Be Free Indeed!
Back in the early 90s when I was still a very new Christian, I had a friend in my church in Wichita Falls, Texas who had just entered into ministry with a missions organization in Dallas. He was very excited about his calling and very zealous in seeking me to join him in it. This stirred up some feelings in me that were hard for me to process at the time. I struggled for a time with the notion that I had to join him because “God expected Christians to become missionaries.” I also struggled in a similar way that my faith would be a lesser faith unless I did this, a feeling further prompted by my friend’s approach to enlisting me. Several years later, I had the opportunity to meet up with him in Dallas where I got more of the same, but at that point, I was beginning to sense that the Lord was calling me to be a pastor, and with the confidence in that grace, I simply said “no thanks.” I am thankful for the grace of God that kept me from rashly changing my life situation to pursue a calling that would have come from my own misguided conscience rather than the Lord. It’s a fairly common tendency for new believers to do things like this and Paul addresses this tendency in this Sunday’s text. For me, the Lord’s call to be a pastor only began to unfold nearly a decade after coming to Christ and would continue to unfold for nearly another 20 years! Paul wasn’t telling believers to never change their situation in life, but he was teaching against the tendency to rush into a calling rather than waiting on the Lord to confirm that the calling is actually from Him!
We invite you to come join us this Sunday morning for our in-person worship service at Leptondale Bible Church in Newburgh, starting at 10:55 AM. For those unable to attend, our service can be viewed live on the church’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/leptondalebiblechurch. This Sunday, we’ll resume a sermon series from 1st Corinthians titled “Written for Our Instruction” with a message from 1st Corinthians 7:17-24 titled “Be free indeed!”
God bless!
Pastor Mike
