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Hey, around here at social, we always have a word for the year. And our word this year is planted. We believe that we're going to flourish this year, and our flourishing is going to be connected to us. Being planted in the house of the Lord, you say? Well, where did you get that idea from? I'm so glad you asked. We get it from the Word of God. So our scripture of the year is in Psalms 92, verses 13 through 15. We're going to declare this every single Sunday of 2025. So let's read it today with uplifted and hopefully caffeinated voices. Y'all read. Ready? Are you ready? Here we go. 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. You sound good. You sound good. Lord, they filled it up to the overflow. Maybe that's a sign. That's what God's gonna do today. My cup overflows. We're in a series called SOS sos We kicked off the series last Sunday. How many of you were here last Sunday? Can I see you? How many of you were here? Come on. And you came back. I told you last week, we're gonna fix all your relationship issues. Somebody missed the joke. They sent me a message like, pastor, for real? You mean I'm gonna have my boo in five weeks? You said you didn't pay attention, but last week, it was really my goal to get us to understand this reality that relationships need help. They need help. SOS was the signal they would send out whenever a ship was in distress. And thank God he gave us his word that we can learn how he wants us to do relationships. And so that's kind of the tenor of this series. We've been looking at the Song of Songs, the Song of Solomon. I gave you one verse of chapter one last week. We gonna go deeper today. You cool? All right, let's look at it. Let's look at it. Song of Songs, Chapter one, verses two through four. Here it goes. This is in your Bible. It says, let him kiss me with the kisses. His mouth. For your love is more delightful than wine. Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes. Your name is like perfume poured out. No wonder the young women love you. Take me away with you. Let us hurry. Let the king bring me into his chambers. We rejoice and delight in you. We will praise Your love more than wine. How right they are to adore you. Amen. That's in your Bible. That ain't Luther Vandross. That is in the Bible. And I want to tag a title to this text and just speak to you today and really teach today and talk as if we were at Starbucks just getting some average coffee. I want to talk to you from this thought. The laws of attraction. The laws of attraction. How many of you would love to leave service today more attractive than you are right now? All right, well, let's pray. Father, help us understand your laws of attraction. Have your way today. Amen. You may be seated in the presence of the Lord. And since this Song of Songs, I'm gonna sit down, too. The laws of attraction. If you paid attention, last week, we began to understand that it was Solomon who wrote the Song of songs. Solomon wrote 1,005 songs, according to 1 Kings, chapter four. That's a whole lot of songs. 1,005 songs. But this is one of those 1,005, and he calls it the Song of Songs because it's the best psalm. So we understood that last week. But one thing I failed to tell you last week were the three rules of this relationship series. We're gonna talk about the laws of attraction, but let's set some rules as some groundwork. First, there are three rules that are imperative for you to know during this series, and I want you to take notes today. Rule number one, during this whole relationship series, I want you to listen for yourself, not someone else. Ooh. That's actually a rule for every single sermon. Listen for yourself, not for someone. El. When we're talking about relationships, it is gonna be very easy for you to go, ooh, I know three people who need this. Or to elbow the person next to you and say, you know, this is for you. And when we start talking about marriage, I don't need no husbands going, preach that, Pastor. That's what I've been trying to tell her. Sir. It will be a bad night on the couch for you. Ladies. Don't elbow your husband when PT Starts talking about being a wife. I mean, listen for yourself. I will confess, as I've been studying this text, I listen first for myself. I've been texting PT all week, talking about, my beloved, how are you? Because I'm getting convicted as I'm looking at this scripture and how they talk so wonderfully to each other. So listen for yourself, not for somebody else. The best posture for any message is for you to have an open heart and open ears and not lifted Elbows, thinking it's for somebody else. Matter of fact, I know I wasn't gonna sit down long. Matter of fact, that's really the problem with a lot of relationships, especially those of you who are single. You spend a lot of your time and your cognitive energy looking for the one. Could they be the one? You don't spend that same energy going, am I the one that somebody else is looking for? Am I a good candidate? Am I working on me? So rule number one is listen for yourself, not for someone else. Rule number two, Rule number two, this is for the whole series. Don't look back, look ahead. Don't look back, look ahead. Hear my heart. Today, as we get into this series, we start talking about sexuality and the way God originated it and wanted it to be. It is going to be very easy for the enemy to come into your mind and start trying to beat you up with shame and the mistakes of your past. And you might be tempted to go, man, forget this. I already messed it up. If that's the standard, forget it all and I'm going to beg of you, don't do, do that. Don't look back, look ahead to what could be. Don't live in shame and condemnation. Allow God to make you new again and say, okay, this might be my past, but this is who I am now. If any person be in Christ, come on, you are a brand new creature. Don't look back, look ahead. This is the power of the gospel that we serve. A God that can redeem everything. Don't look back, look ahead. And then number three, this series is PG 13. That's for all the parents out there. I don't want you emailing me. And if you need to email me, my email is josh socialdallas.com but it's going to be important that if you are younger than 13, not today, but especially as we get into this series, you might want to have your kids not be in service if they're under 13. I will never speak crass from this pulpit, but the Song of Songs, this book in the Bible, y'all, it's real and it talks about romance and it's just that that is the tenor of the book. So it's a PG13, but if you're 13 and above, trust me, you want to hear all this. You want to hear, get your teenager in church. They need to hear this. Because part of the problem is we are taking our cues from the culture instead of from God's word. The reason why many of us have a lot of dysfunction as it Relates to sexuality and relationships is because the chur has laryngitis and won't speak about what the world is screaming about. And if there's any place we need to talk about it, it should be in the house of God. You should never get your cues from culture as it relates to sexuality and relationship. TikTok is a terrible teacher. Okay, yes, I said it. You should look at the word of God. Let's just start right there. Because one of the problems when we read the Bible is, is that we approach the bible with western thinking. We come to the text with our Americanized version of life, and we don't even understand that. Even our western thinking is heavily influenced by Greek thought. And Greek thought always separated the body from the spirit. In Greek thought, there was a distinction between your spirituality and your sexuality. And it felt like the body was gross, but the spirit was good. So there was this compartmentalization that would happen in Greek thought where said, hey, your spirit is great. It's awesome. Oh, but your body is gross. And that is not what we see in the Bible. In Hebrew thought, it is all one, because God created your body, and God created your spirit and your soul, and it is one. And you cannot live your life compartmentalizing things. And Monday through Saturday, you talk about sexual things, and then on Sunday, it's like, no, this is just my spirit. No, no, no, no. God says, you are one. I created you. I created sex. I created pleasure. And S E X is not spelled. God is the one that originated it. He created it. If I say it like this, the designer gets to be the definer. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would write that down. The designer gets to be the definer. Well, why does God say that's the way relationships and that's the way that sex should go? Cause he's the designer. And the designer of a thing gets to be a definer of the thing. You know, your pastor. I have the spiritual gift of shopping. And sometimes when I go shop and there'll be a stylist, and they'll be like, oh, you should put this with this, and you should put that with that. And I'm like, are you sure? They're like, no, I think it looks good. And I will always go and check and see what did the original designer have in mind for that outfit? Because I don't want my swag to be determined by this stylist that's trying to have me out here. I want to see the person whose name is on the shirt. What was their vision on the Runway for that collection, it is the same with God. So many people in culture, stylists, are trying to say, well, now you can do this and you can do that. You can do whatever you want and whatever you feel doing. God's like, you didn't even design it. I'm the one that designed this thing. And I have a vision for your sexuality, for intimacy and for relationships. And so I want to set that tone. And then I also want you to understand, when we jump into Song of Songs, if you don't even just begin with understanding who is speaking, you will be confused again. I told you last week, early church fathers didn't even want to touch Song of Songs, and they thought all of it was allegory. And it wasn't talking about what it was really talking about. It was just a metaphor for God in Israel. And that is not true. This is a romantic relationship that is in your Bible. And if you first don't even understand who's talking in Song of Songs, you will be confused. Some of your versions actually might not give the distinction of who's talking, how many of you in your Bibles, as you've looked through Song of Songs, where my people at? Whenever a pastor or preacher starts preaching on text, you go home and you start reading it. Five of you. Okay, great. If you went home and started reading it, you should see that some texts and some translations actually let you know who's talking. So let's just start with the characters. Let's start with the characters that are in Song of Songs. First character I want you to see that is so clear in Song of Songs is the lover. This is Solomon. Solomon is a speaker in the Song of Songs. And as you read it, especially in the first chapter, there's talk of him being a shepherd, and there's talk of him being a king. And this comes from this idea that scholars say that Solomon, although he was a king, he had seasons where he was, like, tired of doing the king thing, and he wanted to go into the vineyard and just be an ordinary person. So he would disguise himself as a shepherd. This is where this love story begins. As he disguised himself as a shepherd, even though he really was a king, he sees sister girl and is like, hold up, she's fine. And they fall in love. It's a classic Cinderella story. So the second speaker who's in here, she speaks 53% of the time, because, ladies, that's how y'all do. She is the beloved. This is the Shulamite maiden. This is the country girl who's working in the vineyard, who falls in love with the shepherd and doesn't realize the shepherd is really the king, she speaks 53% of the time. Another voice that's in the text is her friends. They're the daughters of Jerusalem. Amen. One psalmist said, if you want to be my lover, got to get with my friends. Her friends speak in this text, and they're her comrades. And then we have another group, and that is the brothers, the brothers of the Shulamite maiden. And I'm setting the characters so you can understand that the Bible does not give us just two lovers together with no community. It's actually already teaching us with the characters that there's something about love that needs to be seen in the context of community. That if you are just you and your boo and nobody else has any voice into the relationship, red flag, red flag, red flag, red flag, red flag. There ought to be something that comes to community and says, hey, what do you see in this relationship? If you don't want to bring her around church because you know she ain't even got a church outfit, red flag already. If there's something in you that doesn't even want to introduce him to your family, maybe God is already speaking through that right there. Because people that love you, that have godly wisdom, ought to be able to speak into the relationship. Oh, I ain't getting no amens. And it's 12:30, but it's right. Another psalmist had a messed up song with messed up theology, the psalmist Akon. He said, nobody want to see us together, but it don't matter. No, that's a dumb song. I'm sorry. Wants to see y'all together. Nobody in your life is celebrating the relationship. Red flag, red flag, red flag. There ought to be something in the relationship that says, hey, we're allowing community to speak into us. I want to see how you are with other people. Anybody. Serial killers act good for a while. How do you treat the person that you're not in love with? And that happens in community. Another thing, again, we just talking today. Another thing that's gonna be imperative for you to note is that this is a song. This is poetic language, okay? It's a song, and it should be treated like the literature that it is. It is a poem. It is a song. It is a song. So there's metaphors that are being used. And some of y'all, maybe you did read it, and you're like, y'all, this is weird. This is. I can't get with this. It's weird. Cause you don't wanna do the work. You gotta do the work to understand. What did that mean for the original listene. So we gotta go back in time. What did that mean to them? Okay, let me make it real plain. Imagine somebody from biblical antiquity coming today to hear our songs. Like they would be messed up. Let's just choose one song. This is the one song that I love. Let's do this song by. Let's see. Yeah. The song of Peter Gene Hernandez. Anybody ever heard the song of Peter Gene Hernandez? Peter Gene Hernandez wrote a song called grenade. You ain't heard that song by Peter Gene Hernandez? Y'all know who Peter Gene Hernandez is? Peter Jean Hernandez is Bruno Mars. Yes. I was yesterday years old when I found out this man's legal name is Peter Jean Hernandez. You know how many times I've been bobbing my head and had no clue that's Peter Jean Hernandez? Y'all. Welcome to dating. You date Bruno Mars, but you gonna marry Peter. Okay, like, your name is what? Yeah, I didn't tell you because. So you date the representative of the person, then you get married to find out. Oh, you Peter Jean. You Peter Jean Hernandez. And he wrote this song called grenade. He wrote this song called grenade. And look at the lyric. Imagine somebody from biblical antiquity reading this. I catch a grenade for you. Throw my hand on a blade for you. I jump in front of a train for you. You know I do anything for you. I'm to these pathetic. Yes. What's wrong? Everybody can't do the. Yeah. I jump in front of a train for you. There you go. Oh, I would go through all this pain Take a bullet straight through my brain. Guess I would die for you, baby. But you won't do the same. Oh, I felt that in myself. Imagine somebody from biblical antiquity reading that. First of all, they gotta figure out what's a train, what are bullets, what are we talking about? And then once they did the work of finding out what those things are, then there has to be proper interpretation. Otherwise they tell you, well, if you really love me, you go get a grenade and you really pull the pin out. Or you go to the dart station. If you really love me, Derek, you will go stand in front of the dart station. That'd be bad interpretation. So that's why when we approach the word of God, we have to approach it with an understanding. This is poetic language. And we have to do the work to go. What did that make, Solomon? What you talking about? She reminds you of horses? What are you talking about? She looks like Goats. Because you're talking about her hair and the goat. So that's how you have to approach this text. Are y'all good? Okay, so let's jump in. Let's jump into verse number two. And she says, let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for your love is more delightful than wine. That's the Shulamite woman talking. That's how she starts the song. Sister girl, what are you talking about? She's teaching us law number one. Here's law number one. Laws of attraction. Attraction gets attention, but can't be your foundation. Attraction gets attention, but it cannot be your foundation. There's something about this Shulamite woman that is immediately attracted to Solomon. She sees him and she's like, yo, I want his lips on my lips. I don't want anybody else's lips. There's an attraction there, and attraction gets attention. But hear me. It cannot be the foundation of any relationship. There's nothing wrong with attraction getting your attention. But if you think that attraction is gonna sustain a relationship, ooh. I hate to be the bearer of bad news. It will not. Because I don't care what these plastic surgeons are doing. Everything's gonna change. Amen. Everything that is upstairs will move downstairs. Stuff is gonna get wrinkled. There's nothing wrong with attraction, but it cannot be the foundation of your relationship. Hear me. Attraction is the curb appeal of a house for sale. Amen. It's the curb appeal. But I have never seen anybody in my life. Realtors help a brother out. I've never seen anybody look at a house, love it from the outside. Curb appeal. And then move in the next day. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You can't move straight in. I don't care how much you love it, but it's Mediterranean. I've been waiting for this love that you love the style. But there's a process that happens. You can't just move in. First of all, you gotta schedule an appointment to look inside. Amen. Some. Some houses make you do a credit check. Amen. To see if you even wasting their time. Is this even in your budget? Y'all not applying it. Y'all not applying it. There are some people now you ain't even gotta. Don't even. Don't even. So there's curb appeal. There's attraction. Then what happens? There's a period of inspection. Inspection. What is dating? Inspection for marriage. We ain't just dating today. Amen. This is inspection. Why I had the curb appeal. It's amazing. But there's a period of Inspection. Because I want to. What does your foundation look like? Is there mold behind the walls? Because I don't see that from the street. So there's got to be a period of inspection. Then after period of inspection, what happens? Oh, okay. Now we're getting more serious. You know what? We in escrow. We in escrow. And guess what? Oh, he put down earnest money. Amen. You ain't in escrow, and you ain't putting no earnest money anyway. There's an investment. This is heading somewhere, and then I still got time to back out. And then there comes a period where there is a closing, and then we move in. How is it that people are more intentional with a home than they are with their bodies and in relationships, how you go straight from curb appeal to moving in. And then you wonder why you're oblivious to the broken foundation. Because you already had a connection that was physical. And God says you're doing it the wrong way. I have a context for physical intimacy, and it's within covenant because it only makes sense for me to do with my body what I've done with my life. And that is full commitment to you emotionally, mentally, spiritually. And when you get things out of order, that's when there is damage. That's when there is heartache, and that's when there is carnage. But I want to be very clear. There's nothing wrong with curb appeal. There's nothing wrong with attraction. Sister girl does not say first line. I love the way he prayed. I love the way he read the word. No, no, no, no. First thing out of my mouth is, I want his lips on my lips. There's attraction there. That's the first lyric of the song. It's as if she's echoing. Don't miss this. I'm still in the Bible. It's as if she's echoing Genesis. When God creates Eve, you know, that's a song that Adam sings. It's the first song in the Bible. As soon as he sees Eve, he goes, bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. He goes, bone of my bone. Yeah, yeah, flesh of my flesh. That's the first song. He's going, there's attraction. I want to kiss him. This is not a kiss that leads to something else. This is just connection. This is just intimacy. And there's nothing wrong with it. Cause guess what? God wired us that way. God is the one that created affection, attraction. God is the one that set it up that when you're in school, all of a sudden, boys and girls, ooh, you got Cooties. And then that summer happens, you're like, hold up. I think I want cooties. What has changed? God is the originator. And so I want to help some people today that feel like, well, is it. Is it ungodly that I have attraction and I'm attracted to this, but I'm not attracted to that? Absolutely not. God created attraction. Now can attraction be perverted? Absolutely. And some of us actually need to question, why do I have this type of attraction? What has been done to me or what? Sometimes even trauma can pervert attraction. So sometimes you got to ask yourself, why do I have this attraction? Because the enemy always wants to pervert that which God created. So sometimes you got to question, why do I have this type of attraction? You know what lust is? It's perverted attraction. The logic of lust is, I want that for me. How can it serve me? The logic of love is, I will sacrifice and lay down my life for that because I love you. It's quiet. You ever seen somebody, you ever seen somebody that was unfaithful and then you saw the person they were unfaithful with compared to their spouse and you're like, for real? Really? Because the only logic of lust is feed me, satisfy the moment. So that's why you can even look objectively and go, bruh you that for that. It doesn't care. Lust. Lust just looks on to say, how can I be satisfied and gratified in this moment? It is not love. So be careful when somebody says, oh, this is a look of love and it's a look of lust. Because lust takes love gives. Okay, okay. We just. In verse number two, God created attraction. Love will always sacrifice. And this is why church folks especially need to stop saying God told me. You the ones. Please stop. Can we just say that in this series, Stop saying God told you. This was my pet peeve in my single day. I feel like God said, you're the one. No, because he would have told me and he knows what I like. When I saw. When I saw PT at North Park Mall, walking at. Was it. What was it express? I'm trying to think if it was express or structure. No, it was express, wasn't it? Babe, you were express. I remember walking into express and saying, my Lord, she is fine. There was attraction there. So stop saying God told you. There is nowhere in the Bible do you see this whole idea of a soulmate and one person for you, that is not biblical. You know what isn't? What is biblical? Wise decisions. You know what is biblical? Godly counsel. You know what is biblical? Making a decision. That's what love is. Stop talking about God told you they would have told all that. He would have told the other person too. While we on topic. Stop saying God said break up. We gotta stop hiding behind God. Cause you don't want to have a grown conversation and be honest about your feelings. Stop hiding behind God. Stop ghosting people because you don't know how to have a hard conversation. Just say, I don't see this heading towards marriage. I think it would be best if we went our separate way. Amen. Trying to be practical today. She says, I want his lips on my lips. And then she says, you, love is more delightful than wine. Oh, can we unpack that metaphor? She says, boy, your love is more delightful than wine. Don't be trying to clip this in the message and say PR Headwind. This is Welch's grape juice. But I need you to get the visual because of all the things she says. Your love is more delightful than what? Why does Sister Shulamite girl use the metaphor of wine? Could it be that she is saying that love is intoxicating? That love makes you lose your inhibitions? That love sometimes will make you be. If it's truly somebody that loves you and you love them and you feel seen. You can be who you really are. You can do stuff you wouldn't normally do. That's a metaphor. But deeper than that, whenever I see wine, I see one. Word. Time. Time. PT And I, we have a tradition for our marriage. Cause I'm trying to stay happily married. And we go to Napa. We go to Napa. Every summer we go to Napa. Where y'all go? I ain't gonna tell you. Cause I don't want you to be there. But it's our routine. It's our routine. We go there. Our love is rekindled. We have an amazing time. Every summer, it's like we put it on the calendar. We go to Napa and we walk those vineyards. And we having a good time. We eat at great restaurants. And I love it because you'll see these vineyards. And when you go there, you understand that it did not go from grape to cup in weeks. It took years. You realize if you want to get you a vineyard and you want some grapes, you have three to five years before you even get a cluster of grapes. You got another four to five years before those grapes are even ready for wine. Matter of fact, one time they did research and found that vineyard owners, actually their marriages last longer because they know to even Have a vineyard. You're 10 years in before you ever get enough wine. I want to speak to some married people. Don't be so quick to quit. Don't be so quick to walk away. Great marriages take time. Talk to some people that's been married a minute, they didn't argue less than people that got a divorce. They just said, I'm going to stick with it. I told PT all the time, if you leave, I'm going with you. That's why we have a rhythm. We take that sabbatical every July. We gone. Why? Because I'm not about to lose my wife pastoring this church. Good marriages take time. And when you are in the dating process, take some time. If you go to a restaurant with somebody on a date and they pour some wine and as soon as they get the glass, they go, you have my permission. Run away. Just run. If they do that, because they have no class. Every person knows that when you get some wine, this is a process. You gotta. You gotta give it some time. Will he coming to church? Boo. Boo. It's February. Let's see if he'll still be here in July. Give it some time. When she lifted up her hands and worshiped. Give it some time. Let's see. And then. You don't. You don't. This ain't a shot. We savor this. I'm trying to see. Is this biblical? Absolutely. Look at what. Look at what the Shulamite woman says to her friends. She begs them, look at it in verse seven, chapter two. Promise me, O women of Jerusalem, by the gazelles and the wild deer. She's swearing by animals not to awaken love until the is right. You think if she said it once that'd be enough? Nope. She says it again in chapter three. Promise me, O women of Jerusalem, by the gazelles and the wild deer, not to awaken love until the is right. Is that enough? No. She closes the book. Promise me, O women of Jerusalem, not to awaken love until the time is right. Do not allow him to access places of you until there is time. Until there has been a commitment, until there is covenant. Love is patient. He keeps pushing me. Love is patient. Love will make a commitment. Love will make a sacrifice. God says, I'm not trying to stop your pleasure. I'm the designer. I'm just giving you the context and the time for which it will thrive. We have a fireplace, you know. This weather's been schizophrenic. And I love my fireplace in my fireplace. If that fire goes from the fireplace to the couch. We have a problem. How can the same thing that gives me warmth and enjoyment in one context burn down my house in another context? Because there is a context and a time for everything. She says, your love is as delightful as wine. And wine takes. And wine gets better over. Over time. This helping anybody, it says, don't awaken it before it's time. Attraction, it's great. Nothing wrong with attraction. It just can't be the foundation. And part of the reason it's a horrible foundation is because think about it. Think about attraction. There's some things you don't really get to pick. You ever thought about that? Nobody was in the boardroom of heaven and said, God, I want, like, caramel skin. Give me hazel. No, nobody. You didn't get to pick. And some of you, I've affirmed your attractions. But. But be careful because you might miss out on what God has for you because you got this exhaustive list of what? There are some things that are non negotiables. Character, value, integrity. There are some things. Come on now. You would rather have. Okay, nevermind. I'm just saying some of y'all gotta check your list. Check your list because. Because many of the things that we even call attractive are cultural standards of beauty that shift and change. Okay, this third service, y'all. Y'all be messing with me. Y'all be trying to get me cancer. It's amazing because if you look at culture, what is beautiful, it shifts over time. It was a season where, like, looking like you hadn't had a crack or anything to eat was beautiful. Now everything has changed. And plastic surgeons are happy about it because the standards has changed. I'm still in the text. Later on, you will see her say, don't look at me because I'm dark. I'm dark, but I'm lovely. What is she talking about? She's talking about the cultural standard of beauty during that time was pale skin. It was pale skin. And she has a family dynamic where she has been forced to work in the vineyard. Her skin has been tanned. And she's saying, I'm dark, but I'm still lovely. In other words, I don't fit the cultural norm of what beauty is. But yet Solomon still says, girl, you fine. To me, some of y'all about to change the very thing that is unique about you that somebody actually would love. She's saying, I'm dark, but I'm still lovely. I don't fit the cultural standard of beauty. And while we're on topic, we got to be careful. Even with Our language, that we are not fitting into the culture and what the culture says about each other. The Bible is clear that every single human that you've ever laid eyes on was made in the image of God. You have never laid eyes on a human that was not made in the image of God. So I think we got to be careful by putting numbers on image bearers. Y'all know what I'm talking about. She a five. Oh, he a four, but he got a good job. Think about that. We are putting numbers on image bearers. Can you imagine going to heaven and God saying, hey, come on in. Come in. I'm glad you made it. But before you go in, I forgot to tell you. While you're on Earth, I numbered you. Yeah, Come on. Oh, but you didn't know. But you're a four. Be like God, for real. No, I still love you. Come on in. I'm just letting you know you're a four. Putting numbers on image bearers. One of the greatest atrocities that was perpetrated on a group of people was somebody who dehumanized them and put numbers on humanity. Let's not fit in with what the world does. And let's look at every person knowing that you have inherent value, not because of what's added to you, but because you were created in the image of a God that loves you so much. Here's the reality. There's some stuff you just can't pick. There's some stuff. Let's think about this. Things you can't control. As we're talking about attraction. Things you can't control, like your height. You can't. I can't have no dude that's shorter than me. All right. Get somebody that's six, nine, and don't love the Lord. You better take height. You can't control height. You get to pick that. What else? Hair. You get to pick your hair. Now, I know some of you picked. Picked it out, but, I mean, I'm talking about, like, what you were born with. You don't get to pick it. There's some stuff you just don't get to pick. You can't help. I told you the thing that offended me the most when that girl popped the balloon on. Oh, dude. Cause he put the little beard down stuff. I was like, man, yo, that's messed up. Felt his pain. Cause I wish my beard would grow thicker, man. I wish if it could, it'd be Rick Ross right here. But it can't. I need a little help. I can't help that. I ain't pick that. I get to pick my hair follicles. You don't get to. Some stuff. You don't get to pick. You don't get to pick. All right, how about your health? Now, this is one that's interesting. You can influence it. You can influence it, which means I can steward the body that God has given me to the best of my ability. And hear me. That is worship. That is. See, I don't like that. That is worship. To steward the body God has given you. One of the things I love that Social Dallas is able to do with our staff, we reimburse you up to $50 every month for whatever your gym membership is. We pay for six. Six therapy sessions, counseling. We'll pay up to six. If you're looking for a therapist, we will pay for six sessions. If you're on staff at Social down, we will pay the subscription price for Covenant Eyes, which is a program you can download on all your devices that will block you seeing porn on your device. We, as an organization, pay for that. Somebody like, oh, I want to work for social. Why? Because I don't want anybody that works in the church to have an excuse that they didn't have help in stewarding something that God has called you to steward so you can influence your health. It is a worship to work out. Amen. That is worship to go. You know what? I'm gonna pass on the crumble cookies for the eighth time this week. I think I'm gonna get a kale salad. That is why. Because this is the only body that God has given you to do what he's called you to do. You've got to steward. It blew my mind growing up in church. Preachers who would preach. I can't believe y'all smoking and drinking. Meanwhile, I go to lunch with that pastor, and they've had six Cokes, got extra butter all on. They. I saw one putting butter on tortilla chips as he was eating these chip. And I'm like, how you gonna condemn somebody that's not stewarding nobody with smoking and drinking and you killing yourself one chip at a time? So health. Watch this. I'm not beating you up. I'm just. I'm calling you. I've had a whole journey where God worked on me and said, hey, this is the thing about your discipline. This is worship to me. I want you to steward your body the best you can. And watch this. Here's the thing about health. It can be influenced, but you can eat healthy and still have life hit you and still get hit with sickness. That's why they have this part in the vowels that nobody likes to say. In sickness and in hell, you're so busy thinking about your hashtag, you don't realize the person whose hands you're holding you might be feeding one day. So I can't even really control my health. I can influence it. So what's something you can control? Watch this. Your hygiene. I see you looking at me in that tone of voice. You mean to tell me I came to church for you to tell me to watch my hygiene app salutely. Cause it's in the text. Look at what sister girl says about Solomon. She says, pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes. She says, solomon, you smell good Hygiene. That is one thing that every single person can control. You can brush your teeth. Amen. You can floss. Amen. You can put on deodorant. Amen. You can take a bath. You don't even realize how blessed you are. In ancient Israel, they did not have access to water like we have it today. So people didn't bathe every day. So the way they would cover a body odor was to put on oils and perfumes. It was the original essential oils they would put on myrrh and all of that. And it was a sign to say, first of all, I have hygiene, and I honor my body and I honor the presence of the people that I'm walking in the room to. That's why God says this. You anoint my head with oil. David Rose. You anoint my head with oil. The wise men are bringing frankincense and myrrh. It was honor. And some of us, just some good old hygiene. Amen. Will change your life. And so that's law number two. Here's the thing you can control. Your hygiene is in your hands. Attraction can't be the foundation. And hygiene is in your hands. And God put in the Bible. She says, he smells good. Good. Now, worship team joined me. I could land the plane right there. But then you would walk away saying, good Lord. All he talked about was curb appeal and eating right and putting on deodorant. But look at what she says next. She says, your name is like perfume poured out. No wonder the young women love you. Hmm. She already established you smell good. But then she says something interesting. Your name is like perfume poured out. No wonder the young women love you. I didn't know names had a smell. What is she saying? She's given us the third law, which might be the most important law. Hear me here it is. Character will always outlast Chemistry. Character. Who you are will always be the most attractive thing. Ain't nothing more unattractive than a person that's beautiful on the outside but has horrible character on the inside. She says, solomon, I don't just love you because you look good and I want to kiss you. I don't just love you because you smell good. She says, you, character smells good. And the way I know your character smells good is because I've seen it and other people see it. She said, no wonder everybody wants you because you've got character. Can I ask you, what does your name smell like? What fragrance do you leave when you walk out of a room? Do people go, thanks, thank God he's gone. If I heard one more complaint, thank God she's not here. It's always something. Or do people savor the aroma of your life? Do you want to leave here more attractive? Ooh, you ain't got to go to Sephora. You can surrender your life to a savior. Who says, I can transform your character. I didn't give this to the other services, but I want to give it to you, especially those you who are dating. Don't look for chemistry. Oh, do we have chemistry? Look for character. Character. Who are they? Here's some ways you can gauge character real quick. I'm not going to teach them. I'm just going to give it to you. How they treat people who can do nothing for them. Don't just watch how he treats you on the day. How does he treat the dude at the valet? How do you treat the waiter when the food comes late? That's that little stuff. How do they treat people? How do they celebrate others who have more than them? Power of marriage is that you would complete each other, not compete with each other. I'm sorry. Not complete compliment. Nobody can complete you. Let me fix that real quick. Compliment each other, not compete. And there are some people who cannot stand to see anybody else stand in the spotlight. They always have to get in the spotlight, too, and it shows their jealousy and their envy and their insecurity. Here's another one. How do they handle correction? Are they always right? Here's another one. Who they are when nobody's watching. This is why she says, everybody. The other women know you. Other people have seen you. They smelled your character. What do other people say? Here's another one. How do they respond to pressure and adversity? Anybody can be cool when everything's going right. You need to see them when stuff is going crazy. Is this helping anybody? Here's another one. How do they fulfill their commitments? How do they fulfill their commitments? If their yes can't be their yes now you think it's going to change when they get with you, how do they feel? They come. Here's another one. How do they use their power and their influence? Are they kind to other people? Kindness is the ability to lend your strength to people that are weaker than you. That's kindness. How do they use their power? Here's another. How do they speak about others when they aren't around? Do they gossip? They always want to tell the dirt on somebody else's life, and they're talking to you like, wow, I'm pretty sure that person wouldn't have wanted you to tell me that. They'll do the same about you. Here's another one. How do they handle money? Where your treasure is, there your heart is also. Are they generous? Here's another one. Last one. It's not an exhaustive list. How do they pursue God when no one's watching? If he ain't going to church now, why do you think he will when you get married? If she doesn't like worshiping now and she'd rather go to brunch now, do you think she's gonna want to be in church when y'all get married? These are just some ways they can see character. And here's the beautiful thing that as you surrender to God, hear me, he can transform your character. Some of you can say, from this day forward, I'm going to change the smell of my name as I surrender to God, I want to be able, even while I'm dating, if it doesn't work out and I find my spouse, I want to be in Target and see somebody I dated and be able to not have to sneak to another aisle, be able to say, you know what? It didn't work out. But I treated them with honor and I treated them with respect, and it didn't work out. But I can honestly say that I value them as an image bearer of God. What does your name smell like? I'm gonna ask every person to stand to your feet. Would you bow your head and close your eyes today? Please just respect this moment. We're about to be dismissed. The beauty of what our Savior did for us is that he loved us. Watch this. He loved us to make us lovely. There was nothing lovely about us. We were stuck in our sin as humanity. And here's a savior who said, I'm gonna love you. And it is our love that we receive from him that makes us lovely. Those heads are Bowed eyes are closed. Maybe you're here and the enemy's telling you, oh, there's no way that can change about you now. This is your name. Your name is perverted. You can never be pure. Your name is broken. You can never be whole. Can I tell you the devil is a liar? This is the power of the gospel that when I come to Christ, it is his love for me that transforms me. This is why with your eyes fixed on Jesus and you see how far he came to love you, to what extent he went on the cross to love you, it is that love for you that transforms you. You know why you should be able to forgive? Because you have a savior that hung on a cross and said, father, forgive them. They know not what they do. You know why you ought to be slow to anger? Because you have a savior that is slow to anger and quick to mercy. You know why you should give value to other people? Because you have a savior that doesn't devalue you and never speaks down to you, but speaks well of you. And it is as I receive this love that I'm able to model that love to other people. And the fragrance of my life, hear me, can be changed, even if it stinks now, as I keep coming to him, He. He transforms me. So heads about, eyes are closed today. If you're here today and you say, hey, P.R. i. I need to take the first step to give him my life, hear me, he can give you a new name. All throughout the Bible, he changed people's names. If you say, the fragrance of my name right now smells horrible, Surrender to this savior who can give you a new name. It starts with surrender. Not with trying to get a perfect record, but with surrendering your life to him. If that's you and you say, hey, P.R. would you include me in this closing prayer? I need to give Jesus my life. Dash you. Would you lift up your hand high enough and long enough to where I could see it? Thank you, God. Yeah, thank you, Jesus. Anybody else? Thank you. Heads are still bowed, eyes are still closed. Maybe you're here and you say, you know what? I've surrendered my life to Jesus, but there is an area in my life, or maybe there's areas of your life where you're like God. I know that I have not allowed the power of the gospel to touch that area. Maybe it's in how you speak to other people. That's a big one. All throughout Song of Songs, you see how well they speak to each other. How are you speaking to your husband, sir? How Are you speaking to your wife? How do you speak to your co workers? Is it a fragrant smell? Maybe there's an area of your life where you say, God, I need to allow your word and your love to transform that area in me. If you know what that is and God's been speaking to you even while I'm preaching this, would you lift up your hand high enough and long enough to where I can see it, saying, God, I know what that area is. And today I receive. Watch this. Your love. You can give a lot when you have a great source. The horizontal is right, it affects. When the vertical is right, it affects the horizontal. Can we pray this prayer? I'm going to give you the words, but we're all going to declare it, especially those of you who responded. Just say this. Say, jesus, I need you. Lord, I want the fragrance of my name to bring honor to you. I can't do that by myself. I need you. So, Jesus, today I surrender. Come into my life. Forgive me of my sin. Make me brand new. From this moment forward I'm walking with you. Let my life be attractive and bring glory to your name in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. You meant what you prayed. Would you give God praise today?