Sermon Tone Analysis

Q. How do we balance home life with the Christian life?

Living the Future in the Present

Q.

How do we balance home life with the Christian life?

Q.

How do we balance home life with the Christian life?

Q. Do you find it difficult?

Why do you find it difficult?

- Is it because there is so much to do?

- Is it because we have filled our lives up to the full

- Perhaps, partly & perhaps, we have just prioritised poorly

- Perhaps, we have forgotten what it means to be a disciple of Christ

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- But it is true that married life & having a family can’t help but fill your life up

- You have work commitments; you have commitments to your spouse; you have commitments to the welfare of your children

- That can include their social life; their academic life; their sporting life – I hope we can add, their spiritual life

- That too is a big deal – that takes real time & effort

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- We are so busy that we have precious little time for anything else & if we are not careful, that can even include the Lord

Q. Am I allowed to say that?

I guess if it’s true, then we need to take stock of that situation - we need to own the concern to start with

- In reality, there is only one person who can decide what happens here – that’s you

– Having said that though, the apostle recognises that marriage can be a distraction from the Christian life

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- The problems concerning these issues are pretty much what this passage speaks to, today

1. Remain as You Are vs.25-28

- We have previously dealt with the situation for widowers & widows; to those who are married who are Christians & to those who are in mixed marriages (one Christian married to an unbeliever)

- The message here is to remain in that station in life when you were called or when you came to Christ

- This statement, I’m about to read to you, came from this church’s stance on the matter: “it is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman”

- Now, of course, we need to ask “why in the world was the church in Corinth asking questions or making statements of this nature”?

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- The problem was this pious belief that the spiritual was all that was worthwhile in life & the body & all material things were insignificant

- They were set to abandon their marriages to pursue the purely spiritual life untainted by the things of the body

- That was a big mistake & I hope we have come to see that what God created – the whole created realm – is good in itself

- God created sexual relations to be good, but to be utilised in the proper bounds of a marriage covenant commitment to each other

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- Now the apostle turns to deal with those who are virgins – those who have not yet married

- The ESV obscures this a little by using the word, “betrothed” which means she’s engaged to be married

- Of course, that is true, but you may have been married several times & still be a “betrothed” or an “engaged” person

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- In reality, this passage is dealing with the “never before married”

- “Remain as you are” says Paul

Q. Does this mean that you must remain single for the rest of your life?

- No it doesn’t when you read the passage in it’s entirety

- But he certainly encourages singleness if you don’t burn with passion as he has already said in previous verses

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- Also, he says that you have not sinned if you do marry

—28 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.

- You have to be very careful in stating something like this

- This is not a blanket rule for everyone – this is something you need to be clear on

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- The question is why would he even have to encourage people to be single?

- Surely, wouldn’t you want to encourage people to marry instead

- We get a hint here in v.28

“Those who marry will have worldly troubles, and I would spare you that”.

- Let us look at the reasons he encourages singleness

2. Living with the Birth Pains of our Future vs. 29-31

- The Christian life when lived faithfully can be a difficult life

- When mentoring young Timothy – a young man who came to Christ under Paul – Paul gives him counsel about how to pastor the church at Ephesus

- Not only what he was to be & do, but what he could expect

- Some of those things to expect would not be a walk in the park

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- I won’t go into the difficulties he would experience as a pastor, but there were many

- The more general difficulties that all Christians face are the likes of these...

—12 Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

- So right off the starting blocks as a Christian, if you would live a godly life, the world will seek to persecute you

- What else can we expect – they are immersed in worldly idolatry & they will be convicted by your lifestyle that seeks to call everyone to acknowledge their creator

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- Now this ungodliness is not just said to exist at the end of time, as in some apocalyptic future

- What we need to understand is that the last days began with the resurrection of Christ

- Too many Christians have got lost here thinking that we might be in the last days before the apocalypse

- Definitely not

- The last days began with God setting the future in motion

- That future began with the resurrection of Christ

—2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.

—17 ‘AND IT SHALL BE IN THE LAST DAYS,’ God says, ‘THAT I WILL POUR FORTH OF MY SPIRIT ON ALL MANKIND; AND YOUR SONS AND YOUR DAUGHTERS SHALL PROPHESY, AND YOUR YOUNG MEN SHALL SEE VISIONS, AND YOUR OLD MEN SHALL DREAM DREAMS;

—1 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.

2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.

—17 ‘AND IT SHALL BE IN THE LAST DAYS,’ God says, ‘THAT I WILL POUR FORTH OF MY SPIRIT ON ALL MANKIND; AND YOUR SONS AND YOUR DAUGHTERS SHALL PROPHESY, AND YOUR YOUNG MEN SHALL SEE VISIONS, AND YOUR OLD MEN SHALL DREAM DREAMS;

—1 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.

2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.

—1 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.

2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.

- Timothy was to avoid these godless men who worm their way into churches

o worm their way into churches

- Timothy was to avoid these godless men who worm their way into churches & homes of Christians

- So the last days are present with Paul & Timothy & with us

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- I have called this point, “Living with the birth pains of our future”

- As Christians, we are sold out to Christ – Jesus is Lord; He is Lord of all

- This is our proclamation – this is what Jess proclaimed last Sunday at her baptism

- This phrase has far reaching significance

- It is not a wonder that Jesus said to His disciples before He ascended to heaven

—18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.

19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,

- Jesus is king & Lord – poor ol Thomas who wanted to see for Himself confessed, “my Lord & my God”

- Jesus is king & Lord – poor ol Thomas who wanted to see for Himself confessed, “my Lord & my God”

- It was then that Jesus said, “more blessed are those who do not see, yet believe”

- Jesus was thinking about you & me when He said that

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- We are living the birth pains of the future – we belong to it – the future is our possession

- This is what the Gospels & Epistles declare is the kingdom of God

- We inherit the kingdom – the future

- “The present form of this world”, says Paul, “is passing away” v.31

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- When you have a spouse; when you have children & grand children, it makes for living the Gospel that much harder

- If your family is relying upon you for support; for a roof over their head & food on the plate & clothes on their back – you won’t be much good to them in prison

- The world will persecute believers – Satan is the world’s god; pleasure is their goal – but the Scriptures call it idolatry

- The apostle Peter said to those Christians scattered about Asia Minor

—12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you;

- Exactly, it is some strange thing – why would people want to bully, harass & persecute Christians?

- After all, Jesus instructs us to love them; to do good to them; to turn the other cheek when wronged