Well, good morning. No, I did it again. Good evening. Good afternoon. Good evening. Early evening.

It’s good to be here with you.

Thank you to Chase. You know, Chase does a lot for us, so thank you to Chase for pouring this all out for us. And what a powerful testimony of what God has done and what God is still doing and what we desire to see Him do more and more through our witness at Providence. So, just good to see your face and good to be with you. Now, again, I do hope we cherish what it means to be together as a church. We’re going to be in 1 Corinthians again. 1 Corinthians chapter 7. 25. 25 to 40.

1 Corinthians chapter 7, verse 25 to 40. And it’s kind of funny that that’s a huge swath of verses, 25 all the way to 40. Okay? All for Paul to just say this. Alright? Here’s the whole thing. If you’re married, you don’t have as much time to devote to the Lord. If you’re not married, you’ve got a bunch more time to devote to the Lord. So that’s the sermon. That’s the whole thing. But obviously, Paul uses a lot of words, and that’s good because it’s more nuanced than that. That’s just the plainness of it. But it’s worth thinking about whether we’re single or married, what it looks like for us to be devoted to the Lord. So, last week, remember, Paul said, you know, whatever station in life you have, that’s your station, that’s good, flourish where you’re planted. It’s like Paul is talking now about what’s it like to flourish well. Right? So there’s flourishing, and there’s flourishing well.

I told you last week about, you know, the fish tank and the vines and the thriving. And so, for Dawson’s birthday, we got him a fish tank. He wanted to have a fish tank, just like Chase. And so, we went and we filled this thing up, and we got all the live plants we’re putting in there. And it’s not just that, because you have to get into, like, chemicals and the right nutrients and all this stuff. That, like, oh, I didn’t know I was going to have to learn this. I didn’t want to know about something that maybe seems boring or it sounds uninteresting. But if you don’t take care about just the right environment and atmosphere, you may have a plant in a fish tank or a fish in a fish tank that’s somewhat alive. So, God doesn’t want us just to say, oh, look, in this big, huge oak tree of the Christian life, I’ve got five leaves that are green and the rest are brown. That’s not what He wants. He wants us to flourish really well where we’re planted. And so, Paul’s getting… Looking at that, don’t just be a Christian. Deeply desire to flourish as a Christian. Deeply desire to know what that looks like. And so, the context he’s talking about is that of marriage or the man-woman relationship. That’s where he wants us to be really sharp and keen in our lives. So, Paul says in 25, starting there, he says, Now, concerning the betrothed… Or virgins. People who haven’t been married. I have no command from the Lord, but I give my judgment as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy.

Okay? So, you’re going to have to imagine Paul saying, hey, look, this isn’t like a command. This isn’t like dead right or dead wrong. Take me to be somebody who by God’s grace, much like Chase gave in his testimony, by God’s grace, I am what I am. I’ve been in the faith for a while. I have a lot of good spiritual wisdom and understanding that I would like to share with you that if you were to, you know, all this stuff that maybe you weren’t thinking about, things that maybe at first seem like they’re uninteresting, if you thought about it, it would be to your benefit as a follower of Jesus. So, Paul’s saying, go to Christian maturity. Don’t stay generalistic in just the basics of what you know. Think deeply about everything. In particular, he’s saying, think deeply about the husband-wife relationship. If you are in one, if you’re not in one, if you plan on being in one, and that does matter.

The romanticism that is possible between man and woman, that highly fills and colors a lot of life. You know, when you’re a little boy, it’s like, oh, girls, and girls, oh, boys, but you get older, like, you just become interested in girls, you know, girls become interested in boys, and boys become interested in girls, and that’s natural. And God designed it that way to be a huge portion of your life. How many bajillion, you know, love stories are there in centuries past? How many horribly tacky, you know, romantic comedies have been put out, right? So, it’s a huge portion of life, whether you do or don’t, you know, spend your life with the opposite sex in the marriage context. So, it’s hugely important you’re thinking about it as a Christian. So, if we’re going to flourish, well, here’s the principle that I want you to grab, okay? The principle is Paul saying, remain free from unnecessary burdens, all right? Particularly, we’re talking about marriage. That’s the context. That’s what we’re talking about. But the principle still to grab here is Paul saying, you need to be careful to remain free from unnecessary burdens. Verse 26. He says, I think that in view of the present distress, it’s good for a person to remain as he is. Are you bound to a wife? Don’t seek to be free. Are you free from a wife? Do not seek a wife. If you do marry, you have not sinned. But if a betrothed man marries, a woman marries, she’s not sinned. Yet those who marry will have worldly troubles. And I would spare you that. This is what I mean, brothers. The appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none. And those who have wives, live as though they had none. And those who mourn, as though they were not mourning. And those who rejoice, as though they were not rejoicing. And those who buy, as though they had no goods. And those who deal with the world, as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.

So Paul says, I want you to think about that hugely encapsulating part of human existence, which is growing up and getting married and starting a family. Okay, Paul says, that’s that. But given the present distress, I think it’s good if you can bear to hear it, don’t get married. Now, what does Paul mean by that? Well, Paul means this. Life for the Christian is necessarily distressing. In fact, the Greek word is not distressed. It’s kind of supplied. The word is necessity. Paul is saying, given the necessity of distress. In other words, there’s no way for you or I to think up what it means to be a follower of Jesus in this life and it not be distressing or full of pressure.

Think about Jesus Christ Himself. Would you call Jesus’ life distressing? I think so. He had enemies on every side. He ended up being crucified.

Right? And in the same way, Jesus says, if you follow Me, this is what it looks like. Taking up that same instrument of death and following Me. So we cannot say, oh, I’m one of those Christians that got out of any kind of distress. No, it is distressing. Paul certainly has in mind for him as being at the founding of the church. Read through the book of Acts if you never have. And you’ll see distresses. You’ll see all kinds of Gentile and Jewish enemies. You’ll see the Roman government. Obviously, if you look historically, all that Roman emperors, certainly Nero, did to persecute brutally. Just inhumane treatments. Of Christians all throughout, you know, the book of Acts, all throughout human history and all the way up to the present day. We read of great distress for the church. It’s distressing to be a Christian in Nigeria, in India, China, those places we pray for. It’s physically distressing. There’s great pressure to do it. It’s increasingly distressing to be a Christian in the West because there is such a great, you know, social marginalization. Of Christian ethics, of Christian morals and values. It is distressing. So if someone conceives of the Christian life as this cushy, rosy thing, I don’t think they have a good idea of biblical Christianity.

Job says in Job 14.1, life, and he’s not even talking about, you know, anything to do with God. He’s just saying life is full of troubles. So if life is just full of troubles and you know that it is, everyone knows it is. Just stack on top of it all the distresses of being faithful to Christ in a place that’s doing all that it can do to pull you away from faithfulness.

Paul’s saying, given that that’s the case, it would be better if you could to remain unmarried. Now, let’s hold on though, because let’s go back to what Paul said last week. He said, if you happen to find yourself as a married person, when you came to faith, don’t undo that. Okay, that’s a good thing. So don’t say, oh, well, I’m married. And I want to get out of this now. I want to go do something different. Like, no, God had you there for a reason. God, God believes in marriage. We’ll talk about it in a second. So never undo your marriage. Okay. But at the same time, Paul’s saying, if you can bear it, if you can hear it, don’t get married because it’s a stressing thing to be a Christian. And how much more is that true for us in the year 2022?

Paul says, what I mean, brothers, is the time is short.

Paul was writing this 2,000 years ago, and Paul felt like time was short. He says, the appointed time is growing closer. Jesus is coming back soon. Not only is Jesus always coming back soon, right? Because time, 1,000 years is a day, and a day is 1,000 years. Time is just a fleeting thing. You know, you wake up, you’re in elementary school, and the next thing you know, you’re married. The next thing you know, you know, you’re just old, right? I mean, just life goes by fast. It happens. It totally happens. You just get old. And you go, where did the time go? Paul’s saying, you’re making a mistake if you think your life can go on forever. And if you’re living your life like you’ve got millennia and millennia, you just don’t. You just don’t. So Paul’s saying, if you can bear it, hear this. Devote your life to the cause of Christ alone. It’s not wrong if you choose to get married. Just recognize you’re stacking worldly troubles on top of that. Now, what are worldly troubles? That’s what Paul’s talking about here.

Well, it’s 2 o’clock in the morning, and the heater went out in the house, and it’s negative 20 degrees outside. And it’s not just me I’ve got to worry about. My wife and three kids, they don’t want to sleep in a sleeping bag and see their breath when they breathe.

Oh, you know what? I’m not the only mouth to feed. I’ve got her mouth to feed, and I’ve got their mouths to feed. Oh, guess what? I’m not the only person that wears clothes. We have to buy clothes for all of us. Oh, I’ve got a meeting to be at. My kids are going to be there. My kid’s sick, and he’s got to be at the doctor’s at, you know, 11 o’clock. And I’ve got the meeting, and she can’t make it. And I’m going to have to call my boss. I don’t want to have to do this.

Worldly troubles abound. There’s all kinds of just frustrations that happen. And when you add more people in life, being a family, they just compound.

And if it’s like Paul, I think it sounds like Paul’s knocking on marriage. He’s not knocking on marriage. What this is to us in this text, it’s just practical advice. It’s just a matter. As a matter of fact, every human being has so much bandwidth.

Everybody has the same 24 hours. And it doesn’t mean you love God less. It’s just the facts of the matter. When you take on more burdens, what happens? You’ve got less time to spend on other things. That’s all it means. And so again, Paul’s not saying, you know, you better not get married. He’s just saying, if you get married and you’re called to that, great. It’s not a sin. And recognize, on top of the distress of following Christ, on top of life just being hard because we live in a sinful world, you’re going to have that many more troubles. That’s Paul’s point. And he ends that thought with what seems to be something of a cryptic kind of weird riddle thing. He says, after saying, you know, it’s not wrong to have a wife. He says, if you have a wife, live like you don’t have one. And if you mourn, live like you’re not mourning. And if you’re rejoicing. Live like you’re not rejoicing. And if you’re buying goods, like you’re not buying goods. And if you deal in the world like you’re not dealing in the world. For the present form of the world is passing away. Now, what is that supposed to mean?

It’s Paul saying this.

Wherever you are in life, whatever burdens you have, whether they’re good burdens or not. Okay, again, marriage is not a bad burden, but it’s a burden. Here’s what you can’t do. You can’t take both eyes off of eternity. In other words… If you’re married, great. Be married. Honor God in that. But don’t be so consumed with that that you don’t have an eye on eternity. He’s saying, hold everything in life loosely. Do you rejoice in life? Are there things worth rejoicing over? Absolutely.

Namely, I don’t know, upside down pineapple cake is fine. I like that.

Changing of seasons. When it goes from winter to spring and you walk outside, it’s like that brisk spring air. Welcoming like a child into the world. Maybe your boss gave you a pat on the back and you got a raise. Or you were able to go on your dream vacation. There’s a great number of things in life in which you can rejoice. But Paul says, okay, but don’t get so lost in whatever that good thing is that you’ve lost your eye for eternity. That you’re forgetting this is a world that’s passing away. Are you sad? There’s a lot of things to be sad about. Okay, don’t be so sad that you forget you’re sad. This is going to go away. Are you buying things? You have possessions. You’re doing things. You’re caught up in business. That’s fine. That’s great. Don’t let it become your world and consume you where it burdens you down. You’re no longer faithful to the Lord at all. You see Paul’s point here.

And it’s interesting he ends that thought when he says the present form of the world is passing away. Now what Paul’s doing, he’s borrowing language that had to do with the theater. Okay, the scene’s changing. You ever go to like, a big, like, off-Broadway production and it’s like this beautiful, elaborate, like, you know, props and there’s all these, like, beautiful, elaborate, like, characters in their dress and, like, maybe, like, magnificent singers and you’re just drawn in and you’re captivated and you could sit there all night. But what happens at the end of it? They pull the curtain. And it goes to another scene or it plays over with. Or update it to our 21st century model. Like, you’re sitting in front of your television at home and, like, you’re watching the best movie ever. And you love it. Guess what? The movie turns off. The scene changes. It’s over. So you see what Paul’s saying? Don’t live for that scenery as beautiful and as good as you think it is that you’re not living for that scene that you can and should and will be part of when Christ comes and he brings in a new world and that world lasts forever. Because as good as you think your marriage is and you should love it, as good as you think whatever hobby or interest or desire or pursuit you have in life, however good it is, it’s not as good as the world to come. And that’s the challenge for us, I think, in such a big way in the 21st century, right? Because we’re instant people. We’re immediate people. We want gratification. We want to run our own lives. But Paul’s saying, too, is wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, make sure nothing is burdening you to the point that you’re not thriving well for Christ and for the world to come. That’s the question to ask yourself.

Maybe you’re like me when you get groceries. Oh, I refuse to go back for the second time. I’m not doing it. I don’t care how many bags. I will line them up my arm and my arms will turn. I saw this in a meme once. You know, I will not go back again. Like your arms are purple and you’ve got 20 bags on both arms and you’re like waddling up to your house. Right. Because you’re just not going to go back. You know, you’re determined not to do it. Now, imagine as you’re like going up, someone’s like, hey, you want to play Frisbee?

I can’t. I can’t do it because I’m too burdened down. I can’t do anything. And that’s Paul’s point. Be careful that certainly not bad burdens, but even the good burdens of life own you to a point. You’re not flourishing well for Christ where you’re planted. So what do I do? Well, you take inventory. That’s what you do. That’s how you make sure you’re not wasting. That’s what a budget is. Precious, right? And I remember, you know, Jessica and I were young and married. It’s like whatever money you spend it, you maybe have some, maybe you don’t like, you know, you’re not thinking, you know, we got married early. I was barely 20. And then you learn about this thing called a budget and what a budget to do that. They help you see where your money’s going and where it shouldn’t be going and where it should be going in front of the very same way you have. We all have precious lives and precious opportunities, precious gifts. That we need to be allotting to make sure we’re doing what we should be doing. So that’s nothing I can do for you. It’s only something you can do for yourself and for the cause of the Lord to maybe sit down with, you know, your family. If that’s the place you’re in in life and say, OK, we have the same 24 hours every day, every week. Here’s where our time’s going. Here’s the things that our money’s going to. Here are the activities that we’re doing. Are there things here that don’t need to be here? You know, like your kid doesn’t need to play 19 sports. And that’s great. You know, like like if something’s like owning so much of you that you find your time with the Lord is shallow or incomplete. You find your service to the local church is is marginalized, like something’s like really wrong. Something’s really wrong. So so be in the habit of seasonally sitting down and saying, OK, what does life look like? What’s valuable to me? And again, if you budget it, you will find out. You will find out what your time and your energy and your money and your heart. Is going everybody’s heart’s going somewhere. OK, are they two things that are helping or hurting your flourishing in the Lord?

Flourishing well requires that we’re careful to remain devoted.

OK, now Paul’s going to get down more into the nuts and bolts of what he’s talking about in terms of marriage. OK, so verse 32.

He says, I want you to be. Free from anxieties.

The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord. But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife and his interests are divided. That’s a supplied word. Interest is actually just divided. He’s divided. And the unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy and body and spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things. How to please her husband. I say this for your own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord. So so Paul said, hey, if you’re going to be married, whether you are or you’re not here, I said there’s such a thing as troubles. We all got troubles, troubles, troubles, troubles plague me all day. There’s songs that talk about troubles. But he said, hey, secondly, I want you to think about this. I want you to as you pursue. Christ, I want you to be free from anxieties. I want you to be free from anxieties. Now, anxieties isn’t always a bad word. You know, we think about anxiety, just, you know, someone’s wrestling with chemical imbalances and they’re worried about things too much. Like not that kind of anxieties. Paul uses anxieties elsewhere to say, I have my anxieties daily for the churches. In other words, it’s my utmost concern and motivation for the things I love.

So what’s motivating life? Are my interests divided? Paul says. The man, the woman who’s not married. And again, common sense. What can they do? Well, they can be thinking about more wholly and fully how to know God. How to grow in the word. How to spend time in prayer. They can be thinking more fully about what service to the Lord looks like inside the walls of the church. What service to the Lord looks like out in the world, in the community, around the world. Why?

Because they’re unmarried and there’s less ties on them to things that they have to take care of. Imagine being a missionary and it’s just you and you’re going to the other side of the world. Imagine being a missionary and it’s you and a wife and three, four kids. It just looks a lot different, doesn’t it? And when you’re going to go, how you’re going to go, probably the situations you would and wouldn’t let yourself be put in. OK, so again, I want to I want to pad all this with saying Paul’s not saying. He’s not saying right and wrong. He’s what he’s having like a cup of coffee with us. Hey, let me give you some wisdom as you’re thinking about what it looks like to follow the Lord.

So I’ll say this, then marriage is a very good thing. It’s a very good thing.

When we go back to to the beginning of, you know, just the inception, the creation of the world. What is one of the first things that happens before sin enters the world? Well, we see marriage come on, you know. Display, what does God do? Essentially, he marries Adam and Eve, and it’s a good thing for them to live life together. They’re two sinless people, and he’s able to do what God calls him to do. And what’s the Bible say? She’s she’s she’s created for what? She gets the privilege of being a helper to Adam and they get to together what they get to have dominion and they get to know God. And it’s just it’s just wonderful, beautiful thing. And as we as we kind of, you know, redemptive history unfolds. What does that husband wife relationship ultimately point to? What points to the greatest thing of all? It points to Jesus coming and bleeding and dying for his bride, the church. And in her submission to a good leader, a good, you know, shepherd over her. She is she is saved and she she knows him. And and in the gospel is is is really preached through a good marriage. The New Testament, as much as Paul saying we saying is here. Here, Paul and Peter and so many others, Jesus promote healthy marriages. They promote explicitly. If you’re a married man, you’re a married woman. You had better be doing that right. You had better be loving. Well, you had better be submitting. Well, you need to have a healthy family. So the Bible, second to nothing, is promoting marriages. What does society really need in the 21st century? Healthy marriages, healthy families. Why is society falling apart? And I see this in so many. So many conversations I have with different people throughout the week is because the family is broken.

The family is broken. Dad’s not being dad. Mom’s not being mom. The very concept of marriage is like 10 million miles away from most people. And it creates a broken, God dishonoring society.

So so Paul Paul is saying all he said, if if you get married.

Guess what you have now? You have more anxieties.

Are the bad anxieties? No. If I’m a good husband, I should deeply care about my wife. I should care that tomorrow’s Valentine’s and I should be buying her some flowers. I should be caring when she’s having a bad day. I should be trying to lead her spiritually. I should be trying to love my children well and raise them up in the Lord. I should be trying to create a home in an atmosphere where Christ is present. I should be going to basketball games and I should be doing these things to love my wife and invest in my children. It’s a good thing and honors God. It glorifies him. But guess what? It takes up more time. It takes up more time. And here’s the added problem. I’m not a perfect human being and my wife isn’t either. I have no problem saying I’m a burden to my wife because I’m a sinner. And all the good that I offer my wife, part of the burden of being married on this side of, you know, the garden. Is I’m not a perfect husband and I let her down and I hurt her. And now she’s out there with Josie. Sometimes she can let me down and hurt me. We all have the capacity and we’ll be less than stellar spouses.

So you see what Paul’s doing. He’s not trying to throw shade on marriage. He’s just saying, recognize it’s so important. And if you do it, you had better take it serious. So nothing in this passage would commend any of us from saying, you know, I’m really holy these days and I’ve grown up in my faith. And I really, I no longer need to be a family man. God’s called me to a special ministry. And so I’m parting with wife and children. Paul says, wrong.

If you did it, you did it. And your marriage is part of God’s plan. And he’s going to use it to to honor him through, you know, preaching the gospel through a good marriage, through raising children, being faithful and raising your family. And guess what? You’re going to give account. To God someday on how good of a husband, wife, mother, father you were, you weren’t. So there’s no license to be less devoted because because Paul says it’s going to take up more of your time. It’s good time. It’s just time. And on the flip side, here’s the reality. Just because you’re single does not mean you’re all of a sudden devoted to the Lord. I’m not I’m not married. So that means I can binge watch television at three o’clock in the morning and get away with it. No. Just because you don’t have a family to take care of doesn’t mean you have a license to be, you know, reckless with your time and just focus on you. It means, OK, if that’s the life that God’s called you to, guess what? You better be able to fill your budget in for me and show me how you’re using that really well for the Lord, because that’s what God wants for you. That’s a good thing. That’s a good thing. So we can’t say in either situation, oh, you know, I’m stepping out of this to serve the Lord or anything other than, it’s the context in which God’s called me. How am I going to be faithful either as a married couple or if I’m single? How am I going to use that well? It’s practical advice that’s really helpful when we think through it. Paul wants us to spend our lives doing the best we can for the Lord, whatever that looks like. And now here’s the thing. And again, it’s so ironic and unfortunate that Paul literally says in this verse, I’m not putting a restraint on you. He says it. Multiple times. You’re not sinning if you do it. You’re not sinning if you do it. You’re not sinning if you do it. I’m not putting a restraint on you if you don’t get married. What is the Catholic Church done when you think about nuns, priests, and even monks? Oh, if you want to really be devoted to the Lord, you cannot get married.

Paul said, I put no restraint on you. So it’s crazy if we take the Word of God as it is. Paul’s saying, hey, that’s probably not a gift most people have. Right? And that’s okay. It’s not. So we need to take Paul for what he is saying and what he isn’t saying on that. Singleness is a gift. It’s a gift. If you’re single, praise God for that. I think if there’s ever like a church and the culture is you better get married, you better get married. And someone’s going, you know what? I just don’t sense I need to get married. I can live single. There are certain desires I don’t have. I’m just happy. I’m happy on my own. And I can live for the Lord like that. Praise God for that. Praise God for that. We should be glad for people that can do that. And we should, you know, make sure we’re allowing them to thrive as best that they can. It’s a gift. So use it well. I think in terms of singleness as well, you have to think about down the line. You know, like, you know, you may have, you know, three and a half kids and you’re in your 30s now. There comes a day when you’re an empty nester. And guess what?

You kind of move, not completely, but you get a lot of your time back. And so guess what you should be doing with a lot of your time you have back? Oh, we get to go play golf more. I don’t think so. I think Paul’s principle here is you get to be even more devoted to the Lord.

I’m grateful for certain men that come to the pregnancy center because they’re at that retired age. And I have these conversations. I’m so grateful. They’re like, I’m retired. I don’t want to waste that. I’m retired. I don’t want to just go play golf. I’m retired. Like, yes, thank you. You want to come here, talk people out of abortions, preach the gospel. That’s the stuff that Paul’s talking about here. So whatever season of life you’re in, young, old, use it well. Use it well. And here’s the thing. Here’s the thing.

Singleness may not be the right thing for you.

I think most people probably need to read Paul here and go, OK, thank you, Paul. I see what you’re saying. I’m taking the advice. I need to get married. And in fact, it would be sin for me to not get married because God has not wired me. To stay single. God has wired me to get married. And for holiness sake, I need to get married. I need to get married. Verse 36. If anyone thinks that he is not behaving properly toward his betrothed. OK, so I’m not able to, you know, you know, keep things where we’re just talking and we’re friends. Platonic here. If you’re not, you have passions. They’re strong. And Paul says it has to be. Here he goes again. Let him do as he wishes. Get married. It’s not it’s not a sin. It’s not a sin. Whoever is firmly established in his heart being under no necessity, but having his desire under control and has determined this in his heart to keep her as his betrothed. He will do well. So then he who marries his betrothed does well. He who refrains from marriage will do even better. And now, again, how do we know that if Paul’s writing that? Why is it true that it’s not? You’re not a superior Christian if you stay single. OK, it’s true, because if you have passion, we’ll just say romantic passion, you should get married, period. There we’re done. We don’t talk about it like if that’s something you’re struggling with and you’re inviting lust and you’re inviting all forms of temptation into your life. That’s something that like it’s present in you. You don’t need to go on a prayer retreat to discover, Lord, would you have me get married? Yeah, God wants you to get married. He’s kind of wired that into yourself. And that’s OK. Hebrews 13, 4 says,

So the Lord has absolutely no tolerance for sexual immorality. That’s the proof that being single or married is not superior and inferior. It’s just what God’s called you to in life. You had better be holy for the Lord is holy. The scriptures are clear that sexually immoral will not inherit the kingdom of God. OK, so let me let me put a. Footnote here as well.

God, Jesus, Paul, all the Bible has one solution for someone that desires romanticism. One conduit for sexual passion. It’s the man woman marriage. That’s it. All right. So if you’re if you’re single and you’ve got this passion, Paul’s talking about here and you long to be married, you should do it. You should get married. And if you don’t, you’re sinning. You’re sinning because you’re inviting that lust and that temptation. Now, let me let me I could qualify a lot of things here. OK, that does not mean you run out of here, run in the public’s and you see a girl with no ring on her finger and you say, I’m in sin. I should be married. Marry me. And you pull a ring out. She’s like, fine, let’s get married. OK, that’s not at all like go do it right now.

Because women are not objects, nor men.

So if I want to. Get married. OK, and I want to be in this relationship in which she and I are expressing, you know, our sexual love and desire for one another. Nowhere in the Bible can you find that being the reason and purpose alone for getting married. In other words, if you desire that, that means also God intends for you to be a really good, godly husband, wife, mother, father. And that’s something that goes along with it. So if you’re not married yet and you think God wants you to get married. Don’t be kicking rocks around, inviting temptation until it happens. You should be preparing your heart to be the best husband, wife, mother, father that God wants you to be. And oh, yes, along with that comes sexual expression, which is really healthy and good. If you’re delaying it because, well, you know, I like being single. And, you know, I got a career to build and I got this to go on. You know, I don’t want to, you know, I don’t want to do this. And I have to worry about somebody else. Living with me. And, you know, it sounds like a hassle.

Selfish. OK, lazy. Stop. If you’re of age and you know, hey, God’s called me to this. You should be working towards it and praying for God to provide you that certain person. OK, so don’t invite sin because porn is not an alternative.

OK, sexual images in your mind or in the real world is not an alternative.

All right. Sexually immoral relationships outside of marriage. That’s not an alternative.

And again, I want to emphasize and again, this is a problem for us in the church. We don’t take marriage serious enough. Get married. Be preparing for it, but get married. It’s a good thing. It’s God’s thing. OK, Chad, I hear you saying that. I want to get married and it’s not happening. It’s not happening. OK, well, what do I do? What you do is you remain prayerful and you know that, OK, God, if you’ve given me this desire and it’s there, your timing’s perfect. And so, Lord, help me grow in self-control. Right. Which is the fight. Help me grow in self-control so that I’m not mastered by desires. I’m not mastered by anything other than Christ. And I’m going to keep trusting and believing that if this is something you’re calling me to, like you’re going to bring me to that. And. Until I have that opportunity to be in a marriage relationship, I’m going to function like a single Christian and use my time really well for Christ. So don’t waste any of your time before, during, after being married or you never were married. It’s always a question of in this season, what burdens do I need? Don’t I need? How am I or aren’t I being devoted as I should be? Take advantage of your context in life as a marriage.

Take advantage of your context in life as a marriage. Take advantage of your context in life as a marriage. So we’re all in different places in life. We have different callings. We have different abilities. Some have the special gift of maybe celibacy and just being single. And some people don’t. It’s not a question of morality of right or wrong, more holy, less holy. It’s a question of are you faithful or aren’t you faith? Are you faithful or not with what God’s given? and what He’s called you to. Carry your burdens well. That’s what Paul, I think, is saying to us here. Carry your burden well.

He goes on to say, a wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord. Yet in my judgment, she’s happier if she remains as she is. And I think that I too have the Spirit of God. So a re-emphasis there. Paul’s saying, hey, it’s never appropriate. It’s not holy. The Spirit doesn’t move in someone for the sake of Christ. I’m going to break up my marriage. Paul’s saying, be faithful where you are. That’s a good thing. Okay, it’s not a bad thing. And Paul’s always complimenting what Jesus is saying about when it’s appropriate to and not appropriate to. You know, divorce. And again, that’s a whole conversation about the ins and outs of that. Because Paul talks about that in other places. And Jesus talks about it as well.

Paul makes the ending point. In my judgment, she’s happier if she remains as she is. And it’s kind of a tongue-in-cheek. I don’t know if Samaria is the right thing. I think I too have the Spirit of God. So Paul’s saying, it’s not commanding the Lord, but I’m the Apostle Paul. And you know, you had at this time like super-apostles. Or people who are trying to say they’re more spiritual than Paul. And Paul has to go on and address these people who think they know more. And Paul’s saying, hey guys, I think I have the Spirit of God in my advice. It’s really good if you can bear to hear it. Be single for the cause of Christ. Because when eternity comes, man, man, isn’t it going to be great that you made that sacrifice to be able to lay at the feet of Jesus so much more. And that’s the drive. I think we need to be careful because sometimes we can be concerned about what it means to, like, work for the Lord. We can be so afraid of, like, the term legalism. Like, I don’t want to work for my salvation. I don’t want to earn my salvation. And somehow that becomes like our excuse to not labor for the Lord at all. The reality is, yes, Jesus has saved me. There’s nothing I can do to change that. But at the end of it all, because I have been saved by grace, I want to sacrifice. I want to give myself away. I want to give up where and what I can for my happy pleasures in the now. They’re not bad things, but where and how I can. I want to have, I zeal for the Lord. I want to hear good, you know, well done, good and faithful servant. So if I’m single, great. As long as I’m single, great. I don’t want to binge watch TV and I don’t want to waste my time doing this and I don’t want to just travel and I don’t want to just do all this stuff. I want to say, you know, I gave God the best of my time. And if I’m a family man, I want to give God the best of my time and I want my family to be a place where God is honored. I don’t want to have the wrong burdens. I want to be devoted to the Lord. So the ending word, I think, is really, really useful here. He says, I think that I too have the spirit of God because I think that’s like where I want to get linear and like, okay, let’s make like this really complicated Excel sheet. And if you’re in this situation, you should be burdened. If you’re in this situation, you’re like, you shouldn’t be burdened. And it’s really hard like for us to like apply that to every little situation in life about where I should or shouldn’t do this or do that. Should I take that on? Should I buy that? Shouldn’t I buy that? Like, what should I do? The reality is, if you desire in your heart to live a life devoted to the Lord, guess who is inside of you speaking to you moment by moment? The spirit of God.

Who applies that truth to your heart and life? Like that thing we just read from Paul, who can apply that to help you know what that looks like in every situation? The spirit of God. So friends, spirit-filled people, as we’re single, as we’re married, and have zeal, zeal, labor for the Lord. Because Paul says why? Because your labor for the Lord’s never in vain. Flourish really well where I’m planted. Amen? Okay, we can pray.