Calling

Good morning again, and welcome to Church of the Advent.

My name's Jeff, I'm one of the pastors here,

and I hope that you are thawing out from your journey

to church this morning on this cold day.

If you have a Bible or a phone,

I would invite you to turn to 1 Corinthians 7,

starting in verse eight.

It's always good to have our Bibles open

as we listen to somebody preach a sermon,

but especially this morning,

I think Paul's argument here in this chapter

I think is especially nuanced and careful and detailed,

and I think it's helpful if you have your Bible open

to follow along.

Here in 1 Corinthians 7,

Paul has a lot to say here about calling, about calling.

I think many people who use the word calling today

are often thinking about it or referring to it

through a secular lens.

They often talk about it in terms of finding their passion.

Maybe you've heard somebody say along the way in your life,

you need to find your passion.

You need to find a work or a job that you're passionate about.

This is about a sense of self-actualization,

how a certain kind of work or an opportunity

is supposed to give us a sense of fulfillment in life

and to help us grow as a person.

And a lot of people in our modern culture

spend a lot of time and money

orienting their lives around this.

They spend a lot of time and effort

to get into the right schools,

to work at the right institutions,

to network at the right meetings,

all trying to find their passion

through their career or through their work.

Still, some other people, I think,

think through calling primarily

primarily through a religious lens.

So to have a calling from God

means that you are involved in ministry.

You're a missionary, you're a pastor,

you're a priest or a deacon.

But how should we think about calling

and how do we figure not only what our calling is,

but how to make a change,

how to make a move in our different callings that we have?

Should I stay in this job?

Should I find a new one?

Should I move to a new city?

Who should I date?

Should I marry this person that I'm dating?

Should I even get married?

Should I stay married?

I think a lot of us from time to time

have asked questions like these

and people in the Corinthian church

in the first century

were actually asking similar questions.

Many of them were new Christians.

They had believed the gospel

when Paul had come and preached Christ to them.

But as new believers,

many of them had questions

about how their newfound faith

impacted the various situations in their lives,

their marriages, their singleness,

their jobs, their social positions.

And in chapter seven,

Paul is taking time in his letter

to answer some of these questions directly.

And we know this from verse one,

where he says,

he begins the section by saying,

now for the matters that you wrote about.

And so he's answering

some specific questions that they had.

And in this section here in chapter seven,

we learn a few things about calling.

We learn what calling is,

how to discern our calling,

and the freedom that calling brings.

What calling is,

how to discern our calling,

and the freedom that calling brings.

So first of all,

let's look at what calling is,

how Paul defines calling here.

Both the secular view,

find your passion,

and the religious view,

callings about ministry,

have the same problem.

The problem is that they suffer from elitism.

They exclude the vast majority of people.

The secular view excludes people

who don't have the resources,

or the opportunities,

or the networks

to do what they are passionate about for a living,

to do what they're passionate about for a job.

A lot of people

work jobs or careers

that they don't feel passionate about.

A lot of people work jobs

they don't feel called to.

The religious view, on the other hand,

excludes people who work as electricians,

and business owners,

and teachers, and engineers.

If calling is for missionaries and clergy,

then what about everybody else?

So both of these views suffer from the same problem,

but the way that Paul talks about calling here

in this chapter includes everybody.

It includes all of us who profess faith in Christ.

No matter their social situation,

or their job status,

it includes everybody.

And I want you to see how he uses the word calling

in two distinct ways.

Two inseparable, but distinct ways.

First, he uses calling

to talk about God's calling people

to salvation in him.

We see this in verse 18,

where he says,

was anybody circumcised when they were called?

This is about the calling from God

that comes in conversion

and salvation through Jesus Christ.

But he uses it a second way,

then in verses 17 and 24,

when he talks about the situations

and the circumstances

that God has called us to.

So calling is both about salvation and conversion,

and it's also about the situations in our lives.

And this is why theologians over the centuries

have talked about primary and secondary callings.

Primary and secondary callings.

And again, these are distinct and yet inseparable.

In our primary calling,

God calls us to salvation

through repentance in Jesus,

faith and repentance in Jesus through the gospel.

And through union with him,

through faith in him,

he calls us to be in a relationship with him

where we're transformed more and more

to love God and love our neighbors.

That's our primary calling.

And this is,

when you see the word calling in scripture,

this is primarily what it's referring to.

Let me give you a couple examples.

In Ephesians 1.18,

Paul is praying for the Ephesians.

And he says,

I pray that you would have the eyes of your hearts enlightened,

that you may know the hope to which he has called you.

That you may know the hope to which he has called you.

Calling here is about the hope of eternal life

that comes with salvation.

Let me give you one more example.

2 Peter 1, verse 3.

2 Peter 1:3

His divine power has granted to us all things

that pertain to life and godliness

through the knowledge of him who called us

to his own glory and excellence.

So calling here is about transformation.

It's about growing in holiness to be more like Jesus.

So that's our primary calling.

And our secondary calling flows from that.

In our secondary calling,

God assigns us situations and circumstances

to live out our primary calling.

And specifically,

to live out our secondary calling,

he gives us gifts.

He gives us roles.

He gives us relationships.

He gives us gifts like hospitality,

or teaching,

or administration,

or writing,

or mercy,

or prayer.

He gives us relationships like family,

like spouses,

like friendships,

neighbors,

roommates,

coworkers.

And he gives us roles to play,

like parents,

or spouses,

or software developers,

or neighbors,

or police officers.

That's our secondary calling.

But in both our primary calling

and our secondary calling,

it's important to see

that it is God who does the calling.

It's not a line of work,

a job,

or career.

It's not an inner subjective voice inside of us

telling us to find our passion.

It's about God.

God is the one who is doing the calling.

And therefore,

calling is not about finding our passion.

It's not about finding our dream job.

And it's also not just for pastors

or missionaries.

Calling is about God.

It starts and it ends with God.

It's about the God who calls us

and invites us to salvation in him

through fellowship with his son

by the power of the spirit.

And it is about the God who assigns us

gifts and situations

and relationships and roles

to live out that new life

that he has given us.

So that's how Paul defines calling.

That's how Paul,

how he talks about our primary

and our secondary calling.

But that raises a question for us

that's very practical for us,

that in our secondary callings,

in the places God has assigned us,

how do we discern God's leading?

How do we discern God's call in those places?

And specifically,

how do we know

when it's right to make a change?

How do we know when it's right

to make a move in our circumstances?

How do we know

whether to persevere

in a hard job situation

or to move on?

What if we want to get married

and have kids,

but our hopes are,

our hopes for that are growing dim?

How do we know how to discern

what our secondary calling is?

And that's what I want to look at secondly.

Three times in this passage,

Paul repeats a principle

that he applies to various situations.

And I want you to,

he repeats it three times.

Verse 17,

only let each person lead the life

that the Lord has assigned him

and to which God has called him.

He says relatively the same thing in verse 20.

Each one should remain

in the condition in which he was called.

And then he basically repeats

the same thing again in verse 24.

What he's saying is,

stay where you are,

remain where you are

because God has assigned you

that situation.

Now, this isn't some kind of radical fatalism

about God's will for our lives.

There are exceptions.

There are good reasons

to change our circumstances.

And Paul gives this principle.

He says,

the general rule is stay.

The general principle is to remain

unless,

because.

Stay,

unless,

because.

And I want you to see this

here in these three different situations.

So in verses six through nine,

Paul is addressing single people

and he's gonna tell them,

stay,

unless,

because.

There were some people who were single

who were wondering,

now that I'm a Christian,

should I get married?

Uh,

this is a legitimate question.

After all,

marriage is a picture of the gospel.

It's a picture of Christ in the church.

And so some of them were probably wondering,

is marriage in a better way to serve God?

Is it a better way,

a higher way to serve God's calling in my life?

And Paul says to people who are unmarried,

some who have never been married,

some who are widows.

And he says,

stay where you are.

Unless,

unless there's a good reason to get married,

unless you find somebody to marry,

or as he says in verse nine,

if you're living in sexual sin already

and you can't control your desires,

getting married is better than being single

and continuing to live in sin.

So stay single,

unless there's a good reason not to,

because.

Because,

he says,

singleness is just as much a gift from God

as marriage is.

He talks about this in verses eight through nine

and then later in chapter seven.

So stay,

unless,

because.

Let's look at the second situation.

In verses 10 through 16,

Paul is addressing people

who were married to an unbeliever.

And they had a,

they also had a question about their situation.

Some people who were,

who had become Christians through Paul's preaching

had spouses who did not become Christians also.

They were unbelievers.

And so their question was,

now that I'm a Christian,

should I divorce my spouse who's not a believer?

And Paul tells them,

stay,

unless,

because.

Stay in your marriage,

unless there's a good reason to divorce.

And he,

in verse 15,

he listens abandonment of the marriage

by the other person as a good reason for divorce.

Stay in your marriage,

unless there's a good reason,

because,

in verses 16 and 17,

that God may use your marriage

to draw your spouse to faith.

Also,

your kids have a special covenant status.

They are holy,

because you're a believer.

Stay in your marriage,

unless there's a good reason not to,

because God might use your marriage

to impact your spouse.

Let's look at the third and final situation.

In the third situation,

Paul is addressing bond servants or slaves.

And he tells them,

remain as a slave,

unless you can gain your freedom,

because if you belong to Jesus,

you're really free.

You don't ultimately belong to your master,

but you belong to God.

Now,

we have to do a brief aside here,

because Paul is addressing slaves.

Anytime we see slavery in Scripture,

we have to address this.

It's important to say

that Paul here is not addressing,

he's not condoning slavery

as an institution,

especially the kind of slavery

that happened throughout American history.

We know from history

that the kind of slavery

that happened in the Greco-Roman world

in the first century

was a lot closer

on the spectrum

to indentured servitude.

Slaves in Paul's day

enjoyed a relatively decent social status.

They could hold prestigious jobs

and own money and property,

and many could even buy their freedom.

And that is exactly

what Paul encourages

these people to do

if they're able to.

But more significant

than the historical context

is the theology

that he lays down here

in verses 22 and 23.

And he tells slaves

that because you're in Jesus Christ,

that you are actually free.

That your fundamental identity

is that you are free.

And that people who are free

in the eyes of the world

become slaves to Jesus Christ.

And he's giving them

this counterintuitive paradox

because he says,

all of you,

whether in the eyes of the world

you're a slave or free,

you are all equally called by Jesus

and you are all equally

under his authority.

Now there's probably a lot more

that we could say

about why Scripture

doesn't condone slavery,

but it's important

to at least say

that it's passages like this

that would eventually sow seeds

for the abolition of the slave trade

in places like America

and England centuries later.

So what do we see in this section?

We see that Paul says

to single people,

and to married people,

and to slaves,

stay where you are

unless,

because.

And the whole point

of what Paul is trying to communicate

is that when it comes

to following God

and living out

our secondary calling,

is that in general

we shouldn't worry

or be anxious

about our situation.

Because our situation,

our circumstances,

don't sanctify us.

Our circumstances

don't make us more holy.

Our certain walks of life

don't allow us

to serve God

more faithfully

than others.

Our marital status,

our job situation,

where we live,

it's not that these things

are unimportant,

it's that they're irrelevant

when it comes to serving God

faithfully.

Being married

is not superior

to being single.

Being a pastor

is not superior

to being a layperson.

Having an advanced degree

is not superior

to having a high school education.

Being a CEO

is not superior

to being an entry-level employee.

And therefore,

when we're discerning

various decisions

about our secondary calling,

when we're asking questions like,

should we move cities?

Should I change my job?

Should I change

my marital status?

We should have a strong bias.

Our first inclination

should be to stay

where we are.

To bloom where God

has planted us.

To serve God wholeheartedly

in whatever situation

that we find ourselves in.

To not be overly anxious

or concerned

about our circumstances.

Why?

Because we believe

in a sovereign God

who in his infinitely wise providence

calls people to himself

and assigns to them

places and roles

and gifts

and responsibilities.

The gifts that we have,

the relationships that we have,

the places that we live,

all come to us

through the sovereign

providence of God.

Just as God's primary calling

on your life

through salvation

in Jesus Christ

is not a random accident,

so it is with his secondary calling

on the circumstances

of your life.

They come from the hand

of a sovereign God.

Does this mean

we should never

change our situation?

No.

That is clear

from this text.

There are good reasons

to take a new job

or move.

There are good reasons

to get married.

The principle is

stay

unless.

Now,

I fully admit that

this probably sounds

pretty challenging

to many of us.

It sounds challenging

to me

because we live

in a modern culture

where staying put

is hard.

We want to be free

to change our situation

whenever we want

and as often

as we want.

But what I want

to invite you

to see

is that

what may

initially sound

restrictive

or limiting

or constraining

to our modern ears

is actually meant

to bring us freedom.

It's actually meant

to bring us rest.

It's actually meant

to bring us joy

and that's what

I want to look at next.

I want to look at

the freedom

that calling brings.

The freedom

that calling brings

and I want to look at it

from two angles.

And the first is this,

that this understanding

of calling

frees us

to see both marriage

and singleness

as equal gifts.

Because our secondary callings

flow from our primary callings

and because it's God

who sanctifies us,

not our circumstances,

being single

is not a junior varsity way

to serve God.

In fact,

Paul says that singleness

in many ways

is preferable to marriage.

And he says this

at length in chapters,

later on in chapter seven,

that single people

have many advantages

to serving God

that married people do not.

That they're able

to serve God

with a kind of freedom

and flexibility

and single-mindedness

that married people

don't have.

I think we see this

as we look across

church history.

Many of the most

influential

and impactful people

in church history

have been single.

So whether we think

about Hannah Moore,

who is a British author

and reformer

who worked with

William Wilberforce

to end the slave trade.

We think about

Amy Carmichael,

who was an influential

missionary in India

for 40 years,

who helped young women

recover out of the

sex trafficking trade.

If you think about

someone like C.S. Lewis,

who was only married

for three years of his life.

Lottie Moon,

who served Christ

as a missionary

in China for 40 years.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer,

the German pastor

and theologian

who built an underground

seminary during World War II

and resisted the Nazis.

Not to mention

the Apostle Paul

and the Lord Jesus himself.

It is often single people

who model for us

what a wholehearted

response to serving God

looks like.

And even though

we might know this

theologically,

that singleness

is as equal

as a calling

as marriage,

it doesn't always

feel like that,

does it?

It can often feel

painful and lonely.

And I think

to not acknowledge

that would be a mistake.

And yet,

single friends

in the room,

I hope that you

are encouraged

by the freedom

that is found

here in this text.

That because of

how Scripture

defines calling,

you are not

second class.

You're not on

the JV team.

You're not in

a holding pattern

on the tarmac

of life,

waiting for God's

call on your life

to take off.

No,

God's call

on your life

is right now

to serve Him

wholeheartedly.

You have

unique gifts

and capacities

that only you

can give

that our church

needs.

And our church

and the church

would be impoverished

without you.

So I think

that's the first

thing that we see

that this view

of calling

frees us

to see both

singleness

and marriage

as equal gifts.

And secondly,

this understanding

of calling

frees us

to serve God

in whatever we do,

whether it's

in our jobs

or as a parent

or as a neighbor.

It frees us

to serve God

in whatever we do

without seeking

salvation

through our circumstances.

I think part of

why this text

is so challenging

to modern people

like us

is because we live

in a time

of unprecedented

social mobility.

people change

cities and jobs

and spouses

more today

than ever before.

Now there is

a lot of good

that comes with that

but it also comes

with a cost.

There's the illusion

that there is

an infinite number

of options out there

in terms of

where to live,

where to work

and who to marry

and therefore

it always seems

like there's

someone or something

better out there

for us

than our current

situation.

and that can

leave us

feeling restless

and rootless

and aimless.

Always wondering

if there's something

better out there

for us

that will fulfill

us more.

If I could only

get married

then I would

finally be content.

If I could only

find a job

that would fulfill

my passion

then I would

finally be happy.

If I could only

fill in the blank

for you.

That is a restless

place to be

and many of us

have been there.

It's so easy

to believe

that a change

in our situation

is the thing

that will make us

finally free

and happy.

But to do so

is to make

an idol

of our circumstances.

To do so

is to treat

our circumstances

as a functional

savior.

To look to them

for only what

God can give us.

If calling

is about finding

your passion

in life

if it's about

finding your

dream job

you'll never

be free

because there

will always be

something better

out there

for you.

Not only do

our circumstances

not sanctify us

they also

can never

satisfy us.

They will always

leave us feeling

restless and anxious.

But if calling

is about the God

who calls us

first to himself

and second

to our situations

then we are

free to serve

him wherever

we are.

In our

workplaces

as parents

as students

as friends

as neighbors

we're free

to serve him

wherever we are

because ultimately

we belong to him.

And that is why

Christ came.

And he came

to set us free

regardless of

what our situation

is

even ones that

are difficult.

Jesus Christ

himself

embraced a calling

from God

that had the

most difficult

circumstances

of all.

Rejection,

betrayal,

and suffering

and death

on a cross.

Jesus was

called

to be a slave

so that you

could be called

to freedom.

To the freedom

of serving God

wherever he

in his sovereign

wisdom

has placed you.

To bloom

where you're planted

to serve him

wholeheartedly.

Can we pray

for better

situations?

Yes.

And God

may in fact

answer some

of those prayers.

Sometimes

God changes

our situations

but most often

he works

through our

situations.

To call us

more deeply

into our

primary calling

to belong

to him

to deeper

faith

to deeper

love

to deeper

dependence

upon him.

Brothers

and sisters

God has

placed a

calling

on your

life

but it's

not to

find your

passion.

It's not

to find a

dream job.

It's to a

person.

God has

called you

to himself

to a

savior who

can give you

contentment

and joy

and hope

and purpose

that no

circumstance

could ever

give you.

And if you

find your

calling

first and

foremost

in him

then you

will be

free

to serve

him

wherever

you are

this time

tomorrow.

Let's pray.

Our God

and Father

we praise

you and

thank you

that you

have called

us to

yourself

and second

you have

called us

to the

places

and roles

that you

have assigned

us.

Lord

give us

freedom

give us

joy

to serve

you where

we are.

help us

to do

so

wholeheartedly.

Lord

give us

grace

to know

what it

means

to be

faithful

to you

where we

are today

and to

live out

the calling

you've

given us.

In

Christ's

name

Amen.