiltrate Christian values. 00:23:00.659 --> 00:23:04.599 Those cultural values that venerate or stigmatize people according to those things, 00:23:04.720 --> 00:23:10.879 they shouldn't come into the church. That's what he's saying. There are no earthly barriers either 00:23:10.879 --> 00:23:16.779 to faith in Christ because God calls you or to serving the Lord in obedience to His Word. 00:23:16.779 --> 00:23:24.779 So two things then as we close. Because these, there are no earthly barriers to faith in Christ, 00:23:24.899 --> 00:23:32.399 don't create any in the church. The color of your skin, your accent, your background, 00:23:32.920 --> 00:23:36.720 none of those things should play any part in your involvement in the local church. 00:23:37.920 --> 00:23:42.440 Those factors aren't irrelevant because they are very relevant to what make you the person you are. 00:23:42.440 --> 00:23:47.320 They are a part of what makes you you. But they don't influence whether or not you can be a member 00:23:47.320 --> 00:23:55.820 or serve or participate in leadership in the church. Your character, formed as it will be by the 00:23:55.820 --> 00:24:02.559 commandments of God, that is what matters. It is just a fact that every church, like every other 00:24:02.559 --> 00:24:12.180 grouping of people, has a culture. And in a church, the culture that exists, it communicates 00:24:12.180 --> 00:24:17.039 even in an unspoken way, it communicates, this is what it looks like, this is what it sounds like 00:24:17.039 --> 00:24:23.660 to be a Christian. That is unavoidable. But I want to say, I look around here, every Sunday morning, 00:24:23.960 --> 00:24:29.440 this perspective that we have up here, we can see everybody, there is a wonderfully diverse picture 00:24:29.440 --> 00:24:35.980 that the Lord has painted, if you like, here with us. This is how the body of Christ should be 00:24:35.980 --> 00:24:43.000 in all of this wonderful diversity. And wherever you fit, and you do fit, I hope you know that you 00:24:43.000 --> 00:24:51.660 don't have to be anything other than you to belong here. Live the life that God has assigned to you. 00:24:52.740 --> 00:24:58.900 Verse 20, remain in the condition in which you were called. The only change that we want to see is the 00:24:58.900 --> 00:25:04.099 kind of change that comes when the fruit of the Spirit is more visible in your life. The kind of 00:25:04.099 --> 00:25:12.199 change that comes with growth in godliness. Apart from that, don't worry, because God doesn't worry. 00:25:14.480 --> 00:25:21.359 And I want to urge us to keep working at building genuine relationships across cultures and backgrounds 00:25:21.359 --> 00:25:28.339 as part of this expression of the body of Christ. And that's all of us. Don't think it's someone else's 00:25:28.339 --> 00:25:33.539 responsibility to do that. All of us. And what we then do is we cultivate a genuine unity, 00:25:33.539 --> 00:25:39.359 across all of that diversity, and this shared status that we have as brothers and sisters in Christ 00:25:39.359 --> 00:25:45.659 that we then experience in a deeper way is shown off to the watching world. That is God's design for 00:25:45.659 --> 00:25:50.920 the church. That as He calls people from every tribe, tongue, and nation together into Christ, 00:25:50.980 --> 00:25:55.700 and that is expressed through local churches, that we say something to the watching world. 00:25:55.700 --> 00:26:01.740 Where else in the world does background have nothing to do with your status? 00:26:03.819 --> 00:26:10.140 Where else do we see the kind of diversity that the church of the living God necessarily grows? 00:26:11.180 --> 00:26:19.160 Nowhere. It shows off the transforming, unifying power of the gospel. Now, for that to be a reality 00:26:19.160 --> 00:26:24.259 among us, we'll need to extend trust to those that are different from us. We'll need to bear with one 00:26:24.259 --> 00:26:28.779 another. We'll need to explain when offense is called and be quick to say sorry and even quicker 00:26:28.779 --> 00:26:35.599 to forgive. Assume good motives with one another as we seek to grow in these ways. Working it out. 00:26:35.680 --> 00:26:40.920 When it gets hard, we're tempted to withdraw. We're tempted to divide. We're tempted to bring in all of 00:26:40.920 --> 00:26:46.140 the dividing lines that exist in the culture out there around us. Don't do that. Lean in. 00:26:46.140 --> 00:26:55.820 Don't create barriers in the life of the church. And then secondly, don't choose any in your life. 00:26:56.740 --> 00:27:00.980 Don't choose any of these barriers in your own thinking, your own life. Lots of us have issues 00:27:00.980 --> 00:27:05.300 with contentment because we aren't happy to live the life that God has assigned to us. 00:27:06.300 --> 00:27:12.020 You are where you are this morning in life because that is the life God has given you. 00:27:12.019 --> 00:27:20.240 I think in some cases, some aspect of our background puts us at a disadvantage because it has put us at 00:27:20.240 --> 00:27:25.579 a disadvantage in the eyes of the culture and we think that's just the case in the church. It's not 00:27:25.579 --> 00:27:31.559 the case. Don't think that way about yourself. Some of us, we just want what others have because we 00:27:31.559 --> 00:27:40.700 care more about cultural status than we do about having the status of God's people. 00:27:42.019 --> 00:27:47.059 But adding any earthly category, to use the categories that that theologian used, genealogy, 00:27:47.180 --> 00:27:52.700 work, wealth, or education, adding any of that to faith in Christ and submission to God's Word 00:27:52.700 --> 00:28:00.079 is simply to become a bondservant of men, verse 23. It is to choose a form of slavery that God has 00:28:00.079 --> 00:28:08.460 liberated us from and so has zero spiritual benefit. Don't create these barriers in your life. In 00:28:08.460 --> 00:28:15.360 whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God. God made you. 00:28:17.960 --> 00:28:23.039 He gave you what you have. He withholds from you what you don't have. 00:28:23.039 --> 00:28:30.659 So live not in resentment because of this, but in the freedom and joy of His promises, 00:28:31.599 --> 00:28:37.399 knowing that your true identity is that you are chosen and loved by the Father, 00:28:38.720 --> 00:28:46.619 that you are co-heirs of eternity with Christ the Son, and that you are indwelt in every moment 00:28:46.619 --> 00:28:55.539 by the Holy Spirit who will safely get each one of us all the way to glory. Wherever we're starting, 00:28:57.219 --> 00:29:08.559 that is where the story ends. So trust Him. Be who you are in the right sense. Let's pray together. 00:29:08.559 --> 00:29:09.259 that is who the father who has the birth of the Holy Spirit who has the birth of the Holy Spirit who has the birth of the Holy Spirit who has the birth of the Holy Spirit who has the birth of the Holy Spirit who has the birth of the Holy Spirit who has the birth of the Holy Spirit who has the birth of the Holy Spirit who has the birth of the Holy Spirit who has the birth of the Holy Spirit who has the birth of the Holy Spirit who has the birth of the Holy Spirit who has the birth of the Holy Spirit who has the birth of the Holy Spirit who has the birth of the birth of the Holy Spirit who has the birth of the birth of the birth of the birth of the birth of the birth of the birth of the birth of the birth of the birth of the birth of the birth of the birth of the birth of the birth of the birth of the birth of the birth of the birth of the birth of the birth of the birth of the birth of the birth of the birth of the birth of the birth of the birth of the birth of the birth of the