Today's Sermon

I have always had the feeling that singleness was viewed (both in and out of the church) as less than marriage, and that I was somehow lacking as a single person, and that the married people were feeling sorry for me. If I ever said that I liked being single, many people looked amused or sympathetic or something. They would reassure me that there was someone out there for me, and that I needed to trust God more.  Either there was something wrong with me for being happy with singleness, or I was in denial, or I just hadn't found the right guy. It has been a challenge sometimes being in a very family-oriented church, with children everywhere, and the expectation that everyone would grow up and get married. Sometimes I felt like I was getting God's second-best (or at least that this is how people viewed my life).

In all my years at church, I have listened to several sermons about marriage. I know how to be a godly wife; I even know how to be a godly husband. Last week, I listened to a sermon about physical intimacy in marriage (1 Corinthians 7:1-6). That was....interesting. I have been waiting for years to hear a sermon about people like me: single and happy, and not even looking for marriage.

Today Pastor James got up to 1 Corinthians 7:7-9:

"Yet I wish that all men were even as I myself am. However, each man has his own gift from God, one in this manner, and another in that. But I say to the unmarried and to widows that 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." (NASB).

Yes: Today I finally got my sermon. When I discovered what we wold be hearing today, I was both excited and anxious. I have been waiting a long time for this sermon, and especially since Pastor James started preaching through 1 Corinthians. I knew this sermon was coming, and I was not sure that it could live up to my built up expectations. So it was with some mix of expectation, excitement, and trepidation that I opened my Bible and notebook and waited for him to start.

I am very, very happy to say that Pastor James met and exceeded my expectations. You can listen to the sermon here. I couldn't keep up with my note-taking in parts because I wanted to write down everything he said, and I wanted to make sure everyone else was listening too. And I may have cried a bit when I realized that I might finally be able to tell people that I'm happy being single and they'll accept what I say as okay and biblical, and that there's nothing wrong with me. I'm not less of a person or of a Christian, and God is not holding out on me. Singleness is a gift, and given so that I can serve the church more fully.

And there's a more to come: 1 Corinthians 7 will later include verses about why singleness is good, and about the advantages of staying single in being able to focus on God and serving Him.

Today I am very, very thankful for a pastor who preaches expository, verse-by-verse through a book sermons, and that he decided to preach through 1 Corinthians.