The part that I'd like to focus on is beginning in verse number 14 where the Bible says,
Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, for what fellowship hath righteousness with
unrighteousness, and what communion hath light with darkness?
Now the subject that I want to talk about this morning is a subject that's maybe in
some circles controversial, and it's a subject that you're really not going to learn the
truth about anywhere else besides church.
If you go to school and try to learn about this, if you try to learn about this from
TV or the radio or from your worldly friends, you're not going to get the truth on this
subject.
And so the reason that I'm preaching on it this morning is because church is probably
the only place in this world where you're going to find out the truth about the subject.
And I'm going to preach to you out of the Bible this morning about the subject of dating,
about the subject of choosing a wife, choosing a husband.
It's an important subject.
For young people who are unmarried, this is a vital subject.
This will change the course of their lives forever, who they marry.
For those that are parents, it's an important subject to understand and train and teach
their children the right methods for dating and for choosing the right wife, choosing
the right husband.
It's important for anybody who's here this morning to understand what the Bible teaches
about any subject.
That's why you came to church to learn the Bible.
And so he's saying here in verse number 14, and here's where I want to start by saying
this, be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.
Now there's no stronger yoke in this world between two people than the yoke of
marriage.
Now this isn't only talking about marriage.
There are many ways in which we should not be yoked up and linked up with unbelievers.
But what stronger bond is there between two human beings in this world than the bond of marriage
where two people, the Bible says, become one flesh?
Hey, we ought not as Christians, as believers, even consider or dream of marrying an unbeliever.
Did you hear that?
He says, be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.
Now listen, the whole purpose of dating, the whole purpose of spending a lot of time
with someone and trying to find the right person, you're trying to find a person to
marry, that's why you shouldn't be dating unbelievers.
Now if a man says, well this is my girlfriend, but she's not saved, shame on you if you're
saved and your girlfriend's not saved.
Or shame on you if you're saved and your boyfriend is not saved.
Hey, God said, you ought not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers, and so
why in the world are you dating somebody who is not a believer on Jesus Christ?
Now the first thing I'd like to say is this, and we've got to keep reading here.
It's not just a question of, well, is that a rule?
Well, does God have a rule against dating unbelievers?
Well, look at the rest of the verse.
He says, well what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?
You may want to ask yourself, if you're a believer, if you're a Christian, and you're
dating an unbeliever, why is it that you're able to have such great fellowship with
somebody who's an unbeliever?
It's because you're living in the flesh, it's because you're not right with God,
it's because you're carnal.
You see, when a person gets saved, the Bible says, if any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature.
Old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new.
Now that's an often abused verse, an often misunderstood verse, because the verse is
very clear.
It says, all things have become new.
Now people will try to use this verse to say, well if somebody got saved, but they
didn't have any change in their life, then they didn't really get saved.
Now wait a minute, is that what that verse said, that there will be some change?
No, and yet people will use this verse to preach their heresy, that if salvation
isn't followed by works, then you're not really saved.
The devil has been trying to add works to salvation since Cain and Abel, between Ishmael
and Isaac, all throughout the Bible, all throughout history, the devil wants you to
trust your own works for salvation when the Bible says, believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and thou shalt be saved.
The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life, the Bible says.
And so, no, this is not saying that there will be some change, come on, there's got
to be some change.
It didn't say some change, it said a brand new creature.
And so when you get saved, a new creature is created within you, known as the new man,
the inward man, the spiritual man, but the natural man is still there, the flesh
is still there.
I mean, when I went somebody to the Lord, when I got saved, for example, nothing about
my flesh changed.
All of a sudden I began to glow, and all of a sudden there was no difference in my
physical body.
But something changed inside, a new creature was created.
But what happened to the old creature?
He's still there.
The old man is still there, that's why the Bible says that we have to die daily.
He said, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross
daily and follow me.
So when it comes to living the Christian life, you're either walking in the flesh, or you're
walking in the spirit.
Now the flesh, the Bible says in Romans chapter 8, that the old man, the natural man,
it says, the carnal mind is enmity against God, and is not subject to the laws of God,
neither indeed can be.
So it's impossible for the old man to be subject to the laws of God.
So when you got saved, God didn't change your old man.
He didn't change the flesh, he created a new creature.
So now you have the spirit and the flesh, the old man and the new man.
Now if you walk in the flesh, you will be the same as you were before you were saved,
because the flesh did not change.
But if you put on the new man, the Bible says, then you'll not fulfill the lust of
the flesh.
So when you see somebody who's living in sin, they can't be saved because they're
living in sin.
No, they're just probably in the flesh.
Now perhaps they're not saved, but perhaps they are truly saved, they've believed, it's
just that they're walking in the flesh.
Now let me say it to you this way, if a person can be dating an unbeliever, I mean spending
all this time howling around with an unbeliever, considering marrying an unbeliever.
It's because they're totally walking in the flesh, otherwise they wouldn't even
have fellowship.
I mean look down at the Bible, it says, what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?
And what communion hath light with darkness?
And what conquer that Christ would be with him?
And the Bible says, oh what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
An infidel is an unbeliever.
You see, if you as a believer can sit down and enjoy hour upon hour upon hour
upon hour, speaking with and conversing with and howling around with somebody who's
not even saved, you are walking in the flesh.
You are a carnal Christian.
You are not filled with the Holy Spirit.
And the Bible says, be filled with the Spirit.
You're not filled with the Spirit if you can howl around with the world and howl around
with unbelievers.
Now I know Paul Washer says, I learned this from Brett Sherman, hey, I know Paul
Washer, who's ever heard of Paul Washer, this heretic that's preaching all over, he's
really popular among Baptists, and oh man, I can't believe that I named the name.
Kind of like Paul named the names Alexander, Hymenaeus, Thermagnese, Philetus, Diotrophy.
Hey, Paul named the names of the heretics of his day, I'll name the names of the heretics of ours.
Paul Washer, who believes that salvation is by begging God, you have to beg God for
days or weeks on end to be saved, and you have to turn away from all your sins, and
if you just believed in the past, you know, past tense, no, it has to continue,
or I guess you lose your salvation.
It's basically what he teaches.
I don't care how he tries to lie about it and disguise it, that's the truth.
Paul Washer said this, there's no such thing as a carnal Christian.
That's his famous quote.
There's no such thing, I'm going to borrow some of your sermon, is that alright?
You know, what chapter was that in?
1 Corinthians 3, go back to 1 Corinthians 3.
This part of the sermon has been sponsored by Fred.
Anyway, he said, there's no such thing as a carnal Christian.
There's no such thing as a fleshly, worldly Christian.
Well, let's see if the Bible agrees with Paul Washer.
It says in 1 Corinthians 3, verse 1,
And I, brethren, could not speak...
Who's he talking to?
The brethren.
The people that are saved, right?
He said, and I, brethren, could not speak unto you as undispiritual,
but as unto carnal, even as unto, what?
Babes in Christ.
So these are baby Christians, right?
They're new believers.
But he said here, but see, here's what the other said.
He's not talking to new believers.
Here's what the other said, because they'll say,
well, you know, when you first get saved you might be carnal,
but you're going to go past it.
He's not talking to new believers.
He said, I had to talk to you as if you were newborn babes in Christ.
Do you see that?
They've been saved for a long time.
And he says, you're still a baby.
He said in Hebrews chapter 5, for when for the time ye ought to be teachers,
ye have need that one teach you again,
which be the first principles of the oracles of Christ,
and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
For everyone that uses milk is unskillful, and the word of righteousness brings abating,
but strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age,
even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to deserve both good and evil.
But look, he's, look, keep reading.
He said, I've not fed you with milk.
He said, I've fed you with milk, and not with meat,
for hitherto ye were not able to bear it.
Neither yet now are ye able, for ye are yet carnal.
He's saying, you're still, the word yet means still, you're still carnal.
Years and years have gone by, you're still a baby.
You're still a little baby of a Christian.
You're a carnal Christian.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Paul Washer.
And it says, for ye are yet carnal, verse 3.
He says it again, for whereas there is among you,
ending in strife and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
So he says again, you're carnal, you're carnal, you're carnal, you're carnal.
And yet Paul Washer stands up and says, there's no such thing as carnal.
Maybe it's because he preaches out of the New American Standard person.
Maybe it's because he doesn't have a keep dating Bible.
Maybe it's because he's not a real Baptist.
I don't know why. You figure out why.
You tell me why. I don't know why he's preaching this kind of garbage.
But the point is, there is such thing as a carnal Christian,
and if you're dating an unbeliever, you are one.
If you marry an unbeliever, you are one.
Now that's not saying you can't become spiritual.
Hey, why don't you put on the new man today?
Why don't you get out the Bible and read it?
Why don't you put away the TV? Put away the radio?
Put away the hip hop? Put away the R&B?
Put away the rock and roll?
Put away the God of this world, the television that's in your house,
pumping your mind with all this trash?
And why don't you get a Bible? Why don't you get on your knees and pray?
Why don't you get in church? Why don't you sing the hymns and be filled with the Spirit of God?
Then you won't have any fellowship with unbelievers.
I mean, you're not going to be able to sit down hours and hours on end
with somebody you've not even saved when you are filled with the Spirit of God.
And so God's commanding us here.
Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers and saying it.
You must marry someone who is saved.
You must marry someone who is a believer.
And so you shouldn't even be dating people that aren't saved.
Now look, is there anything wrong with winning somebody to Christ and then dating them?
Absolutely not.
If a person is saved, then you can date them.
My wife, for example, I won my wife to the Lord.
She was raised past her. I won her to the Lord.
But I didn't date her until I won her to the Lord.
And you know, ask my wife about the time that I spent with her before we were dating.
Ask her what I was talking to her about.
Guess what it was? The Gospel.
I mean, we went one day, we went to a theme park together,
you know, to a roller coaster park, and the whole day,
I mean, I must have given her the Gospel 15 times, I'll tell you that.
I was giving other people in the line for the ride to the Gospel,
just because I wanted her to hear it again too.
We were talking Bible, we were talking about the Gospel,
we were talking about these things, and she got saved after just a few days
of really knowing me very much at all.
And so the point is that, you know, there's nothing wrong with winning somebody to Christ,
teaching them the Word of God, getting them saved, and then dating that person.
Nothing wrong with that in the world.
Now, that would probably be more advisable for a man to do than a woman.
Because here's the thing, the man is supposed to be the leader, right?
And so if you, as a girl, if you as a lady have to go out and, you know,
win some kind of the Lord, and then you're training him and teaching him,
that's kind of a backward situation, do you understand what I'm saying?
Whereas if you're a man, you're supposed to be the leader anyway,
you can take a girl that you won to the Lord, train her, teach her the Word of God,
and teach her the Bible, and that would probably make more sense.
But point number one is, it's got to be a believer.
Now look at Genesis chapter 34.
Let me show you one of the dangers of palling around with the world.
Genesis 34.
And this kind of preaching is all but gone.
Where the Bible says, what?
Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?
Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God?
I mean, God says we're not to be a friend of the world.
I mean, if your best friend is an unbeliever, your best friend's not even saved.
Why is it that you can have such in common with somebody who's not a Christian?
Because you're no different than the world.
That's why you can fit in with the world. I don't fit in with the world.
Now, in my business life, I talk to people, I take people out to lunch,
I can talk to them, I can relate to them, and I can befriend them.
But you know what? That's not who I pile around with.
That could work.
I'd much rather sit down with somebody here in this room and talk Bible,
talk about the things of God, talk spiritual things.
But look at Genesis 34. Here's a tragic story in the Old Testament.
Genesis 34, beginning verse number 1, the Bible says,
And Dinah the daughter of Leah, which she barren Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land.
And when Shechem the son of Amor the high-bite, prince of the country, saw her,
he took her, and lay with her, and defiled her.
And his soul claimed unto Dinah the daughter of Jacob,
and he loved the damsel, and spake kindly unto the damsel.
Now here's the story.
This young girl, we don't know how old she was, maybe an older teenager,
maybe a young lady, we don't know the exact age.
But she goes out, and she says,
I'm going to go hang around with the daughters of the land.
You know, she doesn't have anybody with her, watching her, anything.
She goes to this heathen land, this totally godless land of unbelievers,
and she just goes, wanders over there by herself,
and says, hey, I'm going to hang out with some of these girls,
and see what they're like, make some new friends.
Well, this guy, this wicked man, sees her.
This heathen guy sees her,
and obviously she's by herself, or something,
because he's able to just take her, kidnap her, lie with her,
he basically forced her, he defiled her against her will.
Now look, watch your kids.
Watch your kids.
I mean, I'm not going to let my kids just wander around,
especially not my daughter, not just wander around,
who knows where she is, who knows who she's with,
hanging around with a bunch of unbelievers,
she's going to go with her worldly friends here,
and her unbelieving friends, who knows,
maybe she was even with some of those worldly daughters of land,
but they didn't protect her, they didn't care about her,
and this guy was able to, you know, attack her.
I mean, it's really a bad situation.
Well, he does this to her, but now he says he loves the damsel,
and he's fake highlander, and so now he wants to marry her.
Look at verse number 4.
And Shechem spake unto his father Hamor, saying,
Give me this damsel to wife.
And Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter.
Now his sons were with his cattle in the field,
and Jacob held his peace until they were come.
And Hamor the father of Shechem went out unto Jacob to commune with him,
and the sons of Jacob came out of the field when they heard him,
and the men were greedy, and they were very wroth,
I mean, they were angry,
because he had wrought folly in Israel in line with Jacob's daughter,
which thing ought not to be done.
And Hamor communed with them, saying,
The soul of my son Shechem longeth for your daughter.
I pray you, give her him to wife,
and make ye marriages with us,
and give your daughters unto us, and take our daughters unto you.
Do you think that's what God wanted?
This exchange between the heathen, the unbelieving men in this chapter
that wanted to trade, you know,
Oh, we'll give our daughters to your sons,
and you give your daughters...
That's exactly what God expressly forbids in the Bible.
You know, marrying unbelievers.
Howling around with unbelievers.
But you see, the world has no problem wanting to marry.
Look, let me explain something to you.
Some young Christian girl grows up
and keeps herself clean from the world.
She's feminine.
Obviously, there are some worldly guys
that would love to come and take that girl and defile her.
And the same thing is happening today, my friend.
There are guys out there that want to come into a church
or find a Christian girl, and they're not saved.
They want that girl because she's respectful,
because she's feminine, because she's righteous, right?
Or there even could be unbelieving girls
who would love to marry a Christian guy
because he's probably going to be a hard worker.
He's not going to commit adultery.
You understand what I'm saying?
But we ought not be sucked in by the world.
The world will try to push this on us,
this being unequally yoked.
God is prevented in the Bible.
And so, in this story...
And by the way, let me make a point here, by the way.
There's a movement that's out there...
I don't really even know what this means,
or what, you know, the courtship.
And they say, like, dating is a sin.
Courtship.
Now look, I looked up courtship in the dictionary,
and it just sounded to me like dating.
It just said, like, you know,
somebody trying to woo someone of the opposite gender.
So, OK, isn't that what dating is?
I don't know.
But there are teachers out there...
And by the way, let me just explain something to you.
You ought never be listening to people teach the Bible who are not saved.
Let's just start right there, OK?
People who are not saved should not be teaching you the Bible.
Oh, but they've got great advice on child rearing.
Wrong.
They cannot even understand the Bible
because they don't have the Holy Spirit living inside of them.
They're not saved.
Don't get your Bible teaching from unbelievers, did you hear me?
Don't tell me what some Quaker said,
what some Mennonite said, what some Pentecostal said
about child rearing, or about dating, or about anything else.
I was at the home of an independent fundamental Baptist pastor,
and I saw this book on his shelf called Kiss Dating Goodbye by Joshua McDowell.
I took it off the shelf.
All the verses were from different versions on every page.
Some pages had the NIV.
Some pages had the New American Standard.
Some pages had the Living Bible.
The foreword was written by a Christian rock band
about how great the book was.
It was.
And that's where you're going to give your advice, huh?
See, we ought not go to the world and the devil and the Charismatics to get our advice.
Only a saved person should be preaching the Bible and teaching the Bible.
And so there are all these Pentecostals and Charismatics
and lordship salvation teachers
and Quakers and Mennonites saying that dating is a sin
and that we ought to have courtship where
I guess I'm supposed to date your father-in-law.
You know what I mean?
You go and you woo him or something
so that he'll give you his dog.
Does anybody know what I'm talking about?
I'm supposed to go and hang out with him.
I don't want to hang out with him.
I want to hang out with her, right?
That's what you're thinking.
Thank God, I never even met my father-in-law until after I was married.
Of course, he lived on the other side of the world.
And I have a great mother-in-law, by the way.
My mother-in-law's another story, but we'll not go into that right now.
But the point is, it's not about this thing...
And by the way, look who's doing this in the Bible.
Look who's first doing this mention of saying,
let's arrange marriages.
Parents arranging the marriages of their children.
This is done in the Islamic world.
It's done in the Hindu world.
It's done here among a bunch of...
I mean, even a guy who's a rapist.
Hello?
He's a rapist.
He goes, oh, Dad, set this up, arrange this.
And listen, just because people do something in the Bible
doesn't make it right.
Show me in the Bible a command of God
for parents to arrange the marriages of their children.
Show me that in the Bible.
You'll find people doing it.
You'll find wicked, heathen people doing it.
Sometimes you might find God's people doing it.
But does that really make it right?
Because God's people did it, or because He did it?
No.
We ought to go by what God commands us to do.
Here's what God commands.
Look at, for example, Numbers chapter 36.
We ought to go by God's command.
I mean, look, people in the Bible had multiple wives.
And some of them were good men that had multiple wives.
But that doesn't make it right.
Because God commanded that the two will be one's flesh,
and a man should leave his father and mother
to clean them up to his wife singular.
And Jesus rebuked that in the New Testament.
Multiple wives or divorce and remarriage
is rebuked in Matthew 19, among other places.
But you see here, this thing of courting your future father-in-law
instead of dating your future wife,
maybe it comes out of the Catholic Middle Ages,
which is where the word courtship comes from.
Do you know where the word court comes from?
Like King Arthur's court?
That's where the word comes from.
Court.
There were people called courtiers, right?
And people would be in the king's court.
And they had all this chivalry.
And they were very good Roman Catholics
that murdered people all the time.
And they went and got in murderous wars
with the Islamic crowd over Jerusalem.
Jerusalem is just a piece of dirt
filled with people who don't believe on Jesus Christ.
And we look to our city, the heavenly Jerusalem,
which is coming down from God to Heaven.
Jerusalem, which now is,
is in bondage with their children, read Galatians 4.
But the point is that a bunch of Roman Catholic people
in the Middle Ages who were living in their own excrement,
that's why they died of the Black Plague,
the Dark Ages, where reading and writing was illegal for the common man,
where Roman Catholicism cast its dark,
ugly shadow over Europe for a thousand years.
That's where courtship and chivalry comes from.
I'm sorry, I'd rather just go with what the Bible teaches.
I'm not going to sit there and go with some traditions
from the Roman Catholics, from feudalism,
from an era of society that enslaved Europe for a thousand years.
Until the Enlightenment, until people realized,
hey, we're not going to live in slavery
in bondage to a few people, a few priests,
and a few nobles who are ruling our lives.
We want to have freedom.
We want to read the Bible.
We want to do whatever.
Look, I'm not going to fall back to that.
Are we just retrograding back hundreds of years
to the Dark Ages here?
What does the Bible teach, is what you ought to ask yourself.
Does the Bible teach that parents should arrange
the marriage of their children or not?
Does the Bible teach that?
It doesn't.
Look what the Bible says in Numbers 36, for example, Verse 6.
I'm going to give you a few different verses on this.
It says,
This is the thing which the Lord doth command,
not what Josh McDowell said, not what some book said,
not what the Middle Ages and feudalism said.
He said,
This is the thing which the Lord doth command
concerning the daughters of Zolpeth, saying,
Let them marry to whom they think best,
only to the family of the tribe of their fathers shall they marry.
So what does that say?
Marry who they think best.
Let them decide who they want to marry.
Look at 1 Corinthians 7.
Look at 1 Corinthians 7 in the New Testament.
1 Corinthians 7, and if you would, look at verse 39.
1 Corinthians 7, verse 39, the Bible reads this,
The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth,
but if her husband be dead,
she is at liberty to be married to whom she will,
only in the Lord.
Now, what does that say?
A woman who's been married, her husband dies.
It says,
Let her marry whomever she wants only in the Lord.
Right?
So God is telling her that she can marry whatever man she wants
as long as he's a saved Christian.
Just like in the Old Testament,
that's what the symbolism was with the daughters of Zolotha had.
They could marry who they thought best
as long as it was of the tribe of the family of their fathers,
which symbolizes today, you know, this prescription, saying,
Hey, marry who you want as long as it's somebody who's a Christian,
as long as you're being equally yoked together with them.
You can marry who you think best.
Now, you say, wait a minute.
Shouldn't we marry the person who God has created for us
and God's perfect will for our life?
Now, let me explain this to you.
Look at Genesis chapter 2.
Let me explain this to you.
I think this is a destructive doctrine right here.
I was taught my whole life
that there's one person out there,
one special person that God created before the foundation of the world
and that I'm supposed to marry that person.
And if I'm in God's will,
then I'll marry that one special person, my soulmate,
that's prepared for me before the world ever ends.
Now, I believe that this is a destructive doctrine.
And let me explain to you why.
I've seen this illustrated in church so many times.
And who's going to be my victim?
I mean, my volunteer.
David Jr. Come on up here.
Now, Jr., why don't you go to the back door.
Stand in the back door right there.
And this is what they teach.
David Jr. is going through life, right?
He's in God's will.
Walk down this aisle.
He's living his life.
He's right in God's will.
Now, go back to the back of the wall again.
Now, there's this other special young lady in life.
We'll just use his mom so that, you know,
nobody makes any jokes.
Come on up here, Mrs. Wilson.
Now, this is your mom.
But we're going to pretend like this is that special something, OK?
She is.
Don't you want to marry somebody just like mom?
Yeah, all right.
Come on over.
Stand right here, OK?
Now, for a minute, pretend that this is not Mrs. Wilson.
This is that special someone that David Jr.
has always dreamed of, OK?
Now, she's going.
Now, come on.
Come on.
Come, come, come.
Both in God's will.
Look at this.
Ba, ba, ba, ba, ba.
You know, they get here, and they meet, and bam, OK?
Go ahead and back up.
But see, David Jr. decides, OK, he's in the back.
And by the way, this is Paul's doctrine.
I'm going to disprove in a minute.
But anyway, I'm just saying, I've seen this acted out, like,
20 times in church while I was growing up, OK?
Now, Mrs. Wilson, she's living for God.
She's calling God's will, right?
He's in the sin.
OK, look.
Keep going.
Just keep going.
All the way up.
Shot.
She passed it by.
Now, later, he decides to live for God, right?
But look.
He missed it.
Now, look.
That is not...
That's false.
You can't find that...
I mean, it's a cute little illustration.
But it's not in the Bible.
Go ahead and sit down.
Thank you for participating.
Here's why that's such a destructive false doctrine.
Number one, it's not found in the Bible.
I'm going to disprove it from the Bible.
Number two, the reason why that's so destructive,
is you have people who used to live a sinful life,
now they're living for God,
and they think that the person that they're married to
is not good enough.
Are you listening?
It's not the person that they were supposed to marry.
How many times have you heard people say this?
I married the wrong person.
Do you think that that's a good attitude yet?
Do you think that's what God wants you to believe?
Do you think that that's what God wants you to go through life?
Do you think that your wife wants you to go through life saying,
Well, you know, I missed God's perfect will from my life
because of all those drinking days, and so now I'm stuck with you.
You know?
You'll have to do, I guess, your God's permissive will.
You know what I mean?
Right?
There's the perfect will and the permissive will.
And so, well, I guess you'll be okay.
You know, I guess this will have to work.
Good.
And you have people getting divorced.
Listen to me.
People are getting divorced because they're saying I married the wrong person.
Why are you getting divorced?
Because I married the wrong person.
Show me that in the Bible.
Why are you getting divorced?
Oh, because I was insane at the time.
I never even should have married this person in the first place.
Wrong!
Let me give you some scriptures, though.
Stay in Genesis 2.
I'll just read these for you.
The Bible says, for example, in Proverbs 18.22,
you don't have to turn there, but it says,
Whoso findeth a life, findeth a good thing,
and obtaineth favor of the Lord.
Did you hear that?
Whoso findeth a wife.
It doesn't say, whosoever runs into that exact pretty.
And who is really perfect in God's will anyway?
Have we always just lived on it just perfectly in God's will?
No.
We've all gone astray and we've all, all we like sheep have gone astray.
We've turned everyone to his own way, but thank God,
the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
And so none of us is perfect or living this perfect plan of God in our lives.
It says here, whoso findeth a wife, a wife, findeth a good thing and obtaineth.
If you're married, you have a good wife.
I mean, that's who God wants you to be married to.
Whoever you're married to this morning,
that's God's will for you to be married to them,
to love them, and to treat them and to believe in your heart.
This is the greatest woman in the world.
And not to hold some other woman in a higher position in your heart than your own wife.
I mean, that's wicked.
Do you think that I want my wife to esteem another man greater than she esteemed me?
I hope that I'm, to her, just the greatest thing to ever come, hey baby, right?
I hope I'm the greatest thing that she's ever seen, you know?
And I think she's the greatest thing I've ever seen.
I'm not going to sit there and covet somebody else's wife and say,
well, that would have been the perfect will for my life.
Look, it's not in the Bible.
The Bible says, you go, you find a wife.
You find a wife, you've found a good thing.
You obtain favor of the Lord.
Here's another scripture.
The Bible says in Proverbs 19-13,
a foolish son is the calamity of his father,
and the contentions of a wife are a continual dropping.
It's not about a wife arguing with you all the time.
That's what contention means.
He said it's just like a continual dropping on a rainy day.
You know, just drip, drip.
You know how irritating a constant dripping can be?
He said that's how irritating it is to be married with a contentious wife.
And then the next verse, he said,
houses and riches are the inheritance of the father,
and a prudent wife is from the Lord.
A prudent wife.
Not THE prudent wife, but a prudent wife.
You see, let me just break this to you.
There are a lot of nice, godly women out there.
There are righteous women out there.
And there are a lot of godly, righteous young men out there.
There's not just one righteous man in this whole world.
If you don't find him, if you don't live right,
if God doesn't bring you across his path, you are sunk.
Because there's only one.
Are you listening to me?
Or there's just only one girl out there for you.
There's a lot of fish in the sea.
And he's saying here, find a good one.
Find a prudent one.
Find a righteous one.
Find one that's saved.
Ladies, find a man that's saved.
Men, find a young lady that's saved.
That's all he's saying.
That's righteous.
That's prudent.
It's not just going to be a continual dropping.
It's better to dwell in the corner of the house top
than with a contentious and angry woman, the Bible says.
He says it's better to have a dinner of herbs
and love therewith than a stalled ox with hatred.
You know what I mean?
Like a whole t-bone steak with hatred.
I'd rather have a green salad.
And honey, I love you.
And so what is he saying?
Where did I turn? Genesis chapter 2.
And you see, where does this kind of wrong doctrine come from?
This kind of wrong doctrine comes from the idea
of putting people in slavery and trying to control their life.
You see, God is a God of freedom.
The Bible says where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
The first command that God ever gave in the Bible.
Now, the first command in the Bible is found in chapter 1.
Be fruitful and multiply in the kindness of the earth.
In chapter 2, you find the first command that God gave man chronologically
because chapter 2 backs up a little bit.
So really, the first thing that God ever commanded man chronologically
is when he said in verse 16 of chapter 2, are you looking?
It says,
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying,
Of every tree of the garden thou mayest...
What's the next word?
Freely eat.
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
thou shalt not eat of it.
For in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.
So God, the first thing he tells man,
the first command is, hey, be free, right?
Choose.
You are free to eat whatever fruit in this garden you want to eat,
but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Just like God is saying to you, young people,
he's saying, you can marry whatever girl you want,
but she better be a believer.
She better be saved.
And then he says, you want her to be prudent.
Unless you want your life to be miserable for the rest of your life.
She better be a good wife.
But he's saying, look, here's my rules, here's God's rules.
Number one, she's got to be saved.
Number two, she cannot have been married previously,
unless her husband is dead.
Then she's a liberty to marry whosoever she will.
Read 1st Corinthians 7, Matthew 5, Matthew 19,
and on and on and on, for that subject.
Don't be dating divorced people, by the way.
Now, if you're divorced and remarried, you know, hey,
forgetting those things are behind you,
reaching forth on those things are before you.
You're married to the person right now, that's God's will
for you to be married, to be happy, and live for God.
Not, but people who are single, people that are divorced,
are out of the question for you to marry.
That's what the Bible says.
Now, he's saying here, of all the trees in the garden,
I may freely eat but of the tree of the knowledge of good people.
So he's saying to you, young man, marry the girl that you like.
Marry the one that you think best, only in the Lord.
And you're going to have to live with her.
When her continual dropping is on you every single day,
you're the one who has to live with your choice.
So be wise about who you choose when you're dating.
Don't just marry a girl because of her looks.
And so many people fall into this trap.
They see that girl and just love at first sight.
But look, how can you love somebody just by seeing them?
You just love their appearance, right?
You don't even know who they are.
You haven't even gotten to know them at all.
Listen to this, turn to Proverbs 31.
So look, I'm not going to get up here and tell you what to do.
And I don't believe that your mother or father should tell you who to marry.
I think that they should lay down rules, like God's rules, for example.
I don't think they should let you go running around town
with a bunch of unbelievers like Dinah did,
where who knows what's going to happen to you.
But at the same time, do I think that dad and mom should choose
the husband of their daughter or choose the wife of their son?
The wife of their son? Absolutely not. It's an unscriptural concept.
We all have the right to choose who we want to marry.
Look if you would at, where did I get that from?
Proverbs 31.
Look at verse number 10.
The Bible says, who can find a virtuous woman
for her price is far above rupees?
So again, you're going to go out and try to look for the right person,
to find this virtuous woman, this righteous woman.
He goes on, I don't have time to go through this,
I've preached through this whole chapter many times, all the different attributes,
but let's jump down to verse number 29.
In verse 29 the Bible says, many daughters have done virtuously,
but thou excelest them all.
Watch this.
Favor is deceitful, and beauty is vain,
for the woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.
You see that?
Now listen guys, favor is deceitful and beauty is vain.
It's empty, it's meaningless.
Now, and I'm not trying to be coarse or rude here,
let me just explain this to you the best way that I know how though.
And you may not like this illustration,
but I want to explain this to you in a way that everybody can understand.
For example, let's say I were to go out today and buy what school?
Who's a young person here that's really into cars?
You like cars, you think cars are for friends.
What is the coolest car that I could go out and buy right now?
If I pulled in the parking lot, it would impress you the most.
The Shelby GT500.
So let's say I go out and buy a Shelby GT500.
Is it made by Ford?
Yeah.
Good, thank God.
I was born and raised by my dad, who only drives Ford.
So this will even please my dad.
I pull in a Shelby GT500, I go out and buy it.
Brett would come out, whoa man, this is so cool.
I would think this is so cool, right?
But think about this now.
After a few weeks, three, four weeks, it would just become my car.
It's true, I mean anybody who's gone out and bought,
I mean when you buy a fancy house, whoa, it's a mansion, it's great!
After a couple weeks, it's just your house.
Are you listening?
Now look, what you're going to care about in the long run
is not how cool that car looks.
You may first get it, and that GT500 is the coolest looking car in the world.
Is that like a new car, or is this a classic?
Well they made it a long time ago.
Did they come out with it again?
Yeah.
Let's say you go out and get like a Mazda RX7.
Oh man, it's so cool.
And you're driving this thing around.
Now look, at first, you love just to look at it, right?
I remember my dad, when he got a new motorcycle,
we're bringing in the house, and park it next to his bed,
so that he can go to sleep at night looking at that motorcycle.
And you say, didn't I make the house dirty?
Well you haven't seen how my dad cleans motorcycles.
Cleaning with a toothbrush.
And you go to sleep, but do you think it's in the house right now?
Do you think he's scaring at it while he gets off to sleep?
I don't know, but probably not.
Because listen to me, the newness wears off.
Now look, I'm not going to lie to you,
I'm telling you the truth this morning.
The newness is going to wear off.
The Bible says that beauty fades, number one.
But also, the newness wears off.
And so you know what you're going to care about?
That RX7 was so cool, right?
But then you start to think about, wait a minute,
it doesn't have four doors.
There's no room for me to haul anything in this.
There's no room for luggage.
It's got this rotary engine, you know,
so I have to take it to some special Mazda mechanic, right?
It's going to cost me a fortune because it doesn't have the piston engine.
And you start to see the problems with it, right?
And pretty soon, you can look at that car that you thought was so cool
and say, it takes a piece of junk.
I can't haul anything.
I can't look.
I can't even hear it in my family.
It doesn't fit my family.
It fits like two people, barely.
Right?
Because a sports car is just not practical.
Right?
But you see, this is the way it is when you're dating guys.
You see that girl that looks so beautiful,
and you don't stop to think about whether it's a two-door or a four-door.
You don't stop to think about how much room there is in the trunk.
You don't stop to think about, you know,
you guys are probably trying to apply yourselves crazy.
I don't know what you're saying.
You don't stop to think about the practicality.
You don't stop to think about the gas mileage.
You know what I'm saying?
The things that really matter.
When in reality, when you're dating,
these are the things that you ought to be thinking about.
You ought to be thinking about,
is this woman lazy?
Are you listening to me?
Is she lazy, or is she diligent?
That's what's listed in Proverbs 31.
Is she godly, or is she sinful and wicked?
Does she love God and love the Bible,
or does she love herself?
And there could be a girl that could be beautiful,
and the Bible says that...
I never had this verse memorized.
I always want to.
What's the one that says that beauty in a wicked woman
is like putting a jewel in a pig's snout?
You know, I wish I'd have fired it, brother Dave.
Sword drill.
Anyway, I'll leave it up to you, brother Dave.
No pressure.
Anyway, the point is
that you can sit there and be enamored by the beauty,
but you know what?
If she's going to sit on the couch all day
in a pair of sweatpants,
watching as the world turns,
you're going to live a real long life, buddy.
Think about it.
You want to go out and work hard
and slave and work your fingers to the bone
so that she can run up all your credit cards?
Right? Buying dumb things?
And come home to a filthy house
because she's sitting on the sofa in a pair of sweatpants?
Yeah, when you were dating, she'd dress and doll herself up.
Now it's a sweatsuit.
Right?
Now it's a sweatsuit and a tub of ice cream in front of the sofa.
Right?
Think about it.
I mean, do you want to come home to that filthy house?
And then you come home and say,
Honey, what's for dinner?
Nothing. Take me out to dinner.
You know?
Right?
You've got a long life to live.
Right?
And so these are the things you really ought to be looking at, guys.
I'm trying to help you out, guys.
Before you marry the wrong person,
why don't you look at that girl and say,
Wait a minute.
Is she lazy?
Is she sitting around all day?
Is she self-centered?
Does she love church?
Does she win souls?
Does she love the Bible?
Now you say, Well, was your wife all those things when you met her?
Look, my wife was many of those things.
Did she love the Bible and love God?
Well, look, I taught her to love the Bible and love God before we got married.
And she was reading the Bible.
She was in church.
She was doing these things.
Because these are the things that really matter in life.
Long after the beauty fades,
when was the last time that you walked in the ghetto?
I'm not trying to offend anybody.
When was the last time you walked down the street and saw a 70-year-old woman
and rolled down the window and honked the horn?
Right?
Because, hey,
I'm not trying to think.
I'm just saying.
You know, beauty fades, right?
But that could still be...
But hey, you know who one of my favorite people to be around is?
My grandma who's 87 years old.
And you know what?
I would much rather sit down and have lunch with my 87-year-old grandma down in Tucson
than to hang around with some self-centered punk
of a 20-year-old girl who's the most beautiful girl in the world.
Good night.
I would rather look at an 87-year-old woman who loves God,
loves the Bible,
gets up early, studies the Bible, wins souls.
Are you listening to me?
That's what's going to matter to you.
And it's not going to be at 87 when it matters to you.
It's going to matter to you a couple months after you get married.
Right?
I mean, the first few months, you might just be in some kind of delirium.
When you snap out of it, brother,
when you wake up in the morning and realize who you're married to...
Are you listening to me?
You're going to wish you would have listened to this sermon.
But we have guys that have been influenced by this carnal world
which puts beauty in a little box.
Hey look, if God created all women, then you know what?
God created them beautiful.
Are you listening to me?
I mean, do you think that God just creates all these ugly women?
No.
God made every single person.
If God created them in the womb,
they're not just a mixture of genes from Mom and Dad.
I don't believe that it's just a gene pool
of Mom and Dad's genes going together to make that child.
David said that he was formed and fashioned in his mother's womb,
and that he's fearfully and wonderfully made.
Now, some women alter their appearance
by putting on several hundred pounds, for example,
by caking their face in makeup,
are you listening to me?
By abusing their body in other ways
to make themselves look less than attractive.
But you know, I'm telling you something.
God made you the way that you look.
God looks down and thinks that you're a good-looking guy.
God looks down and thinks that you're beautiful
because he's the one who made you that way.
I don't know why you need to dye your hair.
Isn't that the hair color that God gave you?
Isn't that the way that God created you to look?
You're saying it's a sin?
I'm not saying it's a sin.
I'm just saying, look, I'm glad that God made me the way that I am.
And I'm proud to be the way that...
You say, that's because you're a good-looking guy.
No, that's not why.
That's the second point.
Even if I look like you.
No, I'm just kidding.
The point is, it's not because I'm a good-looking guy.
I don't know if that has anything to do with it.
But the point is that God made me look the way that I look.
God made you look the way that you look.
Just because Hollywood, are you listening,
says that this is what's beautiful.
To be anorexic, and skinny, and to dye your hair,
and have five earrings on your face,
and have a nose ring, and a tongue pierced.
That's what the world thinks is beautiful.
You know what, maybe you should just stop and think about it,
and say, wait, God created this girl.
She loves God.
She loves the Bible.
She loves preaching.
She loves soul-winning.
And not just sit there and say,
well, she doesn't look like Britney Spears,
or she doesn't look like these supermodels.
So what?
Who taught you to like that kind of a girl anyway?
Good night.
You think I'd want to be married to one of these Hollywood whores?
Because that's what they are.
Listen to me now.
They are whores.
You say, what's a whore?
Go look it up in the dictionary.
It's somebody who's paid to get in bed with other men,
and that's what they do on that silver screen, buddy.
Been to a movie lately?
Thank God I haven't been to a movie in years.
Thank God I haven't watched TV in years and years.
Thank God I threw away my TV eight years ago,
because I'm going to tell you something.
Those women are whores.
Listen, young teenage boy.
Listen, child.
You are a fool.
You need to grow up and listen to some Bible preaching,
read the Bible, be filled with the Spirit,
and not be deceived by the devil's lie,
and look at some billboard of Angelina Jolie,
or Britney Spears, or look at these other...
Where are they?
Come on, help me out, worldly ones.
Give me some of these actresses.
I don't know where they are.
What's that?
Jennifer Lopez.
Thank you.
All right.
It's an interactive sermon.
Jennifer Lopez, for example.
You say, oh, she's so beautiful,
and you sit there and covet Jennifer Lopez,
but would you want to be married to a woman
that's been with who knows how many guys,
that has no character,
that sells her body on the screen,
that sells her body on album covers,
that sells her body on billboards?
That is a whore, my friend.
And you can say, I don't like that word.
Hey, every word of God is pure,
and God is the one that used that word.
And the Bible says he's a shield
unto them that put their trust in him.
Add not unto his words,
lest he but prove thee,
and thou be found alive.
If any man teach otherwise,
and consent not to wholesome words,
even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and the doctrine which according to God is,
he is proud, knowing nothing,
but doting about questions and strikes of words,
whereof come an empty strike,
grave and feeble surprise,
perverse disputing of men of corrupt minds,
and destitute of the truth from such turn away.
Don't get mad at me about words that I use.
That's a Bible word,
and it describes what they are.
And listen, young man,
some of these girls that you see
that are so beautiful in their short shorts
and their halter top,
not just the ones on the,
some of them are whores, too, my friend.
Did you hear me?
You better look for a,
why don't you look for a girl
that's in a long skirt?
Why don't you look for a girl
that's modest and clean and decent
and think about the things that matter to God?
Don't just look at the outward appearance.
Hey, man, look at the outward appearance,
but God looks on the heart.
You know, thank God,
I'm married to a beautiful woman.
You know, and you're like,
well, it's easier for you to say,
you're married to these beautiful women.
Now look, when I got married,
I chose to base it 100% on looks,
and that's why I'm married to God.
But thank God it turned out
to be a great personality.
No, I'm just kidding.
But the point is,
other people have not been so lucky, right?
You know, they marry somebody based on looks,
and you know, they end up with a wicked woman,
a lazy woman.
Now my wife works hard.
She gets up early,
she stays up late,
she works hard,
she takes care of the house,
she cooks the meals,
she raises the kids.
Thank God for a virtuous woman
that I'm married to.
So look, why don't you listen to somebody
who knows what they're talking about,
because I'm married to a woman
that exemplifies Proverbs 31.
So why don't you listen to somebody
who knows what he's talking about?
I'm up here telling you
what to look for in a woman,
not to just look at the outward appearance
and be enamored by looks.
You say,
well, what about the ladies,
priests of the ladies?
How about a guy
who's going to be able to provide?
Oh, well,
you shouldn't think about that at all.
A loney.
Oh, it shouldn't matter
how much money he makes.
Yeah, it sure does matter.
Now, I'm not saying he has to be rich
or make a lot of money,
but how about this,
a job would be a good start.
You know what I mean?
Like, a job?
I didn't say a six-figure income.
How about just a job?
Or how about this,
a car?
That'd be great, wouldn't it?
I mean, because then
you can actually, you know,
not have to rely on
riding a bus pregnant,
you know what I mean,
to go to the grocery store.
Now look,
it's getting quiet in here,
you know what I mean?
Look,
get a job, right?
I mean, look for a guy that has a job.
Look for a guy that drives a car.
Now look,
the point that I'm trying to make is
if a guy's going to get married,
he needs to be able to provide.
Right?
If he doesn't have a job,
are you working on people without a job?
No.
But do they need to get a job?
Of course they do.
Everybody knows that.
People who don't have a car,
no problem.
But are you ready to have a family
if you don't have a car?
Probably not.
Probably time to work toward
getting a car, right?
So that you can put your kids
in the car
and take them places.
You understand that?
And so what I'm saying is,
look, girls,
don't just say,
oh, he's so fun.
That fun is going to wear off.
Pretty soon,
that humor that you laugh at,
oh, he's just a funny guy I've ever met.
He's going to grind your nerves.
You're going to tell him
to wipe that stupid smile off your face
and go make some money.
For crying out loud,
I'm sick of eating top ramen.
I'm sick of eating, you know,
stuff out of a can and this garbage.
And you're going to say,
quit joking around.
It'll work 80 hours a week
and bring in some money.
Right?
And you know what?
You want to marry some guy
that's going to send you off to work all day
and put your kid in daycare
to be molested by who knows who?
Sorry, I'm telling you the truth this morning.
Hey, you want to marry a guy
who's going to provide
so that you can stay home,
marry, bear children,
and guide the house
like God commanded you to do
in 1 Timothy 5.14.
And so you want to get married
to a guy who's going to provide.
And then he provides not for his own.
He has denied the faith
and is worse than an infidel,
the Bible says.
Then he provides not for his own,
not for those of his own house.
He's denied the faith
and is worse than an infidel.
You say, well, I married a believer.
Yeah, but he's worse than an unbeliever
because he's a believer
who doesn't provide.
Did you hear that?
Worse than an infidel.
He said it's worse
than being married to an unbeliever.
Some saved guy who doesn't work.
Now look, you say,
oh man, you're just ripping on people
that don't make money or whatever.
Look, I'm not ripping on anybody
who doesn't make money.
I'm ripping on people
who just continually, habitually don't work
because they're lazy.
That's what I'm talking about.
I mean, look, you will eventually
be able to provide
if you work in this country.
I'm not saying you'll be provided tomorrow.
I'm not saying you'll be provided the next day.
But you know what?
If you work hard,
if you roll up your sleeves
and work, I don't care what the job is,
I don't care what the economy is,
if you work hard, work hard,
God will bless you.
He will reward you
if you do your work as unto the Lord.
Even if it's the most humble job,
are you listening?
Even if it's the most humble job,
if you give it 100%,
God will bless you in the long run.
I've worked at some humble jobs.
I've struggled.
When I got married,
I was working at a pizza place.
Thank God my wife hadn't heard this sermon.
But anyway,
you know, I'm just kidding.
I didn't have a car.
1991 Ford Tempo.
I didn't have a car,
but I didn't have a good job.
I had a crummy job.
But I was saving up money.
So that's what you can see,
a little fiscal responsibility there.
And you know what?
I was working at a pizza place,
but I gave it everything I had at that pizza place.
I mean, I worked really hard.
I took it really seriously.
And then God blessed me with better jobs.
God will bless you if you work hard,
because the Bible says in Ephesians 6,
knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth,
and this is the context of your job,
the same shall he receive of the Lord,
whether he be bond or free.
Honestly, God will bless you.
And don't think,
oh, man, I heard somebody say this.
Well, if you don't pay much,
you don't get much.
And so people would go to a minimum wage job
and say, I'm not going to give it 100%,
because if you don't pay much,
you don't get much.
That's garbage.
That's not life.
You go to that minimum wage job,
and you work your tail off,
God will pay you.
If they're not paying you a fair wage,
if they're paying you too low,
you will get it recompensed from God.
I mean, I've been ripped off by so many jobs.
There was a job, for example,
that really lied to me and deceived me
and ripped me off for years.
And today, my business is thriving,
and that guy is having a struggle,
as I just found out.
You know, I'm not deriving joy from that.
I'm just telling you a fact.
I'm just saying, he's struggling right now.
This economy is hurting him,
and he has ripped off his employees all along.
He's got what's coming to him.
And I got what was coming to me,
because I took a job that was low-paying,
and I still gave it everything I had.
I still work hard.
Go out and work, guys,
and make yourself eligible.
Then go out and find a good wife.
Not based on looks, not based on appearance,
but based on character and quality of their soul,
who they are.
Not the outward appearance.
And by the way,
you don't have to be girls and guys,
listen to this, both.
You don't have to be some skinny, anorexic freak
to be good looking.
And that's what our society is teaching today.
You see these girls that are skinny,
and they're like,
oh, I'm on a diet.
You're insane.
You know, put on a little weight,
for crying out loud.
Is anybody listening to me?
I mean, don't sit there and feel like
you have to live up to some skinny-bone standard.
That's not normal, right?
And guess what?
Did you know that God made everybody different?
And some ladies were not made to be that skinny.
It's just true.
I mean, the way that their bodies configured,
are you listening to me?
The way their bodies configured is different.
Some girls are made to be skinny.
Some are made to be,
nobody's made to be 500 pounds.
You know, that's obviously a problem with eating.
But what I'm trying to say is that,
you don't have to just say,
oh man, she's fat.
It's like, good night, man.
You know?
Is anybody listening?
They don't have to be that skinny.
Just relax a little on that, okay?
All the ladies love me right now.
It's true though.
I mean, I'm just preaching the truth.
The world in Hollywood is what programmed you
to love this skinny as a bone appearance.
You know, some girls are designed to be skinny.
Fine.
That's not the point.
Starving yourself and all this,
that's a whole other sermon.
But the point that I'm trying to make is,
girls, why don't you look past the humor
and the debonair and the cool Mr. Cool,
you know, Mr. Good Looking Guy.
Why don't you see if that guy can provide?
Why don't you see if that's who you want to be,
your spiritual leader for the rest of your life?
Think about this now, ladies.
This guy is going to be your boss.
And you know, you may not like this part of the sermon,
but this is as true as the day is long.
In Genesis chapter 3, the Bible says,
and he shall rule over thee.
Genesis 3 16 says that a man is supposed to rule over his wife.
It says let the wife, you know, submit to her own husband,
that wives are supposed to obey their husbands in all things.
Now that is not popular preaching,
but the Bible teaches that wives would obey their husbands
and submit to their husbands.
You don't have to get far in your Bible reading, honey, to read that.
It's in Genesis 3 16.
He shall rule over thee.
Now listen to me.
Do you want this guy ruling over you for the rest of your life?
Stop and think about that.
You know, when you're dating some guy that's a deadbeat,
is this who you want to be giving you the orders for the rest of your life?
Is this the one that you want teaching you
and choosing what church to go to
and taking you in the right direction for God?
That's a pretty sobering thought.
I mean, if I were a lady,
I would be much more apprehensive about who I married
than as a man, at least I know I'm the leader.
I'm going to be setting the tone here.
I'm going to control the direction here.
But good night as a lady, you better stop and think.
This guy's your leader.
This guy's your provider.
I mean, who's going to determine what kind of house we live in
or what kind of lifestyle we live in
or what church we go to
or how our home is like?
It's more me than her, right?
Because I'm the one who goes out and works.
I'm the one who chooses what church we go to.
I'm the one who chooses what town we live in.
I mean, if it's scriptural, it's the truth.
But look, ladies, you're putting that,
you're putting yourself in the hands of somebody else
to make those decisions.
You better stop and think.
Is this a godly man?
Is this a righteous man?
Is this a hard-working man?
Those are the things that you ought to be looking for.
And men, is this the lady that you want to come home to
or made?
Not just because she's a Shelby GT500 on the outside,
because on the inside, she's a Hugo.
You know what I mean?
On the inside, she's a Hoopty.
On the inside, she's a 1960s Monte Carlo on the inside.
You better look on the inside and not on the outside.
And so I could go on all day,
I don't want to belabor the points here,
but the bottom line is, I'll just wrap it up by saying this.
Look, don't let the world or the Charismatics
or the Quakers or the Mennonites or the Pentecostals
determine what you believe about this stuff.
Get in the Bible and study it.
The Bible tells us that we have freedom.
God gives us liberty.
God doesn't have a will for where I eat lunch today.
Okay?
Any kind of Calvinist friend?
Or any kind of Calvinist friend for that matter?
God does not have a perfect will for where I'm eating lunch today.
You know where I'm going to eat lunch today?
Wherever I want.
Now, does God want me to go to some bar?
No.
So God has rules about where I eat lunch today.
Does God want me to just spoon a bunch of lard and hydrogenated fats
and McDonald's across the street?
I can say that because all of my preaching is from McDonald's,
is for what I was like.
You got this out of the tape?
Before all of them gets the tape?
Hey, God doesn't want me to eat a bunch of junk.
But does God care whether I go to Chipotle or Panda Express?
He doesn't care.
He gives me the choice.
He says, eat what you want.
Marry who you want.
Marry who you think is best, only in the Lord.
And you're going to have to live with that continual dropping
if you make the wrong choice.
You're going to have to suffer the rest of your life
if you make that wrong choice.
And you know what?
You can talk to people, if you want,
that have suffered through decades
because they married someone who did not fit these qualifications.
But you know what?
There are a lot of fish in the sea.
Be wise.
God will lead you.
God will guide you.
God will direct you.
Acknowledge Him and He'll direct your paths,
not to one person in this world, but to a prudent wife,
to a godly woman, to a godly man.
Think about these things.
Let them sink down in your ears.
Don't let this go over your head.
Kids, teenagers, young adults,
don't let this go over your head.
Take this to heart and analyze,
what are you really looking for in that person when you're dating?
And by the way, when you go out on a date,
man, there's so much more in the sermon that I didn't get to
about how you shouldn't be, you know,
all the things that you should not be doing physically.
I mean, I have all that from, you know, proof from the Bible and stuff.
All the things that you should not be doing.
But I'm going to tell you something.
When you do go out on a date,
and by the way, you should be in a public place,
you know how to do this in a sermon,
not secluded somewhere,
making provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof.
You know, be it out in public,
where you're not in a bedroom together or something with the door shut.
Hello.
You know, be out in public at a restaurant or, you know,
at a park or somewhere that's exposed.