REALationships, Week 4: Real Dating

Title of Message:  Real Dating

The key ingredient to a successful relationship is authenticity. 

(Romans 12:2) (NLT) Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world,but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.

(Song of Solomon 1:1) (NLT) This is Solomon’s song of songs, more wonderful than any other.

(Song of Solomon 1:2) (NLT) Kiss me and kiss me again, for your love is sweeter than wine.

(Song of Solomon 1:2) (NLT) How fragrant your cologne; your name is like its spreading fragrance. No wonder all the young women love you!

(Ecclesiastes 3:1) (NIV) There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:

(Song of Solomon 2:8-10) (NLT) Ah, I hear my lover coming! He is leaping over the mountains, bounding over the hills.  My lover is like a swift gazelle or a young stag. Look, there he is behind the wall, looking through the window, peering into the room.

1.    The Season of Perfection

Love isn’t about finding a perfect person; love is about seeing an imperfect person perfectly. 

 Dating in the Perfection Season:

A.  Limit your time.

B.   Limit your talk.

C.  Limit your touch.

 (Song of Solomon 2:11) (NLT) Look, the winter is past, and the rains are over and gone.

 Stop praying for a spouse and start praying for the character that’s worthy of the spouse God is bringing. –Pastor Peter Haas

 (Song of Solomon 2:12) (NLT) The flowers are springing up, the season of singing birds has come, and the cooing of turtledoves fills the air.

(Song of Solomon 2:14) (NLT) My dove is hiding behind the rocks, behind an outcrop on the cliff. Let me see your face; let me hear your voice. For your voice is pleasant, and your face is lovely.

2.    The Season of Preparation.

Dating in the Preparation Season:

 A.  Have extremely high standards

B.   Involve the family C.  Access is Conditional

(Song of Solomon 2:14) (NLT) Catch all the foxes, those little foxes, before they ruin the vineyard of love, for the grapevines are blossoming!

3.    The Season of Purity

(Song of Solomon 3:1-2) (NIV) All night long on my bed I looked for the one my heart loves; I looked for him but did not find him. I will get up now and go about the city, through its streets and squares; I will search for the one my heart loves. So I looked for him but did not find him.

(Song of Solomon 3:3-4) (NIV) The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city. “Have you seen the one my heart loves?” Scarcely had I passed them when I found the one my heart loves. I held him and would not let him go till I had brought him to my mother’s house, to the room of the one who conceived me.

(Song of Solomon 3:5) (NIV) Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you by the gazelles and by the does of the field: Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.