You are invited to run the race God has set before you with undivided devotion, prioritizing your relationship with the Lamb above all else. When you focus on Jesus first, you will find the strength to love your spouse, family, and neighbors better than you could on your own. Stop judging your path by someone else's and start living out your specific calling with confidence.
Well, good morning, Real Church. Good morning. It is an honor to get to be here, to get to be your pastor, and I I wanna say thank you so much for coming. There's no place I'd rather be. There's nothing that I'd rather be doing, and I know it's probably the same for you.
You you No place you'd rather be than the house of the Lord together with the **body of Christ** because where "2 or more gathered", there he is in their midst, and not that he's not with you when you're alone, he's always with you. But if he if he said that in the word, then there's a special manifestation of the presence of God when we're in unity with the body of Christ together. And so it's a big deal. It's important. Amen?
I I said I would do this every week a couple of weeks ago, and then I forgot. And I was reminded by 1 of our elders, so I'm gonna do this. I want just every week just to remind you of our vision and our mission as a church. Our vision is to do whatever it takes for you to know the love of Jesus and live your God given purpose. It's just a fancy way of saying *discipleship*.
*Jesus* laid his life down for us, and we follow him by laying our lives down for him, and for his body, and for people to know him. So that's the whatever it takes for you, anybody God puts in front of us, anybody God puts around us, to obey him moment by moment, which is the most loving thing we can do, to impact those around us with his love, so that you can know the love of Jesus, and live out your God given purpose. He created you not for 1, but for many different purposes. You have many gifts, talents, and abilities, and man, the only way that you're gonna fulfill those things, because they're supernatural, they're much bigger than you can do on your own, the only way is in surrender, following his lead and he empowers you to live out every purpose. He wants you to live out the purposes he created you for more than you do.
But he won't empower you to live them out outside of walking with him, because he doesn't wanna enable your junk. He's a good father. Amen? So that's the vision. The mission, how do we accomplish that as a church?
Vision is why? Why we do what we do? Why would you why would you send greeters out to the car with umbrellas? Why When it's raining, why would you do that? Because we wanna do whatever it takes for you to know the love of Jesus and live your God given purpose.
Our mission, how we accomplish that? Engage the culture with the love of Jesus. Then establish the believer in the body of Christ. Once you're established in the body of Christ, you're given a license to discipleship. So now we equip you to engage the culture around you, the culture that the the world that God put you in with the love of Jesus.
Because your role is ministry as a believer. That's your role, is to do ministry wherever God put you so that the world around you comes to know Jesus through you. Amen? So my role as a pastor is to equip you so that you can go. Our role is as ministry, as staff, is to equip you so that you can go and do ministry in your daily life.
So engage, establish, equip, and then number 4, as you do ministry, you will mature. If you're not doing ministry yet, you ain't maturing because you gotta give out what you've got. When when do you know a baby, a a child has matured? When they stop living for themselves and stop helping take care of everybody else. Did you catch it?
When does a Christian mature? When they stop whining about what they don't have, and that's the main point of communication with the Lord and with everybody else, and start giving out because they're receiving healthily and being grateful, and then giving out to those around them, helping others to know Jesus. And if your whole Christianity has been whining about what you don't have, then you either been in a church that hasn't equipped you to mature in Christ, and hasn't really told you who who you are in him, that you're a son and an heir, and he's called you to greater things than selfishness? Or you just refuse to hear it? And man, I just love you enough, and we love you enough at this church because we want to build, we wanna make disciples who make disciples.
And so it's time to get off the off the bottle, baby. And guess what? The mature deep meat of the word is not the far recesses of the word that nobody's ever heard before. The mature deep meat of the word is giving out the gospel day in and day out. It's taking in and your relationship with Jesus moment by moment, taking it in and digesting it in such a way that you can give it to others as milk.
And when you start doing that, that's when you start maturing. And then number 4 of our mission statement comes in. Equip the believer to engage the culture with the love of Jesus, number 3. Number 4, empower the ready to live out their God given purpose. And man, the more you mature 1 step at a time, the more that he reveals the purposes he created you for because you're showing by your obedience and your daily life that you're ready.
And man, to the extent that we can, we wanna lay our lives down to help you to live out those purposes. Some of you, and that's in in full time ministry, or missionary, or pastor, or whatever. Great. You know, we got some influence. We can we can help with that.
Some of you, that's just in your job. That's in your job. That's as a a stay at home mom, or that's in starting a business, or that's in, you know, work at at working under the boss that you have at at your business. Great. Live out the purposes.
Whatever the race God's called you to run, we wanna lay our lives down to equip you to live out that purpose to the best that we can, so that you are changing the world that God gave you influence over for his kingdom. Amen? Amen. That's who we are as a church. You wanna be a part of that?
Sign up for establish. Good 1. Fair enough? But until you're established, you're not you're you're just really kinda being engaged with the love, and we we can't really lay our life down to equip you and disciple you. You're just kinda stepping your toe in.
And that's cool. You're welcome to step your toe in as much as possible. And if you're not established in a local body of Christ, and you know this isn't the 1, leave. And go to a church where you can get established, and grow, and be a disciple, and make disciples. Go go and plug in, and anchor deep in a body of Christ, and become a part of the family, because the church needs what God's put inside of you, and as long as you're "half in and half out", you ain't effective, and you're no help.
And I I love you too much to play patty cake church and make you feel good and and walk away. I just love you too much. I I I'm not here so that you can put your butt in the seat, and we can have another number and report it to whoever, and and people say, oh, wow. Your church is growing. They give the pastor a pat on the back.
I'm here to make disciples who make disciples. And sometimes that's a soft lovey dovey message that's awesome and encourages everybody. And sometimes, man, you gotta love someone enough to tell them the truth that nobody else will, and be that kind of a friend that sticks closer than a brother. And, man, I love you that much. God loves you.
He loves you where you are, and he receives you where you are, but he loves you too much to leave you there. And any church that if you're walking in sin, and they say it's okay, you don't have to change, you should run far from that church. Because it's a church of hell. And it'll lead a lot of people straight to hell. Y'all ready for this 1?
Yeah. We're in the Corinthians series. We've been in Corinthians since October 2022. It's the base series. We jump off and on based on how the Lord's leading, but this is the series we're going verse by verse, and Lord willing, Lord willing, we will finish this book before the Lord returns.
I would encourage you, because sometimes we do half a verse, and sometimes we do 10 or 20 verses. It just kinda depends on we it's your you're welcome to bible study with pastor David, and I try my best to make it applicable for your daily life. And and so that you can understand how I do study, and I encourage you to to do it, you know, a similar way to from time to time. So we're in first Corinthians. I did because it's been a few months since we've been in Corinthians, I did do a a overview and a recap last week.
Hopefully, that encouraged you and challenged you forward in your relationship with Jesus. And today, I'm just gonna dive right in where we left off. In 1 Corinthians-7:25. And I want to kinda give you a little bit of a I wanna prepare you for the message. We will spend 95% of this message on the first 4 words, and then the other 5% will be spent on the next 10 verses.
That's my plan. Okay? The way that I dive in, the way that I do bible studies, man, I wanna make sure I understand the context, I understand every aspect of every word because I wanna strain out every truth that I can when I'm going through this verse. The crazy thing is when I go through the verse again in 2 years, the Lord will give more because his word is alive and active, and it's sharper than a double edged sword, cutting away the junk so that we can walk in freedom. Amen?
Alright. So *1 Corinthians-7:25*, the first 4 words says this, now concerning the betrothed. The betrothed. First question when you're reading that is what is the betrothed? What does that mean?
Does it mean what I think it says? It means, you know, so you go and you look it up in the dictionary. Betrothed, just in the context of today, would be those that are engaged, except in the context of this day, it's much more than just engaged. There's many more repercussions for breaking it off. It's much more legal.
It's much more like marriage, except no consummation of the marriage, and no living together yet. It's very interesting. We'll talk about it. But some of your versions say now concerning the betrothed. Some of your versions actually say now concerning virgins.
We all know what a virgin is. Right? I think the the verses here are applicable for both that we're gonna be we're gonna be talking about. But maybe you say, well, I'm married, so this is not applicable for me, you know, I'm I'm not betrothed and not a virgin because I'm married. Well, no, the the message will be applicable because we're gonna be talking about the "marriage supper" of the lamb, and the process of marriage, and how it relates from the old testament to the new testament.
We're gonna be diving in, and it's gonna be beautiful. So if you're married, you definitely wanna lean in. This is a p g 13 message, by the way. Parental guidance required. And, maybe you're in here and you're like, well, I'm not married, and I'm not betrothed, and I'm definitely not a virgin, so this message isn't applicable to me.
And I would say to you, yes it is. See, when you give your life to Jesus, when you surrender to him as the Lord of your life, he washes you clean of your past. And he You're a new creation recreated as a virgin in his eyes. And if that's what he sees, then he's truth, and that's truth. Amen?
So man, you're forgiven not to continue in impurity, but you're forgiven to walk in complete purity, and empowered by the Holy Spirit to do so because marriage is a big deal in scripture, and so is sexual immorality in every shape and form. It's huge. In the old testament, God viewed Israel as his bride. And when Israel fell into sin and into idolatry, idolatry is simply putting something other higher, something other than God, higher than God in your life. God called it sexual immorality.
Spiritual sexual immorality and adultery. Marriage is a huge deal because marriage is a reflection of our relationship with God, and it's supposed to show that we walk in purity with him, and we're changed by him. 1 step at a time. And so God God values and honors and calls *holy* marriage, and the marriage bed, and the process of marriage. It's huge.
And unfortunately, in today's culture, and in today's church, sexual immorality is looked at as not a big deal. Like, there's a lot of people who call themselves Christians that are living double lives, and they come to church, and they they are *holy before God* in every area, except the area that is hardest for them, which for a lot of people is sex. Outside of marriage. Oh, it's culture. Try it before you buy it.
No big deal. You know, I mean, this is just the way things are these days. And absolutely not. It's not the way things are these days. It's unholy.
It's unacceptable. And sexual immorality in every form, which is sex before marriage, heterosexual, or homosexual. And homosexual marriage is not marriage at all. Marriage biblically is between a man and a woman. Period.
All sexual immorality is unacceptable and unholy before the Lord. And God wants to purify it. And if you are a believer, you've given your life to Jesus, and you're still living in like a sexual immoral immoral lifestyle, then 1 of 2 things are happening. Number 1, you're probably, I hope this is the case, your conscience is ripping you to shreds. Because when you gave your life to Jesus, he forgave you and made you new, and he gave you a clean, he washed your conscience clean, So that when you walk back into sin, it might be enjoyable for a moment, but after there is no joy, there is only, oh my gosh, what did I do?
And if you continue in that, then the enemy comes with guilt and condemnation and shame, saying that you were never really changed before anyway, and your life starts circling a drain because you're allowing sin to cut you up, and you're living 2 separate lifestyles and always being pulled back. You're not created. Not created to live 2 lifestyles. When you've given your life to Jesus, you will be will always be being pulled back into righteousness, into holiness. And until you walk in surrender, and say, yes Lord, there will be no peace and no joy in your sin.
And I hope that's the case if you're choosing to live that way. Because your *conscience* ripping you to shreds is good. Because you're not supposed to live with a dirty conscience. You're not supposed to just come on church on a Sunday, take communion, say, oh, I'm forgiven, and then go back to sin. That's unacceptable.
And if your conscience, if you're living that way, you're kinda half in and half out, and and shifting things, and just choosing. I'm gonna live in sin no matter what the bible says, it's okay, and your conscience isn't ripping you to shreds, then you might not be born again. You not might not actually be a new creation, but you only dipped your toes into Christianity as much as it was okay with you. But as soon as Jesus said something that was not okay with what you wanted, you said no to him and yes to you, and your conscience didn't even mess with you. Why?
Because you didn't really get changed. Let me show you. First 1 John-3. Watch this. *1 John-3*.
God look. God loves you. He cares for you, but he has a zeal for his house. Verse 4, everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared, that's Jesus, in order to take away sins, and in him, there is no sin.
No 1 who abides in him, you can also say abides by him, the translation translates both ways, abides in him or by him, keeps on sinning. No 1 who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, no 1 let no 1 deceive you. Whoever practices *righteousness* is righteous as he is righteous. Why?
Because he credits his righteousness to your account. New testament, he imputes his righteousness to you. You become that, and as you grow in maturity, you take steps out of righteousness, the Holy* *Spirit says, nah, that's not who you are. Your conscience says, ah, don't do that. And you learn to grow into all things that he said that you are.
Whoever makes a practice of sinning, now this is hard, is of the devil. For the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No 1 born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. That's what I'm talking about.
When you've been born of God, *righteousness* is pulling you. Like, you're you're chained to the nature of God, and he's pulling you, and if you continue to try to live this way, it it is ripping you on the to shreds on the inside. Because God will not allow you to walk in peace and choose to walk outside of him. You want peace, start to walk in surrender. Don't walk like a child of the devil that you used to be.
But if you're, again, if you're walking in this, outside of this, and it didn't matter if Jesus came and said, want you to get married, and you just said no anyway. It doesn't matter if you I'm doing what I'm gonna do no matter what. They can't tell me what to do. Then that shows that Jesus isn't your Lord, and you need to get born again. You need to give your life to Jesus for real for real, where you're willing to say yes, Lord, in every aspect of your life, and quit playing.
You can't play both sides of the fence. What what he was talking about earlier, oh, by this it is evident who are the children of God and who are the "children of the devil". Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the 1 who does not love his brother. I'm not talking about struggling. You I mean, it might be something that you're struggling with, and you you The fact that you're struggling, and that you hate what you're doing, shows that you've been changed.
But quit hiding it, And go to a brother, I'm struggling. I need to get free from this. Go to someone who who has been set free, and they will help you to see the love of God for you in that area, so you can walk in complete freedom. God loves you. He's not mad at you.
That's not why I'm preaching this. He loves you so much, he wants to shake you out of it. Because here's the reality. What Todd talked about, he had no idea I was bringing up Cain and Abel in this message. No idea.
Go figure. *1 John-3:11*, for this is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should "love 1 another". We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil 1, and murdered his brother, and why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil. Everybody say evil.
*Evil*. Pastor made you say evil today. And his brothers were righteous. Do not be surprised brothers that the world that the world hates you. Okay.
So Cain brought an offering to the Lord. How was he evil? Because Cain brought what was comfortable. He didn't bring something all out. Abel brought the first and the best, and Abel was blessed, and Cain murdered his brother, because the 1 who brought the first and the best got blessed by God, and he didn't just for bringing the leftovers.
And God called Cain's offering and Cain's way evil. As a lot of people come to church, and coming to church, not just real church. I mean, I'm talking about churches around the world, and they bring their leftovers to God, and get agitated at Christians who are living all out for Jesus. Saying, oh, they're just holier than thou. And see their blessed life, they get envious, and they have the heart of Cain.
Instead of being challenged to go all full surrender like they are and repenting of their half in and half outness and starting to live like a son of God instead of a "son of the devil" who is playing church. God loves you. He's not mad at you, but church has got church discipline wrong, and it's leading a lot of people to hell. Let me show you. *1 Corinthians-5:11*.
But now, I'm writing it to you, and this is hard, not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother, meaning they call themselves a Christian, If he is guilty of sexual immorality, greed, or is an idolater, reveler, drunkard, swindler, don't even eat with such a person. You can't judge me. Well, yeah, if if you're not calling yourself a Christian, and your Jesus isn't your Lord, you're not playing half in and half out. I don't wanna judge you. I wanna preach the gospel to you, you to come to know Jesus.
But if you're playing like you're a Christian, and your identity is actually a drunkard, your identity is actually sexual immoral, your identity is greed, a reveler, idolater, that outweighs the fruit of that outweighs you wanting to follow Jesus, then I'm actually supposed to not even associate with you. Why? Because God doesn't wanna enable you in your sin. He doesn't want you to think that you're okay just playing games and being half in and half out. Because it's not okay.
When you give your life to Jesus, things change, and you should hate your old life. You might struggle with it, and God's a good father. And the church is the church to help you in your struggle. But to make excuses and play patty cake, like, I'm I'm okay. I can go to church, no big deal, and do whatever I want to.
That's a poor reflection of Christianity and is causing more people to live as atheists because they see your life, the life of someone that's playing half in and half out, and realize that it's not real, so Jesus can't really impact me. For what do I have to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. Then watch this.
It says, purge the evil person from among you. I'll give you an example. There's somebody in the church a few years ago, and they were they had lied to everybody saying that they were married, and they weren't, and they were just shacking up and living together sexually immoral. I mean, she even wore a ring to pretend. Found out about it.
Gave them opportunity, and I went and talked to them. And I said, hey, are you guys married straight up? He said, no. I said, God loves you too much. Why would you lie to us?
Shame. Why don't you get married? It was fear from past hurt and past relationships. I said, look, God can heal all that. He wants to heal you.
He wants you to walk in freedom. He loves you so much, but you gotta you can't play this this game anymore. It's too long. It's time to step up and start either following Jesus or not. I'm gonna I'm gonna give you 2 weeks.
I mean, I can marry you. I I can marry you for free. No big deal. Just go get a marriage license. We can walk in purity.
It's awesome. Give me 2 weeks. Y'all pray about it. Came back 2 weeks. You're married?
No. Well, wait. Let me ask you this question. If Jesus was standing here, just hypothetically, let's just pretend. If Jesus was standing here in front of you, and he, you knew it was him, and he told you, Mary, would you do it?
No. *1 Corinthians-5:11*. I'm sorry. But if if I let you stay in this church, I'm disobeying the way God says to lead the church. Again, I want everybody, non believers, everybody to come to church, but just be authentic.
If you're struggling, praise the Lord. We'll help you in your struggle. But don't pretend to be something you're not. Make sense? Why?
Because marriage is *holy* as unto the Lord. And our relationship with *Jesus* is a reflection, is is is He calls it marriage. Let's go back to 1 Corinthians-7. You guys okay? Yeah.
Alright. Verse 25. Now concerning the betrothed Let's talk about that betrothal process, guys. Because in this context, when Paul's writing this letter, they would have understood the betrothal process of that day. So in that day, when there was a marriage, a young man wanted to be married to a young woman, usually didn't look like that.
It usually looked like the father and the parents, like, put them together as arranged marriages, but the father would take the son, and they would journey to the house of the prospective bride, and she lived with her father. And the father would take a cup, the father of the boy, would take a cup and he would pour wine into the cup, and then he would give the cup to his son. If the son received the cup from the father and took a drink of it, then the son was saying, I'm accepting this woman as my future bride, and I'm willing to give my life for her. And then when the son took the cup, and he offered it to the girl, the prospective bride, she had the right to refuse the cup. But if she received the cup and drank of the cup, what she was saying is, I recognize that you're offering your life for me, and in turn, I am offering my life for you.
This is the betrothal process of the Old Testament and the New Testament around this time. Do you guys see it? When this happened, they were betrothed. It was a legal marriage, but there was no consummation of the marriage yet. Instead, the son would say, I'm going back to my father's house to prepare a place for you.
And he would go back to his father's house to prepare a place for her. Now, I wanna take communion with you with that in mind. Because in Matthew-26:26, *Jesus*, the bridegroom. Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it, he broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, take and eat. This is my body.
And he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them saying, drink of it all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant. Marriage is a covenant. Old covenant, new covenant. We're in a covenant with Christ, the new covenant, which is poured out for the forgiveness of your sins. Watch this, 29.
I tell you, I will not drink again of this "fruit of the vine" until that day when I drink it new with you in my father kingdom. We'll talk about that. Verse 39. And going a little farther, *Jesus* fell on his face and prayed saying, my father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but your will be done.
The father gave Jesus the cup. Jesus received the will of the father, the cup of the father, and Jesus handed it to his bride, the church. When we're taking communion, we are accepting and remembering that we are the bride of Christ, in communion with him, that he gave his life for us. And we're accepting the fact, and receiving the fact that he gave his life for us, and then saying, as we drink of it too, I lay my life down for you, to follow you. Let's take the bread.
Only take of this if you're willing to live for Jesus, to make him the Lord of your life, because it's a representation of that covenant of marriage. We thank you for your body that was broken and laid down for us so that we can walk in fullness as 1 with you. Lord God, we we thank you for that. You're amazing. Let's take it together.
And, Lord, we thank you that you took the cup from the father, laid your life down for us, so that we could be pure and clean and holy before you, and we willingly take that cup from you, and we drink of it, saying, Lord, we we follow you in laying our life down for you. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for your forgiveness. Lord, thank you that you're leading us 1 step at a time. It's an honor to get to be your kid, but also the bride of Christ. Let's take.
Pretty cool. Awesome. Now, let's take it a little further. Now concerning the betrothed, the first 4 words of 1 Corinthians-7. There's a little bit more to the betrothal process that you need to know about.
Okay. So the groom would give gifts to the bride, and then he would go away. They wouldn't get married for about a year. As he goes away, he says to the bride, I'm going away to prepare a place for you. *Jesus in John-14:1-3*, what did he say?
He said, let not your heart be troubled, believe in God, believe in me also. In the father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am, you may be also. *Jesus*, the groom of the church.
In my father's house, there are many rooms. If the groom said that to the bride, what he was meaning is, hey, my father has many children. And a lot of times, the groom would add on a place to the father's house for his bride and for their children together, and that she would be welcomed into a great community. You're welcomed when you give your life to Jesus into a great community, not just this local church, but the churches around the world who are following Jesus. You have the same spirit that Jesus gave as a gift to them.
He's given to you, and you're in unity by that same spirit. It's beautiful. Now, the bride would also begin to prepare herself for wedding day. The bride would begin to prepare herself for the marriage supper. In 1 John-3, which we've already been in, the very beginning of 1 John-3.
It says, verse 2, beloved, we are God's children now, and that what we will be has not yet appeared. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. He forgives you and he makes you pure, but you know that he's coming back. And because of that, you begin to walk, and you get if if the Holy* *Spirit shows anything that's out of line with with the way that he's called you to live, you begin to say, no.
I don't want that, because I'm making myself ready for the bridegroom to come. For the marriage supper of the lamb. And then when the time was getting close, the bridesmaids, the bride's party would all have their lamps ready and their oil ready because the bridegroom literally would come in the middle of the night at a time where nobody knew except the father. *Jesus* said, no 1 knows the day or the hour, only the father. And the father would designate when he thought the room was ready for the family.
And when he knew the bride was ready, he would say, son, go get my go get your bride. And the bridesmaids would all have their lamps ready, and they would light the way. And the bridegroom would come and take the bride, and they would go journey back to have a great feast for 7 days, the marriage supper. In Revelation-19, it's called the marriage supper of the lamb. Let's talk let's look at it.
*Revelation-19:6* through 7. Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude like the roar of many waters, and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder crying out, Hallelujah, for the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exalt and give him glory. For the marriage of the lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure.
For the linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. First, when you gave your life to Jesus, he clothed you in his righteous robe, in his righteousness, and now because you have been made righteous, you begin to follow the gift of the Holy* *Spirit that he gave you, 1 step at a time in his leading, to begin to walk in righteous deeds and righteous acts, so that your life looks like you're married to the lamb. Which shows that you've really been changed from the inside out. He's that good. Now, *1 Corinthians-7*.
That's the 90%. Now, verse 25, concerning the betrothed, I have no command from the Lord, but I give my judgment as 1 who by the Lord's mercy is trustworthy. Now, that's it's very interesting that Paul would say that in that verse. Right? I have no command from the Lord.
Isn't this scripture? Yes. And it's showing us how to walk in relationship with God, and relationship with mentors, and with other people in our life. Paul has no command from the Lord, but speaks as 1 who by the Lord's mercy is trustworthy. I have people in my life that if I don't know what to do, or I'm concerned about decisions that I'm making, or something that's going on that's out of my normal experience, I call them.
Doctor Brassfield, Doctor Leon Van Royen, 2 that are like spiritual fathers in my life. And I trust them, And I know that they have much more experience in walking with Jesus than I do, and in leading churches, and congregations, and organizations than I do. So man, I call them. And if they say, hey, I don't have a specific word for God for you for you on this, but I would recommend this, this, and this based on my experience. Guess what I'm gonna do?
I'm gonna do what they say. Because that's healthy discipleship, and I trust their wisdom with the Lord. Do you have people in your life who can tell you no? Do you have people in your life who have been walking with Jesus longer than you have, who you're in relationship with, and you can call them and ask for advice, and you know that they're given advice and godly counsel based on an experience of walking with Jesus longer than you have. If you don't, it's biblical.
You need it. *Discipleship* is vital. It's important. And we see that here in scripture. Amen?
Amen. Well, nobody nobody's been brought to me. You seek it out. You find something, Examine their life. Consider their "way of faith".
Or consider their way of life. Consider the way that they do things and imitate their faith. For God's the same yesterday, today, and forever. It's in that's in Hebrews. Consider your leaders.
Go find a leader. Someone that's further along than you. Watch them, and build a relationship with them. When the student is ready, the teacher is always waiting and willing. A lot of times, the student is ready when they're seeking it out.
Amen? Amen. K. Here we go. Verse 26, I think that in the view of this present distress, it is good for a person to remain as he is.
Now, what is the present distress it's talking about? Some theologians would say that there was a famine in the in that day. Other theologians would say that there was persecutions. This theologian says that it was probably both of those things. Between the 3 of us, we're we're right.
So, in view of this present distress, it's good for a person to remain as he is. Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. Are you free from a wife? Do not seek a wife.
But if you do marry, you have not sinned. And if a betrothed woman marries, she has not sinned. Yet, those who marry will have worldly troubles, and I would spare you that. Marriage is a "pressure cooker" of getting rid of selfishness. And if God's called you to it, don't run from it.
It's the race he's called you to run, and he's gonna use it to purify you, and to make you look more like Jesus, and having a wife or a husband is a good thing. Amen? It's awesome. And Paul is giving specific direction for that specific present distress that's going on there, and this is how he gave that direction, which we should follow when making disciples or being discipled. Amen?
Amen. Now, the rest of this is not just applicable for that specific present distress. Because what what does he say next? This is what I mean, brothers. The "appointed time" has grown very short.
And if the appointed time for Jesus to return was had grown short 2000 years ago, then it's grown even shorter today. Therefore, this next part is very applicable for you too. Watch this. You might be shocked. We'll explain it.
From now on, let those who have wives live as as if they have none. And those who mourn as if they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away. I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please him.
But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided. And the unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband. I say this for your own benefit, not to lay restraint upon you, but to promote good order, and, here it is, to secure your **"undivided devotion"** to the Lord. That's the point of this.
It's not saying those who are not married are more holy than those who are married. Not at all. But it is saying, because time is growing short, the marriage supper of the lamb is at hand, and we're preparing ourselves, then we should live, no matter our current circumstance, whether you're married or not, with undivided devotion for him. We should not live as if our wife is our idol, or our husband is our idol, or our kids, or our job, or anything else. Instead, we should live with undivided devotion to the Lord.
And here's the deal. Wives don't get all upset because it said, the married man should live as if he did had no wife. Okay? Husbands, that doesn't give you the right to neglect your wife, and sacrifice her on the altar of ministry, or your job, or whatever else. K?
And vice versa. What is it saying? It's saying this. I'm going to live so focused on Jesus, and run my race so attuned to what he's saying, that what he says, I'm gonna say yes, Lord to, in every aspect of my life. And if I'm doing that, don't you know that the Holy* *Spirit, the gift that he gave me who's guiding me day in and day out to look more like him?
That Holy* *Spirit is God, and God is love? So if I'm living in undivided devotion to the Lord, and I say yes Lord to him, isn't he going to lead me to love my wife better than if I was focusing on her? Isn't he gonna lead me to give her exactly what she needs? She doesn't really want to be your idol anyway. She wants you to worship Jesus because Jesus is gonna lead you to love your wife better than you could on your own anyway.
And empower you to do so. And *Jesus is gonna lead you to love* your husband better than you could on your own anyway. He's gonna tell you exactly what he needs when he needs it, not when you think you know what he needs or he thinks he knows what he needs. *God* created him. So you're gonna say, yes, Lord, in that moment, and it's gonna be the most loving thing for him, and serve him in the best way that will help push him to look more like Jesus.
Don't judge my race by yours. A lot of people say, hey, you go on these trips, you're leaving your kids, you know, kids behind. You're you're neglecting them. You're sacrificing them on the altar of ministry. What are you talking about?
No, I'm not. I'm running the race God has set before me. And the way that I run my race in undivided devotion to the Lord is loving my kids better than if I was making them my idol. And so, for the race that God's called them to run down the road, they need a daddy who's undivided devotion to the Lord sends him to the hardest unreached people groups around the world. So that they can be trained by that because God's probably calling them to the same thing.
And if I focus more on them than on obedience to the obedience to the race that God's called me to, I would miss out on being able to prepare them for what God's called them to do. You run your race with Jesus and let me run mine. Don't judge your race by mine. Don't judge your race by the person beside you. Instead, you live in undivided devotion to the Lord and you will fulfill everything that God wants you to fulfill.
And you will serve and love everyone around you better than you could on your own. You start doing that, you've been praying for your husband, and you start living an undivided devotional Lord, your husband's life will be transformed by his love by God's love through you. So will your wife's life. So will your children's life. This is the way.
**Married to the lamb** first. And then the overflow of that is more love than you could ever give to everyone around you. Amen? I'm done. That's all I got.