All right. Well, let's pray, shall we? And then we'll have a time looking into the Word of God in our counseling class. Our Father, we thank you that we can gather yet again for another session as men of Christ Fellowship Bible Church to learn and be equipped on biblical counseling, which, Lord, really is biblical discipleship, walking with one another with the all-sufficient Word of God in the context of the local church so that we might be pleasing to you, putting off sin and putting on holiness. So help us, O God, to walk in a way that is pleasing to you. In Christ's name, amen. All right, guys. All you married men around the table here, let's talk about singleness, right? No, this is session number nine in our study together, talking about the topic of biblical counseling, using the word of God, the all sufficient word to guide us really, really, as we minister to one another in the context of the local church. I have an unspoken motivation in this class, and it's to raise up a whole church of biblical counselors so that Pastor Jeff is not needed for every thing that comes up. you and I together can do the work of ministry as we walk with each other, bearing the burdens of one another with the Word of God in the context of the local church, by the power of the Holy Spirit, as we walk in holiness and walk in prayer. May the Lord help us to do that. But tonight our topic is singleness. And I, I don't want, you know, somebody to think that I'd be coming down hard on singles. We're going to have plenty of topics on the marriages here coming up right in coming weeks. So we're, we're going to all deal with the word of God in various ways in this final month in our class, as we talk about various counseling issues, singleness. I want to begin with a couple of quotes that you have there on the top of page 73. This is the ongoing packet that we're sort of forming in our notes. Look at the top quote there. The Bible makes it clear that our singleness, even temporary singleness, however old or young someone may be, is a gift from our heavenly father to secure a deep and undivided devotion to him. I love the next quote by John Wesley. What a neat quote. He said, do all the good you can, by all the means that you can, in all the ways that you can, in all the places you can, at all times you can, to all the people that you can, as long as you can. Well, that sums everything up. Look at Paul's words here. One who is unmarried is unconcerned about the things of the Lord. pardon me, he is concerned about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord. And this I say for your own benefit, not to put a restraint upon you, but to promote what is appropriate and to secure undistracted devotion to the Lord. Now, bottom quote there by Carolyn Mahaney, undivided devotion to Christ is by far the best deal of the single season. I want to spend time tonight really focusing on not so much singleness in and of itself, but the identity, how people view themselves in the single realm of life. The second to last quote there on the introductory section, marriage is not the ultimate prize for singles. You know, if a young man says, if I can only get married, then I'll be happy. You know, or maybe an older man or an older woman who says, I just, I, if I can find that special someone, then I will be fulfilled. Well, that's not the ultimate prize for a single person and neither is power or prestige or comfort or money or fill in the blank. But the ultimate prize for singles is the Lord Jesus Christ. Yeah. Is that locked? That'll open both of the doors that they're both locked in there And and the point of that quote is that is that Marriage is not the ultimate goal for a single person Christ is the ultimate goal for a single person for anyone but for our purpose for singles and Now in the introduction here below on the bottom of the page, we can read about various studies that have been done in our day, even Cigna, the insurance company, right? Survey 20,000 people, they find that 50% of those interviewed are always or sometimes feel like nobody really knows them well. We just kind of live in this day where there's this growing and increasing percentage of people that say, I don't have any close friends. I feel more and more lonely. We're busy. Our calendars are full. We've got a lot going on, a lot of to do's. but I don't have a whole lot of close friends. I'm lonely in my heart. And we see that in a lot of people in our day, even the bottom quote there in the second paragraph, the average household is growing smaller and smaller as well. More than 25% of the population here now lives alone. That's one in four people live alone. We are isolating more and more and consequently loneliness is prevalent in our culture. Now, as we think about singles and the stage of life, the season of life that we might call singleness, whether it's a teenager or a 20-something or or somebody who's widowed or divorced, whatever age they may be. That's kind of the focus of our time tonight, looking at the singles. I want to begin by talking about some common struggles that some singles may have. And this is not limited to singles. We're not trying to say this is only them that have these problems. We all can battle these sins as well, these struggles. Number one on page 73, discouragement. Discouragement. No doubt there's a temptation among singles that they can grow discouraged or top of the next page expectations. Singles can really battle with expectations. I really want to get married. I really want a family. Or maybe they don't want a particular thing, or maybe they have a timing. I want this to happen at a particular time or an unmet desire, perhaps. Even good desires. We have expectations that can be a battle for singles. Number three, isolationism. More on this in a little bit, but isolationism can be a difficult struggle for singles. There's no unchecked life like the single life, right? Number four, another battle for singles can be time wasting, even a lack of accountability that could be related to that. Not to say that you and I can't battle with this as well. Number five, idolatry, work schedule themselves, even kind of a workaholic. perspective. Number six, fear. Fear. Our anxiety could tell us and really reveal to God, I'm not happy and I'm not content to have God and his fatherly plan at this moment in my life. And therefore I'm fearful. I'm worried. I'm anxious about something. Or number seven, loneliness. And I just mentioned loneliness, but, but here it is again. Loneliness can be very, very unwanted and very miserable in someone's life. Now, Men, you and I all, if we're honest, could say, well, single or not, I battle with those things, right? And single or not, we all can be susceptible to these particular struggles in life. But as we talk about the season of life and singleness, I want to begin really kind of the content of our study on page 74 by dealing with advantages to singleness. Men, have you ever thought, have you ever considered that for someone who is single, a young man, a teenager, somebody in their 20 something, somebody who's been divorced, even a widow, whatever season of life, if they are a Christian single, this first quote here under the heading, I think is something that we've got to realize. And as a Christian friend, we need to hear this to encourage them. Singleness is a gift. from God. I'm going to flesh out the word gift in a moment. And it is a grace from God. They're not second class people. I've heard it before. Maybe you have as well. Oh, the church doesn't have anything for singles. They don't care about singles. They've got the marriage. They've got all the things for married people. But what about singles kind of get left behind? Well, it shouldn't be that way at all. That shouldn't be the mentality in the local church at all. It is a gift from God and a grace from God. And that's where you and I, as men, married or single, can come alongside of the singles and help reshape a biblical perspective, even in the times of struggle. Now, when we deal with advantages to singleness, I want to take us to three scriptures and kind of dive in sort of exegetically and expositionally to three texts in the Bible. Turn to Matthew chapter 19 to begin. Now you're turning there, Matthew 19, it's toward the end of the life of Christ. He's already been transfigured. He's in the kind of the private training of the 12 before he goes to the cross. And he's in the final journey back to Jerusalem for the final Passover. Okay. And so he's traveling and all the Pharisees are now coming up to Jesus and they, and they're trying to ask him a question. They're trying to trap him. Hey, Jesus, Jesus, can we divorce for any reason at all? It's really a question on divorce. And Jesus is going to deal with that. He's going to talk about the permanence of marriage, right? What God has joined together. Let no man separate, right? Fellas don't even think about divorce, right? For two people walking with God in the, in the covenant of marriage to Christians, divorce is not even a question. Now, then, then, look at verse 10. The disciples, they get it. Verse 10, the disciples said to Jesus, if the relationship of the man and his wife is like this, if it's really for life, if I can't divorce her for any reason at all, then maybe it's better not to marry. Jesus said to them, well, not all men can accept this, but only those to whom it has been given. Notice the passive there from God. God gives this gift to them. Verse 12, for there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother's womb. And there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men. And there are also eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to accept this, let Him accepted. Okay. So Jesus is going to really teach on singleness here in the context of a discussion on marriage and divorce and, and so on. But he's going to talk about three different points that we want to remember here. Number one in verse 12, he says that there are some who are born eunuchs from the mother's womb. They're unable to procreate, maybe an undeveloped sexual capacity in some way. Another way that Jesus talks about it, right here in verse 12, is those who became eunuchs by men. Well, what Jesus is talking about is in the male harem guards of the day, in the ancient world, in those religions at that time, often they would castrate a man as a way of kind of pleasing or serving a god or a deity. Sometimes the parents would even have their children castrated for that particular purpose of pleasing the God. Jesus says, but here's a third reason why some pursue singleness. Number three, there are those who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Now, top of the next page, page 75. This is the person who enjoys singleness because the gift of God has been given to them. This is the person that God places a particular and unique gift that if you're married, he's not giving you this gift. But if you're single, and God gives this gift to some who say, I want to be single to devote myself fully to the work of God and to the ministry of the church. Jesus said, if you can accept it, then let him accept it. Notice the letter C there, the idea of accept. means to completely embrace the idea or principle of being single. This isn't the guy who's like, I just want to get married. I want to get married. I want to get married. I want to get married. This isn't that guy. This is the person who is the opposite of being bitter. He is not angry. He's not resentful. He's very content and very happy. And quite honestly, he wants to be single for the gospel work. That's the idea of this particular person right here. But what that leads us to is the little paragraph after that, that there is a celibate singleness that is a kind of spiritual gift. You ever thought about that? That singleness can be a spiritual gift, and only those to whom it has been given can thrive, survive, find happiness in this life as they're serving Christ with undistracted Now, I want you to turn with me from Matthew to maybe it's kind of a go-to scripture when we're dealing with singles. And men, whether you're married or single, put this in the back of your mind as you're talking with young men, single men. Divorced men, widows, singles. This is a wonderful way, not only to pray for them, but to encourage them, to exhort them, to lovingly plead with them along these lines. Because right here in chapter seven, Paul is going to teach on marriage and that's true, but he's going to give a lot of counsel to the unmarried as well. Now Paul's writing is an unmarried man. Look at verse 7 1st Corinthians 7 verse 7. I wish that all men were even as I myself am what's Paul saying? I wish that everybody was single like I am However, each man has his own gift from God one in this manner and another in that Paul says, I could wish that every person would be single and give themselves fully to God and do this, this full time work for the Lord. That would be, that'd be great. However, each man has his own. Now look carefully at verse seven. Each man has his own gift. Now in your notes, I didn't mean to put the Greek word there, but I left it in there. Sorry. It's the word charisma. Now, don't go on the charismatic, but that's where they get the word from. But the reason I'll bring it out is because it is the Greek word for unmerited, undeserved, a gracious spiritual gift from God. Now, get this. When Paul right here in 1 Corinthians 7 says, you've been given a gift to singleness. It's the same Greek word charisma that Paul uses in Romans 12, dealing with spiritual gifts and in first Corinthians 12, dealing with spiritual gifts and in first Peter chapter four. Now what I think is so, I mean, it just kind of opens up a realm of biblical counseling glory. Look at the next bullet point. This is the only place in the Bible where singleness is called a gift and 1st Corinthians 7, 8 calls it a good gift, which might be surprising to some. Okay. Now guys, we don't want to get off on a long tangent on spiritual gifts, but why does God give spiritual gifts to people for the building up of the Yeah, the body. I mean, nobody has a spiritual gift where they kind of use it by myself and my home, you know, and for my own. That's not a spiritual gift. That might be a talent, a desire, a hobby or whatever, but a spiritual gift in the technical biblical sense is you're using what God has given to you for the benefit of the church, for the building up of the church, for the edifying of the church. That's the word that God uses right here for singles. that it's a particular gift that God has given to them for the building up and for the edifying of the church. Now you and I could just stop right there and end our discussion because right there you could take any single in our local church and we have 17 members that are singles out of the 53. You could take a single and you could say, you know what? Can I encourage you with something? This is a spiritual gift from God that he's given to you for the common good of the church. And then there's all kinds of follow up questions that we could ask and ways that we could encourage them to serve. for the edification of the flock. So the next bullet point indented there, singleness is a gift for the common good of others. It's not to be used for selfishness, but for the edification, for the up building of the local church. Now we've been looking at the beginning of first Corinthians seven, but go toward the end in verse 32, just skip down to verse 32 and let's just kind of continue Paul's discussion with him. I want you to be free from concern. Paul says he's already been talking about married and, and, and reasons for divorce and reasons to stay together. He's, he's dealt with all of that. But 32, I want you to be free from concern. One who is unmarried is concerned about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord. Again, what a great verse. You could put your arm around another single person and say, you know what? What a great verse God has given. really not to me in my particular season of life right now. I'm a married man and many of you are married as well, but look at this right here. You are unmarried and you're concerned fully about the things of the Lord. That is how you can please God. What a profound, what an awesome verse for a single. And verse 33, Paul's going to clarify. Now, one who is married is concerned about the things of the world. He doesn't mean sinful, carnal flesh, but just the things of this age, how he may please his wife and his interests are divided. But the woman who is unmarried and the Virgin is concerned about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy, both in body and spirit. Now, pause right there. The Virgin, the unmarried, wants to be holy. And notice how Paul clarifies it. In number one, body, and number two, spirit. In other words, for a single person, in the context of the church, when you're coming alongside of singles, when you're helping them, when you're encouraging them, when you're praying for them, when you're admonishing them, what a verse. You know, are you pursuing holiness, not only spiritually in your soul, But what about physically in your service? So Paul is gonna talk about a vigilant pursuit of holiness in their spirit, in the soul, and in their body, in their service in the church. Now you know why Paul says, I wish that everybody was like me, unconcerned about the things of the world, but let's all just, we could go be missionaries tomorrow. We're single, we're unconcerned, we could do it. And that's why Paul would say that. He wants them to be free from the things of this world. Now, notice there's an indented paragraph in your notes. And I want to be clear here. Paul is not commanding being single because he recognizes that the single state is a gift, which only God gives. He already talked about that. It's a gift, but he is strongly commending it. You know, it wasn't all that long ago, guys. There was a man who approached me, and he said that he was going to a church, and he just kind of felt like a second-class Christian, because he was an older single. He was an older single. Nobody cares about me. I was kind of on the fringes, and I thought to myself, well, it shouldn't be that way. First of all, there are no second-class Christians, obviously. We know that. but for a single, my goodness, we need you. We can benefit from you. The whole church family could be blessed by your heart and your desire and your service and your diligence to serve God. Paul's not commanding them to be single, but he's commending them. This is a great way to live if God has given you that gift to embrace it and not to shun it. Okay, so look at verse 35 of Corinthians, verse 35. And guys, I've gone here many times with young people and older people to great phrase 35. This I say for your own benefit, not to put a restraint upon you, but to promote what is appropriate and to secure. Here's the phrase on distracted devotion to the Lord. Oh, you want to know how to pray for the 17 singles in our church? Here it is. Undistracted, devoted. We're busy. People have work and they've got things going on and we understand that. Wow. Oh, may the Lord be pleased to raise up and give this mindset in every single and would we pray for and come alongside of and encourage the singles. Undistracted, devotion, not to the world, not to friends, not just to work, not just to moneymaking, not just to building up the body and working out the Lord, the Lord. You see at the bottom of page 75, I just tried to gather some of the ways our English translations render the phrase, the NASB undistracted devotion. And I, the undivided devotion, I like the new living with as few distractions as possible. Another one without any reservation or another one notable and constant service to the Lord. Isn't that great? I like that. Okay. You say, Jeff, I get it. I get that there from, from the scriptures, but now on the next page, turn with me to Luke two. Let's kind of see this with kind of boots on the ground. What does it look like flesh and blood in real life? There's a little, there's a lady. Woman, only three verses in the Bible devoted to her, not much. Luke two, and yet this woman is a hero in the faith. Anna, prophetess, a single woman, totally devoted to God. Now, verse 36, there was a prophetess, her name was Anna, the daughter of Fonuil, of the tribe of Asher. We don't know anything about her, other than that. We know what tribe she's from, and we know that she had a father named Fonuil, that's it. We don't know anything else. But what a legacy of this woman. Look at this. She was married for seven years and then as a widow to the age of 84. Married seven years and then a widow till the age of 84. Okay, what does this woman do? She's single. She's now a widow. How is she gonna live her life? Look at this, verse 37. She never left the temple. That's a very Jewish way of writing, saying she was just constantly worshiping with God's people. It doesn't mean that she never, ever, like one moment, ever left the temple. It just means day and night. Constantly. Every day, she was there worshiping. with God's people. And the text says that she served night and day. And what I find about the word serve in the Greek, it's a word that means to perform a religious work for service the Lord, like a priest. You're offering your body as a living sacrifice. Holy, that's the idea. She was a woman who served God. She devoted her life to serving the Lord in the temple with the context of the people of God. What else does she do? Verse 37, with fastings and prayer. So here's a woman, she's devoted to prayer and she's committed to fasting. She evidently is burdened. She's a burdened woman. She's praying and she'll withhold meals so that she can devote that time to fervent, constant prayer. She's a prayer warrior. Look at verse 38. At that very moment, she came up and began giving thanks to God when Mary and Joseph bring this baby Jesus to the temple. She gives thanks to God. Now I have to pause again. The Greek word for give thanks is a very rare word. It's an emphatic word. It doesn't mean just to give thanks. It means to openly give thanks. Here's a woman who is unashamed. She is unashamed to praise God. She's like, let me just tell you what God has done. Let me give thanks to God in public. She's praying at the prayer meeting. She's given her testimony anywhere. She can't wait to tell you what God has done for her soul, openly, publicly, loudly thanking God. And, 38, she continued to speak of Him, that is, of God, to all those who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem. She couldn't talk enough about this great Messiah, of this great God, of the great deliverance that God was giving. Here's an example of a woman with undistracted devotion to the Lord. Now, I get it, different culture. She was a widow, maybe a different season of life than some singles here. I understand. Not everybody is in the temple every day. We get it. But here's a woman who said, you know what, with all the other duties of life, and they're there, there's real, there's family responsibilities and work and so on. undistracted devotion to God, praying, fasting, thanking God, talking of God, giving testimony to who God is and what God has done. And really kind of some of that is summed up here in your outline in the middle of the page. There are some very practical advantages to being single. Much of my seminary work, I was a single man. I'm kind of thankful that I was a single man. I got a lot of studying done. And I'm grateful that God in his kind of providence had me in that season of life. If I had to do seminary now, I don't know how I'd do it. Men do it, but I don't know how. But look at what MacArthur says. Singleness has fewer hindrances and more advantages to serving the Lord. It is easier for a single person to be single-minded in the things of the Lord. The married Christian has no choice. His interests must be divided. He cannot be faithful to the Lord if he is unfaithful to his family, right? We get that our first ministry is our wife always and then our children always and or grandchildren, right? But but here the single person has the undivided attention on Christ. I like what Piper says. Singleness is not a calling to extend irresponsible adolescents into your thirties or forties or whatever. It is a calling to do what only single men and Christian in Christ can do in this world, namely to display by Christ's exalting devotion of your singleness, the truths about Christ and his kingdom that shine more clearly through singleness. than through your marriage. How can I display Christ? How can I serve the body of Christ? What can I do? You know, a couple of questions here. I want to just mention them, because as men, whether you're married or whether you're single, the bottom of page 76, I think, are great questions just to kind of read and store in your discipleship tool belt. When you're talking to a single, and you're having them over for a meal, or you're walking through the hallway here of the church, or you're having a phone call with them, what do I say to a single? How do I encourage them? Number one, how can I devote my time to serve the church? Number two, how can I grow an undistracted devotion to the Lord? Number three, how can I utilize my time for Christ and for His glory? Number four, how can I minister in ways that maybe other folks can't do? Is there something, a need that suddenly comes up that maybe a married person or somebody with children or grandchildren just can't kind of get up and do right away? But maybe there's a need that a single person, by the grace of God, could meet that need at a particular time. Number five, how can I disciple spiritual children? You know, somebody may say, I really have a desire to get married. I have a desire to have children. If you're single, you can have children, spiritual children. And that's the beauty of discipleship in the local church. That's the beauty of taking another believer and walking with them in Christ. Like Paul, he had a lot of children till he called Timothy, my son. Paul a single man having children, he's discipling Timothy. Number six, how can I intercede for others prayerfully and thoughtfully? So I suppose if I were to sum up everything from Matthew 19 and 1st Corinthians 7 illustrated in Luke 2, the bottom line of page 76, the single person really could be, doesn't mean has to be, but really could be one of the most devoted people in the church. Now, some biblical counsel to singles. We've looked into the word and we've gleaned kind of these three scriptures, Matthew and Corinthians and Luke, that kind of show us the reality of singleness and how they should live and illustrated in Anna. But in the realm of counseling, here's what I want you to get. Nobody, whether they're single or married, should ever find their identity in your married status or in your financial comfort and stability. or in your social relationships, or in your vocational duties. That doesn't define who you really are. Because your identity, really, biblically, is what you are that cannot change. And if you're a Christian, your identity is that you're in Christ. You're a believer, you're a child of God. That can't change. Your job, your wealth, your position and power and prominence in the workplace, that could fluctuate, that could shift, that could change, but your identity in Christ will never change. So, one of the things that we want to remember as we're encouraging or maybe talking to singles that are just kind of battling with their single state in life, your identity is not that you're single. your identity, first of all, is that you're a child of God. You're in Christ. So, a couple of ways that we could counsel singles. Number one, to trust the providence of God fully. Trust God's providence fully. In other words, that first bullet point is kind of the key to rest. Don't be anxious. Don't be worried. Don't say, I just, I can't really do much until I'm married. Well, that's not the right perspective to have. Well, I'm just a single teenager. I'm just a, you know, a millennial in my twenties and I'm single. I'm not yet married. I guess I can't really do much in the church. That's the wrong perspective to have. Rest in the Lord's kind power and in his goodness and his timing, his timing. God has the ability and he's good and he's never late in bringing things and even sometimes withholding things from us. That bottom quote there, by Steve DeWitt, he has a good quote, I may not have a wife, but I do have Christ. You may not have a husband, but you have Christ. You may be separated from your family, but you have Christ. You may be a widow, but you have Christ. You may be rejected by a spouse, but you have Christ. And since you and I are made for him, to have him is to have the spirit as a guarantee that someday in glory we will be perfected and we will never, ever be lonely again or battle the sin, sinful flesh ever again. trust God. I think another counsel for singles, number two, would be to ingest God's word relentlessly. Take it, swallow it, devour it, crave it, consume it, do the word. I think of how David wrote in Psalm 119, where he would say this, how blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord. How blessed are those who observe his testimonies, who seek him with all their hearts. That's what I want. I want to seek God. I want to seek his word with all of my heart. It's true for all of us, married or single, but certainly for singles as well. Let's keep going here. Number three on the next page. Not just trust God's providence. Number two, ingest God's word. Number three, storm God's throne. You know, I love being married and I love having five children. Yesterday, my son came to me and he and I were having a conversation about our morning routine. And I have to keep getting up earlier and earlier to beat my children because they get up earlier and they come downstairs. And when they come down, it's like prayer time and Bible time gets interrupted. So my son said, well, just tell the girls to not come down earlier. Well, try, but they'll come down. He said, well, maybe I'll come down earlier. I said, no, you come down at this time, you know, and that'll protect my time in the morning. And I need to pray and I love praying and I will pray, but that's kind of a unique season of life that I'm in, in my age, in my season with the children that the ages they are. but a single person doesn't have that particular distraction. And I think there's a way in which we can encourage them, you can storm the throne of God tirelessly. The time in the morning, the time at night, the time on the weekends, individually, corporately, at the prayer meeting, with other people, you can serve families in creative and thoughtful ways. Consider Robert Murray McShane. I gotta read this quote, it's so good. He died when he was 29 years old, the Scotsman, never married. He said, I ought to pray before seeing anyone. Often when I sleep long or meet with others early, it's 11 or 12 o'clock before I even start praying. Maybe you can relate. I can. This is a wretched system. It's unscriptural. Christ arose before day, and he went into a solitary place. David says, early will I seek thee. Thou shalt early hear my voice. Family prayer loses much of its power and sweetness, and I can do no good to those who come to seek from me. The conscience feels guilty, the soul unfed, the lamp not trimmed, and then when in secret prayer, the soul is often out of tune. I feel that it is far better to begin with God, to seek his face first, to get my soul near to him before it is near to another." That's counsel from an older brother in the faith. And I think maybe, guys, you can relate. If we don't have a quiet time in our prayer time with the Lord, it's like, my morning is just kind of not right. Just my heart, my way of thinking isn't right. But if I can begin with prayer and begin with seeking God, and here's a single man who modeled that. And then number four here at the bottom, live God's glory undistractedly, like Anna, just without distraction, without distraction. So, what do you say to singles? Well, trust God's providence, ingest God's word, storm the throne of God in prayer, and then live God's glory. Now, let's kind of draw this to a close. Page 79, I tried to kind of be creative in a pithy little way to remember it. Middle of the page, look up to God in prayer. Take in the scripture, go out to serve others, bow down in prayer and press forward for God's glory. You and I can benefit from that, single or married, but for singles as well. Next page, page 80. I want to mention it. You can read it here in your notes. We will deal with it as we talk to the married men here in coming weeks, but it needs to be said, even to the singles, all men must pursue sexual purity. Maybe the single men have perhaps desires and cravings and longings that have never been met. I understand that. I certainly do. But we have to fight vigilantly men for sexual purity Here are five warnings and then five action steps And it's nothing new you get it. We've we've heard this before we've talked about sexual purity before But it needs to be said to single men fight for sexual purity fight for it I And then, you know, really to kind of draw this to a close, I want to leave us with some words from Spurgeon. So how do you counsel singles? Maybe there's a unique thing in their life, a season of their life that maybe if you're married, say, I just can't relate to that right now. You don't need to. We have the word of God. We've got the truth of the sufficient word that we can encourage and come alongside of the singles. Really, here's the boil down summary of the day. We want to encourage and pray for every single Christian to give themselves to Christ and his church in undivided devotion. That's really the goal. And guys, could you imagine, I mean, could you imagine if God were to raise up two, three, five, 10 single people that say, you know what? Send me, send me to the mission field. I'm single. Sure. I want to get married, but right now I'm right now I'm single. I've got the time. I've got the availability. I got the, I have the desire. God used me. Here's a need. Here's some missionaries. Send me local church. Let me, let me serve. Let me pour in. You watch me. You examine my life. You see if I'm qualified and then you send me, could you imagine? right? These singles that are, that are meeting for prayer meetings and they're fasting and they're studying the word, maybe something that, that marrieds with families just we can't do. But, but imagine, you know, the, the, the beauty and the edification that that could bring to a local church. Spurgeon builds on it here on page 80 and we could just close with this. Spurgeon said, give yourself to the church. Oh, your members of the church have not found it perfect, and I hope that you feel almost glad that you have not found it perfect. If I had never joined a church till I had found one that was perfect, I would have never joined one at all, because the moment that I did join it, if I found one, I should have spoiled it, for it would not have been a perfect church after I became a member of it. Don't look for the perfect church. Still, imperfect as it is, I love this. It is the dearest place on earth. Could you imagine every Christian saying this is the dearest place on earth? Look at the very bottom paragraph of page 80 there. The church is the nursery for God's weak children, where they are nourished and grow strong. It's not a place for perfect people. You don't have to have it all together to come here. It's the fold of Christ's sheep. It's the home. for God's family. So, we want to be churchmen. We want to be men who love the church. So, what do you glean from our time today? What do you gather from our time today? Here it is. We want to pray for and encourage and exhort the singles among us. Undistracted devotion to the Lord. How are you serving the Lord? How's your prayer life? What about the prayer meeting on Wednesday? What about Friday mornings? Are you meeting with anybody else for discipleship? What about another evening that maybe you're not working and maybe you're free? Are you meeting with others? Are you discipling others? Do you have spiritual children? Tell me about it. Those are the kinds of conversations that would be great to come alongside of one another in the local church and help them, disciple them, encourage them, as they, as single men and single women, live for Christ and for the church. And then next week, we'll kind of shift gears a little bit, leave the singleness, and we'll talk about context of the home with a family. Okay, guys, before we draw to a close, any questions on this? I know many of the guys in here are married, I understand that, but any questions? Is that helpful to kind of go through some of that and gather some of those scriptures? Well, if nothing else, men, we were equipped on how to pray specifically for singles, younger ones, teenage ones, and older ones. May God help us in that. Okay. All right. Well, let's pray. And then, and then we'll be, we'll be done. Our father, thank you for these men. Thank you. Oh God, that we can Even Lord just kind of scratched the surface of the season of life of singleness. Lord, we praise you for the 17 singles that you have brought to Christ Fellowship to serve as members. Lord, we pray that God, you would encourage them. God, that they would give themselves and embrace their identity of being in Christ and that they would embrace the gift, and the grace of singleness. that they would give themselves to undivided devotion, undistracted devotion to the Lord in the context of the church. God, would you raise up more? God, would you save our young ones? God, would you do this work? The young singles, the older singles, and everyone in the middle. Lord God, for your glory and for the growth and maturity and strengthening of your church, we pray these things. Amen.