Adopt a Christ-Follower’s View of Life!

3rd Sunday after Epiphany, 1/24/21 1 Corinthians 7:29-31 Adopt a Christ-Follower’s View of Life! There are changes in every person’s life that have a profound effect on them from that moment on. For more than 18 years, her life had been spent as a student, earning an advanced degree. But on this day, she graduates for the final time. The familiar sights and sounds and routines of the classroom are now behind her. Tomorrow she’ll step into the employment world. It’s a life-changing event. Another young woman holds her newborn in her arms for the first time. And this is her first child. As she ponders the miracle that childbirth is, she realizes life for her will never be the same. From this moment on, she will always be a mother with all of the responsibilities that brings. It’s a life-changing event. Earlier in the month he turned 65. Today is the last Friday of that month and it’s 5:00 PM. He logs out of his office computer for the last time and makes his way to the exit doors. Once he’s outside of the building with his back to place that has employed him for the past 40 years, he realizes his life will never be the same. He’s no longer employed; he’s retired. It’s a life-changing event. This morning’s worship focus reminds us that every one of us has experienced a life-changing event spiritually. For the vast majority of us, it occurred when we were so young that we don’t recall it. It happened on the day that the Holy Spirit worked faith in your heart, making you a Christian, someone who trusts in Jesus as your Savior from sin. Another way of describing that change in your life is that he made you a disciple of Christ, a follower of Jesus. How’s that going for you? Pretty well? Hardly give it a thought? Someone once said, “If following Jesus is easy for you, you’re probably not following him closely enough.” To state it another way, you’re living on the fringes of Christianity. Jesus wants you to be near him, out in front. But just what does that way of life involve? Well, the Apostle Paul gives us a brief description of a few segments of the life of a disciple of Jesus here in this morning’s text from 1 Corinthians 7. It’s a view of life that he encourages us to make our own; to adopt, if you will. And that’s my encouragement for you this morning. Adopt a Christ-follower’s view of life! Let’s see what that entails, shall we? A few weeks ago, a friend of mine sent me a link to a website that calculates how many days you’ve lived on this earth. You simply fill in your date of birth and it immediately gives you the number of days. That lead me to wonder what the average life-span is for a person living in the United States. According to anther website, it’s almost 80 years. I did a little math. That’s more than 28,800 days. I did a little more math and that’s more than 41.5 million minutes. That’s a lot of time! But listen again to the opening words of our text. “What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short.” Just what does he mean? Even good Bible scholars aren’t sure. He might be referring to a present crisis among the Corinthian Christians. He might also mean that the return of Jesus is near. But no matter which interpretation you prefer, one thing is certain: your time is limited. So, how will you use it? I’ll admit that most of my days begin by considering all the things I need to get done along with some of the things I hope to do. I don’t give much thought to the fact that I’m going to burn through another 24 hours or 1,440 minutes. I’m too focused on what I want to do. Can you relate to that? But we stated a few minutes ago that we have all experienced a life-changing event when our Lord called us to faith and made us one of his followers. As such, shouldn’t we begin our days pondering not what we want to do that day, but what Jesus would want us to do? Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that you must start every day asking how Jesus wants you to spend your time and if you don’t, you’re sinning. But being a disciple of Jesus is life-changing. So, adopt a Christ-follower’s view of life regarding your time. You probably weren’t surprised that Paul would speak about your use of time as a follower of Christ. But what he states next is puzzling at best and a real blow to your life at worst. He states, “From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none.” What does he mean? That those of us who are married should stop living the married life? Not at all. In this chapter Paul addressed the married life with the Corinthians. They likely had some questions and Paul answered them. Paul used these words before us to cause them to ponder the question, “What’s the most important relationship in my life?” If you’re married, I hope and pray that your relationship with your spouse is your most important earthly relationship. But, as a follower of Jesus, there is a more important one—your relationship with Christ. Married or not, that’s true about every other relationship in your life. As a Christian, by definition, you have an eternal relationship with Jesus. Are you living like it? Do you ponder that truth each day? Adopt a Christ-follower’s view of life regarding your relationships. Are you familiar with stoicism? It’s an ancient Greek philosophy about how to live your life. Basically, it avoids seeking happiness as well as the fear of misfortune. In other words, you should live your life on an even keel, emotionally stable all the time. So, was Paul a stoic? Listen to his words once again, “Those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not.” It certainly sounds like he was. But recall what Paul is discussing in this section of 1 Corinthians. He’s addressing our lives as followers of Jesus. In the previous section he warned against allowing earthly relationships to hinder our relationship with Jesus. In this section he’s warning us not to allow our emotions to hinder our relationship with Jesus. How could that happen? Think about it. When you’re pursuing happiness in this life and you’re attaining it, how much do you ponder your relationship with Jesus? Most people are too busy enjoying the good time. Likewise, when life is tough and you’re down in the dumps, you can be tempted to think, “If this is the way Jesus is going to treat me, why follow him any longer?” A Christ-follower realizes that the pleasures of life are blessings that don’t last long, and the trials of life are our Lord’s way of disciplining us because he loves us. So, adopt a Christ-follower’s view of life regarding your emotions. The pandemic has slowed down just about everything in our lives; everything, that is, except our world’s mad dash for material possessions. And we have the convenience of purchasing those possessions from the comfort of our homes. Recent sales statistics reveal that the purchase and consumption of comfort items has increased during the pandemic. Does that activity sound at all familiar to you? But you’re a follower of Christ. As such, you know that nothing you can buy will satisfy your deepest need—the need for the forgiving love of Jesus. And nothing that you can buy will last forever. And even if it lasts longer than you do, you can’t take it with you when you go. That’s why Paul offers this encouragement, “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. For this world in its present form is passing away.” Simply stated, use possessions in a godly way. That means not viewing them as an end in themselves. God gives us possessions for us to use as we live this life and to help others live their lives. That’s it. And everything really belongs to him anyway, so we’re just managing them for a lifetime. In God’s way of thinking, we don’t own them anyway. So why put forth so much time and effort in attaining them? Trying to find meaning and happiness in this life by accumulating more stuff is a losing effort. It’s pointless. So, adopt a Christ-follower’s view of life regarding your possessions. Throughout this sermon, you’ve heard the encouragement to adopt a Christ-follower’s view of life. I pray that you are doing that and will do that. But adopting it and putting it into practice are two different things. Too often in life we find ourselves slipping back into the sinful world’s way of viewing life. And it happens so easily. We live in a sinful world where that’s the way it is all the time. We struggle with a sinful nature that constantly opposes any and every Christian view of life. So, what can we do? Trust the forgiving power of our God. He endowed you with that power at your baptism when he made you a new person in Christ. And daily he brings you the forgiveness of your baptism when your view of life is inconsistent with your walk with Christ. Through his word, the Holy Spirit empowers you to follow Christ. Then he guides you as you walk with Christ. He daily reshapes you into a follower of Christ. In other words, our God does it all. Trust him to do it for you. And then adopt of Christ-follower’s view of life—every aspect of it. Amen.