Forrest: Good morning.
Forrest: I don't want to introduce myself because I wasn't here last Sunday and you've already forgotten about me.
Forrest: But uh because um every Sunday is somebody's first time at Multiply Church now.
Forrest: And I don't assume that everybody knows me, and so two two years ago my family, among others, came moved here to Frankfurt to lead the planting of multiply church.
Forrest: We're glad you're here today.
Forrest: Would it be okay?
Forrest: Would you mind if before I get into my message today, we talk about Asbury for a little bit?
Forrest: Would you mind?
Forrest: I I've got some notes on my phone here that I've uh got for myself because I'd like for us to talk about it.
Forrest: Um it's funny, uh you all have seen that for 15 consecutive days over the last two weeks that worship, prayer, repentance, preaching, salvation happened for a continuous 24 hours a day for 15 days straight at Asbury University.
Forrest: Incredible.
Forrest: I also noticed over the last two weeks that a lot of people that are on my social media are experts on revival.
Forrest: Just suddenly in the last two weeks, everybody's become an expert.
Forrest: You know, I don't I don't know what you call it revival, awakening, outpouring.
Forrest: I I I'm not a revivalist, and that's not my area of expertise.
Forrest: I also know when you get three Christians together, well, if you get two Christians together, you get three opinions.
Forrest: So there's been a lot of talk out there about what Asbury was and is and what it could be and what it should be and what it wasn't.
Forrest: And what I do know is this is that it was an outpouring of peace.
Forrest: I I got to go three times.
Forrest: And it I went on the first Monday after it began, and there was plenty of seats.
Forrest: Um I just walked in.
Forrest: A week later, I went on the next Monday, and the line was a mile long.
Forrest: And the only reason I got in that day is because I served as an usher.
Forrest: Um, because uh a guy that I know who works at Asbury invited me to come in to serve as an usher.
Forrest: And then I served on the last, and that was that Monday was the last open to the public day.
Forrest: And then I served last Thursday night, which was the last night of the Asbury revival outpouring, it was just for Gen Z.
Forrest: And in the room at Asbury, this college campus, over the top of the altar, the very ceiling, the words are holiness unto the Lord.
Forrest: And so there's been a lot of talk about is it a revival?
Forrest: Is it not a revival?
Forrest: I know this on Thursday night when it was full of Gen Z and the three hours that I was there and serving, over 20 students gave their life to Christ because of gospel invitation.
Forrest: I've heard a lot of talk.
Forrest: Oh, well, this isn't a revival because there wasn't preaching, there was preaching.
Forrest: There just wasn't preaching 24 hours a day.
Forrest: Yeah, I've heard I've seen videos of people, well, I went to Asbury and nobody preached the gospel.
Forrest: Well, they were literally worshiping and doing things for 24 hours a day.
Forrest: There were a lot of different elements to it.
Forrest: And one thing that I want to encourage us right now in is that comparison is not helpful.
Forrest: Again, I'm not a revivalist and don't know about these things, but different revivals have been marked by different things.
Forrest: The Welsh Revival in uh 1904 was marked by um lost my notes, was marked by salvation and social change.
Forrest: The Azusa Revival in 1906 in California, that that birthed the Pentecostal movement, was marked by signs and wonders.
Forrest: Outpouring of those spiritual gifts.
Forrest: Brownsville in 1995 through 2000, three and a half million people went through Brownsville, Florida.
Forrest: And it was marked by deliverance and signs and wonders.
Forrest: And I really think that this outpouring over the last couple of weeks has been marked by peace and prayer.
Forrest: And isn't it interesting that the Lord would send a move in 2023 of peace when the number one thing plaguing Gen Z is anxiety and depression?
Forrest: Isn't that just like God?
Forrest: At the right moment at the right time to send the right thing.
Forrest: I heard testimony after testimony of students that went up in that time that I was there, and almost every single one talked about being plagued with anxiety and depression.
Forrest: One girl in particular, shared by the fact that she had been plagued and by anxiety and depression, but over the last week, since she had been coming to the revival, she had realized that her identity was not in anxiety and depression, but was in Christ.
Forrest: And the student that was with her said that she hadn't been the same all week.
Forrest: So you may not have gotten to go to the Asperger Revival, but I went for you.
unknown: Thank you, sir.
Forrest: I got to see a hunger for God.
Forrest: One of the things that Mark, and again, these these thoughts are not fully processed, but as people poured into the room, and on that Monday, the room, the the uh line was a mile long, and I was seating people in the Gen Z section, which was the main middle section, and then there was everybody else was old.
Forrest: So as I was doing my hand, it was like Gen Z here, old, I got three seats for old here, I got three, and it was like this trickle because people didn't want to leave, but the it was like one or two seats would be open at a time.
Forrest: And I remember both times that I served, they had taken a small break, not from worship.
Forrest: Someone led and someone led worship even in an empty room all night long.
Forrest: But the room filled up twice and trying to get everybody into a seat.
Forrest: And I remember people getting into a seat and the music had been playing and just continuing, and just people, I remember this one guy came in and immediately just lifted his hands in worship.
Forrest: He'd been there for one second, but he had been preparing in the line to get into the presence of God.
Forrest: And so every person is just like they hit their seat, they were hungry for the Lord.
Forrest: The Gen Z night, I remember on Thursday, the younger people, they they kind of filtered in, and the guy was up leading worship, and you know, younger people, they were kind of their friends and talking with us.
Forrest: So about 20 minutes, they were just kind of talking and kind of getting the feel for a room, not realizing that nobody was gonna walk up on stage and say, Okay, everybody, now it's time to sing.
Forrest: But then they slowly began to sing and began to realize, like, oh, this is an outpouring.
Forrest: I'm joining in with something that's been happening continuously for 15 days.
Forrest: But a hunger for God.
Forrest: One thing I also appreciate about Asbury is that every time I was there, somebody on stage in the administration or somebody who spoke said, This is not church.
Forrest: I think one of the reasons Asbury is a Christian college, a bunch of Methodists, is theologically tight.
Forrest: I think the reason that they did not do water baptisms during the revival is because they're not a church.
Forrest: And they know theologically that the local church does the ordinance of baptism in the Lord's Supper.
Forrest: Could they have baptized a lot of people every day?
Forrest: I think they could have.
Forrest: But they recognize the fact that this was not a church, and actually, each time I was in there, they said, take this with you to your church.
Forrest: Be sent from this place.
Forrest: And so two more thoughts.
Forrest: One is that there's a group of friends of mine and Emily's who are in Wilmore, Nicholasville that have been praying for revival to come for decades.
Forrest: Kurt, his family, the Vernons, I know his mom, has been praying for probably 20 years on her knees, hardcore, every day, for God to bring a revival to the Wilmore-Nicholasville area.
Forrest: You know how much that encourages me to see then God bring an outpouring after the heartfelt, intense prayers and hunger for God to move.
Forrest: And so people are saying, like, oh, well, they shut it down.
Forrest: The Asperger revival is over.
Forrest: I don't know if you heard this or not, but today Ruperina is going to be open from 2 p.m.
Forrest: to 11 p.m.
Forrest: for worship, for prayer, for repentance.
Forrest: It's some random evangelist out of Minneapolis who I guess had the cash to rent Ruperina.
Forrest: I I signed up to serve as a prayer team member today.
Forrest: I don't know if they're a bunch of wackos.
Forrest: I'll find out firsthand and let you know.
Forrest: But I know this.
Forrest: I want to be in the mix to see what God does.
Forrest: One of my friends who've been praying for revival for a long time, Kurt and his family, one of his prayers has been that God would fill up Commonwealth Stadium with revival.
Forrest: You know, the the latest, the latest projection, or I guess the latest estimate of how many people came through Wilmore in the last 15 days is over 100,000 people.
Forrest: I think Commonwealth is 65,000.
Forrest: So will this go from Reparina to Commonwealth Stadium?
Forrest: I have no idea.
Forrest: But I know this.
Forrest: God is on the move.
Forrest: And the seeds of faith have been prayed by his people are coming to fruition, and we get to be a part of it.
Forrest: Is this an awakening of our nation?
Forrest: Is this a revival?
Forrest: It's still yet to be seen.
Forrest: Whenever there have been moments of revival that has swept our nation, it's been marked by change.
Forrest: Marriages.
Forrest: One of the largest revivals that happened in America, right after that, child labor laws were changed to protect the most vulnerable in our country.
Forrest: So will this be an awakening for our nation?
Forrest: I pray that it is.
Forrest: And I want to say this.
Forrest: When it comes to matters of God moving and awakening or revival or whatever it is, I would rather be gullible than be a skeptic.
Forrest: I would rather be gullible than be critical.
Forrest: I've seen lots of criticism.
Forrest: But I'll end by saying this.
Forrest: When I served as an usher, I was in the volunteer headquarters.
Forrest: I didn't post this picture.
Forrest: There are tons of Asbury staff and volunteers who are back there.
Forrest: Tons of food.
Forrest: There were professors and administrators who had stopped doing their job so that they could help to be ushers, to do all these administrative things.
Forrest: The whiteboard and the volunteer headquarters was filled from edge to edge with names of volunteers and coordinators and people, and I realized how much investment Asbury had made over the last two weeks to see this continue.
Forrest: The whole thing about this was like, you know, organic and unplanned and unorganized is not the case.
Forrest: It was very organized.
Forrest: The people who led, the people who led worship may have been nameless, faceless people, but there are people who worked tremendously hard to see the last two weeks happen.
Forrest: And I understand for them as a university for the reason why they wanted to get back to doing classes and all those things.
Forrest: But I'll say this: the heart unto the Lord and the mindset has really impacted me.
Forrest: Every person who got on stage, whether they were a teenager or a young adult who to lead worship, to speak to anything, before they were able to go on stage, one of the kind of guiding principles that these students came up with, one which was no celebrities on stage.
Forrest: Another was that every person who went on stage had to go to a prayer room called the consecration room and pray and be prayed over for 30 minutes before they got on stage to make sure their heart was right with the Lord.
Forrest: And this morning I felt challenged and sat in my seat this morning for 20 minutes just praying.
Forrest: Asking the Lord to consecrate my heart for today as I share.
Forrest: So I just asked if can we just pray together and join together in prayer now over what God's doing and see for Him to do more.
Forrest: Father, we thank you, Lord, for how powerful you are, how good you are to us.
Forrest: We thank you, God, for the outpouring that we've seen here in our state.
Forrest: God, we pray for more.
Forrest: God, help us, Lord, to not look through our own lens, but to look through your eyes, God.
Forrest: Look through heaven's eyes.
Forrest: What you see have seen, people repenting, young people coming to faith, turning from sin, being set free, receiving peace for the first time.
Forrest: God, we pray, Lord, over this time at Reparena today, God, that it would be marked with the same level of humility, power.
Forrest: God, as a as an antidote to the culture.
Forrest: God, we have pushed the church to the edge of light shows and huge stadiums and celebrity and concert.
Forrest: Father, I pray today would be authentic and real.
Forrest: Lord, we'd see a move that would sweep the nation, Father.
Forrest: No, you're the only one who can do it.
Forrest: Help us, Lord, to pray for your heart to be moved.
Forrest: And God, we would see, Lord, people changed and our nation go through a revival and an awakening that only you can do.
Forrest: In Jesus' name.
Forrest: Amen.
Forrest: I'm talking today about being the MVP of marriage and dating, and I'm short on time now because that took longer than I thought.
Forrest: But hopefully y'all are okay with that.
Forrest: There's a lot of ways that uh you in a marriage, especially men, can get in trouble and start a fight.
Forrest: There was a woman that was standing in a bedroom and she was looking in the mirror and she was feeling bad about the way that she looked.
Forrest: Her husband came in the room and she said to him, Honey, I'm feeling really upset right now and down on myself because I don't look as young as I used to.
Forrest: And the husband looked at her.
Forrest: He said, Baby, your eyesight is still perfect.
Forrest: It's awful.
Forrest: The wrong thing to say.
Forrest: You can put your foot in the mouth, you can pick a fight, you can start a fight.
Forrest: All the time it can happen in marriage.
Forrest: And we talk about what it looks like for us in marriage and dating for us to be the most valuable player.
Forrest: I know that there are times for each of us in our marriage relationship, in our dating relationship, when we have felt valued.
Forrest: And there are also times that we have not felt valued.
Forrest: We talk about being the MVP, the most valuable player, is the one who adds the most value, is the one who's the most valuable player.
Forrest: John Maxwell in 21 Laws of Leadership has this law or principle of addition.
Forrest: But to add value to others, you must truly value others.
Forrest: To add value to others, you must, we must make ourselves more valuable to others.
Forrest: And to add value to others, we must know and relate to what others value.
Forrest: In our relationships, we're always, John Maxwell says, either adding value to someone or taking it away.
Forrest: There's no neutral.
Forrest: And so when we're at home and we're ignoring our spouse, we're at home and we think like, oh, well, I'm not really tearing them down, but are you building them up and adding value to them?
Forrest: How do you become the most valuable player, so to speak, when it comes to your relationship and walking with God?
Forrest: And ultimately, how do we apply the Bible to our marriage and dating relationships?
Forrest: This message is by no means going to be comprehensive.
Forrest: But I want to zero in on one aspect of our marriage and dating life.
Forrest: But I want to start with Jesus' words in Matthew 7, verse 34 through 39.
Forrest: Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise.
Forrest: Like a person who builds a house on solid rock.
Forrest: Though the rain comes and torrents and the flood waters rise and the wind beats against that house, it won't collapse because it's built on bedrock.
Forrest: But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn't obey it is foolish.
Forrest: Like a person who builds a house on sand, and the rains and the flood come and the winds beat against the house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.
Forrest: When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching.
Forrest: For he taught with real authority, quite unlike their teachers of religious law.
Forrest: Jesus says, If you follow my teaching, you will be wise, and you will build a house on a firm foundation.
Forrest: But if you're foolish, you'll build a house on sand that will break apart, that won't survive the test of time and the torrents and the wind to come.
Forrest: This word foolish, Proverbs, let's talk about what it means to be a fool.
Forrest: Because in Proverbs, Proverbs talks about what it is to be a fool a lot.
Forrest: In Proverbs 12, 15, it says that a fool is convinced that he is right.
Forrest: Proverbs 12.16 says that a fool quickly shows his annoyance.
Forrest: Proverbs 14, 16 says that a fool is hot-headed and reckless.
Forrest: Proverbs 15, 5 spurns discipline and correction.
Forrest: Proverbs 17, 16, a fool wastes money.
Forrest: Proverbs 18, 2 says a fool delights in airing his own opinions.
Forrest: Proverbs 20, verse 3 says a fool is quick to quarrel.
Forrest: Proverbs 23, 9 says that a fool scorns wisdom.
Forrest: Proverbs 26 5 says that a fool is wise in his own eyes.
Forrest: Proverbs 28, 26 says a fool trusts in himself.
Forrest: Proverbs 29, verse 9 says a fool rages and scoffs, and there is no peace around him.
Forrest: And Proverbs 29, 11 says that a fool gives full vent to his anger.
Forrest: Now I don't know why all of those say he.
Forrest: But I have a pretty good idea why.
Forrest: Men, we can be prone to foolishness.
Forrest: Women as well.
Forrest: But you see, in just that list right there, is Jesus tells us of who is wise, who is foolish, and what the marks of a foolish person are.
Forrest: We want to be people who are walking in wisdom.
Forrest: And for our marriages, our dating life to be filled with God's wisdom and not foolishness.
Forrest: That last proverb, it echoes what Ephesians 4, verse 26 and 27 says.
Forrest: And don't let and don't uh and don't sin by letting anger control you.
Forrest: Don't let the sin go, don't let the sun go down while you are still angry.
Forrest: For anger gives a foothold to the devil.
Forrest: So anger, when we allow it to control us, it's sinful.
Forrest: And when we're angry, it allows a foothold for the devil.
Forrest: And I think about that word foothold.
Forrest: When I think about the word foothold, I think about like a rock climber.
Forrest: When somebody's climbing a scaling a wall, and a foothold is where they put their foot in, but that's not actually the image that comes from the scripture.
Forrest: The image of a foothold is more like when somebody sticks their foot in a closing door to stop it.
Forrest: Opening up your life, your marriage, your future spouse, your home, opening it, cracking the door that the devil would leave a crack so that he could get into your house to wreak havoc.
Forrest: To bring sin in.
Forrest: We don't want to give the enemy a foothold in our marriage.
Forrest: And so today the area that I want us to focus on when it comes to being most valuable player in our marriage is if we are fighting fair.
Forrest: If we're fighting fair.
Forrest: Honestly, I believe that most folks have not been taught or taught through the principles of what it looks like to fight fair.
Forrest: Most of the time when we fight it with a spouse, with a boyfriend, a girlfriend, what we end up doing is emulating whatever our parents did or whatever the model was at our house.
Forrest: That's been ingrained in us of what it looks like to fight with a spouse.
Forrest: But there are some principles that I think that would help us to be wise in following God's word when it comes to fighting with our spouse, that we can actually fight fair and in wisdom.
Forrest: That when you fight with your spouse, that after that fight, it doesn't end up worse, it ends in Resolution.
Forrest: Now, I've been married for 13 years.
Forrest: 13 amazing, beautiful years.
Forrest: My wife and I got married young.
Forrest: We were 20 and 22.
Forrest: And before getting up to preach this message, my wife said, Forrest, I want you to know you can preach this message with authority because the way that you've led our home and our marriage over the last 13 years of how to fight fair.
Forrest: That's worth the whole thing for me for preaching this message.
Forrest: To have the endorsement of my wife and the way that we have tried to carry ourselves.
Forrest: So I want to give some thoughts here.
Forrest: These won't be on the screen, but I highly encourage you to take these notes down.
Forrest: When we're fighting fair, that means they're going to give you some don'ts.
Forrest: It means you don't yell and scream and name call.
Forrest: We want to be people of peace.
Forrest: We're going to be people who are builders who build up, not tear down.
Forrest: And we want to value the other person.
Forrest: Second thing to do and not do when fighting with a spouse, boyfriend, girlfriend, is don't generalize.
Forrest: You always do this.
Forrest: You always do that.
Forrest: You never say this, you never say that.
Forrest: Whenever we give a generalized statement like that, most of the time it's not true.
Forrest: Very often, very oftentimes, most often, whenever somebody does something, it is not true that that is all that they do all the time.
Forrest: But when we generalize, we make it more about what the situation is, and we're bringing up the past.
Forrest: The third thing is don't bring up the past.
Forrest: Stay on the subject.
Forrest: The next one is set aside time to fight.
Forrest: And don't fight in your bedroom.
Forrest: Emily and I have gotten up out of bed and gone into the other room to fight for two reasons.
Forrest: One, so that the sun won't go down on our anger.
Forrest: And two, so that we can keep our marriage bed undefiled, and we can keep our room that we stay in a sanctuary for the Lord.
Forrest: Got up and got out of the room and go to another place to fight.
Forrest: Another thing that we try to model and do is we avoid the D word.
Forrest: We don't bring up that word in our fights and in our conversations.
Forrest: Now I know this.
Forrest: Some of you all may have been in marriages or currently are, or saw the family that you grew up in, and the situation was absolutely untenable.
Forrest: It felt impossible.
Forrest: Because one person or both of them did things like this.
Forrest: I also want to mention that on the don't scream and yell is also don't hit.
Forrest: While we know that God's heart is for us, not for divorce and not for us to split up as believers.
Forrest: We also know that no one should be in a situation that is unsafe.
Forrest: And so if you're out there today and you're in a situation where you're being physically abused, number one, you need to tell the police.
Forrest: And two, it it may be the right move for you all to separate so that that can get worked out.
Forrest: I have known multiple couples now in my life who have physically abused each other before Christ or gone through that, that the Lord has done a redemptive work.
Forrest: That doesn't always happen, but it can happen.
Forrest: But I don't want any woman in here hearing from me that you need to stay in a situation where you are unsafe in the household.
Forrest: I'm not telling you that you need to go file for the doors, but I'm saying that you need to be safe.
Forrest: And I want our church to be a place that's safe for women and where they hear that.
Forrest: You may be in a situation where it feels untenable.
Forrest: It feels like that there's never going to be unity.
Forrest: I want to read the words of Jesus to us.
Forrest: This is, as Paul is talking about marriage, he's giving some principles in Ephesians chapter 5, but he quotes Jesus from earlier in the Gospels and saying this.
Forrest: That statement right there is a statement from the Old Testament that Jesus echoes in the Gospels, and then now Paul is echoing it from Jesus.
Forrest: And then Paul goes on to say, This is a great mystery.
Forrest: But it is an illustration of the way that Christ and the church are one.
Forrest: So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
Forrest: Everybody say love?
Forrest: Everybody say respect.
Forrest: I think it's so interesting that last verse, if you pull it back up 33.
Forrest: That the instruction here is for men to love their wives as themselves.
Forrest: Some translations of that will say cherish.
Forrest: And that the instruction for women is that they would respect their husband, not necessarily love their husband, but respect him.
Forrest: I don't know about you men.
Forrest: I don't know about you, men, but there are days where I would much rather hear my wife say I respect you than her say, I cherish you or love you.
Forrest: And wives, what does that mean on the days that your husband is not being respectable?
Forrest: That means that you respect him anyway.
Forrest: Men, what does it mean on the days when your wife is being unlovable?
Forrest: What do you do?
Forrest: You love them anyway.
Forrest: Why?
Forrest: Because it's a picture of the way Christ loves the church.
Forrest: Aren't you thankful?
Forrest: Aren't you thankful that on your days where you're unlovable, not respectable, that Jesus doesn't turn his back on you.
Forrest: But instead pursues you and loves you and even forgives you.
Forrest: How many times?
Forrest: Seven times?
Forrest: No, seventy times, seven times.
Forrest: An unlimited amount of grace that comes from the Lord that we get to show as a picture in our marriages.
Forrest: You know what that is not?
Forrest: That is not Hollywood movie marriage.
Forrest: That's not Disney princess love.
Forrest: The love that comes from us and for us and God has given to us for marriage is a love that lasts.
Forrest: Because it's not just based on feeling, it's not just based on physical attraction.
Forrest: But based on a love that drives out fear and brings people together.
Forrest: Now for those in the dating situation, there's a lot of talk online right now, podcasts, and things about dating and looking for a high-value man or a high-value woman.
Forrest: And things being framed, I think it's so interesting that things are being framed in uh what is a high-value man or woman.
Forrest: A high value man makes a lot of money, attractive, can provide sometimes in extravagant ways, the high-value woman, someone who's doesn't have kids, who's kept themselves looking right.
Forrest: And this is how the world is framing the dating relationship.
Forrest: You know what's happened with dating apps?
Forrest: I just learned this the last few weeks.
Forrest: What's happening now with dating apps, there's obviously dating has changed unbelievably in the last few years because of dating online, because of algorithms and dating apps.
Forrest: What I recently learned is that on these dating apps, the top 10% of attractive men are receiving 80% of the interaction from women online.
Forrest: That means 90% of men on these dating apps are not getting interacted with because all of these women are interacting with the ones that are most attractive, have all the high value qualities, and all of these men out there are being passed over, are not being interacted with online.
Forrest: What's happening there?
Forrest: What's that mean for the dating pool and for the future of marriage and dating in our nation?
Forrest: I'm not really sure.
Forrest: I don't think anybody actually knows.
Forrest: This is like an experiment.
Forrest: This has never been tested.
Forrest: It's the first time we're doing this.
Forrest: Well, I know this, I saw an interview with a group of women, and it was on a podcast, and they were talking about looking for a high value man, and they had this algorithm that they were going through, and this the host was saying, so if we put in some markers here of what is a high value man in your eyes, so somebody who's 20 in the USA for 20, a man who's 20 years old to 40 years old, who's not obese, who makes more than$70,000 a year, and they went around the the table and asked these ladies, how what percentage of America, American men do you think fit those qualifications?
Forrest: And you know, they said like 20%, 10%, you know, 15% of who they were pursuing and looking at.
Forrest: And he turned to them and he said, to fit those qualifications, only 1% of men in the U.S.
Forrest: fit those qualifications.
Forrest: What I see in that is I see a fantasy land.
Forrest: A fantasy land.
Forrest: I said it before, I'll say it again.
Forrest: A six-pack abs is useless in the back of an ambulance when your child has been taken to the hospital.
Forrest: But a man who loves the Lord and prays and can intercede on behalf of your family and your child, that's what's of true value.
Forrest: Now I know physical attraction, all those things are important.
Forrest: I'm not saying it's not important.
Forrest: What I'm saying is this for us as believers and those of you who are in the dating pool, what are you basing your thoughts and future spouse in your marriage?
Forrest: What are the qualifications?
Forrest: What is high value to you?
Forrest: Proverbs 31, 30.
Forrest: This isn't on the screen, but listen closely to it.
Forrest: The scripture says, Charm is deceptive and beauty does not last, but a woman who fears the Lord will be greatly praised.
Forrest: I'm not telling you that you need to get off the dating apps and all that kind of stuff.
Forrest: I don't think that is relevant or necessarily helpful for 2023.
Forrest: But what I'm telling you is this what are the guiding principles for you of what you're looking for?
Forrest: Because charm, the pictures on social media, the pictures on the apps, that's beauty that's fleeting.
Forrest: The first DM, what do they say?
Forrest: They say something more witty than how are you?
Forrest: That's charm and it's deceitful.
Forrest: So what's the true measure?
Forrest: I know that there are some of you who are looking so much and trying to navigate the craziness of dating right now, looking for somebody who is possibly a future spouse.
Forrest: And what I'll say to you is this think about what the things are that you want to see in that person that will actually last, that's in alignment with the scripture and who that is, and let those principles guide you more than what the world is telling you right now.
Forrest: Jay and Catherine Wolfe were newlyweds in 2008.
Forrest: A year later, in 2009, when Catherine was 26 years old, she suffered a massive stroke because of a birth defect.
Forrest: She ended up in a 16-hour brain surgery to save her life.
Forrest: For two years, she was in hospital type settings, learning to eat, drink, and walk, sort of, again.
Forrest: Numerous surgeries.
Forrest: 11 months she had a feeding tube.
Forrest: 18 months later, she learned how to stand.
Forrest: In 2017, Catherine spoke at the Passion Conference in front of 70,000 18 to 25 year olds.
Forrest: And that's where Emily and I first were exposed to her and her teaching, and she's written a book now called Hope Heals, and she's written another book.
Forrest: But just a few weeks ago, she stood in front of the Passion Conference again last month at 2023 in front of 70,000 or however many thousands of young people were there, and she spoke about what it looks like to have a marriage that is strong, that lasts, that's filled with hope despite her circumstances.
Forrest: I wanted to read you a quote from her.
Forrest: She said, In all of our struggles and pain in life, no matter what it is, God is asking us to become more of who we really are.
Forrest: They now have a couple kids.
Forrest: She speaks and travels.
Forrest: I want you to listen to the words of her wife Jay.
Forrest: Or words of her husband Jay.
Forrest: Life defines us, but suffering redefines us.
Forrest: Ultimately, hope refines us, transforming us from within in ways we never could have imagined.
Forrest: Are you building a marriage on the rock?
Forrest: On the bedrock.
Forrest: When you're looking for who that person is that you would be married to, what's the vision?
Forrest: Do they have marks of attraction or what their job is or how much money they make?
Forrest: Or if they're a person of character who's going to stand by you is going to be marked by redemption.
Forrest: Can you just imagine with me right now?
Forrest: Imagine what it would be like.
Forrest: If believers, now that marriage is gone by the wayside in so many ways, but if it was in the church where people found the marriages, most of the marriages that last for 30, 40, 50 years, were in the church, a desperate world out there would be wondering, what in the world is the difference?
Forrest: What's different about them?
Forrest: I know there's some of you in the room right now that you're married over 30 years, praise God.
Forrest: There's some of you all who right now you're starting over, figuring out what you're gonna do, what you're gonna do, and who that next spouse is, and you're living the single parent life.
Forrest: What is the vision that you have and can your life be marked by redemption in this area?
Forrest: Can it be a witness to the world of who you marry, who you love, who you date, who you ultimately say yes to?
Forrest: Let it be a picture of the way that Jesus loves you and his church, his bride.
Forrest: His bride.
Forrest: So I want to challenge you today.
Forrest: Figure out how to fight fair.
Forrest: To bring resolution to your home.
Forrest: It's gonna take work.
Forrest: But I know that God can do something powerful in and through your lives to bring redemption.
Forrest: Ultimately, Jesus bring redemption for us, brought redemption for us on the cross.
Forrest: 2,000 years ago, he died for us, that we could be in right relationship with him.
Forrest: He died for his bride.
Forrest: He died for the ones that he loved, which is you and me.
Forrest: Today you may not have yet joined into a relationship with Jesus.
Forrest: Can I tell you today is your day?
Forrest: Today is your day for you to receive the love that Jesus is just waiting to give you.
Forrest: He wants to love you unconditionally as you've given your life to him.
Forrest: That he can walk with you, love you, forgive you, transform you, bring redemption, bring hope.
Forrest: No matter where life takes you, whatever the circumstances are.
Forrest: I'm gonna pray over you right now.
Forrest: Father, we thank you for today.
Forrest: God, I pray right now over our church.
Forrest: So many are in different situations.
Forrest: Ones that are walking with you but have spouses that are not.
Forrest: Ones in the room right now that are trying their best, God, to follow you and to honor you with their marriage.
Forrest: Father, I pray today, God, that you would help them, Lord, to see the truth of your word and apply it to their lives and apply it to their marriages.
Forrest: Father, I pray across the room right now, Lord.
Forrest: That those that are in the dating game, that Lord, that they would ultimately see that their value comes from you.
Forrest: God, that you would lead them in wisdom of what to look for in a spouse.
Forrest: That the markers would be in alignment, God, with who you want them to be married to, a believer who loves you, Lord, who's trying their best to follow you.
Forrest: Father, I pray right now, Lord, over our church, God, that you would flourish us.
Forrest: God, that we would submit ourselves to your way, God, that you would transform.
Forrest: And Father, I pray right now over this room, anybody in the place who's not yet begun their relationship with you, God, that today would be the day of their salvation, that they say yes to you, that they move from death to life because they receive what you've done for them on the cross 2,000 years ago.
Forrest: And if that's you this morning, head bowed, eyes closed, that you would today pray, Jesus, save me.
Forrest: I believe that you're the Son of God.
Forrest: You pray in your heart and your mind, that you died on the cross for my sins, and that you are alive.
Forrest: Forgive me.
Forrest: Wash me as white as snow so that I can be in heaven with you one day.
Forrest: I give you my life as you gave your life for mine.
Forrest: In Jesus' name.
Forrest: Amen.
Forrest: If you prayed that prayer, if you prayed that prayer today and begin a relationship with Jesus, there's a connect card that you saw when you came in.
Forrest: There's a place there that says, I want to follow Jesus today, that I want to receive Jesus today, that I want to follow and be a part of the family of God.
Forrest: I would ask you for you to grab one of those, mark it down, turn it in.
Forrest: I want to invite you now to stand to your feet as we close in worship.