Jeffrey Johnson's sermon, based on 1 Corinthians 7, addresses the theme of contentment and serving the Lord within one's current circumstances. Johnson begins with a personal anecdote about a conversation he had with someone who believed God called him to be rich so he could give to the church and missions, yet he admitted to not giving anything at the time. This story serves to highlight a common misconception that one must be in a better financial or social position to serve the Lord effectively.
Johnson argues that this belief is a misunderstanding of what it means to serve God and be content with what one has. He points out that everyone, at some point, has wished for different circumstances under the belief that it would enable them to serve God better. However, he emphasizes that contentment with one's current situation is what the Bible teaches, specifically in 1 Corinthians 7:17-24. Paul's message in this passage is to live the life the Lord has assigned and to remain in the condition one was in when they were called by God.
Johnson discusses the concept of "calling," noting that it includes both our spiritual and earthly callings. He clarifies that our earthly situation—our jobs, relationships, and personal circumstances—are part of God's assignment for us. He stresses that contentment does not depend on our external circumstances but on our relationship with God and our commitment to living in obedience to His commands.
Throughout the sermon, Johnson explores the importance of obedience, serving Christ in our current roles, and the fallacy of believing that change in our circumstances is necessary for happiness or effective service to God. He uses biblical examples, including Paul's contentment in various situations, to illustrate that our ultimate calling is to serve Christ, regardless of our earthly status or conditions.
Johnson concludes by encouraging listeners to find joy and contentment in serving the Lord within their present circumstances, reminding listeners that our time on earth is short and our true purpose is to glorify God in all we do. He asserts that true contentment and joy come from fulfilling our calling to serve Christ, not from changing our external conditions.
Jeffrey Johnson's sermon, based on 1 Corinthians 7, addresses the theme of contentment and serving the Lord within one's current circumstances. Johnson begins with a personal anecdote about a conversation he had with someone who believed God called him to be rich so he could give to the church and missions, yet he admitted to not giving anything at the time. This story serves to highlight a common misconception that one must be in a better financial or social position to serve the Lord effectively.
Johnson argues that this belief is a misunderstanding of what it means to serve God and be content with what one has. He points out that everyone, at some point, has wished for different circumstances under the belief that it would enable them to serve God better. However, he emphasizes that contentment with one's current situation is what the Bible teaches, specifically in 1 Corinthians 7:17-24. Paul's message in this passage is to live the life the Lord has assigned and to remain in the condition one was in when they were called by God.
Johnson discusses the concept of "calling," noting that it includes both our spiritual and earthly callings. He clarifies that our earthly situation—our jobs, relationships, and personal circumstances—are part of God's assignment for us. He stresses that contentment does not depend on our external circumstances but on our relationship with God and our commitment to living in obedience to His commands.
Throughout the sermon, Johnson explores the importance of obedience, serving Christ in our current roles, and the fallacy of believing that change in our circumstances is necessary for happiness or effective service to God. He uses biblical examples, including Paul's contentment in various situations, to illustrate that our ultimate calling is to serve Christ, regardless of our earthly status or conditions.
Johnson concludes by encouraging listeners to find joy and contentment in serving the Lord within their present circumstances, reminding listeners that our time on earth is short and our true purpose is to glorify God in all we do. He asserts that true contentment and joy come from fulfilling our calling to serve Christ, not from changing our external conditions.
If you have your Bibles turn with me or turn to 1 Corinthians 7. When I was a young man, believe it or not, I used to go to the gym. And I think I was in college and I went to the gym once and I knew this guy from the gym. Actually, I think he went to the same college I went to. And there we struck up a conversation and he told me, it was interesting, he told me that God had called him to be rich. And I was like, "Okay, why is that?" He goes, "Well, because he's called me to be generous and give to the church and give to missions." So he said, "I believe God wants me to be rich so I can give." And I asked the obvious question that would come into your mind next."Well, how much do you give now?" He says, "I don't give anything now." So you're not until you have money can you serve the Lord. And so that was his kind of thought. You know, if I had money then I can give. I don't guess he read the poor widow who gave all that she had. But though you may be thinking, like me, you may be thinking,"That's so silly of that guy." Maybe you're looking down on that guy for such thinking. But you've done it too. We've all done that. We may not have done it so boldly. I need to be rich so I can serve the Lord. But we've all thought things like this. If this could change or this little thing would be different. Or if I could get married. Or if I was a missionary. Or if I was in pastoral ministry by now. And then I could really serve the Lord. If some changes could take place, circumstances would be different. You could really invest in the Kingdom of God. Some variation of that has passed through all of our minds. I remember, well, Leith and I have this silly road game. It's silly, but it passes the time. The stuff on my side of the road belongs to me. And the things on her side of the road belongs to her. We brag about how many cattle we have. What houses. There would be a no doubt mobile home on my side. She would make fun of me. She would get this big mansion on her side. But one of the things that we always did, whenever we see, I mean we probably still do this. When we see a beautiful house that has this little how like this little beautiful room with this window or something. We go. Oh, that's my house. Then we immediately go. No, that's my room. And lethal say that's my soul. And that's where I'm going to soul. And I would say, no, that's where I'm going to study and prepare my sermons. And so we're arguing about rooms that we don't have and houses. We don't have. But it does pass the time. But it's kind of us a sentiment behind our thinking. Sometimes as a slight thought that if our circumstances could change in some way, they could be different in some way. Then we could really be happy or we would be happy. Are we just are we content as we think about the passage that is set before us today? Are you content with your circumstances, with your career, with your spouse, or with singleness? Or with your bank account? Are you content with your allotment and life? And say, this is good. I am good. Are you content? Well, here we have in verses 17 to 24, a command to be content, if you would, in the position that we're in, in the circumstances we're in. Read with me in verse 17. Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches. Was anyone at the time of his call already circumcised? Let him not seek to remove the marks of circumcision. Was anyone at the time of his call uncircumcised? Let him not seek circumcision. For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but keeping the commandments of God. Each one should remain in the condition in which he was called. Were you a bondservant when called? Do not be concerned about it. But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself to the opportunity. For he who has called in the Lord as a bondservant is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise, he was free when he is called, is a bondservant of Christ. You were bought with a price. Do not become bondservants of men. So brothers, in whatever condition, each was called. There let him remain with God. So here's the context, as we've already seen in the earlier parts of chapter 7. Those who happen to be saved after they're married, and they're married to an unbeliever, they may be tempted to want to get divorced from their unbelieving spouse. Paul says, "No, as long as he or she desires to remain with you, then the marriage is holy, your children are holy. Remain in that marriage. It's blessed of the Lord." If you're called into salvation and you're a single person, then Paul's exhortation remains single. If you were circumcised, don't worry about being circumcised. If you're uncircumcised, don't worry about that either. If you're a bondservant or a slave, don't be worried about trying to gain your freedom. If that happens, that's good, but that's not your concern. You can serve the Lord if you're free or you're a slave. And whatever condition you're in, this is the point, whatever condition you're in, whatever social status you have, that serve Christ, obey Christ. God calls this, or Paul calls this allotment, our situation which we find ourselves in, he calls that our calling. We see that in verse 17."Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him." You see, this is our calling. We have an earthly calling. We have a heavenly calling. Salvation takes us into a spiritual calling or heavenly calling, but salvation found us in our earthly calling. And often we think of our earthly calling as our careers, our jobs. I'm a baker. I'm a pharmacist. I'm a doctor. I'm a teacher. I'm this or I'm that. And we find, if you would, some of our identity, purpose, some degree, some of our happiness. We find that in what we do for a living, what we do with our lives. It identifies us to some degree. And that's our calling that God has placed on us. But that calling is not just our jobs. It's not just our careers. It's everything about our life. In verse 24, at the end of this passage, it talks about it being our circumstances, all the little details of our situation. And what we'll see here, as we get to our first point in just a second, that every detail about our life has been assigned to us by God. You're not where you're at by accident. You're social status. If you're rich or you're poor, or you got a good job or you're struggling, if you're married or if you're single, all these things are not accidental. All these things are not just something that you have to put up with. All these things are assignments. I was helped out once by one of the prayers of John Calvin. I'm probably like any of you. We have an agenda for the day. We wake up with what we want to accomplish. We have particular goals set out for us for the week. And then all of a sudden there's disruptions. There's things that we weren't expecting, emergencies that come along our ways. Then sometimes these interruptions frustrate us because it delays us or hinders us in the things that we wanted to do. We felt we needed to get done and the pressure and the stress of the circumstances build because we still have to do those things. And what helped me is hearing the words of Calvin's prayer is,"Lord, let me view every disruption as a divine appointment from you." That there's nothing that happens in your life, good or bad, that is not appointed for you. Your life is your allotment by God. You say, "I don't like that." I don't like my life. I don't like my circumstances. One, it hinders me in my service to the Lord and two, it hinders me in my happiness. And so we're tempted by Satan himself and I believe this is the lie of Satan that if you're going to serve the Lord, if you're going to be happy in this world, you need all these things to change. You single people, you really need to get married if you're really going to be happy. Or maybe you're married and you think, "I need a different spouse." The Lord tells us to be content, but Satan tells us to be discontent. He tells us that it's not fair, our allotment is not fair, because we're prone to look at others and envy their situation. They have a wonderful family. They don't have troubled kids. They have all the provisions taken care of for them. They're not worried about how they're making their bills. They're not worried about how they're feeding the family. They don't have the pressure that I have. And we begin to envy those who are seemingly better off than us. So we become discontent and dissatisfied. And then in so doing, in our dissatisfaction, we become poor stewards of what we do have as poor servants of the living God. And so this text tells us that we're called to serve Christ in our earthly calling. That we have a spiritual calling that incorporates our earthly calling. And that's what we have to see here. It's easy to say, "Well, what I do for the Lord, that's here. And what I do concerning my job and my family and my careers, that's down here." We can't just operate our lives so we can justify our discontentment with this portion of our life."Oh, I'm content with Christ. I'm just not content with all this other stuff." But we see in this passage that the Lord incorporates our earthly calling, which includes not just our jobs, but our families, situations, problems, blessings, everything. And that incorporates that into our service of the Lord. And it gives us three instructions to help us to serve Christ in our calling. One, serving Christ means we fulfill our calling. That is, we do what is set before us to the glory of God. We don't neglect, in other words, our earthly calling. Verse 17 says this, "Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches." You see, first of all, this includes to be content with what has been assigned to us, or allotment. Paul says in Philippians 4, "I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In every and every circumstance I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need." That is, Paul says, "Over the course of my life I have learned to be happy, satisfied, contented in my allotment." Rather, that is "planty" or "in lack." By the way, if you are rich, you still have to learn contentment. Often rich people are never content. If you are poor, you have to be content. It is not how much money you have or things you have that leads to happiness or contentment. That is a lie, but we tend to believe it, do we not? The Bible tells us with food and with just our earthly provisions taken care of, which God has already promised to do that, let us be satisfied. Let us be content. You see, our situation does not control our happiness. Paul says, "I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content." It is not about our incomes. It is not about our social status. We can be brought low. We can be put in prison, as Paul was. You could have all that you own taken away from you. But that doesn't mean they can take your contentment or your happiness away. He says, Paul says, "I have learned in whatever state or circumstances to be content." He goes on to say, "I can do all things." This is not Tim Tebow saying, "I can throw the touch-dome down past." This is Paul saying, "I can be content.""I can do all things through him who strengthens me." It's not what you have. It's who you're with that brings contentment. Remember that if you have Jesus next to you, with you, poor, rich, you're blessed. You can be in prison, but the Lord is next to you. What else do you need? Can you not say, "He's enough"? He's enough. "I have the Lord"? This is why the author of Hebrews says this, "Keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have. For he has said, 'I will never leave you or forsake you.'" You've got this promise. This is how you learn contentment. You've got this promise. Jesus says, "I'm going to go with you. Lo, until the end of the age, I'm going to walk with you. I'm going to talk with you. I'm going to set with you. I'm going to rise with you. I'm going to be with you always." That you can say, "What can man take away from me?""I have life. I have my joy. I have Christ." So this idea of living out our earthly calling does mean to be content in it, but it also implies that we live it out and carry it out to the fullest that we can. The original literally reads something along the lines of this, "Let him walk in the way that he has been assigned." That is, lead the life that God has placed before you. That is, seek to do whatever job or task that you have to do. Do it for the glory of God. Whether you eat or drink, laundry, sweeping the floors, going to work. Do it heartily to the Lord. Whatever your hand finds to do. Don't do it as, Paul says, as man pleasers to please man. Do it as God's watching you and you're doing it unto the Lord. Do you recognize and realize the blessing of your job, whatever your job is, whatever you do throughout the day. It's not just your eight-hour job, eight-hour day job. It's when you come home, everything you do, from changing diapers to calling someone up, everything you do is a service to the Lord. You don't have the spiritual life and the earthly life. Your earthly life is incorporated into your spiritual life. And you're to do that is that I can serve the Lord where I'm at. I don't have to be in a different spot. I don't have to be a missionary. I don't have to be a pastor. I don't have to be this or that. I don't have to be married or single. I don't have to be in any different situation that I'm in because where I am, I can still serve the Lord in the things I do. Therefore, do what's set before you as unto the Lord. Christians should be the best workers. We should be the most disciplined, the hardest workers, not the least. This is what we're called to do. Notice that every aspect of our life has been ordained by God. It says only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, to which God has called you. Now, some of you might not like your calling. You might not like your circumstances. You might not like your health situation. You might not like a lot of things. But let me tell you by the authority of the Word of God, God says,"This is what I have for you." Now, think about this. What if Jesus Christ came into this room and he came up here and says,"I'm going to rally the troops and I want to send out missionaries around the world and I want to know of all you here who's willing to go. I want to send out an army of troops around the world. Who here wants to go? I hope all of us will say, "Send me, send me. I'll go wherever you take me. I'll send me to the darkest jungles of the world. If that's what you want me to do and I know, I know I can be certain, if not my whimsical notion, but I know that's what you tell me to do." Who of us would say, "I wouldn't go"? None of us would. We would all say, "Send me wherever." But then the Lord looks at you and goes back to doing what you're doing."Go back to your jobs Monday morning. Serve me there." I thought it was going to be Australia. I was open Switzerland, personally. You know, the thing... You see, this word "assign" here, literally the Greek word means "to distribute." It's the idea of dividing out and distributing. We see here that all of us have unique different lives, different hardships, circumstances, family issues. And this is our calling of the Lord and it's the Lord who's going,"You need this much money. You need this much poverty. You need this problem. You need this blessing." He is uniquely working with us all, assigning our allotment, our assignments, our circumstances. It is not for us to fight against God in our allotment, but to find contentment and service to the Lord in our allotment. Bible tells us in Acts 17 that He's the one who has determined where we live in verse 26 of that chapter, but not at just when we're born and when we die and where we live. He's assigned all the circumstances in between. This is why we believe in Romans 8.28, "All things work together. All things are assigned for us and our betterment and our good." Find contentment in where we're at. That's the first thing we see here. To worship Christ or serve Christ by fulfilling our earthly calling. And to not view our earthly calling as something unspiritual. Secondly, we see in verses 18 through 19, we're called to obedience in our earthly calling. Verse 18 says, "Was anyone at the time of his call already circumcised, let him not seek to remove the marks of circumcision? Was anyone at the time of his call uncircumcised? Let him not seek circumcision. For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but keeping the commandments of God." Now, apparently, there's a bit of Jewish believers who are within the church, the majority of the church are Gentiles, and the Jewish believers may have felt somewhat superior or set apart because of their circumcision. And there might have been some jealousy, or it might have been the other way around. Maybe the Jews felt somewhat odd. Now that they know that circumcision is not important, they may feel somewhat separated from the Gentiles, the Greeks, whatever the case is. Paul says, "Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. That's not what matters." Now, that's not the issue of our day, or the issues of our day could be, you know, our ethnicity, or it could be our social status. All kinds of things that kind of divide, it could be our age category. Things that separate the church, divide the church up, splinter the church up, and they go, "You know, that differentiates us." The Lord is saying it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter your gender, it doesn't matter your age, it doesn't matter your social status, it doesn't matter your job, it doesn't matter if you're a great leader, or you work as a janitor at McDonald's. That doesn't matter. What matters is obedience. This is what matters. What through call to is to keep the commandments of God. The Bible says this,"One person steams one day above another, and another steams another every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day observes it to the Lord, and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats eats to the Lord, for he gives God things, and he who does not eat to the Lord, he does not eat and give God's things. For none of us live to himself, and no one dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, this is what matters. Whether we live or die, we are the Lords. And for circumcised or uncircumcised, we are the Lords. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10,"Therefore, whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do all for the glory of God." You see, obey God, that's the path of happiness. Never allow your circumstances to tempt you or prevent you from obedience. Sadly, you hear this a lot. People excuse their lack of faith and their lack of obedience to their circumstances, as if somehow they're exempt from obedience. C.S. Lewis said this when people, Christians, or professing Christians, justify their sins, it's because they find the loophole that makes them the unique, they're somehow the unique exception. The law applies to everyone universally except for them because of their unique, particular circumstances that God understands. And he kind of winks at it and says, "Well, you're kind of the exception. You don't have to obey." We know it's hard. We know it's difficult. It's difficult to do this. It's difficult to do that. It's difficult to obey the commands because, well, the Lord knows it's difficult. And so they justify their sins. And what Paul is saying, no matter what situation you're in, there's no justification for sin. For every temptation, there's always a door to get out of that temptation. You cannot ever, ever blame your circumstances on your sin, on your circumstances. That's a lie of Satan. So never take that to the throne room."Lord, it's my circumstances." You can't say like Adam said, "Lord, it's this woman you gave me." And the woman say, "No, it's this serpent." Just blaming and shifting the responsibility away from yourself. It's never, I will say this with some force, it's never your circumstances. It's your heart. You can obey God where you're at. You can serve the Lord in the situation that you're in. I tell some people who come to me for counseling, and I grieve with them. I can understand that the hardships, the difficulties, and sometimes I'm going, "Man, this is awful, awful, awful." And often I tell them, "Well, you're given a special unique privilege." You know, it's more wonderful to bless those who curse you than to bless those who bless you. And you're in a situation that no one would want to be in. And it's even more difficult to serve the Lord. But by serving the Lord and obeying God and trusting God in this unique circumstances, you can bring unique glory to God that you may have not been able to otherwise. You see, your circumstances does not hinder obedience. It does not hinder you from pleasing the Lord. My third exhortation for us to be content in serving the Lord in our earthly calling is this. We are called to serve Christ in our earthly calling. We see this in verses 20 through 24. Our earthly calling, when this is one of the things we have to realize, our earthly calling is not our principal calling. Now, we're to do a good job in what we do. We're to work hard at the task set before us. But remember, that's not the principal job of a Christian. That's not what you're ultimately called to. You have a higher calling, a calling that surpasses your earthly calling. You have a greater loyalty, a greater responsibility, a greater calling, a heavenly calling. It says in verse 20,"Each one should remain in the condition in which he was called. Whether you are a bondservant when called, do not be concerned about it. But if you can, gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity." So we learn from this that we're not to be overly concerned or preoccupied with changing our allotment in life. I mean, this is even talking about those who are bondservants. Now, we don't have that today, but imagine the social injustice of slavery. And the Bible's not condoning it. It's not saying it's a good thing. But that was the situation which the New Testament was birthed into. And being the early Christians were slaves. They were called. Their slavery did not keep them or prevent them from becoming Christians, and they become Christians. And what are they to do now that they're slaves or bondservants? Maybe they sold themselves into slavery because of debt. But whatever the case was they found themselves in, Paul says, "Don't make it your chief objective in life to get out of that." Now, we're in a day and age where that would be the whole focus of the church to change the social fabric of society and get rid of all the injustices. Let's make that the great effort. But that's not seems to be the great effort for those who are in slavery to be focused on. You say, "But Pastor Jeff, you don't know how bad my life is."[Silence] Lord, the Lord knows. The Lord knows. In fact, He's the one who put you in that position. He called you in that position. Now, we do see a caveat here. It is in the ESV. It's in parentheses, and I think it's for a reason. It says, "If you can avail yourself to freedom, if that comes along, obviously take it." Don't just remain a slave to be a slave. There's nothing righteous or holy to be a slave. That's not good. So if you can free yourself from that, of course do that. But that's not your chief objective. Your chief objective is to be a slave of Christ. Your chief objective is to serve the Lord in whatever condition you're in. And that can be applied to marriage. You're single. I want to be married. I want to be married. Hey, if the right lady comes around, avail yourself to it. The right guy comes around, you know, take advantage of that provision of the Lord. But don't make an idol out of marriage. And that's the point. Don't make an idol after changing your circumstances. That's not what is chief important to God, nor should it be chief important to you. You see, our principle calling is serving Christ in our earthly calling. He goes on to talk about those who are slaves and those who are not slaves. He says they're all equal. Look at verse 22."For he who is called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord's free man, likewise he who is called while free is Christ's late." Basically, if you're rich or you're poor, whatever status you are, at the foot of the cross we're all equal. We're all equal. It doesn't matter. And let me put it another way. For just a few years down here, just for a short time, there's a little difference between us. I mean, we get to heaven. There's no rich or poor. There's no class separations. There's no Jew or Gentile. I mean, there's nothing to envy. There's nothing to go, "I have to get out of this social class into the next class. I'm too good for this class. It's not fair that I'm down here, struggling. What is it? Nothing." And it goes on to say in verse 23,"Likewise he who is called while free is Christ's late." You've been bought with a price, do not become slaves of men. You see, he's telling us, "Hey, if you can get your freedom, get it, and if you are free, don't go into slavery. Of course, don't do that." But regardless, we're all slaves of Christ. We're all bondservants of the Lord. That's our chief objective. And so it comes to the conclusion of verse 24. This is kind of the whole point of this section."So brothers of whatever condition each were called, there let him remain with God." You remain with God. You serve God. You love the Lord God in whatever condition that you've been called into. Serve the Lord. Be content with your allotment. You see, this passage shows the doctrinal balance between God's sovereignty over man's assignment in life and man's responsibility to submit to that allotment and when available, improve upon it. This passage may have some bearing on how we should view our role as Christians in society and politics as well. Yes, as a secondary objective, let's do what we can to improve our society. Not an advocate of isolation and running off the grid? We should be proactive and have a voice in the public square. Do what we can for the good of our fellow man. Amen. But that's a secondary objective. And we don't have to have our country improve to serve the Lord. You don't have to have a better family to serve the Lord. You don't have to have a believing spouse to serve the Lord. You don't even have to have a spouse to serve the Lord. You don't have to be a missionary, pastor. Nothing has to change for you to serve the Lord. You see, it reminds me of the Apostle Paul. He was in prison. And by the way, this is what we need to hear if we're in pastoral ministry, especially if we love to preach. I love what Martin Lord Jones said about preaching. He retired early. And I said, "Why are you retiring so early?" He says, "Because I haven't made preaching in the idol to myself." My idol is God. What I live for is the Lord not preaching. And here the Apostle Paul is taking out of service, put into a prison for two years. And other people use that opportunity to advance themselves. But Paul says, "I'm good. I'm good with that. As long as Christ is being preached, I don't care the motive because it's not about me doing the preaching. My job is to serve the Lord." He says, "Though I don't know I'm going to live or die." He's waiting the death penalty in court cases and processes. He doesn't know if he's going to get out or if he's going to die in prison. But he says, "I don't necessarily worry about it. I kind of prefer to get out because I can serve you. But if I depart, that'll be better, even far better, because I'll be with the Lord." Therefore, he says, "I rejoice. I rejoice in whatever the circumstances are. I rejoice if I live. I rejoice if I die because my life is not for living down here. My life is Christ. As long as I live for Christ, then I can give God glory in all this life down here. And as long as your life is for the glory of God, you can be content with your circumstances down here. It's when you're not living for the glory of God that you become discontent with your allotment. You see, your allotment is placed there by God for you to give God glory in that allotment. This life is going to be over shortly. Don't preoccupy yourself down here below. Preoccupy yourself by doing all things well here below for the glory of God.