This is the second part of a
two-part question, but this question deals mainly with what is a single
person supposed to be doing inside the local church? Now, to answer your question,
what's their role in the church? If we go and we see Titus, and where's Titus at today? Is
it where it's always supposed to be? In the T's, that's right. If we go to Titus and we look
at chapter 2, and I know this is not going to be exactly what
most people want because it's going to seem contradictory,
but it's not. It's just statements. But as
for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. It says older
men are to be sober-minded, defined, and the older men, they're elders.
self-controlled, sound in faith and love and steadfastness. Older
women, likewise, are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderous nor
slaves to such wine. They are to teach what is good
and to train the younger women to love their husbands and their
children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind,
submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not
be reviled. Likewise, urge the younger men
to be self-controlled, show yourself in all respects to be a model
of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and
sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put
to shame. having nothing able to say about us. And they're
like, well, I ask about single people. Well, they're in there. They're in there. Because every
man and every woman is an older man or an older woman to somebody.
And I think that it's something that we need to understand, too,
that, and Michaela, since you asked the question and I know
a little bit about you personally, I can apply it a little bit in the
personal sense. You have an incredible opportunity
as a single person in our world today to invest this season of
your life for the sake of your spiritual growth and your spiritual
investment in the life of the church. And we look at people
like Timothy, we look at people like Andrew, and we look at people
like, Mary and other young people in the Bible, and we see God
mightily use them in a great way, because they've had the
time. It's like I tell my children
when it comes to music. I hear people all the time, well,
I wish I'd learned to play whatever. Wish I'd learned a language.
And I'm thinking, it isn't too late. You sit there and watch
soap opera three hours a day. I mean, play the guitar. I'm
not being funny. Not talking about anybody specific.
But there's opportunity now to serve the Lord. Whereas when
you're a homemaker or you've got a career or you've got a
spouse, it's busy, busy, busy, busy, busy. You find time to
make those things happen. You don't have the time. You
don't have what we call in the music world the woodshed. We
just don't have time to sit and do what we do for 10 hours a
day. So the single people in the church, it is the most important
time in their lives where they will mature in the foundations
of their faith. and it is the most responsible time. It is
the time when they're most responsible for what they have in wisdom,
and ability, and service, because they have everything, they have
nothing but the opportunity to serve, and to learn, and to grow.
And we also need to be interested in teaching others, and working
with others, and working to sharpen each other. And so when I look
at, even in the tenure of my ministry, I think some of the
most productive seasons of ministry have been when I've had young
men who were single in their 20s with no debt, no job, no
home. And we find a host home for them,
and they work for free, and we give them money to spend to have
some money to eat on, and they intern in the ministry. and we
put them to work teaching people, we put them to work serving people.
And those summers and those times when I've had that type of opportunity,
the community is just engrossed in gospel expansion. Because
where, I mean, how many of you, by show of hands, got off work
or school today and came to church? You see what I mean? I mean,
that's what we do. We get off work, go to school. But all day
long, someone who is not necessarily tied to that, mostly single people,
And I noticed, you know, if you're at home with children, you still
got off work and came to church. Probably more so than the rest
of us. there's an opportunity for you
to even be more committed to the community and to the expansion
of the gospel and to missions. And missions is here and there
and over there. And that's sort of how I think
- that's sort of the best way I think would be to answer that
question. So Expound, if you want me to - yes, ma'am. You
talked a lot about guys, but what about the girls? I spent
some time in a culture that believed that a woman Until a woman is
married, she should live at home in her father's house and just
take care of the other children. Wouldn't it be difficult for
a young woman to do what Jesse does? That's a good question. No, it's a good question. And
we've had that question. Actually, I think you asked that
question a while back, Julie, when you were sitting over here,
if I remember correctly. And you asked a question about,
you know, should women even teach at all? Should they quote scripture? Should they open their mouths
in mixed company? Or should they yawn, you know,
if the Bible's open? And I mean, it was, you know,
and all commandments, let me speak to that issue. All commandments
given in the New Testament, to the body of Christ to each Christian
is readily applied to men and women unless there is a specific
indicator that women should or should not do or men should or
should not do. Does that make sense? So that we are all required
of God to make disciples. We are all required of God to
share our faith. We are all required of God to teach others the scripture. We are all required of God to
serve the Lord with gladness. We are all required of God to
be invested in the local church. And sadly, I mean, I'm not far
enough on the other side of such structure that I even know how
to answer that pragmatically. Because 15 years ago, I'd have
had a program for you to stick in. You see what I mean? I'd
have had a group of probably 65 or 75 people your exact age, 18, guys
and gals, and we'd have had a whole list of about nine months worth
of projects for y'all to work on, and y'all be writing letters
to missionaries, y'all be writing letters to prisoners, and we'd
just be doing all that kind of, and you'd get through, and you're
like, well, I serve the Lord, now what do I do? Cook fries at McDonald's. I mean,
you know, but now, on this side of, not working in that structured,
administrated, so-called megachurches, what do we do now? Well, the
application of what the Bible teaches us. I believe in some
sense, though you may be 18, you still have an obligation
to teach the Word of God as God opens that opportunity. What
does that look like? I don't know. We need to talk
about those things. We need to have these conversations as God
presses on our hearts. Sharing the faith, Jesse and
I talked about actually start having some scheduled outreaches
where the churches at large can come. We're looking at getting
a table at the fair in Statesboro. We can be there every night and
a lot of you can come and be there and talk to people and
pray with people and share the gospel. Nothing like getting
in there and paying to stay and then being able to share the
gospel. So there's lots of opportunities that we can develop in that.
I'm not opposed to even seeing, as the Lord leads, and I hate
saying stuff like that because when I say it, they go, that's
a great idea, but it's not a call of God. It's just an idea that
I can come up with. I mean, why not have, like I was saying earlier,
I was talking with you, two days a week in the afternoon, just
having a systematic theology lesson for an hour. I mean, what
would be the harm if you led one with some other girls in
the church? You know what I'm saying? If
that was your thing, I'm just using it as an example. What's
the problem with that? And I'm not trying to be misogynistic
because I wouldn't want my son teaching a bunch of girls either.
I want him, if he wanted to share the word with a bunch of guys
in the church. And I think, if he was 18, or an adult, you know
what I mean. Our children's ministry really
sticks to it. Come here, Mary, you want to teach tonight? And I know I'm rambling now and
have been for a few minutes, but it really is something that
as the church grows and matures and becomes more intimate, we've
got to start saying, what now do we do? Where do we go? What is the purpose of my being
involved in the local church? And I think first and foremost,
at the beginning and the end, we pray. We pray for that. Lord,
use me. Not, what do I do, oh Lord? But
Lord, as your word has commanded me, use me this way. Because
we know what we're supposed to be doing. But the question is
where, when, and where and when? Where do we do it? With whom
do we do it? Where and when? There's a lot of ministry within
our local flock that nobody knows about. There's some of you sitting
right here this day, and if I were to say, you know, what's your
top five needs, you'd be thinking uber spiritual, because you want
to tell me, well, I need the Lord to help me and my patient.
No, no, no, no, no. What's top of mind before you
got here? What were you thinking of? Dishes? Children? aggravation, money, what was
your time? And so these are the things that we need to start
realizing are opportunities. There are great opportunities
for the church to minister, but it's just going to take us being
more open and integrable with our confession to one another.
Yes, I need help with this. And somebody out there goes,
I have been praying for God to use me like that. And that's
really how it works. So that's what I would say. And
if you have any more specific thoughts or questions, and I
know you've got a heart for missions, you went to Panama. And I don't know, if you've got
a heart for evangelism, let's look at it. And let's talk about
how you can be evangelistic. Y'all about to move down here.
Jesse, they're about to move down here. So, I mean, it's going
to be, the opportunities are there. And see, that would be
a good book. Somebody ought to write a book.
The Solidarity of Singleness in the Local Church. TheologyAnswers.com
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