The High Place of Singleness Matthew 19:10-12

In the modern American evangelical church, as you've heard me say many times, there are many blind spots and weaknesses that we don't want to give in to ourselves.

And one of those blind spots is how singleness is viewed.

In the American church, more times than not, singleness is not valued. It is seen largely as a negative.

Now, no one would say this, but we see it by how it plays out in churches and other places.

And this has been my experience, and I know many others have said the same. Now, as we talk about singleness, there are two types of single people.

There are those who remain single because they cannot commit to one person in a relationship over the long haul.

This person enjoys the thrill of dating, but is afraid to make a commitment in marriage.

The dating days are fun and exciting, while what this person knows of marriage is difficult. So this person wants to avoid marriage at pretty much all costs.

So, let's just date. Let's just remain single. This is a non -virtuous singleness.

A singleness that is not pleasing to the Lord. However, the second type of singleness is pleasing to the

Lord. This singleness is being content with where the Lord has you. Some in this stage desire to get married, but are waiting on the

Lord. Others are content remaining single. This type of singleness is good in God's eyes.

One of the reasons I know there are blind spots with singleness in the church is because I was once a single man who was heavily involved in the church, as I am now.

When I officially started to pursue pastoral ministry, I was 25. I was not the single guy who didn't want to commit to love the thrill of dating, who just wanted to live that kind of life.

No, that was not me. I was the single guy waiting on the Lord, desiring to find a godly spouse.

Sadly, people in the church made comments. And I heard this most in seminary, the place where they're supposed to be training pastors for ministry, which by the way,

I was mostly grateful for my experience there, but this was not something I was grateful for. And I'm not looking for pity as I say this.

I'm just saying this to show the blind spots that are often there in the church. One of the professors

I had told the class I was single in a class full of married people, giggling as he said it.

Then I had another professor who found out I was single who said, what's going on, man? Thankfully, the

Holy Spirit restrained me from saying what I wanted to say and doing what I wanted to do. And what

I wanted to say in a strong tone was this. I know what you say you believe. And what you say you believe is that God rules our lives and will bring the right person at the right time.

I thought this, but didn't say it. It was one of those moments where love covers a multitude of sins, 1

Peter 4 .8. The singleness I was in should have been encouraged, but instead it was looked down upon.

Playful insults to single people do not build up, they tear down. It is no place in the body of Christ.

Sadly, within the Christian community, largely speaking, singles are treated as second class. But you know what?

The Bible does not treat singles this way. The Bible values singleness.

God has a sweet design for singleness. And this morning as we continue our sermon series through Matthew, we are going to see the high place that singleness holds in God's plan.

So this time I encourage you to turn in a Bible with me to Matthew chapter 19, verses 10 through 12. And if you're using a red

Bible, it's on page 979. The sermon is titled The High Place of Singleness.

And you might be wondering, well, I'm married, so what does this sermon have to do with me? Well, it does, because we're all in this together.

So it's relevant to every person. We'll read the text in verses 10 through 12 of Matthew 19.

The disciples said to him, if such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.

But he said to them, not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given.

For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men.

And there are eunuchs who have been made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. But the one who is able to receive this, receive it.

Okay, just three verses. Here's the big idea, what this sermon is calling you to do. Understand that the

Bible celebrates the single life of a believer. The Bible celebrates the single life of a believer.

And we'll see two reasons why in this text. But before I jump in, let me give you a little recap of where we were two

Sundays ago. Actually, two and three Sundays ago, because that was a two -part sermon when we looked at marriage.

The Pharisees asked Jesus another question. And when the Pharisees asked Jesus a question, it was always to test

Him. It was not innocent. They were jealous because all the people were following after Him.

They weren't following them anymore. They wanted Him to answer in a negative way that would be unpopular to the crowd that surrounded them.

The Pharisees had a loose view on marriage. If a man had any problem with his wife, he could divorce her for any reason.

This was a popular view among the Jewish population. The Pharisees knew that this was not

Jesus' position because He already told them what His position was in Matthew chapter five. Jesus took a much stricter view on the permanence of marriage.

And what He said was that husband and wife should stay together. And divorce is only allowed on rare circumstances.

And the circumstance He mentions in Matthew five and Matthew 19 is adultery.

The Pharisees wanted to pin Jesus as a teacher who had a strict view on marriage in order to attract as many people as possible to them and away from Him.

But Jesus didn't care what people thought. He told the truth no matter what. And then let the chips fall where they may.

And what He said was this. What God has joined together, let not man separate.

In our lives, we must have a high view of marriage just as Jesus does. When you come into marriage, it is a wonderful covenant that God designs to be for life.

Now this leads us back to our text this morning that we've already read, but now we're gonna zero in on. Let's begin by looking at verse 10.

Where once again, the disciples say to Him, if such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.

Now this is interesting how the disciples respond to Jesus' explanation about marriage. As I already explained,

Jesus had a high view of marriage. The liberal view from Rabbi Hillel said that one could get divorced and remarried for any reason.

This was popular, very popular. What is taught by the mainstream leaders will make its way to the common people.

In our day, what comes from the pulpit makes its way into the pew. And this was no different in the first century.

When the disciples heard this correction from Jesus where He shows that marriage is not to be taken flippantly, but a man and a woman are to be committed to one another for life, this was a shock to their system.

This rigid view on marriage, that it's meant to be till death, was a shock to their system.

They're thinking, really? One spouse for life?

This leads them to say in verse 10, if such is the case, that divorce is only permitted under rare circumstances, then their conclusion is, it is better not to marry.

What they're thinking is, why would anyone be committed to one spouse with all the difficulties for life? Who would want to do that?

Understand, once again, that this is coming from a Jewish society in the first century that was not strict on divorce and remarriage.

What people thought is, okay, I'll get married. We'll try it for a while. If it doesn't work out, we'll move on.

And by the way, this might sound familiar because this is how it works in our society. It's not rare to meet someone who has been divorced multiple times.

The woman of Samaria that Jesus met at the well in John 4 had five husbands, and the sixth man she was with was not yet her husband.

In Hollywood, it is very rare to meet a famous actor who hasn't been divorced. In popular culture, it's the same.

Rush Limbaugh was divorced three times. Larry King famously had eight wives, but he was only married to seven women.

You might wonder, well, how is that possible? Well, one of the women he got back together with, remarried, divorced again.

Jane Seymour from the down -to -earth show Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman has been divorced four times.

I know there's some fans of that show here, but she's been divorced four times. From common people, it's not much better.

50 % of the people get divorced. So whether in the first century

Jewish community where divorce was common, or 21st century America where divorce is common, people feel a shock to their system when they hear that marriage is designed by God to be for life.

This is why single people need to make a very careful and wise decision about who to marry.

You want to marry someone who you can see yourself staying with till death, better or for worse.

Most importantly, as I mentioned a week ago, you want to marry a fellow Christian where Christ is the center of your marriage as long as you live on this earth.

The disciples know the mistake that one can make by jumping into marriage without knowing what you are getting yourself into.

So when Jesus has this high view of marriage, they say, well, it's better not to marry.

Just stay away. But what I explained last week and what the testimony of scripture shows is that marriage is a wonderful gift from the

Lord. And this gift is experienced when a man and wife follow God's design for marriage.

You wonder why so many marriages don't go well? Are people following his design in this book?

And when this happens, when a marriage is lived the right way, husband and wife go through the journey together and they stay married and even through inevitable difficulties, they are happy together.

And you will have difficulties, guaranteed, mark it down. But when you follow

God's design, he enables you to get through those. Now, as the disciples say to Jesus, it is better not to marry with this high standard, he follows up with this in verse 11.

He says, not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given.

As we read this, we need to ask the question, what saying is Jesus referring to that people can't receive?

The answer according to the context is what Jesus said in the first 10 verses of chapter 19. To sum it up, it's what he said in verse six.

So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.

Jesus answers that with these high standards of staying together in marriage till death, not everyone should get married.

And also not everyone should be single. Now, it is important to note this, not everyone should get married because some are not yet ready to get married, but they will get married.

It is God's design for more people to get married than not to. And we see that from our experience, more people you meet are married than not.

But one should get married only when he or she is ready. Now in one sense, no one is ever fully ready to get married, right?

Just like nobody's ready to become parents. But it is true that some truly aren't ready.

For example, when one person is not ready to commit to another for life, and so this person needs to stop dating a ton and commit to one person.

Brianna knew someone several years back who used a dating website to go on multiple dates during the week.

This person was a serial dater. A serial dater is not someone who's ready to get married.

Sometimes people need to date for a little while before they know the person is the one.

But if two people have been dating a while and there are still serious issues, then it is wise to break it off and find someone who is a better fit.

You don't want to settle. Well, when I first met Brianna, I knew right away that I wanted to marry her.

And I never doubted during the whole journey. And that's not to say that sometimes people have some doubts and they get resolved.

But this was my story. I never had any question that she was the one and we worked well together from the start.

It was clearly God's design. And sometimes people date forever, it seems like, and they still don't know.

Well, if you don't know after a while, then it's time to move on. Find someone who you know will work.

Lastly, it may be that one is not ready to leave one's parents, to leave them and cleave to husband or wife. And this person should not get married too, because you have to have responsibility.

Now, this last one is the most frank of all of them. No unbeliever is ever ready to get married.

Why is that? Because God created marriage and God designed marriage.

And He knows how marriages work. And people who follow God know how marriages work.

And so they can live it out. And of course, an unbeliever doesn't do this. Unbelievers get married for all kinds of reasons.

And the number one reason is, of course, they want to be happy. But then they get into marriage and marriage is so much more than just about being happy.

It's about serving your spouse. It's about going with your spouse through the journey, through thick and thin.

Now, we don't want unbelievers to get divorced. If they are married, we want them to stay together. But truth be told, unbelievers are never ready to get married because it is

God's design and they will not follow it. So as we have seen, it is better to remain single until one is ready.

But some are always meant to remain single. And we're gonna see that in the next point. But here's the first point.

Understand that the Bible celebrates the single life of a believer. And the first reason why is that not everyone is called to be married.

The second reason why we are to understand that the Bible celebrates the single life is this. Some receive the single calling for the sake of God's kingdom.

And we'll see this in verse 12. Some are designed by God not to get married.

And Jesus tells us who these people are in verse 12. For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men.

And there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of God. Let the one who is able to receive this, receive it.

Now, when the disciples said at the end of verse 10 that it is better not to marry, what they meant is that marriage is hard.

So people should stay away from it for that reason. It is true that marriage is hard, but the difficulty of marriage should not keep one from it.

The best things in life are often difficult. And marriage is truly one of the best aspects of life.

And think of all the hard things you've done in your life. Think about if you never did those things. You'd be like,

I haven't really lived. You have to do hard things to really embrace what life is all about.

What God designed life to be. And marriage is one of those things. So that's not a good reason not to pursue marriage.

So when Jesus answers the statement from the disciples, he takes it in a bit of a different direction than they intended.

What Jesus says is that the only ones who can receive the statement, it is better not to marry, are eunuchs.

Okay, what are eunuchs? The word eunuch is an ancient way of saying someone who would remain unmarried.

And typically it referred to a man who would remain unmarried. Now in verse 12,

Jesus mentions three different groups of single people and he uses the word eunuch to describe all of them.

The ones who can receive the saying, it is better not to marry, are eunuchs who have been so from birth.

Eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men and those who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of God.

Let's explain these three groups. The first are males born without sexual reproductive organs.

This happens and these men often remain single because the drive of attraction for the opposite sex is not there.

And when these organs are not there, the body is different. And so these people are often content remaining single.

Not always, but that is commonly the case. This is the first group. The second group are those who have had these organs removed by other people.

And this one's actually very tragic. In ancient times, parents would remove these organs from a baby boy to offer as a sacrifice to their pagan god.

What they did to babies in ancient times is just ruthless. They would sacrifice their babies to these pagan gods and if they didn't sacrifice them, they would do something like this, sometimes tragic.

And of course, when this happened, these boys would go through life, often remaining single.

Now, the third group is what we are going to spend our time talking about because this is the group that Jesus highlights in this verse.

And as I mentioned in the intro, this is a category of Christians that the believing community needs to understand and celebrate.

In some churches, this might be the most important sermon people need to hear so that we respect the station that God has for people where they are in their life.

As Jesus says in the middle of verse 12, there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.

Now, what I find interesting is that the most important man in human history, who's the most important man in human history?

Jesus. He was single.

Okay, what about the Apostle Paul? Arguably the most influential Christian in the history of the church.

He was single. You think about a church hiring a pastor. Okay, can't hire

Jesus, doesn't have a family. Can't hire Paul, doesn't have a family.

You might think I'm joking. I'm not joking. When I was applying for churches to pastor, one of the qualifications was to be married, and they said children preferred.

Okay, so if I'm single, I wouldn't be your pastor. I'm not saying that about this church, but there are churches that say that.

Think about that. Jesus can't be your pastor. Paul can't be your pastor.

Now, I do think that there are advantages to having a pastor who knows what married life is like, who knows what it's like to parents.

I understand that, but I'm just saying, should someone automatically be dismissed just because he's single?

And I would say no, based on this fact that Jesus and Paul, among many others too, who were in that position.

So as Jesus says these words, he understands what it is all about.

He never married. It was God's plan for Jesus to have a short ministry.

Jesus' ministry was three and a half years. My ministry here at Eureka Baptist Church, thus far, has been five years and two months.

My ministry is longer than Christ's already. He was only in ministry for three and a half years, and in that time, he was single.

The Father planned for Jesus to be born of a virgin, accomplish redemption through the cross and through his resurrection that we just celebrated.

His plan was not for him, however, to get married. For some people, it is not

God's will, whether man or woman, to get married. For some believers,

God sets that person apart for singleness for his good purposes to serve him.

The apostle Paul, a single man, wrote the most extensive case for singleness in the

Bible in 1 Corinthians 7. What we're gonna see is you actually come away from this chapter thinking that singleness is way better than marriage.

That's how high he talks it up. In 1 Corinthians 7, verses six and seven, he says this.

Now as a concession, not a command, okay, so this is his opinion, I say this,

I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift from God.

Each has his own calling. One of one kind and one of another. What Paul is saying is this.

He wishes everyone were single as he is. And he will explain why in a little bit.

But what he says in verse seven is that God makes some to be married and some to be single.

This is how Paul continues in verses eight and nine. To the unmarried and the widows, I say that it is good for them to remain single as I am.

But if they cannot exercise self -control, they should marry.

For it is better to marry than to burn with passion. What Paul is saying in verse eight is that singleness is good.

It is not second class. Okay, very important. That's what this book thinks.

Singleness is not second class. Okay, you hear that, the American church? It's not second class.

And by the way, I'm not saying that this church is doing that. But it's just an observation from what

I've seen in the broader American society. The American church has sinned treating singles as second class

Christians. Now, no one would say that openly. But you know, the old saying goes, actions speak louder than words.

If someone says out of lip service, oh yeah, it's the same. God values it just as much as married people.

They're gonna say stuff like that, but are people actually living that way? Are we living that way?

And I told you my story. The married people were seen as good. You are doing what you're supposed to be doing. The single people were looked at like, what's wrong with you?

Why haven't you found anyone yet? Why haven't you moved on? That's usually what you hear, and it's wrong.

That's what I heard. But may Eureka Baptist be different. When you hear me talk, what you often hear is there are lots of errors in the

American evangelical church. We don't want to follow those errors. One of those errors is devaluing singleness.

In my experience, it was people who knew the best what the Bible said, who actually sinned the worst in this way.

That's interesting, huh? We can know the Bible really well and not actually live it.

That's a scary thought. Now, marriage is a great gift of God, but so is a single life lived to the glory of God.

Remember, in the introduction, I mentioned there's two types of singles, right? The non -virtuous one and then the virtuous one.

Now, if someone's non -virtuous, like, you know, serial dating, that person needs to hear a word saying, don't do this any longer.

You need to find someone. You need to wait on God. But for the person who's waiting on God, that person should be encouraged, not rebuked.

Now, what Paul says in verse nine is that it is better to marry than to burn with passion. God has given many people a strong desire to have physical intimacy with the opposite sex.

That's what he's referring to here. And if you have this strong desire, it means that God has called you to get married, probably.

As Paul once again says, it is better to marry than to burn with passion. Then Paul says this in verse 25.

Now, concerning the virgins, I have no command from the Lord, but I give my judgment as one who by the

Lord's mercy is trustworthy. I think that in view of the present distress, it is good for a person to remain as he is.

What Paul is saying is that if you can be content remaining single your whole life, then don't get married.

That's what he's saying. And he gives the reason. The time is short.

Now, you might be wondering, okay, this was 2 ,000 years ago. 2 ,000 years have passed since he said this, and he's talking about the return of Christ, yes, but he's also talking about life is short.

And think about what you can do as a single person in that time. You may die tomorrow.

Make sure your devotion is to the Lord and his future. Make sure your devotion is to the future kingdom. There is a place in your heart that belongs to God and no one else.

God should be the one you love the most. He alone is your treasure.

He alone is your worship. Finding a spouse is a great gift from God, as Scripture says, but there can also be a danger, and that danger is that a man or woman can cool one's heart to God.

One is so taken by their spouse that the burning passion for God that was once their wanes.

This doesn't always happen, but it can happen to Christians. And so what Paul is saying is the time is very short.

That passion you have for God as a single person, keep it going. And if you can remain there, live your life that way.

Think of some great saints from the past. Now, some of these names might not be familiar to you, but I'm gonna list some of them off here.

David Brainerd from the 18th century, he was single. Robert Murray McShane from the 19th century, he was a

Scottish pastor who did a great work. He was single. Gresham Machen from the early 20th century, he was fighting liberals probably more than anybody.

When liberals were trying to take over the church, he was a single man. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who took on Hitler in the 1940s, and he was martyred for his faith in Christ, he was a single man, and he died at the age of 39.

These are household names in church history. All of these men never married. It was God's design for them.

Now, we know Paul, a single man, loves marriage. We might read 1 Corinthians 7 and think, man,

Paul must not like marriage. He must just love singleness. But we know he loves marriage because he wrote a lot about marriage too.

Ephesians 5 is such a beautiful picture of the meaning of marriage, the relationship between Christ and the church.

Paul wrote that. But even as he says this about marriage and has this high view of marriage, he also says this about marriage in verse 28 of 1

Corinthians 7. Those who marry will have worldly troubles, and I would spare you that.

He's honest. Get married, you're gonna have issues. You're gonna have worldly troubles.

You're gonna have troubles that single people don't have. Every married person knows this.

Marriage is such a great gift from God, but with marriage comes great responsibilities to your spouse, and if you have children, you have great responsibilities to them.

Much of your time is taken up with marriage and parenting. This is how married people are supposed to live. That's God's will for your life.

People always ask, what's God's will for my life? If you're married, God's will for your life is for you to be devoted to your spouse, to be devoted to your children, to spend most of your time doing that.

Even as a pastor, I had a mentor who told me, he says, if you're gonna spend more time at church or more time with family, he said, spend more time with family.

That's your first priority. That's God's will for your life. Once you get married, that's the commitment you're making.

Once you have children, that's the commitment you're making. As married people, you don't have as much time to read the

Bible. You don't have as much time to pray. You don't have as much time to share the gospel with unbelievers.

You can't volunteer your time to help people who are in need as much. Now, we wanna do all these things, of course, but you don't have as much time to do them.

It's also very difficult to travel on short -term missions trips. As a married man or woman, your first priority is to your spouse.

That is one of the main ways married people serve God. But this commitment to your other half remains that you have to say no to many good things.

You hear of stories of single men and women who spend entire days in prayer. They are able to do this because they don't have the responsibilities that a married person has.

Paul understands this as he says in verse 32. I want you to be free from anxieties. The married 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.

Paul's really honest here, isn't he? And the unmarried woman is anxious about the things of the

Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband.

And by the way, when he says worldly here, usually when we hear the word worldly, it has a negative connotation, like we're sinning.

That's not what that has here. What he means is your attention is divided. You have to take out the garbage, right?

You have to go get the kids. You have to give your wife a back massage, right?

I mean, all the things that you do in marriage. Single people don't have these responsibilities as much.

Now you have to take out the garbage, right? But you don't have to do it right now. You can do it the next day. It's not as a burning pressure.

What Paul is saying is that your attention is divided when you get married. But when you're single, you have much more time to focus on the

Lord and what He has for you. And in my own story, I met Brianna when I was 26.

So I had four years of singleness after college and the things I was able to do during that season of life,

I can't do anymore. They were things I enjoyed doing as the Lord led me.

A friend and I used to go down to Minneapolis to do evangelism to Somali Muslims. And we could go pretty much whenever we wanted.

We could go for as long as we wanted. I didn't have to get home to anybody. I could stay there till midnight.

I was a full -time assistant coach during the season, cross country and track. I was also running competitively and my dad was my coach, who's here today.

We joke about that. He was pretty much my coach. He scheduled all the races and actually paid my way too.

So that was nice. He's more like an agent. But anyway, I was able to do that. I was able to see,

Lord, how fast can I run? I ran in college and now

I want to see how fast I can get. I wouldn't be able to do that if I was married. I was able to serve my church in ways that I wasn't able to do after I got married.

And I'm grateful for my single years. It was not a bad season of life. It was a good season. It was not torture as I was waiting to get married.

It was good. And I see God's design in it. And I'm very glad to be married to Brianna.

And I would not want to go back to singleness because I like my life better now than I did then. But I just want to say, singleness was a good season of life.

And I see the Lord's design in it with the freedom that I had for things in my life that He had for me.

And Paul understands this better than anyone. As a single man, look at Paul's life. Four missionary journeys, all through the

Roman Empire, getting the tar beaten out of him. He might have thought, you know what?

I probably can't get beat up tonight because I need to go be a good husband and a good father to my children.

But as a single man, he's reckless abandon. If they take my life, I'm not gonna leave a wife and kids without a father and husband.

Think about that. He's living his life as a single man this way.

Look what the Lord used singleness to accomplish in the life of the

Apostle Paul. Now Paul closes the section by making this big statement.

He says, he who marries his betrothed does well. And he who refrains from marriage will do even better.

I wonder if Paul is putting singleness above marriage because even in his day, it was looked down upon.

That it needed to be elevated extra high because it was brought so low by so many people, just like it is in our day.

Here's what God wants you to hear. If you are a single Christian here today, there's nothing wrong with you being in that place.

That is where God has you and He has given you freedom as a gift. Some of you will marry, but in this season right now, enjoy it.

See what God has for you. Make the most of it. See it as a blessing because it is a blessing. I wish someone would have told me that.

But I knew it was a blessing by the way. No one needed to tell me that because I knew what the Bible said. But still, I'm just thinking, why aren't more people saying this?

You can have such sweet intimacy with the Lord during this season. You have the freedom to do things that married people don't have.

It is a gift. Use that time well. God wants every married person to celebrate singleness, not to make offensive remarks that are too often made to single people by the married.

And they are made often by those who never actually went through singleness, by the way. People who get married in college or right out of college, they don't know what it's like to be single because during that season, everybody's single.

Singleness gets hard when your friends are getting married. That's when singleness is hard.

When you get into your 20s and your 30s and your 40s and you want to get married, but it just isn't

God's plan for you right now. That's when singleness is hard. That's when single people need encouragement.

That's when single people need to be reminded of the gift of singleness. Now, as we are wrapping this up, let's go back to our text in verse 12, where Jesus closes that section by saying, "'Let the one who is able to receive this receive it.'"

He uses the same Greek word in verse 12 as he does in verse 11, where he says not everyone can receive this statement.

In both places, what Jesus is saying is that not everyone can handle a high view of marriage and not everyone can embrace singleness.

But Christians should either accept marriage as God's will for their lives, singleness for a season, or singleness for life.

The Lord has a different calling for different people. Whatever that calling is, it is his good design that's going to bring glory to his name.

Jesus wants his hearers to receive his teaching even though many can't. The call for the married is hard, but his high view of marriage should be received.

And the call to the single life is given to some, but not to others. Single people understand it, especially the ones who know this is my calling for life.

They understand it. It's a hard saying to marry people who can't understand it, who know that they're called to be married.

But whatever station you're in, that is God's calling. That is God's gift and follow that will in your life.

So understand that the Bible celebrates the single life of a believer. And in this text, we've seen two reasons why. The first reason why is that not everyone is called to be married.

And the second reason why is that some receive this calling for the sake of God's kingdom.

The ones who were made to be married do not understand the attractiveness to singleness.

But to the ones whom God has designed this way, the single life is enjoyable. It is a gift.

And God is able to use this person greatly. Whether married or single, God will use whatever station he has you in for his glory.

Now next Sunday, as we continue our sermon series to Matthew, Jesus is gonna talk about children.

And we've already seen him talk about children, but he's gonna talk about children again. And he's gonna tell us all the things we can learn about children as we live the life of faith and the similarity between how children are and how we as Christians are to be.

But at this time, let's close in prayer. Father in heaven, your word always corrects our thinking, our false views of things, the errors that are there, the errors that we've been told, or at least shown in the church.

But your word always speaks a better word, always tells us the truth, always leads us down the better path.

And my prayer, Lord, is that everyone here would understand the important place that singleness holds in your plan and the good that can come from it, the gift that it is, and how you designed it,

Lord, to accomplish much through people, to bring glory to your name. And I pray that all of us would value it the way you value it, in Jesus' name, amen.

All right, just a heads up, Wednesday nights, we're still doing that.

So we'd love to see you Wednesday night Bible study. We're gonna do that through the end of May. We'd love for you to join us during that time, 6 .30,

Wednesdays. Today, as was announced, we have a quarterly business meeting. If you're a member of the church, we really want you to stay.

These meetings are important to be at. So if at all possible, please stay for that. And if you're not a member, by the way, you can sit in on these meetings.

If you're interested in membership down the road and you just wanna see what these meetings are all about, we'd be glad to have you stay.

If you just wanna be an observer, we'd be glad to have you stay as well. So we'll do that about 15 minutes after I dismiss here.

But as we close here, please receive the benediction. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord cause

His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn His face towards you and give you peace.