Undivided Devotion to the Lord

When we read Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth, we see a church whose attitudes and actions are sometimes indistinguishable from the Roman culture around them. The church in Corinth is messy and divided, but it belongs to God. The letter of 1 Corinthians shows us a beautiful picture of how the gospel can bring transformation and renewal to every area of life.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Good morning, everyone. I normally thanks for the encouragement, Dave. Normally each week I stand up here and introduce myself and say that I'm glad to be with you. This morning I feel a little bit less glad to be with you. Not because of you, but because of daylight savings time. So there's that. I will just say that the pain of one less hour of sleep, though, is worth it. It's worth it for the longer days, and it is worth it for the warmer temps that are coming around the corner. So I, like you, am trying my best to stay awake this morning. So if I haven't had the chance to meet you yet, my name is John, and I get to serve as the lead pastor here at Elmwood. We are currently in the middle of a series of messages where we are looking at the letter of 1 Corinthians, is what we call it. And this letter is written by a man named Paul, who what he did was he traveled the Roman Empire and he would go into an area and he would lead people towards Jesus and then he would establish local church communities. And then he would leave that place and go to another place and do the same thing there. He would invite people to follow Jesus and then establish local churches. And as he went from place to place, there would often be correspondence that would take place between him and those churches. And this letter of 1 Corinthians that we're looking at here today is one of those pieces of correspondence. The specific situation that he is addressing in this section of the letter is that there are people in the church in Corinth who are obsessing over changes in status. They're obsessing over changes in their status and changes in their circumstances, and they're striving for more, and they're striving for different, and they think that they'll be more pleasing to God, or they'll be uh more satisfied if they can change their status or their circumstances. And so that's the situation that he is addressing in this section of the letter. And uh I'll just be very transparent with you. As I was preparing for today, uh, I felt very overwhelmed. Um I felt very overwhelmed in figuring out what in the world this passage is actually saying and uh what to do with a passage like this. I think that it's like relatively clear what he's saying. Um, but as you heard this, like there's a lot in here, okay? Uh this is uh this is not filled with controversial things like we've looked at in weeks past, uh, but there's just there's a lot in here, and he's making caveats about everything, and he's nuancing everything, and he's saying, Well, yes, you can do this, or you can do this, and you can live this way, that's fine, but also this is fine too. And just like I'm sitting here, like, what in the world do you make of this? What holds all this together? What is the point of this for me? What is the point of this for our church? And uh so I uh this week have uh just really been sort of struggling with like, what do you do with this passage? Uh the reason I bring that up is because uh I know that you experience those same exact kinds of feelings and thoughts when you read the Bible too. Because when you read the Bible, sometimes it can be confusing or you don't understand it, or you're trying to figure out how it all works together. And so before we even get into talking about what this says, I just want to uh give a word of encouragement to you that when you struggle, not if you struggle, but when you struggle to understand what the Bible says, uh you're in good company because all of us are navigating the same uh waters together as we read the Bible individually and in community as well. So because there is uh there's so much here in these verses, we could take this so many different ways. There's five or six different messages that are in here. Uh so what I want to do this morning is just focus our time on one thing. I want to zoom in on verse 35, where Paul says that what he wants for them is to live with undivided devotion to the Lord. That's what I want to spend our time thinking about today. And the problem, as Paul sees it, one of the problems in the Corinthian church, is that their attention is divided. That they are so distracted by good things that they are missing the most important things. And that's what he's addressing with them today, and uh what he wants for them and what he wants for us by extension, is that we would live with undivided devotion to the Lord in whatever set of circumstances we find ourselves, whatever status we possess, whatever circumstances we're in, whatever season of life we're in, we can live and should live with an undivided devotion to the Lord. And that's what I want to think with you about this morning. Uh before we do so, uh I invite you to join me in a word of prayer. God, we come here today and some of us are tired from losing an hour of sleep. Some of us are tired and weary from carrying heavy burdens of things that are happening in our own lives, our relationships, and things that we see happening around our world. So this morning, God, we ask that you would give us rest. Help us, Lord, to rest in the finished work of Jesus today. Give us your grace and your spirit as we seek to understand these words. God, help us to get to the heart of what's here and to hear you speaking to us this morning. Meet each one of us where we are. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. So the question that I want to explore with you today is how do we live a life of undivided devotion to the Lord? And in these verses, I think Paul answers this question in two different ways. So, how do we live a life of undivided devotion to the Lord? First, Paul says, filter everything through the certain hope of new creation. Filter everything through the certain hope of what is coming in the future. So, as you heard these verses read this morning, what we hear is Paul is again emphasizing the same thing that he's been saying throughout this section of the letter, which is you don't need to change your status. You don't need to change your circumstances. And the reason that he's given so far in the letter is that your changes in circumstances, those things gain you nothing before God. God is not impressed with you. You don't get some higher spiritual experience if you can just change your circumstances or change your status. And so that's the reason that he's given us so far. And then here, specifically in verses 29 through 31, we find another reason not to obsess over changing status. And what Paul says here is this he says, the time is short. And then he goes on to say, in verse 31, this world in its present form is passing away. So these two phrases that he uses here, the time is short, and this world in its present form is passing away, these two phrases, this is apocalyptic language that he's using here, which means that he's pulling our attention forwards to something that is yet to come in the future. And if you're familiar with Paul's writings at all, you know that he regularly talks, maybe not in this specific verbiage, but he talks about how we live in the overlap of the ages. Paul understood that we live in an already not yet reality, meaning that the future kingdom of God has broken into our world, but we don't see it and experience it fully as it will be one day. And so this glorious future is what Paul is directing their attention towards. He's saying, this world in its present form is passing away. This age that we're in is giving birth to a new age that is to come. And this is what we pray for each week when we pray for God's kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven. As we pray that we are recognizing that we live in an already not yet kind of reality. And it's this glorious future, this glorious end that Paul is directing our attention to, and directing the attention of the Corinthians to here in these verses. So notice what else he says in verse 29, when he says, From now on, those who have wives should live as if they do not, those who mourn as if they did not, those who are happy as if they were not, those who buy something as if it were not theirs to keep, those who use the things of the world as if not engrossed in them. So when he says all this, uh it sure sounds like he's uh like he's advocating for like a stoic, sort of uh emotionally detached way of living, doesn't it? Don't be too happy, don't be too sad, be sort of this bland vanilla, beige, whatever, you know, like boring kind of person. But that's not really what he's getting at in what he's saying here. The point that he's making is that our future hope in what is to come ought to shape and transform our relationship to everything here and now. He's saying the future hope that you have, that hope in what is to come, should change our relationship to everything here and now. That glorious future should fundamentally reorder how we approach every single thing in life. And of course, the fact that these Corinthians are chasing after changes in status and they're chasing after this and that, is proof in Paul's mind that this hope of new creation, that this hope of what will be birthed at the end of this age, it's proof to him that that new creation, reality, does not hold ultimate sway over their hearts and over their lives. They're functionally being guided by something else. The main problem that Paul sees here is that they are over-invested in their present circumstances. They're over-invested in the things of this world. Their attention is divided. And what he wants for them and what he wants for us is to have a singular focus, to be, had to have an undivided attention and uh focus on the Lord. So this is uh this is what he wants for us is to have this uh singular focus, this undivided attention. And so the application for us then, as we think about what to what to do with what he says here, is uh is this that we should be the kinds of people who are continually re-evaluating everything in light of the fact that this world in its present form is passing away. Now, this is not a one-time thing that like we do once and then move on with our lives. This is a continual thing that we must do over and over and over again in every new season, in every new set of circumstances, is we have to continually re-evaluate everything in light of the fact that this present world in its present form is passing away. Now, as we've seen in previous weeks, uh sometimes pursuing a change in status is a really good thing. Sometimes that is a good and God-honoring thing. Sometimes changes like this lead us to uh be healthier, more balanced people with a greater sense of uh focus and attention on the specific ways that God has called us to live and the way that He's designed us. So we should be really open to changes in status. We should be really open to changes in circumstances, and at the very same time, we have to be the kind of people who recognize that we are all filled with complex, mixed motives. Meaning, sometimes we pursue changes in circumstances or changes in status out of a deep inner striving and unrest. There are times where that is a God-given sort of uh godly discontent, and there are times where we act out of just plain old discontent. And we do it because it's what we want, because it's what makes us feel comfortable, because it's what would be best for us in our view. Sometimes, if we're honest, we place our hope in our circumstances, don't we? We live with this idea that, man, if I could just change my circumstances, if I could just change this status that I'm in in my life, that uh things will be different, all these things would be better, and we can place our hope in our circumstances. We can become overinvested in good things and turn them into ultimate things, which the Bible ultimately calls idolatry. So we have to be the kind of people who continually re-evaluate everything in light of what is to come in the future. And so, how do we do this? Well, we do this individually. We do this as individuals by bringing these things to the Lord in prayer and by wrestling with our motives, and by living, uh by bringing these things to the Lord in prayer and dealing with both our motives and seeking his direction and wrestling with all the different aspects of why we're seeking this thing and why we want this thing and what's really driving this. So individually, we bring these things to the Lord and we're continually re-evaluating everything in light of what's to come. But we do this not only individually, we also do this together. One of the things that happens each Sunday when we gather is we we're being taught and we're being formed in how to re-evaluate everything in light of what's to come. Every Sunday when we gather and we sing songs in worship to Jesus for who he is and what he's done and what that has accomplished for us. And as we hear from God's word, and as we pray together, and as we look at the communion table, which is a foretaste of the future feast that is to come in the kingdom of God, all these things that we do on a week in, week out basis form us and shape us into being the kind of people that re-evaluate everything in light of what's to come. Here on Sundays, we are reminded of what is ultimate, and our focus is directed towards uh towards the Lord and uh that singular focus. We also do this together in the context of community. So, this is one of the reasons why it's good and right to be a part of like a small group, to be a part of uh other forms of community life here at Elmwood where you can be in relationships with other people and you can talk about things, and you can have those people listen and ask you probing questions, and those people can uh give point you to what's true, and they can point you to what the Bible says, and they can remind you of what is true, and yes, they can even uh correct you, they can bring some perspective, they can help bring uh a different way of thinking about it to what you're talking about, and it's through those relationships that we continually reevaluate everything in light of what's to come. So this uh this idea of filtering everything through the certain hope of new creation, it's a thing we do both individually, it's a thing we do together, it's a thing we do as the church gathers, it's a thing we do as a church scatters, and this is a continual thing that we are called to do on a regular basis is to think about every one of our life circumstances through the prism of what is true and what is coming in our future in new creation. So this is uh the first way that we can the first way that we can live a life of undivided devotion to Him is to just be thinking about and to be reevaluating everything through the lens of what we know to be coming in our future. And the second way that we can do this is we can do the work of discovering God's calling in our lives. So do the work of discovering God's call in your life. One of the things that makes this section of 1 Corinthians actually really hard to preach is that Paul uh he does not reduce anything to like something that's simple. Everything seems really complicated, and just think about how he does it in these verses. So he's speaking to those who are betrothed, those who are engaged to be married, and he says, if you're engaged, don't back out of that engagement, although that might be a good thing to do. And then he says, if you're not yet engaged, don't try and find someone to get engaged to, although that might be a good thing to do. And then he says, if you're married, you haven't sinned. Meaning you don't need to change your status to unmarried, even if you're married to someone who's not a follower of Jesus, he told us in the passage last week. And then later he says, if you recognize the goodness of singleness and you want to remain single, but you don't sense God's calling on your life to be single, or you don't sense God's uh gifting or empowerment to live a life of celibacy, you should go ahead and get married.

unknown 17:31

Okay?

SPEAKER_00 17:32

So if we're looking for Paul just to tell us what we should do in every situation, this is a maddening section of the Bible. Because he's constantly saying, hey, this is fine, this is fine too, you could do this, this is fine too. For Paul, the reason why he doesn't give us those sort of binding uh examples of how everyone must live in the same situation is that the specifics of our status and the specifics of our situation is not what's most important. What's most important is that we discover God's call on our lives and then live in obedience to it. Where does God have me now? Where does God want me? And then I live in obedience wherever that might be. So as we do the work of discerning God's call in our lives, there's a couple things I think Paul wants us to remember. Uh the first one is this every situation has pros and cons. Paul knows the first hand. He knows firsthand about the pros and cons of marriage. It would have been uh assumed that someone in Paul's situation in the Jewish world would have been married very young, much younger than most of us would be comfortable with. Especially someone who uh had the sort of Ivy League rabbinic education that Paul had, without question, it would have been assumed that he would have been married at a very young age, but we know that he's now no longer married, and that could be because his spouse died or because his spouse deserted him. But even if for some reason he wasn't ever married, Paul was not ignorant to all the benefits that come along with being married. Some of those benefits uh many of you in this room are familiar with. Benefits like companionship and sexual intimacy, and a person to share the joys and the pains of life and the ebbs and flows of life with, a person to share in household responsibilities, a person who could maybe add to the financial bottom line of your household. He was not ignorant to things like the joys and the benefits of having and raising children together, and seeing your children grow up and seeing your children follow in the ways of the Lord. He he understood all of these wonderful benefits that come along with being a married person, and on the other hand, he was also not ignorant of the fact that marriage is hard. And so he he says in these verses, he comes right out and names the fact that a married person is filled with unique anxieties and concerns that an unmarried person is not. There's the anxiety that comes along with and the concern of being financially responsible, being economically responsible for people who are dependent upon you. There's a certain kind of anxiety and uh concern that comes with that. There's the anxiety and the concern of nurturing a family, of experiencing and walking through relational conflicts, maybe with a spouse or with children or in your extended family. There's the concern and the anxiety of walking with a spouse or walking with a child through sickness or chronic illness or death. There's the anxiety and the concern of what to do with children who make bad choices, who hurt themselves or hurt other people, and you can do nothing about it. There's the anxiety of having children and feeling the desire to protect them from the evil that exists out in the world. There's the anxiety and the pressure and the concern of providing all the opportunities that you want for your child to be successful and to thrive. There's all sorts of anxieties and pressures and concerns that come along with being married, and Paul was not ignorant of the fact that marriage is hard. And the main thing that he's emphasizing here, the main sort of con to marriage, is he talks about the limitation that marriage puts on a person's capacity. And he talks about how single people can devote themselves to gospel ministry in a way that married people simply can't. So in Paul's way of thinking, he does say that singleness is superior to marriage. He's not talking, he's not saying money. Morally speaking, it's superior. He's saying that it's practically superior as it relates to giving yourself away to the ministry of the gospel. And so taking the example of marriage, he shows how, yeah, there's pros and cons to both singleness and marriage. All those wonderful benefits of uh of marriage, single people don't get those. All the hard things about marriage, single people don't have to deal with some of those things. They have different challenges, they have different uh limitations and different joys that come along with that. And so what Paul wants us to see is that every situation has both pros and cons to it. So whether we are pursuing a change in status or whether we find ourselves longing for something to be different and for some part of our life to be changed, we have to remember that every single change in status comes with both pros and cons. Whether it's moving from high school to college or college into the workforce or getting married or having children, changes in our vocation, moving to a new place, becoming empty nesters, getting a promotion, hitting the point of retirement, all of these things come with pros and cons. And so Paul wants for us to be the kind of people that don't fall prey to the trap of thinking that something new is better than what we have right now. He wants us to reevaluate all those life circumstances in light of that future hope we have in new creation and to remember that every situation has both pros and cons. As we do the work of discerning God's call in our life, we should also remember the gospel dignifies what culture condemns. It is sometimes the calling that God places in your life will lead you to a place that is counter-cultural. It is, uh it's really hard for us to imagine and to understand in our individualistically oriented culture how shocking it was for Paul to say in these verses that a life of singleness is a viable, God-honoring, God-pleasing way to live. In the ancient world, especially in the Jewish world, in the ancient world and in many places even today, a person's identity was not tied to their own accomplishments. It was tied directly to that person's family. So a person's status and a person's success and achievement and honor and a person's legacy were not found in things that they did individually. You know, if you were to look up their Wikipedia page, you'd see all these great things they did. It was tied to their family. In that environment, lifelong singleness would have felt like something of a death sentence. And think about what Paul says here. He dignifies a life of singleness and says this is a perfectly fine way to live. It's hard for us to wrap our minds around just how countercultural it was for Paul to say this about singleness. Christianity dignified singleness in a way that no other religion did or does. Paul, we see some of it in 1 Corinthians, but we see it elsewhere in his writings, uh, that he had a very high view of sex, of the beauty and the dignity, and just he had this very high view of sex. And then he also said, it's perfectly fine if you never experience it. Like this is this is stuff that makes our minds melt. For him to have such a high view of both sex and singleness, of the goodness and the value and the dignity of marriage and family and also singleness. First century culture said, without family, you are nothing. But the gospel dignifies what sometimes our culture condemns. Now, our culture today does not look down on singleness in the same way. It's more socially acceptable to be single in our culture today than it was back then. But do you know what our culture does despise? It despises the Bible's call to celibacy in singleness. This is what the Bible calls and expects and demands of every person who's single is a life of celibacy. And that is what our culture has trouble understanding, right? Our culture has trouble understanding why someone would gladly give themselves to a life of sexual holiness. Our culture would say, like, does what a stuffy, deprived, sort of outdated, backwards way to live. But the message of the gospel dignifies this way of life and dignifies a life of singleness and says if you're a single person, even for the rest of your life, for your the entirety of your life, your life is not less meaningful, it's not less important, it's not less uh it can, it's not that it's going to be less productive or helpful or useful for the kingdom of God. No, you actually have advantages as a single person that you don't have as a married person. And so this uh the the message of the gospel dignifies this way of life that first century culture just simply looked down upon and said you can't be a satisfied or productive or you know full-life person if you were single. But the gospel dignifies what culture condemns. So as we seek to be faithful to God's call in our life, in whatever season, whatever circumstances that is, we have to remember that every situation has pros and cons, and that the gospel does dignify some of those statuses, those unique statuses and circumstances that God might call us to that our culture condemns. Let me offer this one final word of application as we close today. I want to invite you to sit down sometime this week and write out your answer to this question. What does undivided devotion to the Lord look like in my current season of life? What does that look like? Whether you're a student or you're a parent or you're a grandparent, whether you're in the workplace or you're a stay-at-home parent, whether you're single, whether you're married, what does undivided devotion to the Lord look like in my current season of life? Now, some of you may be thinking to yourself, uh, John, I'm in middle school. Do I really need to think about this? And the answer is, you are never too young for undivided devotion to the Lord. And on the other side, some of you might be thinking, you know, maybe I'm past the age where it's important for me to think about this. You're never too old for undivided devotion to the Lord. And for those of us who find ourselves somewhere in the middle, especially those of us whose lives are busy, we might be thinking to ourselves, I don't have time to even sit down and answer this question. Because I'm taking kids here and there, and I've got this thing, and I've got that thing, and I'm here, and I'm there, and I'm everywhere, and my life is so full of stuff that I just don't even have time to sit down and do this exercise in the first place if I wanted to. And for those of us who might feel that way, can I suggest that we should be open to the possibility that we live at an unmanageable pace in part because we haven't figured out what undivided devotion to the Lord looks like? Is it possible that because we haven't figured out what it means and looks like to be fully devoted to Him in this season, that that's why we are scattered? That that's why we are frantic? That that's why our lives feel unmanageable and why our attention is divided. And this may not be the case for you. It also may be the case that you're giving your attention to good things that are things that maybe don't matter as much as you think they do. And so this exercise of simply asking God is what all of us need to do. And so this exercise is not just about us sitting down, putting our thoughts on paper. This is about us asking God for his. It's about asking God for his thoughts and to help us understand what it looks like for us to live a life that is fully devoted to him in this season. And so that answer may come to you very clearly as you're communing with the Lord in prayer. It may be that you need to have a conversation with someone about this and talk to a friend or a spouse, and it's through that conversation that the Lord is going to give you the wisdom that you need. But we need to be the kind of people and the kind of church that wrestles with this question. What does a life of undivided devotion to the Lord look like for you in your specific season of life? Encourage you to think about that this week. As we come to the communion table today, we remember the good news that Jesus perfectly embodied everything that we are called to in this passage. Jesus lived that undistracted life. There was never a moment where his devotion to the Father was divided. His focus was unbroken, his focus was unwavering, and he went to the cross for us. Having lived a life of perfect obedience to the Father and perfect devotion to him, he went to the cross and he bore the curse for all the ways that our devotion is divided. And it's because of his devotion to the Father, and it's because he gave his life for us that we can now live with the hope of new creation. And so we come here today to the communion table, remembering that this meal we get to enjoy is a taste of that feast that is yet to come. And we have access to that feast. We are in relationship with God in the first place because of what Jesus has done for us. We live with a hope of new creation, knowing that our acceptance does not belong. It's not based on our performance, but based on His. That new creation reality changes our relationship to everything here and now.