Paul’s Principles for Marriage
Practical Church (1 Corinthians) • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
Today, let us praise the One who offers us that Blessed Assurance of salvation. Please continue standing as we sing.
Opening Hymn
Scripture & Prayer: Pastor Bob Zephaniah 3:14-17
Song #1
Missions Minute: MISSION PARTNER
Today, our Missions Minute is about Gideons International. I’m going to invite Ed Dreesman up to give you an update on the Gideons.
Offering & Prayer
Song #2 (How Great is Our God)
Lord’s Supper
Please be seated.
(beat)
Our Great God stepped down from the light of His throne and took on flesh. Jesus came in the form of man and walked among us, showing us how to image God in the way that He intended us to from the beginning.
And as He walked among us in the first century, He began to reveal to those around Him exactly who He was. He was the promised Messiah, come to bring restoration to mankind—to be the righteous Son of Israel who would bless all nations.
His disciples began to understand who He was by His words, but also by the great works that He did. The sick were healed, the blind were given sight, those in the captivity of the enemy were freed, and there were other miracles that He would perform.
We’re going to continue our reading about Jesus from the book of John. Today we will continue in chapter 6:
After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number. Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted. And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”
Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
Jesus went to the mountain to go and commune with the Father. He needed time to spend with God to rest, but also to grow in the power of God available to Him in the Holy Spirit. Ultimately, He would use that power available to Him to go to the cross in our place and raise Himself from the grave.
And in conquering sin and death, He now offers us the chance to be restored in communion with the Father. And that is what we celebrate each week when we come to His table.
At this time, I am going to have our ushers come forward. If you are a follower of Jesus, in that you have accepted Him as Savior, bowed to Him as King, and been baptized in obedience to His commandment, we invite you to participate with us. In just a moment, we will pass the plates. Please take a piece of bread and a cup and hold it until we take together.
Pass
Instruction from Jesus: Read Luke 22:14-20
And when the hour came, he reclined at table, and the apostles with him. And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, “Take this, and divide it among yourselves. For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
Prayer of Blessing on bread and cup
Song #3
Pastoral Prayer
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Introduction
We are back into our series on 1 Corinthians, this morning, called Practical Church. If you have your bibles with you, please turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 7 as I recap the letter so far.
Paul has written this letter to them out of concern for the church at Corinth. He has heard many things through friends and contacts, and even from the Corinthians themselves in a letter that they have sent to him.
His concerns were largely about their sinful leanings into their pride, which had resulted in them distorting the gospel for their own benefit and began to drive wedges of division within the church. These distortions of the gospel led them to prize the giftings of the Holy Spirit within the body and to turn a blind eye to the sexual immorality that had pervaded the church.
In chapter 7, Paul begins to pivot and respond directly to something that the Corinthians had written in their letter to him. Apparently they had written that “it is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman,” meaning that it was good for husbands and wives to deny each other of sexual intimacy for the purpose of being more spiritual.
Paul responded to them by clarifying that abstinence from sex has no place within a marriage—that husband and wife properly belong to the other. That, in the coming together in their covenant, God has made them one flesh, so that they cannot be distinguishable one from another. So then, husband and wife should not be torn apart by divorce or separation, or even by long periods of abstinence. For, by their covenant to be made one flesh, they have marital rights to each other.
He goes on to say that—because of this fact—husband and wife have equal authority over each others bodies and that they should willingly serve each other in all of life, and that does not exclude the marriage bed. And so, he concludes by saying that they should come together often, not only to commune as one flesh, but also to reduce risk of temptation for both parties.
[TITLE SLIDE]
This week, Paul is going to pick up his argument against sexual immorality and sexual deprivation within marriage by explaining that all people—whatever their relationship status—can serve God well in their current station of life. In doing so, he will give some overarching principles for marriage.
Look with me to chapter 7, starting in verse 6:
[MAIN PASSAGE SLIDE x5]
Now as a concession, not a command, I say this. I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another.
To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single, as I am. (/) But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.
To the married I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): the wife should not separate from her husband (but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife. (/)
To the rest I say (I, not the Lord) that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. (/) For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace. (/) For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?
In 2003 something launched on the internet that got everyone 30 and under excited. It was a website called MySpace.
Now, if you don’t know what MySpace is, it was Facebook before Facebook. And if you don’t know what Facebook is, it was Instagram before Instagram. And if you don’t know what Instagram is it was TikTok before TikTok. And if you don’t know what any of those things are, I can’t help you. You will just have to suffer me the illustration.
MySpace was the first social media website. Every person had their own individual front page, where they could customize and share their likes and dislikes, play their favorite song, and even display their top 10 friends for the world to see.
Well, top 9 friends. Everyone had to be friends with Tom, and he was in your top 10.
Tom was the creator of my space and everyone was forced to be friends with him—whether they wanted to or not. These were in the days when it was difficult to build websites, and a developer would have to spend weeks of time coding to build something presentable online. So, I imagine Tom did not have many friends—which is why he wanted all of us to be his friend.
But, on the left margin of the page was another section called relationship status. There, you would have to choose on your main page between single, married, and it’s complicated.
Paul has just given some advice to Christians living in each of these categories. And so—today—we will break it down in this fashion. Principles for those who are single, those who are married, and those whose relationships have become rather complicated.
But, regardless of our relational standing, we will all seek to answer the same question this morning. That question is this:
How can we be faithful to God and the mission regardless of our relationship status?
[POINT 1 SLIDE]
Single (vv 6-9)
Let’s start with Paul’s principles for those that are single. Look back with me at verses 6-8:
[PASSAGE SLIDE]
Now as a concession, not a command, I say this. I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another.
To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single, as I am.
There are several items for us to note as Paul offers some advice to the church. He says that he wishes that all were as he himself is. Clearly—by the statement—he means to say that he is unattached in relationship to a woman. But this doesn’t mean that it was always the case.
In fact, many scholars believe that Paul would have been married when he was a disciple of Rabbi Gamaliel. If this was the case, then he likely either lost his spouse in childbirth or his wife left him when he became a Christian.
There are two reasons for this line of thinking. First, Jews felt that they had an obligation to fulfill the mandate “to multiply and fill the earth” by marrying and attempting to have a family. This mandate was given both the Adam and Eve in the garden and to Noah after the flood. For many rabbis, it was sinful not to marry. A Jew could not be seen as a faithful servant of Yahweh unless they married and attempted to procreate. This means that rabbis and priests were expected to be married. So, in his following of Gamaliel and becoming a leading voice among his followers, Paul is assumed to have fulfilled this commandment.
And second, according the Greek verbiage here in verse 8, it appears that Paul has lumped himself in with the widows and that they should remain unmarried in widowhood as he is. But regardless of the manner that Paul has been made single, he obviously finds it advantageous in the servanthood of Jesus.
Now, I want you to notice—though—that Paul does not command singleness, nor does he expect many to remain single. He recognizes that not all people are called to singleness or equipped for it. In fact, he says in verse 7 that singleness is a gift from God—that it is a spiritual gift (or charisma) given by the Holy Spirit for the purpose of serving God.
And just as the Spirit gives different gifts to different members of the body of Christ—which we will see when we get to chapter 12, there is no expectation on his part that everyone will have the spiritual gift of singleness. As Peter has said,
[SCRIPTURE SLIDE]
As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace:
Singleness should be used in service of Jesus for the purpose of mission—to bring Him glory by building up the church and making disciples.
For those of you single here today, consider that your singleness may not be your curse—it may be a gift of God for the purpose of fulfilling the mission that He has called you to. You are not failing if you don’t find a spouse. God may just be shaping you for a life focused solely on His mission.
Against the commandments of the Pharisees, Paul is telling the church at Corinth that those without compunction or need to marry are fortunate—for God has given them a gift. This calls us back to the question that was asked by the church at Corinth about celibacy. Here, Paul is saying that celibacy is great—it is of great use for the church and the individual—but only for those that are single. Celibacy has not place within a marriage.
Married couples have different responsibilities than those who are single. Paul will address this later in chapter 7, where he says that “the married man is anxious” about “how to please his wife.” In this, Paul says that his “interests are divided.”
Now, what does Paul mean by this? Is he denigrating marriage? No. Not at all. He is simply stating that within a marriage, a husband and a wife have more responsibility as they are covenanted together to love and serve each other. This does not mean that they cannot serve Christ well—only that they are not completely free to serve without thinking of and caring for their spouse.
I have seen pastors—even friends of mine—who tried to throw themselves into service to Christ like a single person, only to watch their family fall apart in the absence. Married people have responsibilities that single people do not, and so Paul says that it is to their advantage if God has gifted them to stay single.
But, in that it is a spiritual gift, and not all of us receive the same gift, he offers a caveat. Look at verse 9:
[PASSAGE SLIDE]
But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.
Paul says that if you are single—whether by circumstance or by choice—and you burn with passion, that singleness is not your spiritual gift. You should find a Christian of the opposite sex and marry.
The word “burn” here in Greek is an idiom in Greek literature to speak of the eros form of love that we call sexual desire. Therefore, most Bible translators have added the words “with passion” to the text to convey the sense that Paul is giving.
To describe someone as “burning” or “aflame” with love was an expression in Greco-Roman literature to describe the arousal of sexual passion within a person. Every Christian struggles with different temptations and each of us has a sensitivity to particular forms of sin. For those who continue struggling with lust after receiving the Holy Spirit, Paul says that this should be a clue for you that singleness is not your calling.
Marriage—then—is the proper option for those who burn with passion. The scholar David Garland says that Paul “offers marriage as the appropriate outlet for irresistible sexual urges rather than prescribing some morbid and futile battle to repress them.”
In other words, those who are single and continue struggle with their passions should exercise Christian marriage as the proper means for resisting temptation to sin and engaging in the mandate of God to “fill the earth.”
For Paul, fighting temptation or punishing oneself for the temptation distracts us from the mission and brings God no glory. In the first several centuries of the church, there were many who misunderstood both repentance and the call to suffering as Christians. Some ascetic monks would punish themselves as a way to become more holy.
One monk named Martinianus took the vow of celibacy, but could not handle his passions. Instead of following Paul’s advice and marrying, he took to punishing himself to try and show penitence for his lust. One day, he threw himself into a fire in order to punish himself for the sins of his passion.
But if he had understood repentance and taken Paul’s advice here, he would have refused the vow of celibacy and married a good Christian woman.
Paul understood that there were also practical and positive reasons to get married. We shouldn’t just be married to avoid temptation. Some feel called to “fill the earth” by bearing children and raising them up as disciples of the Lord. Others, like most women in the first-century, may struggle to provide for themselves in a life of singleness. If they could not work and were not supported by their parents, many women would feel compelled to marry for the practicality of provision.
But it is clear that—in the age of the church—Paul does not see the mandate to “fill the earth” as a commandment to be married and bear children. He seems to believe that Christians are able to fulfill the mandate by producing spiritual children as they wait for Jesus to return. That is—that those who remain single and those who cannot bear children are not cursed by the Lord, but have a different calling.
Their calling is to lean into their spiritual gifts and to “fill the earth” by making disciples of Jesus, by baptizing them, and by teaching them all that He has commanded. Singleness is a gift from God. Do not disparage it. Use it—in all of your gifting—to glorify God in every moment of your life.
[POINT 2 SLIDE]
Married (vv 10-11)
Paul goes on next to address those who are married. Look with me at verses 10 and 11:
[PASSAGE SLIDE]
To the married I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): the wife should not separate from her husband (but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife.
This passage seems pretty clear to us, but we need to do a little digging. We can see in English that the translators of the ESV have chosen the words separate and divorce, each in context for wives and husbands. Your version probably does something like this as well. The reason for the difference in verbiage is because Paul has used two different words, choritzo and aphiemi, in this passage.
It’s important for us to address this because, although they seem to have different meaning in English, Paul means to convey one singular idea. That idea is divorce.
In saying that a wife should not separate from her husband, he means to say that she should not divorce and abandon him. The reason why he uses a different word than he does for the husband is that in the ancient Jewish culture, women had no right to divorce their husbands. If she wanted to be divorced, all she could do was leave and abandon him until he wrote a certificate of divorce. So, her separating from him was a practical divorce—it was spousal abandonment.
We see Jesus use this exact same word in both Matthew and Mark while addressing the issue of divorce:
[SCRIPTURE SLIDE]
‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
Just as we spoke about last week—man and woman, joined together in covenant before God, belong one to the other. They have been made one flesh and that new oneness should not be ripped apart. That is what separate means—to tear in half or divorce part of the new body from the other part.
[PASSAGE SLIDE}
So a wife should not divorce her husband and a husband should not divorce his wife. But there is more for us to understand about this context.
First, notice that Paul is speaking specifically those who are in an equally yoked Christian marriage. We know this because the Jewish law spoke of those within the covenant and because Paul will go on to address those who are unequally yoked after this section.
Second, I want you to see that Paul is using hypothetical speech of the future—”if she does [divorce her husband]…” He is addressing potential situations that may arise between believing husbands and wives.
So, what is the purpose of Paul’s instruction here? Why even bring this part up if it was assumed by Jesus’ teaching that divorce should be avoided?
Again, it is the context of the Corinthian church. Paul is offering practical advice to a church that is made up of mostly Gentile believers. Unlike the Jews, the Romans allowed no fault divorce to be initiated by either party. A wife could just as easily get a divorce certificate as a husband.
This made it common for Romans to throw out a spouse for trivial reasons or to seek after their own “burning” desires however they wished. It wasn’t a whole lot different than our own society in regard to marriage and divorce.
But the church was supposed to be holy—set apart from society. They were supposed to look different. Covenant and mission had greater meaning for the people devoted to Jesus. And so, it follows that Christian marriages should also look different.
Paul likely expected that many of these church members had been divorced and remarried prior to coming to the church—that they had engaged fully in the culture of the world before submitting to Christ. So, what then is Paul saying to them?
He is not telling them to divorce their current believing spouse and go back to their original spouse… Instead, he is focused on their present situation. Are they dedicated to the covenant that they have entered before God with their current spouse?
Even if they were married before they both became believers, they have now come under the banner of Jesus and submitted their lives—and therefore, their marriage—to the King. If they are to stay loyal to Jesus, they will be loyal to each other and seek to faithfully fulfill their covenant together as one flesh.
So, Paul is referring to the emphases in the commands of Jesus in the gospels that believers should remain married and faithful to the covenant that they have given. So why does he give the hypothetical about a possible divorce?
I think Paul does this for practical reasons. Humans—even Christians—are sinful people. They will fail to image God well. They will sin against him and against each other. Divorce was allowed because of the hardness of heart, specifically in the areas of abandonment, sexual immorality, of failure to uphold the promises of the marital covenant like provision and marital rights.
He knows that there will be situations in which believing husbands and wives get divorced. When that happens, he says that they “should remain unmarried or else be reconciled.”
While he uses the wife as an example in the text, it applies both ways. If a believing couple divorces, they should begin serving God as torn and incomplete single people, or else be reconciled after forgiveness and reconciliation has taken place.
Notice that Paul is not forcing reconciliation on a spouse. It is the injured party that has a biblical right to divorce. And while forgiveness of the harmful spouse is expected of a follower of Christ, reconciliation is not a requirement to continue serving the Lord.
For believing spouses, even in divorce their marriage covenant remains intact. They should not seek to be remarried. Now, as is with everything, there are always situations that may demand more counseling and discernment. If you find yourself in this situation, please seek pastoral counsel.
So, Paul has laid out here what is expected of marriages with believing spouses. But what if you are in a situation that is more complicated than that?
[POINT 3 SLIDE]
It’s Complicated (vv 12-16)
Well, Paul has some advice for you as well. Let’s look at the rest of our passage, starting in verse 12:
[PASSAGE SLIDE]
To the rest I say (I, not the Lord) that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him.
Paul is back to giving practical advice to the church. He may be responding to a question from the Corinthians about a believer separating from a pagan. For many of them have become believers but still have unbelieving spouses. How should they handle this situation? Maybe this is the reason that they were concerned about being celibate…
Is the believing partner defiled—that is, made unholy—by sexual contact with an unbelieving spouse? These are important questions for the church to answer as the gospel spreads into the pagan nations.
Paul responds to these concerns. First, I want you to see that there is an underlying assumption that the only way you find yourself in this predicament is if the married couple is unbelieving and then one of them becomes a believer. It would be unthinkable for Paul that a believer, who has claimed to submitted their life to Christ, would marry an unbeliever. He will go on to state that specifically in 2 Corinthians.
Paul says that if someone comes to faith and is married to an unbeliever, it is business as usual. You submit your portion of the marriage covenant to King Jesus and you act like a believing spouse. You seek to love and serve them even better than before, in public, in private, and in the bedroom. There should be no desire on the part of the believing spouse to withhold intimacy or seek divorce.
Why? Paul goes on in verse 14:
[PASSAGE SLIDE]
For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.
He says that the unbelieving spouse and children are made holy because of the believing spouse.
This statement sounds outrageous for many reasons. So, let us figure out together what Paul means by this.
First, we need to “divorce” [pun intended] the ideas that holiness and salvation. For that understanding, let me give an illustration:
In the book of Leviticus, Moses is instructed by God to construct the tabernacle. And then he is told to make an altar and utensils and a basin and the menorahs and to consecrate them all for their sacred use. It is in this consecration of anointing oil that profane objects are “set aside”—or “made holy” for their use in the tabernacle. It is this consecration for holiness that allows formerly profane objects to dwell in the presence of God.
And this is what is going on in the home of an unequally yoked marriage. It is the believing partner that is daily consecrating their home, their spouse, and their children—not saving them, but preparing them through the anointing of prayer to be in the presence of the Holy Spirit. This is a blessing and gift of grace on the part of God, but it in now way guarantees the salvation of the spouse or the children.
This was a completely foreign understanding to the Jews. The Mosaic law—as given to Moses by God—was very concerned with introducing profaneness into holy spaces. This is why people with sin or contact with disease or blood could not enter the temple. It was understood that contact with unholy things would spread unholiness.
This is one reason why transgressing the holiness of the community of God was such a violation to the assembly. Evil must be purged to maintain holiness in the community. In fact, this is where we get the basis for church discipline.
But Jesus was different. Jesus was completely holy. But He wasn’t afraid, like every other Jew, to touch the sick or the blind, or even the dead. You see, instead of Jesus being made unclean in the contact, He transmitted holiness to the unclean thing. This was a complete reversal of the Levitical expectation.
Tim Mackie at The Bible Project has a great video on this called “Holiness.” I highly recommend that you take 6 minutes and watch it.
But this is what is taking place in the home of the believer. The believing spouse—by the power of Jesus through His Holy Spirit—is setting everything in their home apart for God. That, everything that they touch and pray over becomes set aside for the kingdom. In this way, they are spreading holiness like Jesus—reclaiming every part of the world for the kingdom of God and in the Name of Jesus.
So then, if the unbelieving spouse is willing to stay, the believer should see it as their mission to set their family and their home apart for God, praying over their family that they would be impacted by their example and by the love and grace and blessing of the Holy Spirit in their home.
Paul continues:
[PASSAGE SLIDE]
But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace. For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?
Paul says that if the unbelieving spouse leaves in a divorce—this is the same Greek word from earlier—that the believer should let them go.
So, why should the believing spouse consent to the divorce? Paul says that it is because God has called you to peace—to be an agent of shalom. The believer should not cause strife by forcing or manipulating reconciliation of the marriage. In fact, attempting to do so could be pushing that person away from Jesus. The believer should consider the other’s spiritual future in letting them go.
Does that mean that they should stay unmarried or be reconciled like Paul recommended for the married Christian couple in verses 10 and 11? No.
He offers again his holy pragmatism. The believing spouse is not obligated to reconcile with an unbeliever after they have been abandoned. Instead, Paul says that they are not enslaved to their former spouse. In other words, Paul is saying that God has released them from the bonds of their previous marriage covenant that was made outside of submission to Him. And, in their freedom they have permission to remarry to an available believer. Paul will go on to address this issue of remarriage more later in the chapter.
But for now, he closes with this: that in an unequally yoked relationship—even with the unbelieving spouse being in the daily presence of the Holy Spirit—you never know if they will believe. That, even if you do everything right—imaging Jesus to the best of your ability—there is no assurance either way whether they will become saved or not.
So, Christian, if you find yourself in this position, be patient. Pray hard. Dedicate your home and your family to Jesus and consecrate them for the Lord. And if your unbelieving spouse leaves, let them go in peace.
[PREVIEW SLIDE]
Application
This is what I want you to take away this morning: that regardless of the standing of your relationship status, every good human imager of God is mandated to multiply others to be good human imagers of Him.
If God has given you the gift of singleness, use it for His glory and to further His kingdom by making disciples—spiritual children for the kingdom of heaven.
If God has blessed you with a believing spouse, serve them well and glorify God together as you seek to raise your children and grandchildren to know and follow Jesus. And seek to grow the kingdom together as you make disciples.
If you find yourself in a complicated marriage, be patient and pray as you seek to serve your spouse and children well. Glorify God by consecrating your home and discipling your family and those in your sphere of influence.
And finally, if you don’t fit into any of these categories, keep praying and seeking God’s direction in your life. Pay attention to see how God has gifted you. Remember that He can still use you mightily no matter what your path.
Church, despite where you find yourself, know that God has a plan for your life. Go and bring Him glory by making disciples.
Invitation
And if you are here this morning, and you have not made that decision to follow Jesus, He calls you right now. Come and see all that He has in store for your life.
CLOSE IN PRAYER
CLOSING HYMN
CONGREGATIONAL BLESSING
