Being Single is interesting. I heard many things that people said and what people did in their being single. Have you ever heard of the saying, "Single and free to mingle" Yeah! I am guessing you have. If you haven't, it simply means freedom to have multiple partners. 

Fifth grade culture 

When I was in the fifth grade, there was a new slang word that interested the whole school. One simple word that was a perfectly good English word was converted into something so perverted. Now, I will not say what that word is, no. However, I will tell you what it did and what it represented. It so happens that back then, there was so much sexual tension among kids and we were eager to finding out what sex was and we wanted to know when we could do it, well, at least, I wanted to know. We made up some word that was commonly used and changed the meaning to something sexual. 

It affected everybody. Looking back in retrospect, I was a very toxic brother and my toxicity impacted on everyone that I had a relationship with. It's easy to be toxic. But sometimes we do not see it and take so long to pull out of it because these days, toxicity is the new norm. There's no boundaries in relationships. Friends will get together and have sex and define their relationship as one of 'true friends'. Whatever that means. God wants us to have pure relationships. 

Who are you yoked to? 

 Do not become united with people who do not believe in Christ. God has made you right with himself. Right and wrong cannot work together. Light and dark cannot join together. 15 Christ will never agree with the Devil. People who believe in Christ are completely different from people who do not believe. - 2 Corinthians 6:14-15 (EASY) 

Ignorance is synonymous with darkness and knowledge is synonymous with light. When you have knowledge, you will have light and start to function differently. God wants us to have pure relationships. Being single does not give us the right to fool around and waste our lives. The idea of singleness is to enhance purpose. We get the privilege to discover who we are as single people. How we spend our life in the condition of singleness is important. Brothers, can I have an Amen? 

The bible says, "Right and Wrong cannot work together." The relationships you have even as a single person are important. Who are you yoked to? You have to be deliberate in the relationships you choose to invest in. Look, if we had met 10 years ago, I'd affect your life poorly. One of the things I struggled with for a few years was accepting the fact that Jesus had forgiven me. Man, I led so many people astray. So I understand what it means to be yoked to the wrong people. If your relationships do not build you up, you might as well just end them. 

The man who has wise friends will be wise. The man who has silly friends will be in trouble in the end. - Proverbs 13:20 (EASY)

A lot of us will say we want to be wise and yet make poor choices as a result of having bad friends. We can never be wiser than the word of God. 

 Porn under the gazebo

oh, you read that right. I am not afraid to share everything that happened to me. I want to do that with you. Get to know me before I met God. I do not need to know what happened to you. There's a chance you've watched porn too. No judgement.  I know you seen them stuff. Okay. Let's get back on track. 

I used to watch porn with friends while drinking alcoholic beverages on school days while at school. After my very first time, my mind was a bit different. I started objectifying women. You know what's strange? The girls didn't feel insulted at all. They actually liked to be objectified. When you do not know that something is bad, you will allow it. To the girls, it added a little value. It added a little excitement, making them appear more desirable to the many guys that chased after them. Please do not watch porn. Your mind is too precious to contain such stuff.  

You have the mind of Christ

I dropped heavy stuff on you. So lets's rest in God for a while and see what He wants us to do. 

You should think about things in the same way that Christ Jesus thought: 6 Christ had the same nature as God. He was completely equal with God. But he did not try to keep hold of that. - Philippians 2:5-6 (EASY)

How did Jesus think? I dare say He had no vile thoughts. I dare say He had a pure mind. Do you know why God wants us to renew our minds? There's too much we've seen. Too much we've allowed in our minds. Because of the evil things we have stored up in there, we battle every day to make good decisions. But Paul says, "You should think about things in the same way that Christ thought." We need to have the mind of Christ. That's the only way to escape the corruption that is in this world. The Bible provides the tools we need to renew our minds. 

Growth in God is dependent on you 

So, you must refuse to do any kind of bad things. Do not tell any lies. Do not be hypocrites in any way. Do not be jealous of other people. Do not say bad things against other people. 2 Instead, you should want to learn about God more and more. New babies always want their mothers' milk, which makes them grow strong. God's true message is like good food that will make you strong in your spirits. Learn more about God every day, so that you continue to grow as believers. Then at the end, God will save you completely from the bad things of this world. - 1 Peter 1:1-2 (EASY)

There's a place of absolute freedom in Christ. Freedom from porn. Freedom from sexual gratification. Freedom from toxic relationships and it starts with you. Have the desire to grow in God. You cannot depend on anybody for your spiritual growth. Yes, we have pastors. We have the church. But it's possible to have all the spiritual help and yet remain stagnant. Real growth starts with you. It should be your earnest desire to want to grow in God everyday. 

Note: Okay. we did a lot of heavy reading today. So relax. Calm down. Pat yourself on the back for  a job well done! I am proud of you. God bless you for reading! Shalom.