I'm going to cover a majority of the passage and I'm going to start in verse 8. Okay, verse 8. As a matter of fact, I'm only going to read verse 8 and 9 first and then we'll study the rest. It says, "But I say to the unmarried and to widow that it is good for them if they remain as I am.

But if they do not have self-control, let them marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion." Let's pray. Father God, as we open up your word, would you give us insight? Would you help us to learn and understand? God, we know that your words contain life.

We know that your words are light to our feet. God, we know that your words feed us and nourish us. Would you help us, Father God, be receptive? And Lord, help us to have humble hearts that we might apply into our lives. God, we thank you in Christ's name.

Amen. Okay. So, an interesting scenario that happens really frequently amongst guys and girls, especially let's say married couples who've been together for some time. Men and women are different. There are lots of differences and we understand that. Sometimes these differences clash and they fight. One of the things that happens a lot, and it's the way that men and women approach things generally, men typically are task-oriented and are results-oriented.

They want to get it done. Women on the other hand, different. They might want to be more proper in what they do, or let's say if they have a task or a project together, a guy might just want to get the thing done. The woman wants to do it right.

Or the experience of doing it, they want to make sure it's full and done properly. What I mean by that is, for example, if a guy and a girl, a couple are working on a project to put it together, an album or build a little scrapbook together, a guy might be sitting here thinking, "My gosh, it's taking us like three hours, which is two and a half hours longer than it should have taken." And then the woman might be thinking, "Well, we need to do it right." And not only that, the woman might be thinking, "The experience of working on something together is valuable.

Why are you in such a hurry?" And then the guy might be thinking, "Because we've got to get it done. What matters is this, this, and this." Now, most stereotypically, if it's not just a project like a scrapbook, but they're putting together furniture, the scene is, the woman is sitting here like, "We have to do it right.

The instruction says da, da, da, da, da." And the guy goes, "Some nerd on a computer wrote those instructions. I don't need it." And then he just starts going. And so you have difference of perspectives. So the guy is saying, "It doesn't matter. What matters is we get it done." The woman is thinking, "It does matter.

And just getting it done is not the point. We need to do it right." Two different perspectives on a single matter. Who is right? Well, hold on. Answer for a minute. If you're sitting next to your wife, don't speak up right now. Just hold on to that thought for a moment of thinking about what matters.

And in trying to get anything done, you realize every individual has a purpose. Every individual has a system of evaluating what is important as I do this. Okay? Apostle Paul, in this letter, he's talking to a church that he loves, he spent a lot of time, and he's talking to a church where although we oftentimes really elevate the early church, the reality is they had a lot of problems.

Lots of problems. Not only in the area of relationships like marriage, but in all other places as well. To that church, Apostle Paul is teaching, and he gives wisdom and guidance, and he gives a perspective where there are opposing and competing perspectives within the church. Okay? And to me, it's perplexing because the kind of advice and guideline, the truth that Apostle Paul is giving to the church might be something that we do not expect.

As a matter of fact, to me, the kind of advice and truth that Apostle Paul gives, it's profound, it's shocking, it's countercultural, and it's a little unsettling. What do I mean by that? Well, let's begin. Going back to verse eight and nine, Apostle Paul says this, "But I say to the unmarried and to the widows." So even in our context, we have a lot of unmarrieds, and we have people, I've talked to people where people are concerned about, let's say they have their father passed away, and the mother is at home alone.

Or they have other scenarios, where there's somebody who's a widow or a widower, what should we do? The advice that Apostle Paul gives is he says, "It is good for them if they remain even as I. But if they do not have self-control, let them marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion." This verse, young guys might, in a preliminary gloss, look at this and be like, "That's right.

I'm burning, let's go." And that's how they read the verse. But if you're thinking through the verse more carefully, you come out with a lot of questions. Whoa, he just told unmarried people to remain as they are. He just told widows, who typically their friends probably say, "Dude, you just need to get married.

Don't grieve too long, just move on." You know, that's the typical device. Apostle Paul gave a counter-cultural advice and said, "You need to remain and stay put." Isn't that weird? And I want you to highlight or if you're taking notes, write that word down, remain. And then he says, "But if they do not have self-control, let them marry, for it is better," and the next word I want to focus on is better.

Better to marry than to burn with passion. Apostle Paul is giving us insight and biblical truth as to what's best, what's better for you, what's to your benefit. That's chapter seven in a nutshell. Apostle Paul is giving us that kind of truth, but it is perplexing. It is counter-cultural and it's really sensitive.

Right? I mean, wouldn't it be a sensitive topic if I were to start talking and I preached and said, "As a pastor of young adults, stay single. All 150 of y'all, stay single." Right? Obviously, that would be like, "What in the world is he saying?" So we have questions.

How does this apply? To who? To everybody in the church? Across time? You know, for how long? Right now, it's a perplexing thing for Apostle Paul to say. So in order to make sense of it, we're going to work through the passage and now we're going to jump down to verse 17.

Okay? So turn down and look at verse 17. This is an important theme and verse for the entirety of the chapter and he says this, "Only as the Lord has assigned to each one, as God has called each in this manner, let him walk. And so I direct in all the churches." You notice what he's saying there, right?

He said in verse 8, "Remain where you are." And then in verse 17, he said, "God has assigned us to different circumstances in life, different scenarios in life. And what he requires of each Christian is that you walk faithfully." Clear enough. "That you walk faithfully to what God has called you in the condition that you are." And so this is a theme for the rest of the chapter.

For him to say, "Walk in the manner that you've been assigned," is to simply say, "Stay put." Learn to accept where you are. And so first things we realize, we realize everybody is in different scenarios. We really can't do blanket statement like, "Okay, everybody needs to date like this.

After six months, do this. After one year, engage. Five months, engagement. One more, bam, we're good." And if people don't do that, it's like, "What's wrong with you? I thought we had this timeline set." No. Paul, so Paul actually says, "First of all, stay put and learn to do that.

To accept God's appointed position for you in your life." Now although that statement is clear, "Learn to accept God's position for you," that still has a lot of questions, doesn't it? Because some of you guys are like, "Well, I'm fun employed and don't have no job. I guess I'm here for life." Some of you guys are single.

Some of you guys are in positions where you're not happy at work. Some of you guys are in positions where you're not happy in your homes, in your marriages. And a lot of times, we are always looking for the next step. We're always either looking to advance or progress.

So how do I apply this when an apostle Paul says, "Live out your walk as God has placed you." We're in such different places in life. What do we do with all that? Aren't these legitimate questions? Well, I think one of the questions I need to ask is not only how to apply this, what does it look like, when should I change, but why?

Why would apostle Paul say this command to the church? Well, let's look at the examples that he gives first about the application of this verse or this principle of remaining where you are. Let's look at verse 18 through 20. He says, "Was any man called when he was already circumcised?

He is not to become uncircumcised. Has anyone been called in uncircumcision? He is not to be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing. But what matters is the keeping of the commands of God. Each man must remain in that condition in which he was called." As we focus our attention on verse 18, simply put, why should you remain?

Verse 18 is really clear, because you cannot change certain things in your life. If you read this in cursor, it's like, okay, a person who is circumcised shouldn't be uncircumcised, and a person who is uncircumcised shouldn't be circumcised, because they live in a culture where the Jews, they look at circumcision like a rite of passage.

This is, you're right into the community of God, this is almost your rite as a man. Super important. But then you start thinking, what is circumcision? Operation, okay, it's an operation. You can't go back. No matter how much you're pissed off at your dad, like, "How dare you do this to me?" You cannot undo circumcision.

The fact of the matter is, there are many people in this day and age where we love to change things about ourselves, our circumstance, our situation in life, but we cannot. You can't, right? So Apostle Paul is sparing us from a whole lot of heartache and grief by teaching us there's a sense in which you can't change so much.

I mean, how many of us can really even change our nature? How many of us can change our setting? You can't. We have a hard time controlling our kids, we have a hard time influencing our family. How are we gonna change our life circumstances? Well, that's just one perspective, right?

We obviously need to learn to accept the things that you cannot change. But there's more. That's just a preliminary thought. The second thing he says is verse 19, which is the more emphatic point I wanna make. Circumcision is nothing. And uncircumcision is nothing. Think about that. I mentioned a moment ago that to the Jewish culture, circumcision was huge.

I mean, circumcision in Genesis chapter 17 was the sign of the covenant of Abraham to God. God's promise to Abraham to bless him and to take care of him and to grow him and make him a blessing to the nations. God's promise to Abraham to make descendants and all of that was wrapped up in a symbol of the circumcision.

And so you would expect circumcision to be huge in the nation of Israel. And it was. So huge that to call somebody like you uncircumcised, man, that was a derogatory term. In Ephesians chapter 2, Apostle Paul says to the Gentiles, you were not of the commonwealth of Israel. You had no hope, you had no God, and he said you were called uncircumcision.

For Apostle Paul to say circumcision is nothing, that is profound. Profoundly against the culture of the time. You see what I mean? And so we learn this point. There are certain things that we think matter so much, but in the perspective of the scriptures and perspective of God and the spiritual reality that Apostle Paul sees, they are nothing.

Think about that for a moment. We have frustrating moments when we care so much to have certain things, to do certain things, and the thing about it is it's frustrating because those things really sometimes amount to things that do not matter. As an example, I feel like Jewish culture is a lot like Korean culture or just Asian culture, you know, where they're like strict, honor-based, shame, and they shame you if you do something wrong, you know?

So I just sometimes picture my mom and then I see like, okay, olden days is probably like that, you know? Lately, though, I've been hearing a lot about people having difficulty with their parents when it comes to trying to choose a spouse. And some of the scenarios, and you guys probably heard this story a thousand times, it's like, you know, a guy and a girl get together and the guy's like, look, Mom, I found somebody nice.

And then they're like, oh, no, no, no, did that girl come from a bad family? Is there divorce in there? Any health issues, you know? They're like, what the heck is that all about? It doesn't matter, you know? Or the guy is like, does he at least have a graduate degree?

Like, is he set? Does he, you know? It's like, what is that? The guy is godly. He like believes the scriptures. He's committed at church. He's humble. He's nice with his words. What does all that matter? And then I counsel people and they're like so frustrated. They're like, stop it, Oma!

You know, they're just so mad. And there is that frustration. And I almost sense Apostle Paul's frustration. Why are you telling our church people to get circumcised? And why are you telling all the church people to be uncircumcised? And why are you telling our church people to eat this and eat that and do this and do that?

It's like, ah, I'm so mad at you. It doesn't matter. What matters is the keeping of God's command. What matters is the heart of obedience and submission to the Lord. So we come back to this idea. Why does Apostle Paul teach his people, maybe you should just stay? Because whatever they thought mattered so much, like no, we need to do this!

We have to have it! Apostle Paul's sitting there thinking, you don't see the big picture, do you? Whatever you thought was so important, it's not that important. Now to make this point even more emphatic, even more crazy, more counter-cultural, shocking, he brings this next point up as another example of the principle that he has.

Starting from verse 21. Were you called while a slave? Do not worry about it. But if you are able also to become free, rather do that. For he who was called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord's freed man. Likewise he who was called while free is Christ's slave.

You were bought with a price, do not become slaves of men. Brethren, each one is to remain with God in that condition in which he was called. So Apostle Paul now actually repeats this theme, you must remain, multiple times. And as he's doing it, he brings up the craziest thing in my mind, it's like, how do you even say that?

Were any of you called into slavery? Were you in bondage? Back at that time, people who were slaves were treated like property. We know in American culture that slavery was horrific. People treated like objects, bought and sold on a stage and block. It was horrific. So how does Apostle Paul say something like, do not worry about it?

Do you guys sometimes read the Bible in a different voice? I was just reading, how do you, were you called to slavery? Forget about it. I read it like that the first time. How do you do that, Apostle Paul? Are you diminishing their experience? You don't care about their oppression?

You don't care if they're hurting? You know a lot of slaves, they get their families torn apart. A lot of slaves are forced to do things that completely compromises their morals. How do you say something like, don't even worry about it? The thing is, although just jokingly, the first time I read it, I kind of read it in that voice because I was like, that's just mind boggling.

But I don't think Apostle Paul is purposely trying to diminish what slavery is. He's not trying to say, slavery is nothing, stop whining. That's not his tone, I believe. Because you notice it says, if you can, get free. But what he's saying is the same point I just made a moment ago.

To you, you think your slavery is the worst, most horrific thing in your life, but that is your small perspective. Because for the Christian who understands the truth of God and the spiritual reality, your slavery on earth is nothing compared to the bondage of sin that exists. The eternity of hell and prison that awaits you.

Your slavery isn't the biggest problem, is it? Then neither is your freedom. Your freedom, though you think it's the greatest prize, your freedom, though you think it's something worth going to war over, your freedom, though you think it's the biggest thing in your life that will solve all your problems.

For the Christian, what is freedom on earth when you are a slave to Christ for all eternity? What is freedom on earth for but a short period of time when you have Christ and all the benefits of Christ and his authority and you're subjected underneath that and you have to learn a submission that goes even deeper than earthly submission?

You see my point? Apostle Paul is not diminishing what slavery is, he's placing it in the right perspective of spiritual reality. And when you do that, the things that you think are so important and matter so much and the things that you would die for all of a sudden don't seem so big.

That's the point. How can a man tell somebody stop and remain? It's because he sees the bigger picture. Apostle Paul sees spiritual reality, he's focusing on God's objectives, he's focusing on spiritual goals and as he does that he realizes circumcision is nothing and so is your freedom. He's saying that their pursuit of their freedom is much like the circumcision, right?

Because he calls them, don't worry about it. So that is why he's able to say brethren, each one is to remain with God in the presence of God, to say with God is to walk with God in his presence, in the condition in which he was called. Did you guys know that this, you know, for me, this thematic command and exhortation to remain, because I kind of glossed over this before and I didn't study it in depth, I didn't realize how many times he repeated that or even that that's there.

But do you realize that that could very well be God's call for you? Think about it for a moment, okay? How counterculture it is in a generation when all of our parents, their hard work and our efforts are going towards you advancing in life. And any time you stall or any time you hesitate or any time you can't, everyone's like, what is wrong with you?

How come you can't get a girl? How come you can't do this? Why don't you have this and why don't you have that? And I hope your mind is kind of racing because I don't also want to diminish what our parents or you are doing when you work hard, okay?

It's not as though nothing matters, everything is, it's as though those things need to be placed in the right perspective spiritually. And if we think about that, this is highly, highly counter to how we think generally. And I hope your minds are racing, how do I apply this? What if I am like so unhappy at work and I just want to leave?

Is God's will for me just to stay? What if I, you know, when I got saved, I was in a job that really was like base, base and I didn't really want to leave. Would I stay? What's really interesting about this is the part of you wrestling with this is necessary and it should be hard because what Apostle Paul does, he does not give us a blanket statement.

Not every single person in this room is required to stay in the exact same way. But rather you need to be thinking as Apostle Paul does in a broader spiritual perspective to see the issue that's at hand, how much does it matter in the spiritual realm? The issue that's at hand, how much weight does it carry in light of eternity?

The issue that's at hand, how important is it to me and my faith? Well let's continue on because he's going to apply this even more. Verse 25, he says this, I'm going to read verse 25 to 27. He says, "Now concerning virgins, I have no command of the Lord, but I give an opinion as one who by the mercy of the Lord is trustworthy.

I think then that this is good in view of the present distress, that it is good for a man to remain as he is." There's our word again, to remain. Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be released. Are you released from a wife? Do not seek a wife.

This is really interesting stuff you guys. He says in the beginning of this, and I want to make a side note here. He says, "I have no command from the Lord, so I give you my opinion. Now just so that you know, it's not like his opinion like it's your opinion, okay?

He's not saying like, "Well Jesus never said anything, so I don't know, I guess we can just stay. You don't have to really try that hard again." That's not what he's saying. Basically Jesus Christ and his earthly ministry didn't say something verbatim that he can quote. But Apostle Paul says, "I have my opinion," which in the Greek sometimes is translated in other passages as judgment.

This is my evaluation of the matter. This is my conviction. This is my judgment of what you should do. And he says, "By his mercies, God's mercies, I'm trustworthy." So what he's saying, it belongs in the Bible, okay? A side note. But as he says that, he says some really interesting things, again, that I think is kind of confusing and to me I was perplexed.

And he says, "I think it's good." So remember I said better and remain. Those are the two words I keep thinking about. And so he says it's good. In view of the present distress, right, that it's good for a man to remain as he is. And then he talks about two spectrums.

Let me ask you, how do you view marriage? People have different spectrums of how they view marriage. To some people it's like the holy land. Once I get married it's going to be amazing. That's going to be sweet. There's going to be, you know, harmony, companionship. There's obviously going to be physical intimacy.

We're going to make babies. We're going to have family. It's going to be awesome. And then there are the other people. Are you bound to a wife? You know? They're like reading Apostle Paul. It's like, "Yes, I am." You know, I don't know. I don't know what they're thinking.

But there's a spectrum of perspective on what, how marriage is, right? And so I'm like, "What, Apostle Paul, what are you saying?" It's like he's asking these weird questions. Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be released. Are you released from a wife? Do not seek a wife.

How do you, what the, you know what I mean? Do you guys see the perplexity in this? Why I say it's confusing? Someone could look at this passage and come out feeling like, "Wait a minute. I don't get it. Apostle Paul almost sounds like he's diminishing marriage. But here at Berean, we hold the marriage in high honor because Hebrews chapter 13 tells us verbatim, "Hold marriage in high honor." Wait a minute.

Apostle Paul wrote Ephesians chapter five where it's like, "Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church. And wives, submit to your husbands and respect them and love them." And what's going on, right? And I realize maybe I'm missing the point. So let's look at this passage even more, okay?

Let's go to verse 28. He says, "Well, but if you marry, you have not sinned. And if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Yet such will have trouble in this life. And I am trying to spare you." I get it. So I think I get it. Up until this point, I was confused.

How does Apostle Paul view marriage? He sees it like a bad thing or something. And he's saying, "Not necessarily. If you get married, it's not sin. If you want to get married, you're not doing anything bad. God created marriage. God's the author of marriage and he blesses marriage. That's great." But he says something here which is really interesting.

Practically, practically speaking, for people who think marriage is the holy land and singleness is not, he makes the arguments like which one's actually really better practically? He says something interesting, which is, "In this current distress, it is good for you to remain." What does he mean by that? Well, I'm just going to say that there are lots of views.

I counted like six views. I was like, "Man, there's six views on one verse?" Some of the commentaries say, "Look, the distress, you think of it like the conflict of the world and the spirit." They're saying, "Basically, when you become Christian, you are automatically at odds with the worldly views." There's already a conflict.

The worldly system is get married, have a baby, raise a family, and die. That's the worldly system. Their interpretation was, "You are against the worldly system, so it's better for you to stay single." It's kind of like, "I don't know." Then other people have said, "Well, current distress, he's talking to the church.

There's a lot of distress, unsettling, there is strife, there's pride, there's bickering." An interpretation that I think is more profound is, Apostle Paul wrote this. In verse eight, when he started the thought, he said, "Be like me." Apostle Paul is in current distress, meaning there is violence done to him.

He's been persecuted. He's been chased out of cities. He's been stoned. He's been left for dead. Can you imagine if he had a wife and little kids to drive along with that? He says, "Practically speaking, for the Lord's work, what's actually better? To have a family or to be single?" He says, "To have a family would be much harder.

I don't want to spare you from all that trouble." For many of us, we can attest to this fact. If we get hurt, we get hurt. We're not going to cry a river about it. But sometimes the deepest pain is if our family suffers. If I see my kids sick and if they're hurting, if I see my parents hurting, if I see my brother and sister hurting, if I see other people hurting, I want to help but I can't do that much because I'm so limited and the pain they feel causes me anguish greater than if I were to go through it myself.

That's sometimes very true, is it not? So Apostle Paul says, "Practically speaking, I want to spare you the trouble. So it's better if you remain single." Is that the main point? Could be what he's saying, but let's continue. Verse 29, "But this I say, brethren, the time has been shortened so that from now on those who have wives should be as though they had none." What?

"And those who weep as though they did not weep, and those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice, and those who buy as though they did not possess, and those who use the world as though they did not make full use of it, for the form of this world is passing away." I say, what?

Because not only did he say, "Hey, for those of you guys who are single, perhaps it's better just to remain that way because initially I thought Apostle Paul is giving you practical wisdom. It's better for you to stay single." Right? And he's negatively trying to prevent you from experiencing things that you don't have to.

But all of a sudden he brings in another angle and says, "But for all of you guys who are married, you should live as though you weren't married." What is that all about? And I come back full circle to this point that I've been making the whole time. Why?

Why and how is he making this command for you to remain in the situation that you are? How would you do this? For you to not seek a wife? Or for you to pretend, I guess? Is that what you're supposed to do? Like you don't have one? But obviously that's not the point.

The point is that in the various life circumstances that we have, we sometimes so often think that the solution to all the major problems is to change those circumstances. Right? You guys know what I'm saying. This is a truth that probably isn't new to you, but I want us to be reminded of this this morning.

So many times we believe the various problems and the things that we want are going to be satisfied by the change in our circumstance. And essentially what he's saying, Apostle Paul is saying by teaching us that one who is married is like one who is not, and the one who is not married is like one who is, and going back and forth with that, is truly because of that point.

What you think matters and provides and satisfies so much is actually not so much. Marriage does not solve your problems. If you're alone and you look to marriage for companionship, guess what? If you're a loner, you're going to be a loner in marriage and you're going to make your wife a loner.

I know this because I have loner tendencies. All right? If you've known me long enough, yes, I love fellowship and I love being with people, but I will prefer sometimes to go eat by myself. And so I ended up making Bia do that. Like, "I just want to go home.

Let's go." You know? And that happens. The marriage situation is not changing the man. If you're struggling physically, let's say two people are dating, God forbid, but sometimes it happens, they start crossing boundaries, they start breaking their promises and faithfulness, and they start taking advantage of the situation, committing sins of sexual immorality.

And sometimes what happens is a young man will come to me and ask counsel and they'll say, "Pastor Mark, I kind of don't know what to do." And they're like, "Man, you know, in the end I just need to get married." Bible says, "If you burn, get married." You see the perspective there?

Really? How do you think your marriage is going to solve your lust? Many a man will testify to the fact that marriage does not solve lust. As a matter of fact, lust becomes all the more sinful in marriage. As a matter of fact, if you had a pattern of using situations and people to satisfy your cravings, you will do that all the more in your marriage.

So what is all this? Pastor Paul is taking marriage and taking singleness and he's saying, "You see the balance here? You see your perspective? You see your worldview where you weigh this like so heavy and so great and you weigh this so low or you weigh this so high and so this?

What true spiritual benefit is there in either of these?" And we come back to the point, what matters is the keeping of the commandments of our God. Why do I say this? Because he says it emphatically at this next point that I want to go over. So I stopped here at verse 31.

I'm going to read from verse 32 down to verse 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 is concerned about the things of the Lord that she may be holy both in body and spirit. But the one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how she may please her husband.

And then this is the emphatic point I would like you to either highlight or bold or jot down and star. All of this that he's been teaching, all the commands that have been both confusing and hard to balance has been for this. This I say for your own benefit, not to put a restraint on you, but to promote what is a pure, undistracted devotion to the Lord.

That's the key. That's the key we need to accept. It is not the condition. I need to stop blaming the condition. I need to stop blaming the scenario. People who perhaps they're not active at church, people who are not doing certain things like, "Ah, you know how it is.

You know how married life is. You know how family life is. When you get married, you have to do this and you have to do that." He's saying that's exactly the point. That's the pattern of every single person. But what that points to is not the problem in the marriage.

What that points to is the problem of devotion. The problem of devotion in the man who enters the marriage. And I am extremely humbled by that. Are you? In your perspective, have you been blaming your life circumstances for why you're bitter, why you're mad, why you're not being fruitful enough?

Maybe, rather than asking God, "Just change this for me. Just do this for me." You should ask God, "Change me in this. Help me to learn how to be both content, striving, fruitful, loving, devoted to you in this." Because the circumstances change all the time. When he is talking earlier about how the time is short and for marriage relationships, relationships change.

You're weeping and you're rejoicing change. You're possession. Sometimes you have a lot. Sometimes you don't have a lot. But all of that don't matter. If your spiritual perspective is nasty going in, if you have a lot and your spiritual perspective is nasty, you're sinning. If you have little and your spiritual perspective is nasty, you're sinning.

It's not the having or the not having. It's the devotion side. That's the point. That's the point. And so I'm humbled by this truth and I'm humbled by Apostle Paul who says, "What I'm trying to secure in you, I'm not trying to restrict you. I'm not trying to restrain you.

Hey, all of you guys, no more marriage." That was the fault of Catholicism thinking, "Put those guys in the monastery. The monks, the nuns can't marry. The monks can't marry and then they're going to be holy." Celibacy does not make you holy. That's a false view. The ascetics who deny themselves, that doesn't make you holy.

False view. Apostle Paul reveals his heart to us and says, "What I'm trying to do is not to restrain you. What I'm trying to do is secure undivided devotion to God." That's pretty profound. Guys, from a personal point of view for me too, isn't this the struggle? And I am struggling, like I feel like day by day with this.

I want to provide so much for my family. I remember putting on Facebook like, "I'm going to be a man of God and love my wife and love my kids and I'm going to set the tone spiritually and I'm going to do this." I am ramped up to be the best husband and father that I can be.

But is it not our struggle that although that's a good and godly goal, we turn even those blessings into things that are hugely out of proportion in the spiritual realm? Right? And just to make my family happy, just to make my kids good, and right now I'm researching their educational program, right now I'm researching like maybe we should move and all those things are motivated by I want to provide for my family, right?

But isn't the struggle, how do I prioritize that? How do I prioritize that where I'm managing my time so that God is still priority, God is still number one and I'm able to say with Apostle Paul, "I want to have a single minded devotion for God." And that single minded devotion is not just on paper, it's not just in my head, it's being applied into my life.

How do we do that? That's the daily struggle. And so I'm not going to go into detail about it like right now, but really that's why sometimes I feel like, you know, it makes sense to me why at the end of every letter of Apostle Paul, after describing a heart for God, he'll say, "So therefore be sober, be diligent, examine your heart, test the spirit, you know, keep accountable." And he's saying, "Do everything so that you can have a singular devotion to God." You know, by way of wrapping up, go back to verse eight where we started.

And Apostle Paul, you know, he says, "But I say to the unmarried and to the widows that it is good, it's good, he says, for them if they remain even as I." I'm thankful that Apostle Paul is a forerunner in many ways, an example. And he's able to say this, not with like, you know, come on, if you're like a 23 year old who got married at like 23 right out of college, he's looking at like a four year old man who's single and, you know, just learning day by day to be content.

He's like, "Dude, you're so better off for being single, man." It's like, shut up, you know, you don't know nothing about it. Apostle Paul says, "It's good, even as I." Right? Because he's single. He didn't carry, you know, a family with him when he could and he says that, he says, "Do I not have a right to have a family like you guys?

Do I not have a right to bring along a wife, a believing wife?" But for Apostle Paul, he's not asking us just to follow, "Even as I," in his singleness. Because not everybody in here is meant for singleness. Jesus Christ made that very clear, celibacy is a gift. And if you don't have a gift and you try to force yourself to have a gift, you're not really helping anybody.

Okay? But what he is doing when he says, "Be like this, remain even as I," Apostle Paul is single minded and we need to be singularly minded for Christ. That Apostle Paul, for him and his application, because I have been set apart for the gospel, although I have the right, I'm not going to exercise my right.

Because I've been set apart for the gospel ministry and I have a purpose and I have a goal and I'm being driven for that one goal to glorify God, anything that is going to prevent me, I will lay aside. Not because I have to, because it's good. Because it's good.

So many times in our lives, sometimes we ask this question, why can't we just have it all? Our generation wants the benefits of being single, the benefits of being married, we want it all. We want all the opportunities and all the benefits. Why can't we not have it all?

Because it's not good. Because sometimes we let go of what matters, we let go of the eternal, we let go of the purpose. That's what Apostle Paul is teaching us. Learn to remain, learn to focus, learn to be single minded. Amen? Let's close our eyes in prayer. Father Lord, we pray that you would forgive us.

God, many times our perspective is just too small. And God, the things that sometimes matter so much in our lives, we realize it only matters in a small little spectrum of things. I pray Lord that you would continue to teach us that we would know the truth. And Lord that by knowing the truth, we would truly be set free from the bondage of carrying and being invested so heavily into the things on earth.

But God, that we would learn to care about the weighty matters of God. I pray Father God that you would continue to lead us and sanctify us, that you would give us the wisdom to willingly lay aside the things that prevent us from coming to you, to willingly lay aside the things that are hindering us from offering up ourselves fully to you.

But God, that continually as you sanctify us, we would take steps day by day, examining our walk, examining ourselves and the times, that God we might live a life honoring and pleasing to you. This we pray in Christ's name. Amen.