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Psalm92, verses 13 through 15. How many you gotta memorize? Okay. All right, that's. That's a good 15%. That's cool. You got the rest of the year. We're gonna declare this verse every Single Sunday in 2025. Come on, let's read together as a family. 1, 2, 3. Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bear fruit in old age. They shall be fresh and flourishing to declare that the Lord is upright. He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him. Come on and give God some praise. You sound good. Social, family, sound good. And then today, pray for your pastor because we are going to embark on a journey starting today. We are starting our relationship series. Today we're calling this series SOS And I am going to be jumping into a book of the Bible that I have never preached from. I'm going to just say this. I don't ever remember growing up in church and hearing anybody preach from this book yet is in the Bible. And I believe if it's in the Bible, there's something that we need to learn from it. And we're just gonna read one verse in the first chapter. Cause that's all we can handle for now. You ready? I wanna go to Song of Solomon today. Song of Solomon or Song of Songs, in some of your Bibles. And this is all we're gonna read and says the Song of Songs, which is Solomon's. That's all we got. That's enough. That's enough. And I want to preach from this thought. SOS which is our series title. And then just a subtitle. Relationships Need Help. Relationships need Help. I want you to look at a neighbor, whichever one you like the best, and say, neighbor. Come on, don't be afraid to talk to your neighbor in this room. In the wash. Party room. Say, neighbor. I know this series is for you. Ain't got to be prophetic. I know it's for you. Look at your other neighbor. Say other neighbor, relationships, they need help. Father, speak to us today. Today have your way. Amen. You may be seated in the presence of the Lord. Relationships need help. S O S Social fam I don't know if you notice this glow that is emanating from my face today. It is not just because I use exfoliating skin products. The reason I have a glow is because I am excited to delve into this series today. I'm excited about what God is gonna do within our church community as it Relates to relationships. The reality is every single person under the sound of my voice has been affected, is being affected or will be affected by a relationship. Hear me today. Nobody escapes this series. This series today is for absolutely everybody. And today we're just gonna do some. And I just kind of want to set the tone and the trajectory of where we're going. I want to let you know that this is going to be a five week series, y'all. Five weeks. We are going to tackle this subject of relationships. For five weeks, we talk on all things relationships. If I were you, I would not miss a single week. I'm telling you, I would be here for all five weeks. Weeks. As we talk about relationships. Especially because I'm gonna make a promise that I've never made in a relationship series. Here's the promise. I'm gonna make a crazy, radical, audacious claim. Hear me today. I am going to fix all your relationship issues in the next five weeks. Is this on? Did you hear what I just said? We are going to fix all of your relationship issues in five weeks. We gonna fix it. Any single people in the building that want to get married. You want to get married. You're single and you want to get married. Get ready in five weeks. You're about to be booed up. We gonna fix it in five. Five weeks. Fix it in five. That's what I should have called this series. We are gonna fix it in five weeks. Those of you who are dating right now, and you've been having some issues in this relationship, and it's been up and it's been down, don't worry. In five weeks, we gonna fix all of your dating issues. Five weeks. Those of you who are engaged, any engaged people, Come on. Engaged? Like engaged and got the ring? Always add that qualification. Come on. I see it. Cause sometimes like, well, we picked it out. No. Did he buy it? Boo. Boo. Okay, you engaged? Guess what? If you're having any trepidation about what you're about to step in, you're like, oh, I know. I'm gonna say I do, but I don't know what I'm saying. I do, too. And you're a little bit nervous. Guess what? I'm gonna calm all your trepidation in the next five weeks. Any married people in the house today? Those of you who couldn't clap and you're like, yeah, I am. Don't worry. Don't worry. I know you feel like you're growing apart. We gonna fight. Fix it in five weeks. You're going to be Back to your honeymoon in five weeks. Those of you who perhaps just went through a breakup and it was devastating and you feel like you couldn't even worship today. You only put one arm up. Usually you have both. Don't worry, we gonna fix it in five weeks. Those of you who just got connected with somebody, it's a blended family. Your kids are not getting along with her kids. And it's UFC every single night in the house. Don't worry, we gonna fix it in five. If you got five baby daddies and none of them are paying child support, don't worry. Get your direct deposit ready. I'm going to fix it in. I need 25 weeks for that. I need five weeks for each baby daddy. I need 20. Woo. I hope you're laughing because you realize that I have made a promise that I cannot keep that when I say we gonna fix it in five weeks. As a young people would say, that's cap bruh. There's no way we can fix all the relationships in five weeks. Because here is the reality that you need to get at the onset of this series. Hear me, healthy God honoring relationships are not formed in a few weeks. Healthy relationships are formed over a lifetime of intentional work. I knew I was gonna get three claps on that. I knew I was gonna get three claps because people don't understand that healthy godly relationships are not formed in a few weeks. It will not happen through osmosis. If you are gonna have a healthy relationship, hear me, you are gonna have to be intentional with what you do. And it is, as a matter of fact, every healthy relationship is just two healthy individuals who have done the work on their soul, who have chosen to say, I'm gonna work on me. I can't fix you. Only God can bring transformation and change. I can only work on me. And this is a series for those of you who are committed to saying, lord, whatever work that needs to be done on my soul, I'm willing to go through a process so that I can have a relationship that will flour hear me today. I have seen marriages and relationships survive a whole lot of things. I've seen them survive infidelity. I've seen them survive losing a child. I've seen them survive sickness. But I've not seen any relationships survive or even thrive if the individuals were not ready to do the work, if the person didn't lose their pride and say, whatever it takes. If I gotta go to counseling, I'll go to counseling. If I gotta go to therapy, I'll go to therapy. I'm gonna get on my knees and say, God, whatever it is you need to do in me for this to work, I'm willing to do the work. Healthy relationships happen when you are intentional with the work. It's interesting. I love our relationship series. And it's almost impossible to have a relationship series and not reference the book of Genesis in Adam and Eve. It is in Genesis that we see God's original intention for flourishing life in the Garden of Eden. He puts a man and a woman both together, naked and unashamed in covenant. This is God's original picture for human flourishing. A man and a woman who he planted in a garden. Planted them in a garden. And watch this. They were not in that garden on vacation. They were in paradise, but they were not on vacation. God said, hey, I need you to be fruitful and multiply and watch this. Although you did not create this garden and I put you here, you still gotta work it. You've got to cultivate this garden. This garden is beautiful. It's amazing. But it will not stay beautiful unless you cultivate it and you work the ground. I lost some of y'all right there. Work preceded sin. Work was in the Garden of Eden before the fall of man. Work was not a curse. Boo. Boo. Work was in God's original idea. God said, I never created humanity just to sit on your blessed assurance and do nothing. There ought to be a purpose to your life. Amen. He says, I want you to work this garden. And look at God. He put them in the garden and their environment was an education. That the same ground that you have to cultivate and work. It will be the same in your relationship that this will not stay beautiful unless there is intentional effort by the both of you. You gonna have to work it. But Adam and Eve had a luxury and a privilege that we did not have. Adam and Eve woke up to each other. Adam and Eve did not have to discern. Are you God's will for my life? I know I preached on jealousy a few weeks ago, but can I just pause and say I'm a little bit jealous. How amazing is it just to wake up to God's will? Both of them woke up and said, well, I guess you're the one for me. They didn't have to pray. They didn't have to fast. There wasn't nobody else. If they woke up to God, God's will for their life. Don't you just wish it was the same today? I can't get no help in here. Don't you just wish that you could just wake up and go, oh, there it is. That's God's will for my life. I'm not just talking about romantic relationships. Cause this series is gonna be deeper than that. I'm talking about business relationships. I'm talking about friendships. I'm talking about who you should hire. I wish I could just wake up, oh, there it is. That's God's will. But we do not get that privilege. We do not get that luxury. Which is why we need some help. We need some help. Thus the series. S O s. That is our series. I'm just laying groundwork today. This is the appetizer. You got to come for the next few weeks if you want the main course. It's interesting. I was going through my notes and actually just looking at all the relationship series that we've done here at Social. Hadn't been too much. We're about to turn just four years old. First relationship series. Who Some of y'all were here. Love is Blind. All our relationship series. For whatever reason, they're songs. I don't plan it like this. It just happens. First one, Love is Blind by that amazing artist, Eve. Not the one in the Bible, the one that was with the rough writers. Love is blind. It'll take over your mind. What you think is love is truly not. You need to elevate and find. We talked about love's ability to intoxicate you. And often that when desire goes up, discernment goes down. So be careful when you say I'm in love. Ooh, Love is blind. But guess what? Marriage is the eye opener. And you will see things that you didn't know were there. We did Love is Blind. The second series we did. Some of y'all were here. We went Tevin Campbell, and we called the series Can We Talk? Y'all ain't saved for a minute. It was can we talk? And we talked about, Every healthy relationship has one thing in common. Great communication. Every dysfunctional relationship has one thing in common. Poor communication. It was can we talk? Last year, it was how to love. How to love. We quoted that New Orleans poet that's mad that he didn't do the Super Bowl. Had a lot of crooks try to steal your heart. We tried to learn how do we love? And we are going to be intentional in this series. And just as in every series, we're not looking at Cosmopolitan magazine, we're looking at the word of God for how we can thrive and flourish and relationships. And this year, the series is S.O.S. elbow your neighbor. Say sos. Elbow your other neighbor, say SOS Every time I do a sermon. I do some feed forward before I do feedback. And I started asking people, do you know what SOS stands for? It was so funny. The answers that I got. Let me ask you, do y'all actually know, since we're doing a whole series on it, do you know what SOS Stands for? Anybody know? Huh? Say it. You know. Somebody said, save our ship. That was one of the answers I got. Save our ship. Somebody said, save our souls. That was another answer that I got. I asked the lovely pt and she told me that back in the day, she would write notes to her friends and she would sign it SOS I was like, you did? She? I was like, yeah. She's like. I thought it stood for someone special. I said, girl, you so fine. That is so sweet. But here's the thing. Most people think that SOS stands for something, but hear me. Originally, it was not an acronym at all. It was chosen as a distress signal because of how simple it was to send in Morse code. When ships would send Morse code, they would do three dots, do, do, do for S. Then three dashes, doo doo doo for O. Then three more dots, doot doot doot for S. It was clear, urgent, and easy to recognize. It was used in nautical communication. SOS was the call for help when a ship was in distress, lost, damaged, or in danger of sinking. Did you hear what I just said? They would use it whenever a ship was in distress, lost, damaged, or in danger of sinking. That was the call for help for every ship. Hear me. If that is not a sign of relationships today, I don't know what else is, because I think a lot of our relationships. Hear me, Are in distress, are lost, are damaged, and are in danger of sinking. And many of us subtly, and some of us overtly are screaming out sos Some of us are screaming at what we post. That Thirst Trap picture is screaming sos this is how desperate I've become in my relationship, that I want somebody, that I gotta post everything just to get some attention. It's gonna be quiet in this series. This is where I've gotten in my relationship, that I gotta post what I have materialistically so you can see my value and what I drive, because I'm actually not going anywhere in life. If you look, you can see the distress signals that people are shouting out SOS in their relation. Put it on the screen. Ship relationships are screaming, I need help. SOS wasn't about words. It was about a cry for help and so the psalmist in the song SOS said s O S Please someone help. Y'all don't know no church songs. Help them Lord. It's interesting. I love the moment we have in our service. We have the prayer team come up here and we pray. I love that about social you can always come to this service anytime we gather and have somebody agree with you in prayer. But it's interesting the prayer requests and prayer needs that come in. I would say almost 80 to 90% of the prayer requests are SOS signals. Issues in relationships A spouse that's been unfaithful. A marriage that's about to fall apart under financial stress. A child that they don't know how to communicate to or how to get them back into the house of the Lord. A family member who is jealous and is causing discord. A friend who has been dishonest. A business partner who has stabbed somebody in the back and stolen money. Almost every prayer request is about a relationship sending out a signal. I need help with this. It's interesting. It's not just in church that there's a cry for sos. There's also a cry in our culture today. I spent a lot of this week just studying and getting some data on relationships, dating and marriage. And can I tell you, the data is depressing. It is absolutely depressing. Hear me in 1970, 80% of Americans between the ages of 25 and 34 were married. 80%. Today that number has shrunk to 40%. People don't even want to get married anymore, saying, forget it, it's not worth the drama. I am good. I don't want to get married. It is a sign. These stats are speaking to the cry of SOS then the ones that are getting married. The CDC indicates that out of 100 marriages in the US 42 will end in divorce. Projections indicate that by age 40, approximately 31% of millennial women will remain single, nearly double the rate of their Generation X counterparts. This is the one that blew my mind. According to Pew Research center, there's a declining interest in dating. People don't even want to date no more. As of 2022, 57% of single adults reported that they were not interested in seeking a committed romantic relationship or even casual dates. Y'all sos almost every dating app is reporting a decline in usage. 78% of American dating apps users feel completely fatigued and frustrated with the platforms, citing superficial interaction, emotional exhaustion, safety concerns, and also longing for authentic in person connection. So people are still hooking up. People are still Going out. They're just not getting married. They're just not really dating. And so you have a longing for deep connection, and yet people are as lonely as ever. So much so that the US Surgeon General has declared that the most prevalent health issue in America today is isolation, and that loneliness is now a public health epidemic. Y'all, sos. The stats and the data show that we are dying in isolation and yet longing for true connection and a relationship. And I just came to ask y'all, this is the first message in the series. Is this what God created relationships to be? Did God truly intend for relationships to cause anxiety and stress and depression? Or did God actually want you to flee, flourish not just in your career, but in your relationships? Is there anybody in here that says this year that I'm planted? I actually want to flourish in my relationships? I don't want this ship to go under. Hear me, those of you who are like, I don't want to hear no serious about dating or about marriage. This is going to be deeper than that. We're going to talk about another ship. Can we put that on the screen? How about this ship right here? Friendship? That's a good ship. Have you noticed that one is drowning, too? Have you realized how hard it is today to find, like, a for real friend? Somebody who, like, is for real with you? Somebody that will weep when you weep and rejoice when you rejoice. Somebody that's not jealous. Somebody that's not trying to make a business move when they have coffee with you. You know how hard it is to find just a friend today. Nobody talks about that miracle that Jesus had like, 12, well, 11 dudes that he could roll with for three years. Help me out, Jesus. I'm trying to find three. So many people are just trying to find a real friend. We need a revival of great relationships and friendships. Oh, let me go deeper. Even though I'm going to talk about it later. We need a revival of kindness. Yeah, put your tongues away. Kuna matata. Later. Can you just speak kind to somebody else? Can we get rid of the vitriol and all the venom and the ev that is pervasive in our culture? Oh, I'm out here now. Y'all gonna be mad at me. Hear me? I'm all for artistic expression. I love hip hop and all, but something has to be said about a culture. When the Grammy award winning song of the year is a diss track accusing somebody of pedophilia and we all just saying it, it's blues clues to where the culture has gotten not a song about love diss track. What is going on? It seems like there's a cry in the culture saying, S O s. This year, PT and I will celebrate 13 years of marriage. I'll drink to that. Thirteen years of marriage. We dated six years. I gotta stop saying it. Cause some of y'all are running with that. I met a dude the other day. He's like, man, I don't know. She the one. Man, you dated off and on for six years. I was like, bruh, I'm just telling my testimony. I mean, you should do it if, you know she the one. Quit being scared. Put a ring on it. Somebody clapped hard on that. Amen. But we dated. We dated for six years, on and off. Celebrate 13 years of marriage. I'm in love with that woman right there with her fine self. But I want to be sensitive in this series because a lot of times people who've been married for a while, they start throwing out things. They really start castigating this generation that's still dating. And they're like. And they're like, man, I can't believe y'all are doing that. How in the world could you do that? And I've heard some of our single people on staff and others, you know, who have told me, like, you don't understand. It's different in these streets today. It's very different in these streets. So I'm very sensitive to that. So I'm very leery to say, well, I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't do that. But there are some things that I know I would not do. I'll tell you just one. I'll tell you one thing I would. If I'm single in this culture. Ain't no way in the world, y'all. I'm going on a show, y'all. We have lost our mind. Ain't no way in the world. I'm about to walk myself single self out. Have some potential suitors standing in line with red balloons. Have you seen this foolishness? Just ready to pop it once they see something or hear something they don't like. Is that how shallow we've gotten as a culture? I wish you would. Do they have mental health professionals on this show to help people out? I mean, you see it. People just walk out. They got one dude, they said, one dude. I watched them. It was messed up. She's like, uh, he got that beard dye in his hair and stuff. He. I was like, yo, I use beard dyes. My stuff don't grow right here. I Wish pop the balloon on beer dye while you got makeup on. Is that where our culture has gotten? Don't take it personal. I'm just saying that one hurt me. Cause I felt those dudes pain. He started stuttering. Well, you know, this is really cool. Up in New York, everybody do their hair like this, y'all. What is going on? Pop a balloon or find love. I think I know why we're obsessed with shows like this. Again, you gotta look deeper. I got about 15 back there. I think I know why. I think that show is realer than we want to admit. I think all of us put our feet in the psychological shoes of the person that walks out there and sees the people holding the balloon and are just hoping that they don't see something or I don't say something that makes them pop to belong. Oh, come on, let's be real. Many of us in this room, if we're honest, the reason that we curate our lives and our Instagram pages and we show the best parts and we hide the worst parts is because deep down inside, we are afraid that if somebody sees who we really are, if somebody knows the real struggle and the real issues that we have, they are going to pop the balloon and run away. So deep down in our heart, whether you say it out loud or not, there is this pervasive feeling of, am I enough? Am I enough? And when is the day that they're going to see something that's going to make them go, oh, no, I can't deal with that. I'm out. And I got some good news that I'm so glad to say in this series today. Is that your God, God does not operate like that. I want to thank God that he is not holding a red balloon, waiting to see my flaws, waiting to see my insecurities, waiting to see all my idiosyncrasies so he can pop the balloon and walk away. No, no, no. My Bible says that while we were sinners, Christ died for us. God says, I know everything about you, and yet I still love you. Yet I still care for you. And somebody ought to thank God for the love, love of the Savior. That is not shallow. That is not superficial. That before you even chose to serve him, he said, this is how much I love you with my arms stretched out wide on the cross. I'm willing to pay the price for you before you ever respond to me. Whoo. That's good news. Who else but God would do that? Sacrifice his life just in case you would respond to him. This book that we Carry, whether you realize it or not, is a love story from COVID to cover. It is a love story about a God who created us in his very likeness and image, who breathed the breath of lives on the inside of us. We turned our back on him. And rather than saying, forget them, I'm walking away. Your God says, no, I pursue you with an everlasting love. I'm chasing after you. This is a God who left eternity and stepped into time and put on human skin so he could feel what we feel and go through what we go through. And even when you feel like you've ran away, he's still pursuing you. He's still going after you. He's still saying, I'm here, I'm waiting. Ain't no balloon in my hand to pop, because I know absolutely everything about you. This entire book is a love story from beginning to end. Have you ever noticed this book starts with the relationship, Starts with the marriage between a man and a woman, and then it ends with relationship and ends with marriage because we are the bride of Christ and we are waiting for our groom to return and one day he will come. From beginning, it is a love story about relationship, but right in the middle is another book. Sos. Song of Solomon. Song of Songs. This is going to be our syllabus for this series. A book that I never heard anybody preach from when I was growing up in church. If you have ever read the book Song of Solomon, the first thought that will pop up in your mind is, why in the world is this book in the Bible? Those of you who are super saved, you might not want to read Song of Solomon because there is no sanctification in Song of Solomon. All you prayer warriors, there is no prayer in the Song of Solomon. You don't even see the name God in the Song of Solomon. It is a passionate, poetic, risque, erotic story about a man and a woman who are madly in love. Saying stuff like, let me kiss you with the kisses of my mouth, and you remind me of a horse girl. Oh, we gonna get in this series. I'm telling you. Don't miss a week. Daddy's in the book. Early church fathers didn't even know what to do with Song of Solomon. They said, it's allegory. It's not real. That's all metaphor. No, it ain't. This is a real story about a man and a woman who are madly in love. And God so saw fit for it to be in the Bible. He wanted it in there. There's something he wanted us to learn from it. This is where I think God is in heaven going, y'all got me messed up. Because we think that we create, and we think that we created pleasure. And God says, no, I am the og. I created that thing, and I created the context for it to thrive in. And you keep trying to do it your way, but I'm trying to tell you the only way it'll flourish is when you do it the way I designed for a tour. So he put the Song of Solomon because there's something in here that he wants us to learn from it. It is not allegory. It is a true story about a woman. She's the Shulamite woman, a country girl who fell in love with the king, and his name is Solomon. Thus Song of Solomon. So it's not just poetry, it's actually a song. There are bars in this book that we're going to look at. We're going to look at the lyrics of some of the songs in this series. And it's intriguing that we would get this song, because First Kings, chapter 4, verse 32, tells us something about King Solomon, who wrote this. And look at what it says. He spoke 3,000 proverbs and his songs numbered 1,005, y'all. That's a lot of bars. That's a lot of songs. 3000 proverbs and 1005 songs that he wrote. I would love to hear all those songs, but we don't have all those songs. We have this one right here. What is it about this song that made him put this song of the 1005 in the book? It's the Song of Songs. In other words, it's the best song. In Hebrew writing, they don't have adjectives, so they wouldn't say, like, you're the highest king. They would say stuff like, well, you're just the king of Kings. In Hebrew writing, they wouldn't say, like, man, you're the greatest Lord. They would just say, no, you're the Lord of lords. And so when it says, this is the Song of Songs, that means, of all the things on your playlist, this is the greatest song. And it's a song about romance between a man and a woman. And watch this. It's not allegory, it is literal. But it's also a typology that God is using to show that you can be in a love, romantic relationship with me, the king of the universe. And what blows my mind about the lyrics is who's writing it? Solomon. Do you know who Solomon is? Worship team, join me. You know who Solomon is. Solomon is the son of King David. No wonder he can write songs. He got it from his daddy. Remember his daddy used to play the harp, and they made fun of him because he's out there with the sheep playing harp. Until he pulled up on a giant one day and threw a rock at him and said, oh, my bad heart. Boy can fight. No wonder Solomon can write songs. He got it from his pops. Some of you. Ooh. Some of you don't even realize some of your proclivities and propensities come from somewhere. Every once in a while, you need to have a conversation with your mama. Talk to your daddy, talk to your grandmama. You. Oh, that's why he wrote songs. And he got it from his father. But you know who his mother was? Bathsheba. Bathsheba is his mama. Where have I heard Bathsheba before? Oh, she's the one that one day when King David was supposed to be at war. The Bible is so good. That's how it sets up this whole steamy scene with King David. It says, in springtime, when the kings go to war, David stayed home. The Bible helps you out. It's letting you know before you see what's about to go down. He wasn't even supposed to be here in the first place. And if you're honest, most of the places where you fail, you weren't even supposed to be in the proximity of. Don't act like you didn't know when you replied to the text. Don't act like you don't know when you pulled up to the spot. Now, I just. I'm just gonna go see. No. In the springtime, when kings go to war, David remained in the palace. He wasn't on the rooftop that night looking for a woman bathing. But when you're in the wrong place, you open up yourself to the wrong perception, the wrong view. And so one night, he's looking on the rooftop and he sees Bathsheba, Solomon's mama, taking a bath. There's no direct messages to slide into, so he tells one of his servants, hey, go get her. Tell her to come here. He sleeps with Bathsheba, who is married. He tries to cover his tracks, but it doesn't work. And so the king calls her husband from the battlefield and tries to get her husband to sleep with her because he finds out she's pregnant. If I can get her husband to sleep, then I can hide my tracks and nobody will know. But Uriah, her husband, refused to go inside and sleep with his wife and had more integrity as A soldier than the king of Israel. He said, how can I go in and sleep with my wife when my men are on the battlefield fighting? He refused. David's like, oh, it's not working. You ever tried to cover your tracks and realize it's not working? And so he sends a letter with Uriah that when they get in the heat of the battle, everybody is to draw back and let Uriah die. Uriah, who is fighting for David, doesn't even know he is carrying his own death letter written by the king who has slept with his wife. And Uriah is killed and the baby doesn't live. And David repents and says, against you and you alone, O Lord, I have sinned. Bathsheba ends up getting pregnant again with Solomon. And of all David's sons, guess who takes the throne? Solomon. And what is Solomon known for in the Bible? His wisdom. You mean to tell me that one of David's dumbest decisions, one of the worst mistakes that he made, ended up producing his legacy and producing somebody who would be known for wisdom? You mean to tell me I could do something so stupid and so dumb, but if I will humble myself like David did in Psalm 51 and cry out, SOS, Lord, I need your help. Created me a clean heart, renew a right spirit on the inside of me. You mean to tell me that God can redeem even my dumb decisions and produce something that will be better than the decision that I made? That ought to give hope to somebody in here who's ever made a dumb dating decision. That ought to give hope to somebody that's ever had a walk of shame or a past that you don't want to talk about? Is there anybody in there that's thankful that we serve a God that says, if you'll give that to me, I can't change the past, but I sure can redeem it. I can use it as a testimony to say that if God can use somebody as broken as me, I know he can use somebody like you. This is the goodness of our God. I gotta hurry. Solomon ends up being known as one of the wisest men, spitting out 3,000 Proverbs bars. But how crazy is it that the wisest man didn't have enough sense not to marry 700 wives that's in the Bible and have 300 concubines. You wise, spitting out proverbs to everybody else. But you married, you got 700 mother in laws, 700 wives and 300 concubines. Solomon has proved positive that it is much easier to prescribe wisdom to other people sometimes than it is to actually practice the wisdom that you prescribe. Do I gotta make it real plain? How is it that you can give relationship advice to everybody else that's in a dysfunctional relationship? You see it clearly when it's your friend, but when it's you in the relationship, no, he got a good heart. You are completely blind. But you can prescribe the wisdom, but it's a whole nother thing to put it into play for you. Solomon never could. But the reason we have this song about this woman is because most scholars say that this was the woman that truly had his heart. This is the one that he loved. He had others, but there was only one that truly had his heart and he wrote about her. What is the Bible trying to tell us? That many of us have given our hearts to other people, but how many know there is only one person who can and love you with an everlasting love. And if you don't get this vertical relationship right, you will never get the horizontal relationship right. So the first place of love has to come from an everlasting father who says, I love you. Would you stand to your feet all over this place today? This series, I'm believing is going to transform our church. And I do not believe it's my assignment in this series to pontificate on prohibitions. Stop doing this, stop doing that. Although there will be some things I will say stop doing, like stop chasing him. Let him pursue you. Let me save some for the series. There will be some prohibitions, but hear me more than the prohibitions. Here's what I want us to get. What Song of Solomon. What the Bible gives us. It gives us a vision of a greater love. Gives us a vision of what could be a picture of God's original design. Excuse my unpreparedness for this illustration, but I grabbed grabbed this sheet of paper before I came up. It's the run sheet of everything that we do in service today. But could you just use your imagination and imagine that this was a beautiful painting, exquisitely painted by a Rembrandt or a Picasso or a Michelangelo. Intricate colors, meticulously painted by hand. Can you imagine that this was an exquisite piece of art? An artist had an intention and placed his intention on the paper. And imagine if I were to completely mar and crumble the the artist original intention. Some people will look at it and say, oh, it's worthless. Throw that thing away. Ain't nothing we can do with it now. Which is what some people do today. The enemy has marred God's Original intention for intimacy, for relationships, he has marred it. And some people in the culture, as the dad is saying, have given up. Forget it. I won't get married. I'll just hook up. Forget it. I won't even talk to anybody. I'll just stay and isolate. Isolation, that is not the answer. To throw it away still has value. And then some people in the culture start to idolize the marred picture and say, oh, no, this is still art and this is beautiful. And who are you to say what art is? This is art. And let's change legislation to make this art. That's not the answer either. To say that this dysfunction is what was originally created. Anybody can look at that and go, that was not the original intention. But can I scream for the third option, which is to say, sos, Lord, help me, Help me in my relationships. Help me as I stay planted. Help me in your presence to get back to the original idea that you had. And yes, I've been through some stuff and yes, I made some mistakes, but even that will bring glory to your name. I want to get back to what he had in mind when he created me. Come on. Is there anybody in here that says, I want to get back to God's original intention for my life. I want my relationships to flourish and to thrive. That's what I'm believing is going to happen in this series. I'm going to ask every head be bowed and I be close. Father, in the name of Jesus, I thank you in advance for the healing that's going to take place over these next few weeks. God, I thank you for the marriages that will be restored. I thank you for the identities that will be restored. God, I thank you in advance for the stronghold of addiction that will be broken off of people's lives. God, I thank you for the relationships and friendships that are going to form in this place as we become a house where people find true connection. God, I thank you in advance that as we stay planted, you're showing us the picture of what you originally had in mind. And, Father, let it start with our relationship with you. The vertical before the horizontal. And so with his bowed and eyes closed today, if you're here today and you've never received your first love, the one who wasn't waiting to pop a balloon on you, but the one who literally gave his life for you while we were sinners, Christ died for us. I don't care if it's one person, you'd be worth it if that's you, and say, hey, P.R. would you include me in this closing prayer. I need to give Jesus my life. I've been trying to fix the horizontal, and I've never surrendered to the vertical love of a savior who loves me. If that's you, would you just lift up your hand high enough and long enough to where I can see it, saying, today's my day. I'm giving Jesus my life. Thank you, Lord. I see those hands. Yeah. In the watch party room. Thank you, God. Come on. I want us to pray this prayer as one big family. We're all gonna say it, especially those of you who have responded. Would you say this? Say, Jesus, thank you so much for loving me with an everlasting love, Lord, today this is my cry for help. SOS it's an emergency. I need you. I can't save myself. I need a savior. Forgive me of my sin. Make me brand new from this moment forward, I'm following you. In Jesus name, Amen. Amen. Amen. If you meant what you prayed, would you give God praise today?