1972 Cutlass

All that matters about our station in life is that we belong to the Lord

Automobiles don’t seem to be as big a deal to young people today as they were in my day.

I understand that.

Today’s automobiles have so much wizardry under the hood they are nearly impossible to work on.

And their sound - 99% of all cars today sound like wind up toys.

With the other 1% being electric so they sound like a battery powered toy.

It wasn’t that way with my ‘72 Oldsmobile Cutlass.

350 under the hood.

Automatic.

White on black with bench seats.

I bought it used in the mid 80’s.

But I have to confess, one of the reasons I bought her was because the way she talked to me.

Low rumble in idle - full throated roar as you drove away.

It was a car.

And it broke.

I thought it was the starter so I bought one.

I jacked the car up in the parking lot of our apartment complex

And as the snow began to fall - no kidding - don’t that make the story great?

I put the new starter on.

And she was still broke.

As that point I had a choice to make.

I could sally forth with my limited knowledge and keep replacing parts hoping I’d get lucky and I have done that before.

Or, I could call someone who knew really knew what to do.

I called a mechanic.

He really didn’t want to work on it - didn’t like to work on cars someone else had started on, but I begged.

Pleaded poor, newly-wed seminary student and he relented.

I had it towed to his shop.

Timing chain - I’d have never figured it out ever in a million years.

Here’s the point.

Why keep trying to fix something with a wish, when the answer is right there?

We’re working our way through the Apostle Paul’s first book to the Corinthians

And that’s what he’s addressing.

We are in 1 Corinthians 7:17-24.

While you are looking it up, let me set the stage.

If you’ve been here for the last few weeks, you know that most everyone in the Corinthian church is a new Christian.

And what they’d do is take a snippet of what they had been taught, and they’d make those snippets into rules.

And while we’ve deal with some very practical topics, they all have one thing in common.

They were trying all of these things to make themselves feel like they were good Christians.

They created rules to follow - even if the rule was to have no limits - that’s rule.

They created, they wanted these things so they could feel like they were doing the right thing.

So they would be good.

And maybe even, that they were better than someone else.

They knew something wasn’t right.

They probably wouldn’t word it that way - but you know - if you keep struggling

That’s kind of an indicator that you feel like something isn’t exactly right.

So in these verses, Paul takes a little time out to explain and what he explains is simply this:

It’s alright to be you.

To our live stream and podcast folks - we pray God blesses you with His word.

And to our guests, we are so glad the Lord led you here.

Please continue to worship with us - not by singing - but by hearing God’s word.

Hear now the Word of the Lord from 1 Corinthians 7:17-24

1 Corinthians 7:17–24 ESV

Only let each person lead the life that the 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? 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. Were you a bondservant when called? Do not be concerned about it. (But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.) For he who was called in the Lord as a bondservant is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a bondservant of Christ. You were bought with a price; do not become bondservants of men. So, brothers, in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Let us pray.

Dear Heavenly Father,

Your love is too vast, your grace is so much.

You know that we don’t get it - but we want to get it.

Give us a glimpse of your grace today.

Resurrect a dead soul so they can see and hear your grace.

And for those that are alive, may we leave awed with the working of your Spirit.

Forgive me of my sins, that nothing may hinder Your Word reaching Your People.

In Jesus’ name,

Amen.

If I want to be a good Christian, I’ll have to change

Let’s deal with that for a second.

Everybody thinks that at some point.

And I’ll be frank with you, I’ll still have moments where I say to myself, “Randy, you’ve got to do better.”

You do that, right?

So we make a “rule” to be better.

Because I need to make myself better.

It’s just like working on my car.

I thought I knew what I needed to do.

I was going to save us some money.

We were newly weds so I could show off my mechanical prowess and maybe she’d be impressed.

I didn’t ask anyone or consult any books - I knew a change was needed and I was pretty sure I knew what to do.

Except, I didn’t.

These folks in Corinth, new Christians, knew they needed to be different somehow because they were Christian.

So they set out to be good Christians.

And Paul said this:

1 Corinthians 7:17 “Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches.”

Lead the life is literally walk.

You could say it this way, “Only let each person walk the walk in the place where the Lord called him or her to be saved. That’s a rule.”

Whatever place you were in when you were saved, walk the walk.

Live your life.

Now answer this for me: Do you see any where in this or anywhere in this chapter that Paul says you need to be figuring out how to be a good Christian?

You need to be figuring out how to live “Saved?”

I don’t see that here.

I see Paul saying, “When you are saved, go to work the next day and be a Christian.”

“But I work in a bar.”

Ok, go to work the next day and be a Christian.

I’m just a janitor.

Ok, go to work the next day and be a Christian.

I’m the CEO or owner or a boss.

Great, go to work the next day and be a Christian.

What does that look like?

It looks like YOU!

You are saved - you’ve been changed - you have a heart of flesh now with the Law of the Lord written on it.

You have the Holy Spirit dwelling in your heart.

Go to work and trust God to lead you to be what you need to be.

Forget about figuring out what Christian things you should do.

Just be you, just be a Christian.

Your physical circumstance is of no consequence to God.

He knows where you work.

He knows who you are married to.

For you to change either of those things won’t make you more or a less of a Christian.

Paul says in verse 18 and 19 - If you were raised as a Jew, don’t pretend you aren’t.

And if you were raised as a Gentile, don’t pretend to be a Jew.

Neither of those count for anything - but look at the end of verse 19.

1 Corinthians 7:19 “For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but keeping the commandments of God.”

See, I’m supposed to keep the 10 commandments!

Could you before you were saved?

No - so you’re going to do a better job now?

What did the 10 commandments teach you?

They taught me that I couldn’t do the 10 commandments.

And because they were given by God and I couldn’t do them, well, that’s a pretty big mess.

I needed help.

So I cried out to God

And He showed me Jesus who died for my sins and was raised from the dead so I could have NEW life.

NEW life - where my commandments morphed.

The 10 commandments are still real and are still the rule and every kid and adult alive needs to know them.

But what did Jesus say, Matthew 22:37-40

Matthew 22:37–40 ESV

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

So what is Paul saying?

When you are saved, go to work the next day with the mission that you are going to love God the absolute best you can.

And you are going to love everyone you run into the absolute best you can.

And you don’t worry about the rest.

Why? Why shouldn’t I worry about doing everything in the Bible?

We just answered that.

His commands are written on your heart and His Spirit lives in you to guide you to them.

It’s not your job to make yourself better - that’s His job.

Your job is to follow.

This is what is meant in Galatians 5:1 “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”

You are in slavery trying to follow all of the rules.

Don’t go back and try to do that again - you’ll make yourself nuts.

But he’s saying more than that too.

Don’t be a slave to everybody around you.

Some people in this church were saying that visiting ladies of the night would be ok.

Some people were saying that to be a good Christian, you shouldn’t be married so get a divorce.

Or if you are married to an unbeliever, divorce them so you can marry you a believer.

Or if your spouse dies, don’t remarry.

It’s not much different today - some churches say you have to speak in tongues.

Or you’ve got to listen to traditional hymns - you know, the old stuff like the Gaithers.

Or you’ve got to listen to the new stuff on the radio.

Or you’ve got to wear a suit - or you’ve got to wear skinny years.

Or you’ve got to attend a church plant

Or you’ve got to attend an established church

Or I’ve got to change jobs where everyone is a Christian.

Or I’ve got to drop all of my non-Christian friends.

And I’ve got to read my Bible and hour a day, pray an hour a day.

Those are all rules that someone made up that you are trying to follow.

And that’s bondage.

1 Corinthians 7:24 “So, brothers, in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God.”

We were saved to be free

Listen closely, I don’t want you to misunderstand.

Everyone who is not a Christ Follower is dead in their sins - dead, dead.

What can a dead person do? Nothing.

They can’t even hear that they are dead.

But Romans 5:8 “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

So while we were dead, the Father sent Jesus to die for our sins and to be raised from the dead.

One day, through God’s sovereign providence, the Lord wakes you up from the dead.

I don’t know how and don’t care.

All I know is, somehow the Lord makes you able to hear about Jesus.

And Jesus makes sense.

You recognize that all the fighting you’ve done all of your life to be whatever it is you are.

Whether you are the biggest, baddest beast or whether you were the goodiest of two-shoes - it’s irrelevant.

You realize it was all wasted time.

That your fight was against God.

And instead of rejecting you like so many people have

While you were absolutely clueless - Jesus died for you.

And because He has made you alive - you hear that.

And you repent - you turn to God and tell him you are sorry for fighting Him.

You ask Him to forgive you and to save you.

And He says on one condition - you trust Him enough to follow Him forever.

And if you will do that - if you will trust Jesus - He will save you.

Now here’s what will confuse someone.

If you work as a bartender or wherever - and you get saved - go back to work tomorrow, and here’s why I say that.

You now have the law of God written on your heart and the Holy Spirit living in you.

When you are saved, He immediately goes to work drawing you closer and closer to Him.

And you’ll either end up quitting because you can’t stand to see the pain

Or you’ll get fired for telling someone what’s happened to you.

But either way, ultimately you won’t care.

Because you’ll be following Jesus.

And wherever He leads you’ll go.

Brothers and sisters, you don’t have to clean yourselves up.

You don’t even know what kind of soap to use.

Follow Jesus.

Follow Him as closely as you know how.

And trust Him to lead you where you need to be.

(Offer invitation here)

Let us pray: