This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

This is day four together of our look at 1 Corinthians 7, verses 17 to 24 today.
And Paul is going to turn in these verses to start to talk about decisions and
how we make those decisions. He's going to focus especially on how to make a
decision regarding marriage, whether you should marry or whether you should not
marry.

It's really, the principles he's going to teach us here, really have to do with
the broader issue of how we make decisions regarding our life circumstances. Who
and when we marry, where we live, what job we have. How do you know what God's
will is in those areas?

These next few days, we'll be looking at two of the most powerful and practical
passages in all of scripture regarding how to make decisions in these life
circumstances. There's sometimes in your life where the decision is clearly laid
out in God's Word. It's easy.

Should I murder? No. That's very clear in God's Word.

Should I get drunk? No. God just says don't get drunk.

Should I be sexually pure? Should I forgive? Yes.

God says you should do these things. So, many of the decisions in our lives
clearly lay out in God's Word. But how about those times when there's not a
verse that tells you what to do?

Should I marry Nancy or Kathy? And if it's Kathy, when should I marry Kathy?
Should I live in New York or Kansas City?

Should I take that job or is that job the better choice? Tomorrow, we're going
to see some key steps to go through in making those kinds of decisions. But
before even starting with those steps, there is one overriding principle that
Paul talks about in these verses.

It's so important. Paul states this principle no less than three times in this
passage that we're looking at today. The principle is this, verse 17.

Nevertheless, each one should retain the place in life that the Lord assigned to
him and to which God has called him. That is, this is the rule I lay down in all
the churches. Paul writes and says you retain the place in life the Lord
assigned.

He's saying here you stay where God has put you until he puts you somewhere
else. You serve where God has put you until he puts you somewhere else. You love
where God has put you until he puts you somewhere else.

And you stop living your life thinking that God's will is somehow somewhere
else. God's will is for you to love him and to serve him where you are. That's
where it always starts.

Now there's a huge truth behind these phrases that Paul uses here. The place
that the Lord has assigned to you. The place to which the Lord has called you.

Wherever you are, Paul is recognizing here, wherever you happen to be right now,
there's God's assignment, there's God's calling in where you are right now. The
truth behind that is God has more control over your circumstances, over your
place in life than you can imagine. Where you were born, how you grew up, even
where you are right now.

It is God's calling, God's assignment for you. Now you might look at this and
think God didn't put me here. I put me here.

But Paul is saying more than you realize, God put you where you are. You give
yourself a lot of credit. I give myself a lot of credit sometimes, but more than
you realize, God put you where you are.

Sure, you had a part in the process, but overall it's his calling and it's his
assignment. Wait a minute, you might think, what if I'm in prison? God allowed
you to get caught.

God made sure you were sentenced and now, as strange as this may sound, even
though it was wrong for you to commit that crime, you're in prison now. So now
it is your calling, it is your assignment to serve him, to love him there. You
don't wait to serve and love God until you get out of prison, you do it there.

Now as we walk through these verses, Paul is going to give two illustrations in
just a moment that show us two major truths about this principle of life. The
first truth is this, you're never disqualified from serving God. You can always
serve God as you are.

And the second truth is this, you're never waiting to get to a place where you
can serve You can always serve God where you are. First principle, you're never
disqualified from serving God. You can always serve God as you are.

Now the illustration that Paul uses here embarrasses some of us, but it didn't
them because it was a part of their life. It was a part of their worship. He
uses the illustration of circumcision.

A Jewish boy had to be circumcised, so Jews were circumcised and Gentiles were
not in that day. Verses 18 to 20, "Was a man already circumcised when he was
called? He should not become uncircumcised.

Was a man uncircumcised when he was called? He should not become circumcised. "
Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing.

Keeping God's commands is what counts. Each one should remain in the situation
which he was in when God called him. So there he says it again in verse 20, that
principle, remain in the situation where God called you.

There were some in Corinth who were feeling, "I wasn't circumcised as a Jew, so
I can't really serve God because a lot of my models, like Paul, they began life
as a Jew, so maybe I really can't serve God because I wasn't circumcised as a
baby. " But others were feeling, "Well, I was circumcised as a keeper of the law
and God has done away with the requirement of the law, so maybe I can't really
serve in the freedom of Christ like a Gentile could. " Paul is writing here
about circumcision, but if you take this to your life, to my life, there's not
one of us who doesn't have a hundred reasons why God couldn't use us.

For them it was whether they were circumcised or uncircumcised, that sounds
silly to us, but our excuses would sound silly to them. The moment you think you
needed to have a different background or a different family or you needed to
have different life circumstances in order to really serve God, you have
disqualified yourself but God never disqualifies you. Because your life
circumstances are not the point.

So he says to us, "You are never disqualified from serving God. You can always
serve God as you are. The person that you are right now, given to him, you can
serve him.

" And then there's a second truth that he tells us, "You're never waiting to get
to a place where you can serve. You can always serve God where you are. You can
always serve God as you are and where you are if you give yourself to him.

" And the illustration of being able to serve God anywhere you are, he gives, is
the illustration of slavery, verses 21 to 24, "Were you a slave when you were
called? Don't let it trouble you, although if you can gain your freedom, do so.
For he who was a slave when he was called by the Lord is the Lord's freed man.

Similarly, he who was a free man when he was called is Christ's slave. You were
bought at a price. Do not become slaves of men.

Brothers, each man as responsible to God should remain in the situation God
called him to. " There it is again, remain in that situation. "Even if you were
a slave," Paul says.

Now slavery is clearly wrong, but he says even in that wrong, you serve God
there. It's clearly wrong in these verses. He says, "If you can get your
freedom, do that.

" It's clearly wrong in these verses. He says, "Do not become slaves of men. "
But there were some in that day in the Roman Empire who had the wrong of slavery
imposed on them.

What if you can't gain your freedom? Does that mean you can't serve God?
Absolutely not.

Now the best illustration here of Joseph from the Old Testament, if you look at
the life of Joseph, he was unjustly, he was wrongly imprisoned, but he still
served God while he was in prison. He still chose to serve in prison and because
of that, God rose him to higher and higher places in that prison and eventually
got him out of that prison to serve as a second ruler over all of Egypt. What if
Joseph hadn't served while he was in prison?

When Paul talks about slavery here and says you can serve God even there, he's
reminding us that there is no place on this planet where you cannot serve God
and serve others. Jesus served those who were torturing him even as he died on
the cross. There is no place you can be put on this planet where you cannot
continue to serve God and serve others.

If you've been unjustly blamed in a job situation or unjustly fired because of a
job situation, you can serve God in that place. If you've lost it all because of
your own materialism or pride, you can serve God in that place. If you've been
cheated out of it all because of somebody else's materialism or pride, you can
serve God in that place.

There is no place that we can be put in this life in which you cannot continue
to serve God. There's nowhere that you can't keep serving. Now there's a lot of
where's I don't want to be, but there's nowhere I can't keep serving.

And so Paul says it again and again. You remain in the position where you have
been called. If you want God to put you somewhere else or you are wondering
whether God should put you somewhere else, the first step is to serve him where
he's already put you.

That's where you begin. Instead of spending your life chasing after a place
where you can really serve, you choose to really serve in the place that you
are, realizing that God has put you in that place at this time in more ways than
you can imagine. Even if it's a wrong that a man has tried to do to you, that
mankind has tried to do to you, God can even work there.

He can put you even there to serve him, to make a difference for him there.
Jesus, thank you for where you've put us. For some of us, that's an easy prayer
to pray.

We have blessings all around us. For others of us, it's the most difficult
prayer we have to pray. We wonder why we're here.

How could we have gotten here? But thank you for where you've put us, not for
the circumstances, but for the opportunities to serve, the opportunities to
serve you right here, right now, right where we are. So instead of waiting until
we become someone different or we get in a different circumstance, Jesus, help
us to serve you now.

In your name, amen. Tomorrow, we're going to talk about how to decide when it
seems that God may be putting you in a different place.