Relationship Goals

Intro

Tonight we’re talking about dating. Not just dating but dating in a way that would honor God.

When I was a teen I heard things like it’s a sin to be alone w/ a B/G. You have to be w/ someone who how to the same church otherwise you’re unequally yoked. If you’re hairs to short it sin. If you wear take tops, short shorts for guys no shirt you could cause someone to sin. Don’t hold hands it could cause sin. Don’t be too close you could sim, don’t kiss you could sin. Etc.

Tbh I was terrified to date, it was all that plus insecurity. I didn’t legit dare anyone til I was 18. And it was Mandie.

Tonight is not my goal to give you a bunch of hard and fast rules about dating when it comes to biblical principles. Because honestly looking at scripture and the culture during that time dating wasn’t really a thing. What they were doing in most cases is getting married off and more of a bartering type of system. Like for instants a 1314 year old girl would be trained to be able to cook clean and take care of their dad as preparation for when they were old enough to get married off for 20 cows and three goats. But today what we’re talking about and what the goal is is giving you some form of guidelines as to set you up to date in a way that is healthy for you and also glorifies God.

Before we start we wanna make sure that if your parents are willing that you talk to them about some of the ways that they are comfortable with you dating. Because God put them under your care and you want to at least meet their standards when it comes to dating. However there’s some parents who either want to give all the freedom to their kids in so their boundaries may be even pass what you’re comfortable with. And say so ultimately if you’re in that situation you want to make sure that the way that you’re dating lines up with biblical character.

Date Healthy

In our current culture people date for different reasons. For some people they date because they have these feelings that they have no idea what to do w/ so as a reaction to those feelings and the culture they hold hands, kiss, and sometimes it leads to sex. For other people they date because they are dating to eventually find a spouse. But as Christian people we want to date both in a healthy way and responsibly I heard on this Read Proverbs 22:6

What would you guys define as healthy dating?

Ok, so as a believer what I would consider healthy dating is putting at the forefront of every decision made in that relationship, is this going to hurt or help my relationship w/ Jesus. Is this going to pull me further away from my relationship w/ Jesus? Is this going to distract me from my relationship w/ Jesus. You guys have probably heard me say this before, but as Christian’s Everything is supposed to point back and forward to Christ.it’s the most important relationship we have. That’s the relationship we’re to protect the most.

In most cases parents are training their children from a young age to honor those w/ authority, to do do things for themselves, to look for danger, to problem solve, pickup after themselves, help othersetc. then the get to a certain age where they from training to do the most basic of things to expecting them to do the most basic of things.

Maintain Boundaries

Most commonly the biggest boundary that Christians are known to try and keep is not having sex before marriage. That’s something that is definitely important and we’ll talk about that, but boundaries are more than just no having sex.

Read 1 Corinthians 7:2

1 Corinthians 7:2 NKJV

Nevertheless, because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband.

Sex in all parts of Media is something that’s brought up. It’s brought up at school,etc. But something they