 Thank you brother for sharing that there is something what do you say to something after that? That's that is My mom and father they tried and they trained and they labored and they prayed and they And I struggled and struggled and I Rebelled and I didn't want what they wanted for me and I would be bad in the aisle of the grocery store my mom would be going down the checkout and Stay way back because I didn't want to be identified with her and I'd she'd be occupied pain I'd sneak on by and go for the car and and so but they trained and they trained and they kept praying and And something goes on. I don't know all the theology about this, but parents don't give up Don't give up on your son Or daughter keep praying But my subject today is singles and discipleship and Is there something for the single today is there something for yes, the answer is unequivocally yes There's something for you today. There's something for everyone here today and single and compasses young teen middle-A Going up and that you know what you're single. You're not married. So there's a there's difference there There's unique opportunities a bound for singles the labors are few. We just heard about Greece neat. There's five thousand arrived there every day from the war torn nations. They need people a Singles can attend to the Lord without distraction My wife said I haven't had a complete night's sleep for over seven years These children and so there is something about marriage. You don't get your sleep and And but singles there's something for you today. You can attend upon the Lord without distraction. That's found in 1st Corinthians 7 Mary and Martha, you know the story those sisters Mary comes to the Lord and says Lord would you ask her to help? Sorry Martha comes and says Lord would you ask Mary? She all she wants to do is just sit at your feet and listen and and she just wants to be with you Would you would you tell her to help me? We got soup to make and whatever is going on help me and the Lord said you know what he said He said Mary has chosen the good part one thing is needful. She's chosen the good part and it won't be taken away from her. I Want to talk very briefly today about the thorns in our lives I want to talk in my it's going to be 2nd Corinthians 12. We're going to look at Paul's thorned very briefly and Boy, I'll tell you Yes, sir, okay Actually, I'd rather not even have that I can shout the recording. Okay. Thanks. You bet Okay, I get yeah 2nd Corinthians 12 And Paul said lest I should be exalted above major there was giving me a thorn in the flesh messenger Satan to buffet me to pound me Yes, I should be exalted above major for this thing. I be sought I asked I begged the Lord three times It might depart for me and he said my grace is sufficient for you My strengths made perfect in weakness and then Paul says I'm going to glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities and reproaches in necessities and persecutions in Distresses for Christ's sake for when I'm weak then am I strong? And I've been thinking about that and I've been thinking about The life of a single and we're thinking about singles and discipleship today and we're thinking about losses in our lives and all of us have things that we've encountered along the way and Maybe you have been rejected. Maybe your sister here today You were jilted you were dropped and somebody dated you and went on and married somebody else And you've not gotten over it and and you wonder what what is there for me today? How am I supposed to advance the kingdom and and or maybe you're here as a young person and you don't like Those unchangeables in your life and I'll list them for you You can't change your parents You can't change your physical features. They're trying with with the plastic surgery But basically you can't change What you've been gender your brothers and sisters your birth order your ethnicity place of origin You can't change your time in history. You're here your mental capacity and You're aging in time of death and does the play does the clay say to the Potter Why have you made me this way and then Isaiah says oh Lord you are our father. We are the clay You're the Potter. We're all the work of your hand. So I'm 139 I will praise thee for I'm fearfully and wonderfully made Marvelous side there works in my soul knoweth right well, and so you're here today and What are we going to do with these things in our lives the brokenness the choices that we've made? How can we serve? And and you said well, I want to I What is God's will for my life? Well, we do know some things God's will is that you as a single Very definite there Paul says this that you and everything give thanks We know this is God's will and we also know that you're abstained from fornication to keep your body under Keep keep folk keep ask the Lord to help us to to keep a temple that's holy for him So we do know some of the things of God's will in our lives But are we actually taking pleasure in in our infirmities in our reproaches necessities? Persecutions what are we facing? What difficulties are we facing are we? Okay with where we're at today the Brokenness that that that is in our lives Well, I'll just tell you a brief story when I was between the ages of seven or nine I was sexually abused by two different men of that came into the community my father was trying to reach out to and help and they came to our house because my dad always had an open door policy and So they came there and my dad tried to minister to them But through the process of of all of that And these folks would say it yay Jesus and and then they took advantage of me But so that was a real point of brokenness in my life and when I was 16 I tried very close to committing suicide two times and Took my brother's shotgun and loaded it and put it up to my head and took the safety off and and Thank God it wasn't a hair trigger, but all I'd have to do is just and and and so so the Confusion and the the anguish and the the distress and the why did this happen to me and Lord Where are you in all of this and some of you that have heard me share my story before? All of us have a story. That's the point. I want to say we're all broken in some way and and God through the process of Convocation and healing and life goes on and God sends people in your life that help you they disciple you and We've all had those stories where the God has Comes and takes those difficulties and brokenness and makes something very beautiful out of that and So that's the the point is Are we are we using our brokenness are the unchangeables In our lives to to to reach out then and disciple others And I think so it seems like it takes all of life to just get healed yourself It seems like you come through a dysfunctional home life or Whatever it is and and so and you're wanting to get married singles and you Yeah, you know where you start and two broken people come together and and we really got to trust the Lord and so So I think about the story of five. Let's you've heard the story of John Newton We all know this. I'll just those of you haven't heard it Very ungodly man He was a slave trader and going to the coast of Africa bringing slaves back in those days and his men hated him because he was he was just a real a real a Character and he went overboard in a storm of one time and So the men were just gonna let him go and they had mercy on him and they harpooned him And they shot a harpoon and got him in the leg there reeled him back on the boat And John Newton said later that every limp that as he limped every limp was a reminder of the grace of God So today, what are we going to do about our losses? We grieve them singles and we because we God has just think about all this work That has to be done in the kingdom, but God is using broken People to to accomplish this and there you sit maybe and the years go by and you're like man, I just wish God would really make it I bet I would know that it's him and God's speaking all the time and he's trying to get your attention He's he's saying trust me and let me use the limp that you have Let me use the brokenness that you have and like we heard today with brother Dean You don't look don't wait till you got it all together, but then you're ready to die, you know so so so step out in faith and let God use the The brokenness and the limp that you have the losses. Thank God for them We have we must thank God for them more characters developed through sorrow than success And another quote is adversity introduces a man to himself If by your loss you've been instructed you've lost well And I like how brother Clare Schnapp up there in the Northland says this nothing is lost in God's economy If our response to failure is godly That's been such an encouragement to me So do we take pleasures in our infirmities today so that Christ? Might be realized that his strength might be made perfect in our weakness Are we waiting around singles when the field is white to harvest and the call is coming in real loud But we're we're waiting till we can get our acts together a little bit more and And God is providing lots of opportunities to minister and And we're still mad because of what we've been given in the hand that we've been dealt. We're still angry about that so in closing I just want to encourage us Another thought I thought too and I think this goes a lot after this weekend singles When you go back to your congregations walk humbly Don't judge the folks that aren't as fired up as you are about the work of the kingdom I Be an encourager. I had I've been in and out of my camp so many times and angry and I'd leave and And say you guys aren't spiritual and you got to get with the program and start loving Jesus And they just kept loving me and They just kept saying come on back and and You know you will get offended in brotherhood. It's guaranteed He said you will you're going to get offended in family. And so what are we going to do with that? So let's not judge the holiness of others or let's I'll tell you this one story one of our ministering dear brother He's actually teaching me a blacksmithing class right now, and I'm loving it I'm learning some of these old skills and and but I'm hope he's not listening in on this But but anyway, I went to him one day and I said, you know, you're just not very friendly Here you are a minister. You should be more friendly You should be reaching out to some of us people and he kind of just pondered that and and afterwards I thought You know, he just kept loving me and and and I said your wife's not friendly either. I mean and You know God has such patience with us Oh, we're we get we get us so anyways when you go back to your congregation after this weekend be gentle Stay humble learn to serve Where can I serve here? Don't judge them and where they're walking? Okay In closing I want to read something that the God has touched me with And this is by GD Watson, I don't know who he is This is a tract called others may you cannot if God has called you to be really like Jesus He will draw you into a life of crucifixion and humility and put upon you such demands of obedience that you will not be able to follow other People or measure yourself by other Christians in many ways He will seem to let other good people do things which he will not let you do Seemingly religious and useful men push themselves forward pull wires and work schemes to carry out their plans But you cannot do it and if you attempt it you will meet with such failure and rebuke from the Lord as to make you sorely penitent Others may boast of themselves of their work of their success of their writings But the Holy Spirit won't allow you to do it and if you begin it He will lead you into some deep mortification that will make you despise yourself and all your good works others Listen up men. Maybe you'll out to succeed in making money or may have a legacy left to them But it's likely God wants you to have something far better than gold a helpless dependence upon him that he may have the Privilege of supplying your needs day by day out of an unseen treasury The Lord may let others be honored and put forward and keep you hidden in obscurity Because he wants to produce some choice fragment fruit for his coming glory which can be produced only in the shade He may let others be great, but keep you small He may let others do good work for him or do work for him and get the credit for it But he will make you work and toil without knowing how much you are doing sisters Mothers and then to make your work still more precious. He may let others get the credit for the work You've done making your reward ten times greater when Jesus comes The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch over you with jealous love And he will rebuke you for little words and feelings or for wasting your time which other Christians never seem to stress over So make up your mind that God is an infinite sovereign and has a right to do as he pleases with his own He may not explain to you a thousand things which puzzle your reason in his dealings with you But if you absolutely sell yourself to be his love slave He will wrap you up in a jealous love and be still upon you many blessings Which come only to those in the inner circle Settle it forever then that you're to deal directly with the Holy Spirit and that he has the privilege of tying your tongue or Restraining your hand or closing your eyes in ways that he doesn't seem to use with others Notice Jesus's reply when Peter was more concerned with what John should do than with his own responsibility What is that to thee? Follow thou me When you're so possessed with the living God that you are in your secret heart Pleased and delighted over this particular Personal private jealous guardianship and management of the Holy Spirit over your life You have found the vestibule of heaven if you then be risen with Christ Set your affections on things above not on things of the earth for you're dead And our life is hid with Christ and God Colossians 3 and lest I should be exalted above measure There was given to me a thorn in the flesh For this thing I be sought the Lord Christ that it might depart from me And he said to me mice my grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness Most gladly therefore I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me second Corinthians and Paul learned more now just end with this Paul learned more from the thorn than from the third heaven Whatever it is in our lives today. You're here that you're single and you're wondering Lord What would you have me to do Lord? Why did this happen to me Lord? What is the next step in my journey? We can be thankful for the thorn for the difficulties for the challenges for where we've been God will God will open up the door for the next step. God bless you