Well, Ivan, I would like to encourage you to open your Bibles with me this morning as we turn our attention to the preaching of God's Word. Open it, please, to Genesis chapter 2. And I have placed into the bulletin for today a handout that you can track along with me in this message we're going to go through. I'm going to hit a teaching stride this morning as well. Genesis chapter two, and before I direct your attention to a very important verse in this chapter, I want to tell you about a professional carpet layer. Had finished his work and he stepped back from this room in this house and admired his newly installed carpet job. It was perfect. And he reached into his pocket, his shirt pocket, for a cigarette to celebrate, and he realized that his cigarette pack was missing. And at the same time, as he's looking for a cigarette pack, he looked, and in the middle of this room he just carpeted, there's a little lump under the carpet. He's like, oh man. He says, I gotta fix that. He says, I can't retrieve my cigarette pack from underneath there, because then I would have to start all over. I'd rip up everything, I'd have to start all over. So he decided to do this. He got out his hammer, and he went to that lump in the carpet and just beat it flat, and there was no evidence that it was there anymore. So he got his tools together, and he walked out to his truck, and guess what he saw there on the seat of his truck? It was this mislaid pack of cigarettes. And so he lit one up to celebrate out there, but then the homeowner came running out to the truck and said, hey, have you seen my son's hamster? You say, is that a true story? I don't know. It was on the internet. You say, why would you use that as an illustration to start your sermon? Because I want to make the point that everything comes to an end. Hamsters and sermon series. And we are rounding the corner now to our next to the last message in our current series on marriage. I promise you this as a pastor, this isn't the last series we're going to have on marriage. As a matter of fact, we're going to have a series probably within a year on moral purity for the family. There's another series I would love to do for you in the future called the Four Purposes of Marriage, a smaller series. I want to continue to highlight marriage because as we've seen in our series, it's the pinnacle of the creation week. And it brings glory to the Creator. So we will continue to highlight what he highlights and what Paul highlights. And Paul highlighted it even as a single man. So we're going to come back to it. But for now, this series is getting ready to tie off. I'm going to preach this morning and then one more message to the entire church on the topic of marriage. But everything comes to an end. And so as we see the finish line from where we stand in this series, I'd like us to go back to where we started the whole deal, back in Genesis 2, back to what we call the blueprint, the Creator's blueprint for marriage. And I want to put our finger this morning on one matter of fine print. Fine print. Look at Genesis 2, verse 18. Then the Lord God said, it is not good for the man to be alone. I will make him a helper suitable for him. Look at the fine print there. It is not good for the man to be alone. We need to study that phrase. It's not good for the man to be alone. And it's important for us to study it and chew on it and turn it around and look at it from different angles because not only is it here and important enough to be in Scripture in the blueprint, and it's a major point actually, it's not fine print. But we're trying to interpret and understand and live this blueprint out in our contemporary culture here in the West. And our culture is not a friend to what verse 18 is teaching. Our culture here in the West and literally around the world, but let's focus where we live here in the West. Our culture often looks down on marriage. They look down at the institution of marriage. They look down at those who would be naive and simplistic enough to become part of the marriage community. And our culture not only belittles marriage or looks down on marriage, but then they have the audacity to redefine marriage. to say, we're going to recraft the definition of marriage. We're going to rip that out of the hands of the creator, away from his blueprint, and we are now the authority as to what marriage is. It can be between not just a man and a woman, but a woman and a woman, or a man and a man. And in some places in the world, if you're seeing the headlines between a person and an animal, or a person and an artificial intelligence, the headlines are scary. It's a culture that not only redefines marriage and looks down on it, but it places marriage into such categories as optional or hassle. Our culture misrepresents and even ignores a very important phrase in verse 18. The Lord God said, it's not good for the man to be alone. And as they misrepresent or ignore that phrase, they tend to do two things. First of all, people will tend to abandon marriage. If they're in a marriage, they want to get out. Or it also causes people to avoid marriage altogether. where singlehood becomes the intentional norm. And the reasons that they might give is the reason of a career, or the reason of convenience, or the reason of expense, or the reason of just putting it on hold till I feel like I'm ready And then on top of that, if that weren't enough to ignore this phrase, people that avoid marriage find an amazing pressure to fill the void with sexual exploits. I don't find it unimportant that Paul, in 1 Timothy chapter 4, talking about, in the latter times, spirits will give bad doctrine, is what he says, verse 1 of chapter 4. And part of the teaching, the false teaching of end times, Paul says, in 1 Timothy 4 verse 3 is this, men who forbid marriage. Swinging at the Creator, swinging at his blueprint. So here's what I want to do this morning. As we move towards the very end of a marriage series, I want to talk about singlehood. As a pastor, we have many singles in our church. And don't just think 20s and 30s. If you're in a youth group, if you're a young person, you're part of the single community here. If you have had to walk and wander through the waters, the difficult waters of divorce, it could be that's why you're a single here. If you're a widow or a widower, you're a single here, in addition to those who've just not married up to this point in their life. And in a church like ours with this many singles, you have graciously, singles, allowed us to talk about marriage for months now. As a matter of fact, I've been encouraged with so many of you just saying how God has even been using these messages in this series on marriage to fine tune your thinking about the marriages within our church that you can help strengthen. But today, I want to talk about singlehood. Because even though I'm reading this in chapter 2, verse 18 of Genesis, it's not good for man to be alone. I think as you start there and work your way through two more chapters or two more passages, one in Matthew and one in 1 Corinthians, we will all quickly arrive at the conclusion that singlehood, listen, in the plan of God, is an exalted gift. Not just to you, but you to the family of God. Single people do not need to walk with a limp. So let's take a picture from the blueprint, and then into Matthew, and then into 1 Corinthians, and let's talk about the single focus as part of our marriage series. And I want to hang our thoughts on several hooks, three realities, if you will. First of all, I want you to see the divine opinion. the divine opinion. Here we are looking at chapter 2 and verse 18, and we're seeing this phrase, it is not good for the man to be alone. And we have to ask the question, what does that mean? What does that mean? Simply put, here it is. According to Genesis 2.18, the norm or the design for people from the beginning is to get married. and I'm getting a little feedback on this mic, it's a little hot, you mind turning it down just a bit, thank you. The norm or the design for people is to get married, to have that marital companionship. And I find it very instructive, not just what verse 18 says, but what verse 18 launches us into. Look at verse again, then the Lord God said, it's not good for the man to be alone, I will make him a helper suitable for him. And out of the ground, the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whenever the man called a living creature, that was its name. And the man gave names to all the cattle and to the birds of the sky and to every beast of the field. But for Adam, there was not found, and here's that phrase again, a helper suitable for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man and he slept and he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place and the Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which he had taken from the man and look at this last phrase and he and God brought her to the man. He brought her to the man. Now I don't know a better definition of a gift than that. God had wanted Adam to be aware of his need for marital companionship and a physical completeness, if you will, before he met that need. We've talked about this earlier in the series. And so he gave him the assignment to figure out there are male and female, if you will, giraffes and lions and horses and canine, but there's, and they're alike, but they're physically different. But even in their differences, it's a beautiful unity. And wait a minute, there's not one for me. God wanted him to land there and he put him to sleep. He took his rib and he made the prototype of woman. And then it says he brought her to the man. as I understand it, that is a gift. Even that very first marriage is a gift from God to man and woman. He brought her to the man. Mark that down, that that is a gift. J. Adams, in one of his books, Christian Living in the Home, and I have this quoting your notes there, writes this, the normal state is marriage, not celibacy. If the marriage state were inferior, God never would have uttered these words we see in Genesis 2.18. The basic, ordinary, and most natural state is the state of marriage. God created woman for Adam because he said that celibacy was not good. It is better, therefore, for a man to be married." You say, that's pretty heavy. Hang with me. We're going to get the whole picture here. What we're looking at here at the beginning, as the creator unrolls his blueprint for marriage, is that this is his plan. This is his opinion. Companionship is a blessing. And marriage is the pinnacle of the creation week. I find it interesting in verse 18, he says, it's not good for man to be alone. This is the first thing that wasn't good in creation, because in chapter 1, verse 4, verse 10, verse 12, verse 18, verse 21, verse 25, and verse 31, as God looked at his creation, he says, it's good. It's good. It's good. It's good. It's good. It's good. It's good. And then he says something's not good. It's not that he made a mistake. He just wasn't finished yet. He wasn't finished. I don't know that there's any wiggle room here to look at verse 18 down to verse 20 and say that the Creator made a mistake in being clear. It's not good for man to be alone. Now, that's the divine opinion. That's heavy. And if I ended the sermon now, over half of this congregation would disperse, discourage. So, I want to go to the second reality. We'll call it the consecrated single. The consecrated single. Because I don't know about you, but whenever someone gets in my face and says, here's an absolute for you, this is an absolute, never ending, no excuses, this is it, this is the standard, my first question, just the way I'm wired is, is there ever an exception to that? Right? Are you like that? Is there ever an exception to that? And I want to know, does Jim think that there's an exception to that? God seems so absolute with his wording in Genesis 2.18. I want to know, does God say, is there ever an exception to that? And the answer is, oh yes. But the only one who's able to define this exception, mind you, is the Creator. And I'll say this, and I have this in your notes. Whatever his exception is going to be to Genesis 2.18, his exception is not extended to people with the following ambitions for singlehood. Number one, marital dissatisfaction. If someone's married and they're like, yeah, I don't like this. Too much work. I want out. It's like a besieged city. Someone said marriage is like a besieged city. Everyone on the outside wants in, and everyone on the inside wants out. If someone's in a marriage, this exception that you're getting ready to hear is not for you. Number two, career advancement. If I'm wanting to stay single and overlook the clarity of Genesis 2.18, so for my career advancement, for my agenda, this exception won't be for that conversation. Number three, personality challenges. Well, you know, I don't know that I would marry well, or I haven't married well, and okay, that's out of the question. That's not part of this exception. Number four, freedom enjoyment. If you say, well, I just, I want to be free, I want to be able to do what I want, and therefore, I want to be the exception. The exception that God makes for singlehood does not apply to any of those four arguments. How telling it is that A man by the name of Art Leo, quoted in the Atlanta Journal, said, I like being single. I'm always there when I need me. Or another one interviewed, Ingrid Trobisch, said, there is only one thing harder than living alone, and that is to live with another person. Someone obviously thinking about marriage outside of the beauty and the blueprint of the Creator. It's sad. I mean, excuses like career and convenience and difficulty, these are ambitions and excuses that are birthed out of selfishness. I'm not going to deny myself. My goals are superior to the Creator's in Genesis 2.18. And to misquote Paul in Philippians 1.21, for me to live is me. God makes an exception. Hear me out. And it's awesome. But let me just say this, God's true exception to marriage has everything to do with selflessness, not selfishness, on behalf of the believer who pursues it. So it's here with our traction in Genesis 2.18. I want you to go with me to the second passage in the New Testament, Matthew chapter 19. Go with me to Matthew chapter 19. When it comes to marriage, this is one of those passages in the Bible that is one of the more extensive ones. And a lot of people want to come to Matthew chapter 5 or Matthew 19 and they want to debate what? They want to debate divorce. These are the divorce passages. So we have a small one verse passage in Luke, a small one verse passage in Mark, but Matthew here lets it all hang out in two passages, Matthew 5 and Matthew 19. By the way, when we get to it in Luke, we're going to unpack the whole thing there. But I don't like to look at Matthew 19 and Matthew 5 as divorce passages. I like to refer to these passages as passages that teach us the permanence of marriage. or passages that give us Jesus' high view of marriage. You see, here in Matthew 19, Christ gives His determinate view of marriage and divorce and remarriage. You remember these verses. Matthew 19, look at verse 3. And some Pharisees came to Jesus testing Him and asking, is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all? And with that question they are forcing the discussion to be Deuteronomy 24. We'll look at it later in our Luke study. And Jesus answered and said, have you not read, by the way that's a huge slam to the Pharisees, you guys have a Bible? Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female and said for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate." And they said to him, well why didn't Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away? And he said to them, because of the hardness of your heart, God or Moses permitted, didn't command, you to divorce your wives. But from the beginning, it has not been this way. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife except for immorality and marries another woman commits adultery. I mean, right there, yes, he's giving a position on marriage, and divorce, and remarriage, but Jesus is giving his Father's opinion on the view, the high view, the exalted view of the Creator, and what he has for marriage. I mean, he's just strict in here, he's tight. So tight, I love his disciples' response in verse 10. They were tracking with him. Look at verse 10. The disciples said to him, if the relationship of the man with his wife is like this, it's better not to marry. They're tracking with them. They're like, wow, it's so permanent. Marriage is so permanent and so important. Singlehood needs to be on the shelf right next to it as an option, right? Just as easy. And Jesus now addresses the exception. His response to the disciples' question in verse 10 is our Lord giving the Creator's exception to Genesis 2.19. Look at verse 11. But he said to them, not all men can accept this statement. Stop. What statement? The statement that the disciples just made. If marriage is this permanent, it might be better not to marry. And Jesus says not everyone can handle that statement that you just said. Continue on here in the middle of verse 11, but only those to whom it has been, what? What does your Bible say? Given, given. Guess what? That's gift talk again. We saw in Genesis 2 that as God brought the woman to the man, it was a gesture of a giving, a gift. Now Jesus here in Matthew 19 is starting to use that same language to describe a single person. It's a gift. But it's a gift. The ability to be single is a gift from God himself. And it's interesting. He's going to go on in verse 12 to say who's able to respond to celibacy, to this gift of singleness. And Christ gives three categories, and I have these in your notes. Look at verse 12. Let's just read through this. There are eunuchs, that's going to be the word he's going to use in his context to describe someone who's not married. Okay, let's don't get too much into that word right now, as much as we might not like that word. there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother's womb, and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men, and then there are also eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. And then look at this last phrase. He who is able, I circle that word and draw a line up to the end of verse 11 to that word given. They're connected. He who is able to accept this, let him accept it. So in your notes, there are three categories of singles, Christ says. Number one, not by choice, singles. In other words, they were born this way from their mother's womb. There's a physical, some sort of a physical feature or abnormality holding them back that would not make marriage possible for them. What that is, we don't have any more data of what he was thinking there. But that's not by choice. You don't choose how you're born with things that would limit you in this area. Number two, there's a second category where he says there were eunuchs that were made eunuchs by men. What's this? Well, number two also is not by choice. It was not uncommon when lands were conquered and prisoners were brought home to be made into servants that male prisoners would be castrated or made so that they would not infringe upon anyone else's wife or the women of the conquering people. Again, Christ just leaves the category open there, but that was common practice in that day and in the Old Testament. Ok, would you agree with me that how you're born, or the fact that you were conquered by an aggressive army and then physically altered, neither one of those are your choice, right? But this third category at the end of verse 12 is a choice. He says, And there are also eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The third is the only instance where it is a matter of personal choice. And it's really clear here. It has nothing to do with career. It has nothing to do with convenience. It has nothing to do with personality. It's for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. It's for the sake of the work of God in this generation. Let me give you a little definition to think through about this kind of singlehood that Jesus says is an exception to the design and it is a viable choice. It is the ability and the desire, and here's an important word, given, it's that gift word, given by God to remain single for the express purpose of rendering service to Christ. It doesn't mean you have to be on a payroll of a ministry. You may have a job in town or across the county, but your singlehood is to offer to Christ an intensified ministry, energy, and focus. And it is a gift. I don't know any other way to read that word given in verse 11 and the word able at the end of verse 12. It's the ability and desire given by God. Or look at it this way. The single person to whom God has graced this gift of celibacy for the sake of the kingdom of heaven will be able to control their sexual desires. You will be able to control them. And that thought catapults us to the third passage. Go with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 7. 1 Corinthians chapter 7. As we come to 1 Corinthians 7, everyone knows that this is a marriage passage. But we can't restrict it to the marriage topic. It's easy to do that, and we say, oh, that's the marriage chapter in 1 Corinthians. Listen. Paul identifies four different people groups throughout this whole chapter. Four. You have the virgins. That's the word he's going to use. A virgin is someone who has never been married. Number two, you have the widow or the widower. Who's that? That's someone who was married, but their spouse died. The third category you're going to see all throughout 1 Corinthians chapter 7 is the category unmarried. And I'm going to show you a verse in a minute that distinguishes unmarried from virgin. They are two separate categories. Who's the unmarried person? Well, if the widow is the one who's lost a spouse, if a virgin is someone who's never been married, it's easy to conclude that the unmarried person is someone who had been married and is now divorced. That's why he talks a lot about divorce in this chapter. And then there's one more category of people in 1 Corinthians 7. Guess who they are? The married people. We call this the marriage chapter, but three out of the four groups we're going to talk about in this long chapter are singles. Three of the four. The singles had a very high post in the New Testament church. in the time that even the Bible was written, they were everywhere like they are here. There's not something abnormal going on in our day. I mean, we have a culture that's swinging at the Creator and His values, and Romans 1 said, yeah, it would be this way, and actually it's gonna get worse. But as far as the presence of singles in a church, there's nothing abnormal here. Paul's talking to three out of the four categories of being singles. And by the way, if you want to add something to that, Paul himself is single as he writes this. He says in verse 7, I wish that all men were even as I myself am. However, each man has his own, look at that word, gift from God. One in this manner and another in that. You say, what are the two manners? Being married or being single? He says both of those are gifts. And that's consistent with what we've seen in Matthew 19, and even back in Genesis 2. Marriage is a gift. Singleness is a gift. Now Paul here ties them together. He says, I'm single, and I want everyone to know that both are a gift from God, whether you're married or single. And that's verse 7. So important. So I want to ask a question. What is a gift? And again, it's the ability with which God graces certain folks to be either married or single. You say, well, what are the key indicators of the call of the giftedness to singleness? Well, I see that here in this chapter. What are the key indicators, at least for the present time? Number one, self-control. Look at verses, or verse nine. Let's go to verse 8. But I say to the unmarried and to the widows, two separate categories, that it is good for them if they remain even as I, single. But, look at verse 9, if they do not have self-control, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to burn And the translators of the New American Standard say, with passion, they want to explain what kind of a burning was being described here in that Greek word. Someone who has the giftedness of singlehood for a present assignment will be able to control themselves. It doesn't say at all that you're not going to feel the gales of temptation constantly. You're not going to feel the gravity pulling you down to want to have sexual expression. You're going to feel that all the time. But someone who has a gift from God, that grace will make them able to stand strong. One single lady put it this way, quote, Single through no fault or choice of my own, I am unable to express my sexuality in the beauty and intimacy of Christian marriage as God intended. To seek to do this outside of marriage is, by the clear teaching of scripture, to sin against God in my own nature. I have no alternative but to live a life of voluntary celibacy, chased not only in body, but in mind and spirit. And I want to go on record as having proved that for those who are committed to do God's will, His commands are His enablings." End quote. There will be self-control possible. But I also want to say something about intense desire. It says here, this is at the end of verse 9, talking about a sexual desire. But later on in this passage, it's not like a single is supposed to be benign without any intense desires to force, to focus their energies at. Look at chapter 7, verses 32 to 35. But 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. But one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife. And his interests are divided. The woman who is unmarried and the virgin, distinct categories, is concerned about the things of the Lord. How she may be holy both in body and spirit, but one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how she may please her husband. That's not a condemnation, it's an observation. Verse 35, 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. Paul's making his argument, you know, I'm single now and with all that's coming on to the church now, I'm glad I have just a single focus in God's gifting and I can focus on the church and focus on building this church and evangelism and discipleship because the days are difficult, persecution is coming. I'm not saying you have to, if you are Divorced or if you've never been married, unmarried or virgin. He says, I'm not saying you have to stay single. I'm just saying if this is God's will for you at this time for the sake of ministry in his kingdom, it's not a bad thing because you can take all of that energy and focus it towards advancing the cause of Christ today. Those are the key indicators that you have the gift. There's an ability of self-control. and there's an intense desire to channel your energies towards the work of Christ. Now, brothers and sisters, I'm saying this as graciously as I can this morning. This is the only exception. For everyone else, it's Genesis 2.18. You say, well, do I have the gift? Let me just answer this. You might have it now because God's assignment for singlehood is for you now, but I don't know what decade you're in, but I know this, I don't know what God's will is for you in the next decade. I don't know what God's will is for you next year. He may have been saving you for someone that's just going to blow your mind and turn you into an amazing worshipper when you see what God has for you. I don't know what his will is down there. And again, I don't know what decade you're in or what year, but if you're single now, if you're single today, there's an amazing grace available to you to stay pure and to put that energy into the work of Christ. Let me make a few observations about singlehood. Number one, understand that this calling, or you might want to say gift, may be temporary for a very specific task. I don't know, it's going to be different for every one of you, but you might want to prayerfully say, Lord, I'm going to be single now. I don't want to be single right now. I want to be married. And I want to fight these sexual desires. But here I am. And since this is where you have me now in your plan, and I can't see the next page, I thank you for the grace. And I ask you, Lord, where do you want my focus to be then with this kind of energy? This calling may be temporary for a particular task. Number two, this calling extends down to teenagers, and I'll even add to my own notes, and up to seniors. You may have lost a spouse or have gone through a broken marriage. I don't know, you may be a teenager and looking forward to marriage, but remember, you're three-fourths of any congregational categories. Singles are in every generation. Let's don't think that you have to grow up before you can become one. Number three, take this calling or this gift of singleness just as seriously as any other calling. And we say, well, you're called to be a pastor, you're called to be a deacon, or you're called to be a missionary, you're called to be a businessman, you're called to be a medical assistant. You know what? God's calling and giftedness of singlehood is just as sacred. It's just as exalted. Don't be bitter. Number four, God's will is different from person to person regarding the time of marriage. It's different. As I've had to tell people in my own family, there's nothing written in God's will or in his Bible that says you have to be married by the time you're 22. I mean, I haven't found that verse yet. It's not there. It's different for everyone, even if you're twins. I know this, that Romans 12 says that when we get to heaven someday, we're going to look back and see and agree with God that his will was indeed good and acceptable and perfect for us, even in giftedness like this. And number five, during the waiting period, stay marriable, shop wisely, and trust God. Be content with Him. I get my phone out in the middle of a sermon, and in my own handwriting, I've written these words to someone that approached me about being single. And I ended up putting this in my journal, too, at home. And I said, until God brings you together with his choice for you, remember five things. Number one, be godly. Grow every day in the grace of God and in prayer. And even when you don't have someone to grow with, Be a self-starter in your discipleship every day. Number two, be pure. Fight for your very life every day when it comes to protecting your heart. Cut out absolutely any influence, friends, apps, secrets, et cetera, that suck you into porn and lust. Fight. Number three, fish well. A church is a great place to meet godly young people, single godly people. Number four. It's hard to read from a phone during a sermon. I'm not sure I've tried this before. Number four, stand up. As a single disciple of Christ, lead. You're a leader. Be a safe place and a strong influence for Christ. with all those around you, friends, strangers, co-workers, week, guys, girls. This is not only important where you are now, but also as you enter and blossom in the career God has for you. And then number five, embrace your identity. Your primary identity is not being single. Your primary identity is that you are in Christ as his redeemed. Oh, how he loves you. You are an object of his amazing favor and mercy. Stay mariable, shop wisely, and trust God. Number six, don't allow the quote-unquote good desire for marriage, and it is a good desire, we're wired that way, Genesis 2, don't allow the good desire for marriage to become a functional heart idol. functional heart idol. In other words, you and I can like something and want something that's prescribed for us in Scripture so much that we make a good thing an idolatrous thing. Or as Paul Tripp says so often in his books, a good thing becomes a bad thing when it becomes a ruling thing. I gotta have it or I can't have joy and contentment. That's worship talk. doesn't mean that the whole marriage wiring is bad. The Creator said it's good but don't take a good thing and make it a ruling thing. James 4 1 through 3 warns us not to focus on what we don't have and become angry. One lady desired to marry four different men during her lunch or during her lunchtime. It's time to finish this sermon. Hang in there. We're almost done. One lady wanted to marry four different men during her lifetime. And she said that one would help her with the four things that she needed most at different times in her life. She wanted to marry a banker, and then she wanted to marry a movie star, then she wanted to marry a pastor, and then finally she wanted to marry a funeral director. And someone said, why? And she said, one for the money, two for the show, three to get ready, and four to go. Real quick question, and then we are done. This is a marriage series. We're talking about singles. I realize that I'm married. I've been married 30 years. I teach this kind of stuff in classrooms, too. And I've had students, older students, say, yeah, but you're married saying this. And I even had that recently. And as a pastor, I want to be so compassionate. I want to be clear where Scripture's clear, but I want to be compassionate and demonstrate a trust that all believers are to have in our Heavenly Father. And I have to understand that for the first 22 years of my life, I was a single. And if God takes Lori now, I'll be a single again. I don't know what the future is for me. But whatever I'm saying now as a married person, I pray you'll understand I have the greatest compassion and even admiration for those that have this giftedness of singleness. That's why I want to give you number three and we're done. The church's duty. The church's duty. Just a couple pastoral nudges for you. To all of us, married and single, especially to the married, let her elevate their calling Elevate the singles calling around you. You have them. Some are younger than you, some are your age, some are older than you. Elevate their calling. Don't treat them like they have a limp or a disease. And they feel that sometimes when you pressure them to date. It's like, get normal like us, would ya? It's like, wait, hold it, man. Understand that three out of the four categories in any local church are directed at singles. Singles are crucial for the work of Christ. Elevate their calling. Letter B, invite them into your family. You're still allowed to do some unofficial adopting of singles younger than you, of singles your age, and of singles older than you. Number three, include them in social functions. Don't isolate them. And don't break off in your mind, well, I'll invite some singles over for a spiritual function, but not a non-spiritual function. Why? There's nothing wrong with them. They've actually been gifted by God, and there's grace at work in their life that you can't even imagine as a married person. Include them. Letter D, provide resources for their ministry. As a church, I hear this one very clearly and I pray that our pastors and deacons do. If there's someone that God has gifted with singlehood for a task at this time, they might not be single next year or next decade, they might be, but they're single today and they have a growing burden to reach, to do some unique gospel work. Let's get behind them while they have this energy. Give them what they need. And letter E, please, please, please, pray for their purity. If you're married, you know the little secret, don't you? That being married doesn't mean you still don't struggle with lust and stuff. Now, take your fight and your struggle that you're aware of of a married person and transfer that to your understanding of a single person in a church like ours and then multiply it by about 20. Pray for their purity. They're fighting, but you're fighting too. Fight together. So I conclude with this statement. The rule is clear. The standard, the design is Genesis 2.18. We are wired for companionship. There is an exception, and it's a gift, and Jesus gave it to us in Matthew 19. It's choosing for yourself to remain single for a task in the kingdom of heaven that's facing you presently. And then the third reminder is the family is the church. If you're single, oh, do you have a family still? And it's not just your parents and your siblings. Welcome to the family room. You're part of the body. We desperately need you and we love you.