want everyone to know that I've already been soundly rebuked by last week's sermon. I was told by one of our parishioners that we don't have any donuts today. And they're blaming me. I just want everyone to know, I want Wesley to know, we love at GBT, GBC. We love donuts. All right. If you have your Bibles, turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 7. 1 Corinthians chapter 7. As you turn there, I don't really have to build this out because it's pretty much self-evident to all of us that one of the greatest Temptations upon the human race. We could say pride. We can say the pursuit of pleasure and the world and all these things. But one of the greatest temptations and that takes down so many men. Some of the great men have fallen, such as King David. So many pastors have fallen to this. So many people struggle in this area, it's so much around us. It's the temptation to sexual immorality, lust. It's such a great threat to us. What is the remedy? What is a remedy? We have a remedy in this text and it tells us how to think about sexual intimacy. Let's read it with me. We're going to read the first 9 verses of chapter 7. Now concerning the matters about which you wrote, it is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman. But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. Husband should give to his wife her congenial rights and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise, the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourself to prayer, but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. Now, as a concession, not a command, I say this. I wish that all were as I myself. each. Now, Paul was a single man. But each has his own gift from God. One of one kind and one of another. To the unmarried and to the widows, I say that it is good for them to remain single as I am. But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion. Now, chapter seven is in somewhat a transition of the first epistle to the Corinthians. The first six chapters deals with the present problems that were reported to him. And so he begins by addressing the problems that he had learned about at the church of Corinth. But in chapter seven, he transitions to deal with the letter that he received from them. And it was a letter asking him five questions. And so he dealt with four of the problems. If you want a basic outline of First Corinthians, it's four problems, five questions. First six chapters, the four problems. The rest of the book is the five questions. And the first question that they had is found in verse one. And now this question we see in verse one is very difficult because different translators have translated this verse differently. And in this verse we see there are two major interpretive problems. One, what does it mean and who's saying it? What does it mean, this phrase? And two, is this the phrase said by the Corinthians and Paul's repeating it? So you wrote about this and let me address your question. Or is this something Paul is saying? First, what does it mean? This is difficult because different translations will translate this differently. In fact, our own translation, the ESV, does more of an interpretation than a translation of it, sadly. In the literal rendering of it in the Greek, literally it says a man should not touch a woman. A man should not touch a woman. This is how the NASB and the King James translates this. And this is a proper, more literal translation of this text. A man should not touch a woman. And obviously this is an idiom. And an idiom is a statement that's hard to understand what it means by the very words that is used. Like, for instance, we say someone kicked a bucket. We know what that means, but what will they think 2,000 years from now? Kick a bucket, what do you mean kick a bucket? You're not going to think of death. And so this was an idiom to describe something and the scholars are divided on what this idiom means, not to touch a woman. Some think that this means not to get married. Now, it's the minority position, but even some translations translates this verse as understanding that Paul is saying it's best not to get married. One translation reads, now concerning the things you asked, it is advisable for a man not to marry. Another translation says, now I will answer the question you asked in your letter. You asked, it is best for people not to marry. Albert Barnes, one commentator, says that not to touch a woman is referring to marriage. Now, that is a minority position, but it is a position. And if that's the position, then this whole text is slanted towards or against marriage. But I don't think this is a passage trying to slant us against marriage. I think it's not talking about touching a woman. It's not talking about marriage. I think it's talking about sexual intimacy. That's how our ESV translates it and the NIV and other versions translate it that way. And the reason I think it's that is because it's a more probable explanation of the idiom. If you had to take a guess, What does it mean not to touch a woman? If you had to make a guess or stab at that, though you couldn't be certain, you would probably come to the conclusion it's talking about sexual relationships. That's something that would seem to be implied in not touching a woman. And it's kind of like our idiom today, talking about sleeping with a woman or someone slept with a woman. We mean more than just sleeping. We mean more than just touching or a handshake. When we say don't touch a woman, it's not just talking about don't give women a handshake. It's talking about something more deep than that or sexual than that. But I also think it means that by the immediate context. Six times in verses 2, 3, 4, all the way to verse 9, sexual relationships is mentioned or alluded to. So obviously this is a big part of the context. But I think more than that, the broader context of the whole epistle of 1 Corinthians lends us to this conclusion. Now in chapter 5, we learn that they were being tolerant. towards sexual sins that even unbelievers don't tolerate. And then in chapter six, we learned that many of them, even church members, were justifying going to prostitutes. So obviously this was a problem within the church. And in chapter six, there was a passage where Paul says, I have previously wrote to you not to associate with the sexual immoral person. So Paul has written them a letter, we don't have that letter, but in that letter that he wrote them before this letter, he warns them against that. So this is a huge issue in the church. Now last week we talked about why would a church, a church of the living God tolerate or look past such sins among its membership. I made a big deal about Gnosticism influencing the church. I still think that's true. I think that's a big influence on the church. What I also should have said last week, and I'll remedy in this sermon, probably the largest influence upon this is the fact that they were in the largest metropolitan city outside of Rome. They were in Corinth. And this city, with all the debauchery that would take place in the city, was accustomed to sexual immorality to such an extent it was commonplace. Now, you've got to remember, this is the first time the gospel has come to the Roman world. This is a time when such deviance was so common that it was just viewed as normal. God had left the Gentiles in darkness for years. You can read the secular literature concerning this topic and realize that they didn't have much morals at all within society. It's amazing. In fact, our day is not far from that. When I was young, I knew young ladies. I knew them that soon as they hit puberty. their parents put them on birth control. I mean, what is that saying? It's just like this is just to be expected. And so this is the way the Corinthians are thinking. This is their background. This is the influence upon them in the church. And so Paul is basically saying, don't do this, don't do that. He's trying to correct their morality. And you can imagine under the context that this Corinthians would begin to go, wait a minute, you're flat out against sexual intimacy. You're saying that sexual intimacy is no good. And so they're asking Paul a question. I think they're asking the question, is it good to have sexual intimacy? Is this good or is this bad? So you're saying it's bad, and so they're maybe coming to the conclusion it's bad altogether. And so this leads to the second interpretive problem. Who's saying this, it's good for a man not to touch a woman? Now this is a statement, but I think it was a statement that Paul, I personally think it's a statement that he's rephrasing their question. I think they were asking him, is it good for a man to touch a woman? Or is that bad? In a simple way of saying it, should a man touch a woman or not? Is intimacy good or bad? That's their question. Now, if you understand the question, this text makes a lot of sense. If you don't understand the question, you can get tripped up in this passage. But hopefully, we've diagnosed the question properly. Is sexual intimacy good or bad? That's their question. Now, Paul's going to answer it, and he's going to say, let me first answer it for married people. then let me answer it for single people. Now, if you understand the context, then this text unfolds itself pretty easily. So, how about married people? Is it good or bad? Is sexual intimacy good or bad? What advice does he have for this topic? In fact, I'm titling this sermon, Biblical Counsel on a Touchy Issue. So he's gonna give counsel to married folk. He gives three words of encouragement or counsel. And so if you're married, listen up. If you're single, wait to the next point. First of all, counsel number one, he encourages us to be intimate, encourages husbands and wife to be intimate. Verse 2 says, but because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. Basically he's saying you should be intimate. The phrase to have his own wife or to have her own husband is another idiom of the day. And this idiom means basically, to have your wife means to be sexually intimate with your wife. This idiom could be verified in extra-biblical Greco-Roman literature, but I think the context bears this out as well. In the next verse, it talks about husbands should give to his wife her congenial rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. So clearly, this is what it's talking about. So here, this is a command to be intimate with your spouse. Because of temptation for sexual immorality, make sure you are satisfying your sexual desires within the lawful bounds of marriage. Here is the boundaries, if you would, the confines of enjoying this. You know, it's not that I'm not anti this, as the Corinthians may have thought Paul was saying. You're saying we can't do this and this is not... He said, no, I'm not saying you can't do it altogether. I'm saying you can't do it outside of marriage. It's wrong outside of marriage. It's immoral outside of marriage, but it's perfectly acceptable and even good within marriage. He could be saying this, just as sex is wrong outside of marriage, marriage is wrong without sex. You see Hebrews 13, verse 4 says, marriage is honorable in all things, and the bed undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. God's angry with sexual immorality outside of marriage. That's wrong and evil, but it's not wrong. In fact, it's honorable and good inside of marriage. So this is the first vice that we have. We have a vice by God himself. to be intimate if we are married. The second advice that he gives us, or the biblical counsel for married people, is that we should not withhold ourselves from each other. We see this in verse 3. The husband should give to his wife her congenital rights and likewise the wife to her husband. The NIV reads, the husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife. and likewise the wife to her husband." I like how the King James translates this. Let her husband render to his wife the affection due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband. The King James kind of has this oxymoron, this kind of this seems like a contradiction, like icy hot, you know, it's like that can't both be true. He's like, be affectionate, carry out your duty. You have a duty to be affectionate. You have a duty. It's like, wait, wait, wait. Isn't affection just something I feel like it when I want to? And if I don't feel like it, then it's not really affections. And if I don't feel love, and if I don't want to love, and if I don't, if I'm not, you know, filling the mood, I just, I'm not obligated to do something I don't feel like doing. I mean, we justify all kinds of inabilities or what things we don't do. We justify good works even in all areas of our life because we don't feel like doing something. And we know we're to obey with a happy heart. We tell our kids, I want you to obey with a happy heart. And we think, well, I don't have a happy heart, therefore I'm not going to obey. And if I obey with an unhappy heart, then it's hypocritical. And I don't want to be a hypocrite, so I'm not going to do it. And we justify our inactivity when we see that there's a duty. And it's not just a duty to do something. In other places, we have a duty to love. We have a duty to fulfill our responsibilities. And this is the point that Paul is making. He's not blasting sexual intimacy. All right, say, hey, this is just evil. No, he's actually saying to a married couple, you've got to do this. This is honorable. This is right. This is good. Don't refrain from doing this. You have responsibility. And in this, we can see an application is that we should be unselfish, not focused upon ourselves, but upon our spouses. And that we see the reason why we see in verse four, this is because married couples no longer have the rights over their own bodies. Look at verse four. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise, the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. You know, sometimes a artist, music artist will write a song and they'll sell the rights to that song to a record label. And they'll get a big chunk of money, you know, up front and they go, okay, I made my money. But the record label will make all the money there for after, you know, because they own the rights. And five, 10 years later, it could come into a big hit. Then the artist is like, wait a minute, I didn't know it was going to make that much money. And they regret selling their rights, but nevertheless, they don't have rights to it anymore. It's not theirs anymore. And they think, well, I wrote that. I should be able to make profit from that. It's like, no, you don't own it anymore. Your rights are gone. Now, you don't realize this, maybe you don't, but you need to realize this, all of us, is when you get married, you're giving up your rights to your body. You know your body is not yours anymore. It doesn't belong to you anymore. Now, you think, is my body my choice? You hear that in the world all the time, my body, my choice. Well, that doesn't fly with God inside of marriage. You can't say it's my body anymore. You become one flesh. Your body is not your own anymore. One, it belongs to God because you are the temple of God. He's bought you with a price. But two, your body has been given to your spouse. And so you don't have the rights to go, this is something you can't have. Never, and let me just say this clearly to husbands and wives, never use sexual intimacy as a means of manipulation. God's not pleased with that. That's just not the way God has designed marriage, rewarding in each other, I'll do this, no. A healthy marriage, according to the Apostle Paul, will contain a healthy and active level of intimacy. The third bit of counsel he gives us, is when or how we should refrain. That is, if this is a… the normalcy of marriage consists of this, is there a time of refraining and not being intimate with one another? Well, we know there can be health issues that come up. There can be some legitimate difficulties. Everybody needs to be patient and understanding and not forceful in any way. I would never approve of any domineering forceful activities. But there are times that maybe for men, husband and wife, to refrain from being intimate. But there are three things that Paul says you need to do if you're going to refrain. You shouldn't refrain, but if you do refrain, three things. It needs to be consensual. We always hear, you know, hey, that was consensual. Well, hey, if you don't, it needs to be consensual. You need to be in agreement. We see that in verse five. Do not deprive one another. Do not do that, except perhaps by agreement. So if you're going to go a period of time where you say, this is not what we're going to do, it needs to be by an agreement. It can't just one party. The husband can't make that decision on his own, and the wife can't make that decision on her own. This is a unified decision. Second thing that should govern us is that that needs to be for a limited time. God has not given husbands and wife that you don't have permission to go Okay, we're going to be celibate and live together for the rest of our days You know For whatever reason, we do better if we don't live in the same bedroom, and we do better if we just co-inhabitate, and you take care of the bills, I do this. We're good business partners at home, but we're not going to be intimate. We're not going to love each other in such a way. Paul says, no, that's not an option. That's not an option. That's not a marriage. He says, if you do Refrain only for a limited, designated time. You need to have a time set where we're coming back together after this amount of time. And the third thing that governs this is it needs to be for a purpose. Look, it says, for a limited time that you may devote yourself to prayer, but then come together again. So one legitimate purpose to refrain is fasting and praying. You got a need and you want to fast? This is a time to withhold from all kinds of human pleasure. Might not want to eat, might not want to enjoy other activities that are fun, and you want to set some time for prayer. Well, this is a time to refrain from being intimate, but this is by agreement for a purpose and for a limited time. The fourth bit of counsel he gives to us married people, the Apostle Paul does, is he tells us to seek to protect one another. Look at verse five, but then come together so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. That comes back to where he begun at the beginning in verse two, because of sexual immorality, because of the temptation, the temptations around us for everywhere. One of the provision that God has given us to protect us from our own lack of self-control is marriage. We come back together because Satan's going to tempt us, especially if we lack strength in the willpower to regulate our appetites. And this gives us counsel that we're to seek to protect one another. If you want to love your wife or if you want to love your husband, seek to protect him from temptation from the outside. There's temptations everywhere. And God is saying, here's where this could be satisfied. This is where you're to enjoy the pleasures that God has given us. It's not bad or evil. You don't have to have this kind of mindset, I'm a Puritan and maybe if we're going to procreate, this will be fine. No, God has that attitude towards this. It's to be celebrated. It's to be honored. It's to be something to be treasured. It's something to be fostered. It's something to to seek to glorify God in, inside of marriage, of course, but in seeking to protect your spouse. So don't, according to the Word of God, do not withhold from each other this. This is important. So here's the counsel that Paul has concerning sexual intimacy when it comes to marriage. So he's not against it. That's the point. Should a man touch a woman? Well, the answer, if he's married, then he better. Yes. However, he turns from counseling married folk to looking to the singles. Now, I'm fully aware that this is somewhat of a difficult sermon to preach in a mixed audience like this. And I'm fully aware that I'm hoping most of you are bored to death. but the ones that are old enough to not be bored, you may be thinking, Ben, I want to be married. I personally, I remember turning 21, the Lord did a work in my life and I was like, the loneliness hit me like a rock. I mean, I was up till twenties, I was like, I didn't think about marriage, I didn't want to be married per se. But man, when the Lord did a work in me, And I wanted to be chaste. I wanted to be pure. I wanted to have clean eyes. I wanted to live holy before the Lord. You know what I wanted when I wanted all the holiness to go along with my Christian walk? I wanted to be married. Badly. Really bad. And I remember thinking to myself, the Bible says it's not good for man to be alone. And I pray, I pray, like many of you single people do. And so here Paul has a word for you who are single, who are listening to this, and you're thinking, amen, I want to be married. First of all, he wants to give you advice and say, okay, be patient. Now marriage is good, but don't minimize the blessing of being single. This is what he says in verse six. Now, as a concession, not a command, I say this. Now, this is what he's saying. He's about to say, I'm not going to bind your conscience that you need to be single. In fact, you may need to get married, and he'll say that a little bit later. But I'm saying that, from my perspective, as one who's single, the Apostle Paul is saying, I think there's a blessing to be single. He says, I say, verse 7, I wish that all were as myself. I understand, he says, with each one has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another. I understand that, but I would think you would be thankful if you did have the same gift that I had, singleness. He says, to the unmarried and the widows, I say that it is good for them to remain single as I am. Now, Paul is not condemning marriage. He's not even saying marriage is less of a state than singleness. But he is saying, if you are single, don't rush to get married just to be getting married. Yes, you need self-control and restraint. You need to be pure in your hearts and your thoughts and your motives and with your eyes. And all that has to be there if you're single. But don't rush past the singleness because there are various blessings. Now he's going to get into this and I'm not going to get into it today because we'll see it in the weeks ahead. The various blessings of being single and the principal blessing of being single is that you can have more time and energy focusing on serving the Lord. It's just simply true. I know some of us married people want to balk up against that. It's like, no, no, no, I can do more married than, well, maybe we can because we have companionship and there's benefits of being married if we're not gifted in singledesk. But Paul is going to make a strong case that if you don't have a wife to tend to, and a family to care for. You can be more singly minded in serving the Lord. And so that is one of the things, if you're single today and you're listening to this sermon, don't run past singleness. See it as a blessing from the Lord. View your singleness, I know it can be lonely, and it can be difficult, and there can be all kinds of temptations upon you, but don't run past it. Use this time, I'll give another word at the end of the message, but use this time not just scouting out women or men. Don't give your energy towards just trying to remedy the fact that you're single. Seek first the kingdom of God. Here's the advice I give so many people. I've given it a hundred times to different people. My advice to you, if you're single, is run as fast as you can to the Lord. Don't look back. Don't run as fast as you can to marriage. Run as fast as you can to the Lord. When you see a young, you men, when you see a young, attractive lady running as fast as you are to the Lord, turn over and go, But if you run to the Lord, if you run to the Lord, Lord says, I know you need everything that you need. I know you need food and clothing and provisions. Don't worry about these things. That's what the Gentiles worry about. For you seek first the kingdom of God. You focus on running to the Lord. Focus on being a potential good husband one day by being a spiritual leader, by learning to be a strong Christian single man. Learn what it is to be a godly wife by learning what it means to be really intimate with the Lord through your personal prayer life and devotion to Christ. Beautify yourself through your godliness and use your singleness to advance quicker and faster. This is not a time to go, let's let it be over quickly. The second advice is if you're struggling with self-control, and if you recognize that you don't have the gift of singleness, as Paul told his disciples after he talked about how divorce is wrong, and the disciples says, well, it's best we don't get married. No one gets married. You can't get divorced. He goes, well, some can receive this, but others cannot receive it. And the Lord says, only to those who have been given, who have the gift of singleness, can receive such a word. And so if you haven't been gifted with the gift of singleness, then it is good to get married. The Bible tells us, he who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord. Let no one tell you it's wrong to want to be married. Now, I told you not to rush into it. I told you not to make that your idol, but don't let no one say that it's just an unsinful thing to want to be married. If you're not have the gift, then God says, He's made us. He's made us. He's designed us, the way he designed Adam was to be incomplete. He needed his other half. It wasn't good for man to be alone. So he made a partner for him for a reason. So never think marriage is a bad thing. This is what the world says about marriage. We're living in a time there's going to be less and less marriages. Obviously, there's more and more sexual immorality. But let not us have a negative view of the sanctity and the honorableness of marriage. So if you need to get married, look to be married. Now let me close with some basic pastoral counsel. Let me begin with those who are struggling singles. for the struggling singles among us. My first counsel to you is don't feed the fire. Verse 8 says, to the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain as I am. But then verse 9 says, but if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passions. This word burn literally means to be set on fire, to be burning with almost like this consuming passion that's destroying you. And so that's not a good state to be in. It's like you're not going to have self-control and restraint. So it's best not to live in that state of passion. So if you're single and you have no avenue, you don't have a proper sphere to exercise that passion, then don't feed it. Don't feed the fire. Don't feed the beast. How much wood can a fire burn? Fire's never satisfied, no matter how much wood you put on it. That's the problem with pornography. You know, you don't go, I'm just gonna dabble. I'm just gonna dabble. It's gonna be okay. One little dabble. It's like, no, all you do increase the desire, which increases the more, and it's like you're feeding the fire. So what do you do if you want to have self-control and self-restraint? Cut it off at the source. Be careful. Honestly, I'm saying this as a pastor who loves you, especially young men and young women. You have a device in your hands that's dangerous. The Bible says it's better to go to hell with no eyes than with two eyes. I said that completely wrong. It's better to go to heaven with no eyes than to hell with both eyes. If that's true concerning our eyeballs, it's definitely true concerning a little device. You don't have to have those. It fits a snare to you. If it's a temptation to you, then throw it into the sea. Break it apart. Get a hammer after it. I'm serious. I'm not saying, well, you're being hyperbolic. I'm being exaggerating. No, I'm not. I'm not. Don't allow yourself to wonder in your thoughts. Bible tells us in Colossians 3, put to death therefore what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passions, evil desires. Those things put to death. Starve it out, single people. Starve it out. Have nothing to do with it. Don't entertain it. Stop it before it takes your mind over. Also, I tell you to have accountability. We need accountability. It's amazing what we do when we know we're being watched. It really is. If you have a video camera watching you, you behave differently. We know God is watching, but sometimes we forget. We need to know that people are watching us. I'll say something that's scary, but it's true. For all of you, I'm going to try to scare you a little bit, young men, but I believe everything you do on your phone, everything you search, everything you look at has a history to it. It's not, you know, you can delete it and you can act like you didn't look at it, but there is a record. There's a timestamp. And it's recoverable by someone who might want to do you damage. Especially seminary students, you don't understand. What you may look at three years ago could come back and get you as a pastor. There's just no room for playing around with such evil, deadly sins that will destroy society. It has to destroy society. It destroys marriages. Cut it out completely. At our seminary, we have a no-tolerance policy. It's important. It's extremely important, men, to fight these things. Hey, I can tell you there's victory. There is victory in Jesus. There is ability to walk cleanly and purely. You can make a covenant with your eyes not to look upon a virgin like Job did. You can be successful in this. This is not a pipe dream. You can walk in purity and holiness and chaste in your thinking and in your life. Again, I said earlier, draw near to the Lord. The best remedy against sin is walking in holiness with God. Don't focus on the, I can't, I can't, can't. Focus on what you can do. I mean, Adam and Eve, they had all these trees to eat from and there was only one that didn't have to eat on. And it's like, don't focus on that one. That's what Satan said, come look at this one. No, don't go where you can't go. Focus on where you can go. And there's such beauties in scriptures to enamor you. There's things that you can focus upon, things that are lovely and good and right. Put your heart upon these things. And if you're single, let me tell you, young men, young women, prepare yourself for marriage. Use this time for advancing your career. Your school, get your school in. Work on whatever you may be doing for the rest of your life. This is the time to focus on that. Put your mind on that stuff if you're single. God will take care of you in due season. That is, trust the Lord and trust his timing. Wait on the Lord when it comes to these things. God knows that it's not good for man to be alone. He knows your needs. He's compassionate towards you. He's sympathetic towards your trials and loneliness and he'll help you. Trust him and you'll be rewarded in due season. Now let me give a word to parents who may have teenagers or who have young single adults. Now I think it is important to get your kids ready for marriage and get them ready for life But the age of marriage is creeping up to 26 to 28 to 30. The marriage is being pushed out and out and out and out throughout society. And I don't think this is a good trend because of the dangers of sexual immorality. This is not the remedy that God has given to humanity. Marriage is good. We should encourage marriage and think of marriage as a proper solution. Now, I know it's not the solution. Christ is. The Holy Spirit is the solution to temptation. But that's not the point here. It's a solution, and it is a helpful one. So, in conclusion, to ask the question that the Corinthians had, because no doubt they're complexed by Paul's previous writings and his preaching, it's like, oh, you're saying that sexual intimacy is bad. Paul says, I'm not saying that. I'm saying it's bad outside of marriage. I'm saying it's a good thing in marriage. In fact, I'm encouraging husbands and wife to be active. love each other, and in such a way, in marriage, but in singleness, it is something to be refrained from. Let's pray. Dear God, we... Your Word is instructive, and it's from heaven. I pray for marriages. I pray your blessing upon the marriages in this church. I pray for the single people. Lord, I pray your... Lord, give us instructions so that we might be holy. If we're married or unmarried, that we might live holy lives before you. This we pray in your son's name. Amen.