Sermon Info
Summary
Most people spend their life looking for “the one.” Dating and marriage is a big deal to all of us. It causes a lot of joy and stress. Yet, marriage is a gift from God. It is the way God created relationships to work. A key to a great marriage is marrying the right person. Therefore, be godly in the way you date and pursue your future spouse. Then when you are married, keep your priorities right. “The One” should always be God. When you keep God first in your life and you pursue Him, then your marriage and dating relationships work. When you put someone else over God as “the one,” then you have trouble and challenges. Prioritize God as “the One” in your life today. God wants you to succeed. Trust Him today!
Content
The One: Dating & Relationships in Today’s World
Falling in Love with "The One"
We live in a world that emphasizes the need to find “the one.” Many of the best-selling books, movies, reality television shows, and other forms of entertainment are all centered around seeking that other person that can “complete you” or be “your other half.” We are constantly exposed to the message that tells us that our life’s goal should be to find that person in life.
Though God did create us as relational beings with a longing for companionship, He never intended for one single person or relationship to take the place of Him in our lives. He created marriage as something special, sacred, and modeled after our relationship with Him – but even marriage will never fully satisfy us.
You are fully you without being married. Single or married, we are all chosen and beloved by God. Though this is true, the longing within us is not wrong; rather, it’s a part of God’s design for us. However, in order to be in a healthy, Christ-centered relationship, we must first pursue our relationship with Christ and look to Him as our only source of true contentment, peace, and joy.
What the Bible Says about Dating & Relationships
In Genesis, we learn that God created the gift of marriage, specifically, with purpose and intention. Genesis 2:18 says, “The Lord God said, ‘It is not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.’” Marriage, by design, is meant as a way for us to glorify Christ and become more like Him.
Gary Thomas’s Sacred Marriage, a Christian book on marriage, says, “What if God designed marriage to make us holy more than to make us happy?” While the world continues to tell us that marriage or falling in love with “the one” is what will ultimately bring us happiness, the Bible teaches us that we will only find our true joy in Christ. It teaches us that we must not be conformed to what the world’s standards are, but to, instead, be transformed by Christ and allow His Spirit living in us to show us what His good, pleasing, and perfect will is for our lives (Romans 12:2).
Nothing, even something that can be as beautiful as marriage, will ever be able to compare to what we find when we’re in a relationship with Christ.
When it comes to relationships, whether that is a friendship, a dating relationship, or marriage, God longs for us to be in community with others, especially those who are Christ-followers and will point us closer to Jesus. However, Matthew 22:37-38 clearly states what the first and greatest commandment is: “Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’”
All of our heart, our soul, and our mind – that means that we must love God first with every part of ourselves. It’s from the overflow of our love for God that we are, in turn, about to love others and be in a relationship with someone else. God wants us to have a great marriage, but He also wants all of us and for Him to remain first and foremost in our life.
Keeping Christ First
Dating and marriage is a big deal to all of us. Relationships can add so much joy to our lives, but they can also cause stress at times, too. Regardless, relationships are a gift from God, and He created them to be sanctifying and glorifying to Him.
The key to marriage is keeping Christ at the center of it, and that starts with marrying a person that loves and pursues Christ wholeheartedly. When we are pursuing Christ personally and growing in our relationship with Him, it allows us to date and pursue your significant other the way that Christ pursues and loves us.
Though we all may want to find “the one,” our true “One” should always be God. When we keep God as first in our life, our dating and marriage relationships work. When we allow someone else to take God’s place as first in our lives, it only leads to trouble and challenges because that is not where God intended any person in our lives to be.
Focus on Jesus and your relationship with Him, and our relationships, in turn, will fall in line with what matters most. Trust Him. Pursue Him. And watch to see how He will move in your relationships.
Supporting Sermon(s):
