Morality is simply the peaceful behavior that we exhibit in relationships. We have morals that guide our relationship with life, morals that guide our relationship with others, and morals that guide our relationship with God.

Morals are ultimately given by God, and it is important to know God's design for our morals. Yet Christians tend to abuse morality, argue & disagree strongly about morality, and apply morality in inappropriate settings.

This message considers the healthy development and application of God's morality - an environment where Christians can morally develop without getting chastised. This environment will necessarily involve judgment, but it will also provide for lots of freedom.

Should I be married? Should I stay single? Separate? Is this the person God would want me to be with?

It seems these days that Christians everywhere are asking God what His will is with regard to intimate relationships. They search the Scriptures to find guidance, but although the Bible deals with some issues clearly it is vague or silent on many other relationship questions. So we turn to prayer and we ask our Christian leaders for guidance.

This is what Paul is addressing in Chapter 7 of 1 Corinthians - evidently Corinthian Christians were asking him questions about relationship issues. His response is based upon an understanding of the fundamental issue of peace and contentment. This message explores those teachings, and helps us to understand the background behind Paul's answers.

In our look at Paul's letter to the Corinthians, Paul had articulated that he was alarmed at the poor unity and the poor source of power that the Church at Corinth had allowed to influence them. He also describes a third interference, and this is that they are allowing themselves to be exploited by other leaders who really have no concern for the Church's well-being. Merely, these leaders are just selling a message.

When Paul describes his relationship to the people of the church, he does not use a "teacher-student" model, as one might expect. Rather, he elevates the relationship to one of "parent-child" (in other places in Scripture, John and Peter also use this metaphor). That is, the leadership that he is exhibiting adds much sacrifice to the guidance that is being provided to the Church. The cost of delivering the message of the gospel is borne by the deliverer and not the recipient.

The world produces many messages that are intended to exploit a consumer oriented marketplace: self-help & feel-good messages available for a price. The true message of the Gospel comes not through sales but through a leadership that sacrifices to help Christians grow, like a good parent sacrifices for their children.

Most every Christian would acknowledge that a relationship with Jesus Christ is bathed in power from God - we "overcome" the world with this power. Yet, American Christianity is obsessed with gathering worldly resources and talents that can be commanded in order to communicate the Gospel of Christ. The power of God is often not sought, and it is rarely thought of as even being needed. It is almost as if we are saying, "No thanks, God, we don't need you right now ... we've got everything we need to do your bidding."

In 1 Corinthians, Paul cautions against this sort of approach because it develops a poor foundation for Faith ... Faith, in Paul's teaching, needs to be received through power.

If you think about it, Christians typically join together for a common vision - for example, everyone wants to get to heaven, everyone wants life to be better or less sinful, or everyone wants to feel good. But, merely having a common vision does not mean that everyone works together toward that vision. More often, individuals or small groups within the church take many different paths toward pursuing the vision.

This approach does not seem consistent with God's message in I Corinthians. You see, it is not sufficient for everyone to merely have a common vision; rather, the community of Christ is woven together to jointly pursue that vision - you might call this a shared vision because the members are sharing in the responsibility and the sacrifice as we move toward the vision.

In the opening chapters of I Corinthians, Paul is addressing the condition of the church where it has become segmented into different paths (most of these paths have likely entered the church through the world rather than the revelation of God).

In life, there are those who are the players and those who are the spectators. The players sometimes succeed and sometimes fail ... the spectators always succeed at being a "spectator", and they never fail at being a "spectator". What's more, the spectator gets to witness, criticize, and ridicule the players for all their failures (the armchair quarterback). In so much of the things of life, being a spectator is safe and faultless.

Unfortunately, this attitude carries over into our relationship with God. In other words, it feels safe and faultless to be a spiritual spectator: cringing when others make huge life sacrifices for Christ, listening to the miracles prayed about and witnessed by others, watching as others seek the Lord's vision, applauding when God does spiritual transformations of other's lives. All the while, the spiritual spectator imagines that their personal waltz with religious activity is sufficient.

If we find ourselves being a spectator of the things of God rather than an investor - one who sacrifices for the vision of God - then some rightsizing is needed in our life. Why? Because it is a failure to merely be a spectator of God.

All of us envision a future, and all of us typically perceive threats in that future: relationships destroyed, poor health or death, financial ruin, physical harm, embarrassment, etc. Fearing these outcomes, we obsess about future situations and we try to develop schemes that may help us to control the future. Sometimes, this "control" we try to exert is even opposed to God.

Yet, the vast majority of the time, things rarely turn out as badly as we forecast - many times, nothing ever comes to pass. In effect, we waste a lot of emotional energy, time, and sometimes valuable resources when we concern ourselves about the future. What's worse, we ignore the very real issues that surround our "today."

Our life is filled with the pursuit of the routine affairs of the world. Day after day, we muddle through this mindless rhythm of life, perhaps hoping that God will pay attention to us. Scripture describes a group of people called Nazirites who broke free from the routine of life specifically to seek an uncommon experience from the Lord. They stopped pursuing the routine of the world, and started pursuing a disruption of routine that might come from God.