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We need to cover what's proper. So there's a honorable thing to do which is to pursue somebody in marriage. The Bible says marriage is honorable in all and the bed undefiled but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. But here's the thing, it's actually an honorable thing to pursue somebody in marriage. Now there's a lot of parents that discourage their children from getting married and people that say, oh you should just wait and wait and wait and wait and date and date and date and date. Look, if you've been dating somebody for two years and you haven't figured out whether you're gonna marry them or not, you need to get it figured out. The Bible says, who so findeth a wife findeth a good thing and obtaineth favor of the Lord. So when you actually find a wife, if you're a man, you have obtained favor of the Lord. The Lord is blessing you. That's a blessing. It's not a dirty thing. It's not a bad thing. I've heard people say, I've literally heard Christians say, oh it's just such a dirty thing. Well you know what, you have kids, you got married, so stop saying that it's dirty. You know what, intimacy in marriage is a wonderful thing, it's a gift from the Lord, but people have taken and perverted it today and it's become so perverted in America that people have literally read into the scriptures and read into reality that that intimacy is bad. No, intimacy is good, it's blessed, it's ordained of God. Look, if a man didn't want to have intimacy with a woman, we wouldn't be here. The human population would have gone extinct. We need that desire, that desire is ordained of God, but it's to be carried out in your marriage. Not with your live-in concubine, not with your live-in girlfriend, that you swap out every few years. The Bible says in 1 Timothy 5 verse 14, it says, I will therefore that the younger women marry their children and guide the house. So young ladies, you may say, well what's God's will for my life? Get married, bear children, guide the house. That's what God wants you to do. It's really that simple. Now I have a friend of mine, one of my best friends, he fell in love with a young lady at a Fundamental Baptist Church, and she fell in love with him, and they were going to get married, and they were young people, and I thought, wow, praise the Lord. I actually go out of my way to congratulate people that are going to get married, or that are looking to marry and do it right. Amen. I congratulate them, I think that's awesome. But they were looking to get married, and the young lady, her father stepped in, and the father does have the authority. I respect the man to this day, but he said, no honey, he says, I don't want you to get married, I want you to go off to Bible College for four years. I want you to go and learn the Bible. Hello, she should have learned the Bible at home. You should have taught her the Bible. But no, she needs to go learn the Scriptures from somebody else. Okay, great. She goes to Bible College, she ends up hooking up with a bunch of different guys, and now she's miserable as can be, she is a wreck today, because she didn't do what God told her to do by getting married, bearing children, and guiding the house. That's what the Bible says to do. It doesn't say, you know, when God brought Adam to Eve, he didn't say, alright Adam, let me give you a dating program, we'll see how it works out for a few years. He brought her to him and said, get married, be fruitful and multiply. That's what the Bible says, folks. You know, parents always say, oh, my son's not ready, my daughter's not ready. Instead of saying that, the best thing I think to do, and I've only been a parent here for about a year, I've been married for a little bit, and I don't want to speak about things that I know not of, but I know what the Bible says, but I think that the wiser thing to do, instead of saying, oh, you're not ready to get married, is to say, you know what, let me help you get ready to get married. Sometimes we get so caught up with the don'ts that we don't end up doing the do's. That's the problem in America today. That girl is in a wreck today because she didn't follow God's will, she went into the way of the world, and if you notice the last part, it says that the younger women should marry, bear children, guide the house, and then it said, for some are already turned aside unto Satan. So some people that haven't gone God's route are already turned aside unto the devil. It's worldly. I just want to say it's worldly to be in a relationship for years and years and years, and then say, oh, well, you know, I ask people, hey, you've been in a relationship for a couple years, some of my friends, you've been in a relationship for a few years, you guys looking to get married? Oh no, not too quick, not so fast. Have you ever read the Bible? You know, anytime somebody says, not so fast, that's crazy. It either tells me that A, they're worldly, or B, they're just not reading the scriptures. So, you know, people have been influenced to think that you have to have this long-term relationship. Look, I'm not saying to get married overnight, you know. Same thing with Isaac and Rebecca, you know. When Isaac saw Rebecca, and Rebecca saw Isaac and leapt over to meet him, it was a very exciting time for them, and they were getting married, but Isaac didn't go, well, let me test the waters first, let me date you for a while first. They got married! And marriage is true love, it's commitment. When you live with somebody outside of marriage, you're showing them, I'm not committed. You're showing them, you know what, I can just up and leave at any minute. Marriage actually puts legal things in place, as well, to protect you from just up and leaving on a moment's notice. People say Christianity is a sexist religion. They're sexist towards women. No, actually, we care for women. We tell women that they should get married, that they should have security. What's better than that? You can't beat that. I'm sorry, God's model scientifically is superior, God's model biblically is superior, God's model is always superior. And people that sleep around before marriage, they're more likely to have a divorce than ever before. The statistics are off the chart. You say, well, Brother Powell, we live in a nation where 97% of people have had physical relationships with people outside of marriage, and it's too late. No, it's not too late. You can actually set a date and say, okay, from this day forward, I'm not gonna sleep around, I'm not gonna look at pornography, I'm not gonna do the things that I shouldn't be doing, I'm gonna focus on what God has told me to focus on, and I'm gonna invest in the person that God wants me to marry. And you know what really drives me crazy is, you know, women—and this is a good thing, this is something that God gave women and men over each other—is jealousy. There is good jealousy. Women are often so insecure, they're always asking their husbands, why are you looking at other women in public? Or, oh, please don't look at other women. And all women do this, just about. All women, even women that are not Christians, Christians, Muslims, Jews, whoever, they'll be jealous over their husband and his eyes or their boyfriend. Look, if everybody just dressed modestly, if everybody just clothed themselves, if everybody just did what God told them to do and not show off their bodies, we wouldn't have that problem. But it's because people have rebelled against God that we have these issues. Physical intimacy is a gift from God, it's beautiful, it's ordained of God, but it is to be taken seriously. If you have a physical relationship with someone who you're not married to, you are being hateful—all caps—to your future spouse, whether you know it or not. When you do get married, your spouse will constantly wonder, did you like any of your previous partners more than me? Is that what you want your family to have? You say, well, Brother Powell, I've made the mistake. Set a date and say, okay, I'm not gonna—and think about this. Who here has seen, like, Love Come Softly, these romantic stories? They're beautiful stories. My wife and I have been in tears watching these movies. They're beautiful. It wouldn't be a very good story if the lady on Love Come Softly was just the company run around for a Beauty and the Beast, beauty's just off hanging out with a bunch of men at the bar. That's not very loving. Nobody would ever buy that. That would be off of the Hollywood market. That wouldn't even sell as a movie. God wired us to be touched emotionally when we see true love. The Bible says, Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing and obtaineth favor of the Lord. And people say, well, you know, these young men always say, well, I just don't understand why my wife just hasn't come into my life yet. I say, well, are you looking? Well, whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, so the Lord's just gonna bring her. Who so findeth? I found it. That means you were looking, okay? You gotta look. Seek and ye shall find, right? Knock and it shall be opened unto you. This is such basic logic, but people miss it because they don't read the Bible. And we have to realize, no matter what, because men are always gonna struggle with lust. That's something that's a problem for us. It's because we've fallen. We're sinful creatures. But what we need to do is make no occasion for the flesh to, provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lust thereof. That means that if you struggle with wine and alcohol abuse, and you have a Jack Daniel's in your fridge, that you need to get rid of it. You don't need to have it just sitting in there, oh, I'm trying to give it up. Yeah, right. It's sitting in your refrigerator. Get it out of there! you