As a pastor, I spend quite a bit of time in bookstores.  The other day I was in a Christian bookstore, and noticed that when it came to books on sermon prep, there was just an overwhelming amount of materials.  I found hundreds of commentaries, bible dictionaries and bible concordances. 

There were also books about how to prepare sermons week in and week out—“how to” books on preaching through the Old and New Testament, books on how to be “Christ-centered” in your preaching, and books about how to be an effective communicator.  I also noticed that there was a large section of books about ministry—book after book about kids, youth and small group ministries and tons of books on how to establish purposeful and biblical ministries in the church.   

There was also a number of books about marriage.  There were books helping you prepare for marriage, helping you after you are married and books to guide you when your marriage is on the rocks.  I also found a ton of books on parenting—books written to pastors to help the parents, books written to parents on how to shepherd their kids and books written for kids that parents can use to teach them about the Bible.

But as I was going section by section through this particular bookstore, one section I noticed was missing was the singles section.  Though I found a few books written to singles ministers and books that speak to those who are single, I also noticed that quite a few of those books addressed the importance of resisting temptation, while others were about the proper steps to take to find the right spouse and prepare yourself for marriage. 

I could not find any books about the spiritual advantages that come from being single.  And because this is the case, what often gets communicated to our single folks is that God is not in favor of people remaining single—what often gets communicated is that God is only concerned with believers who are married with kids.  If anyone questions the importance of being single, he or she needs to consider this: Think about the greatest man ever to live and one of the greatest servants of the Lord the world has ever known—The Lord Jesus and the Apostle Paul. Both were single.

 And Paul knowing first-hand the benefits of being single writes about it in 1 Corinthians 7:25-40.  To listen to the sermon click HERE and scroll down to “IT’S GOOD TO BE SINGLE.”.