The book of Psalms, and tonight we will be looking to Psalm 37. Psalm 37. The question that I want to answer this evening that has been namelessly submitted to the question box reads, and I quote, how do I find a good husband when I am old enough to get married, end quote. And just like that, the curiosity of all women, particularly all the mothers are wondering which young girl asked this particular question. How do I find a good husband when I am old enough to get married? Well, let me begin by stating that this question is a great question for a young, unmarried girl to ask. I do not know who asked the question, and I do not need to know who asked the question, but I do want to commend the person who asked the question before the church by asserting that such a question is a wise question, a vital question, a God-fearing question, a question that should be seriously asked and thought about by those who are not yet old enough to be married, and a question that deserves a proper answer. I am of the persuasion that if more young people, namely more children, more teenagers, more single adults, would take their future seriously and ask more mature, practical questions like this one, while striving to apply the truths of God's word to their lives, that such people will be more joyful in life, which will only lead to the cause of Christ through local churches becoming stronger, which will lead to a society as a whole being better off. I'm telling you that if more young people would seek biblical wisdom about their future from their parents and their pastors and follow it, such a custom has the potential of saving them from a life filled with unnecessary heartaches and ongoing troubles. If I've heard it once, I've heard it dozens of times. If I've said it once, I've said it hundreds of times. Second to becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ through repentance and faith, deciding who you will marry if it is in God's will for you to be married is the second most important decision of your life. I wanna press this truth on the minds of the young ones here this evening. Young ones, namely those under the age of 18 years old, listen to me for a moment. The decision to marry and the choice regarding who you marry must never be treated carelessly, casually, thoughtlessly. I know half of you probably don't even think about marriage at this point in your life because you're six, you're nine, you're 12, your life revolves around school, your favorite toys, playing with your pets, playing with your video games, and watching your favorite TV shows. Nevertheless, I want you to recognize that marriage is a sacred gift from God, marriage is the spiritual union, the spiritual covenant and commitment between man and woman. Therefore, it must be esteemed as such, and it must be approached with proper fasting, prayer, counsel, and fear. Are you listening? I know we are living in a world and culture of quick marriages and quick divorces. I know we are living in a world and culture in which marriage is viewed as an old-fashioned custom that's no longer necessary. I know we're living in a world and culture that is influencing even Christian people to believe that cohabitation is normal and good. But I'm telling you by the authority of God's word that marriage is an important matter to God, therefore it ought to be an important matter to us. Deciding who you will marry has lifelong consequences. Deciding who you will marry has the potential of affecting every part of your life and the lives of those around you. You think marriage only affects you and the one that you marry, think again. Who you decide to marry will affect you, your spouse, your extended family, their extended family, your children, your grandchildren, and your great-grandchildren. Who you marry has the potential of deciding where you live, what you do for a living, where you go to church, what kind of person you will become, and how you will be remembered when you die. Listen, who you marry and how you build a home will set a tone that will affect future generations for good or bad decades after we are forgotten about. This is how serious this question is. And furthermore, most importantly, Deciding who you will marry if you are a Christian will either benefit your effectiveness for Christ or hinder your effectiveness for Christ. Deciding who you will marry will make you spiritually stronger or spiritually weaker. Your spouse will either push you closer to Christ or pull you farther away from Christ. So this being said, I am personally encouraged by this particular question being submitted to the question box, and I think it is something that our church as a whole ought to be greatly encouraged by. The fact that we have young people in our midst asking the pastor mature, practical questions rather than silly questions that relate to trivial, insignificant matters is evidence that God is working in the lives of our young people. And I think such a truth ought to be rejoiced in. Such an occasion should cause us to pause, to take a sila and say, amen, praise the Lord, glory to God. Now, by way of answering the question that has been asked, I'm going to take the liberty of answering the question by rephrasing the question so that I can help the young women of our church as well as the young men of our church. The question reads, how do I find a good husband when I am old enough to get married? I'm going to reword it by putting it this way. How do I find a good spouse of the opposite gender when I become old enough to get married? And if I may tweak it even just more to make an important point and help us ask the right questions, I think a more biblical, proper question to ask would be, how do I find a godly spouse when I become old enough to get married? This is the question we should be asking. You shouldn't desire just a good spouse but a godly spouse. You shouldn't desire just a handsome or pretty spouse, but a holy and pious spouse. You shouldn't desire just a funny spouse, but a spouse that will be faithful and loving God and loving you. So if I may tweak the question just a little bit to help us to strive for what is best, remember Philippians chapter one, nine through 11, approving those things that are excellent, not just settling for good things, but striving for the best thing, I think it would be better to ask the question this way. How do I find a godly spouse when I am old enough to get married? That's the question. Psalm 37 has the answer. Here in Psalm 37, God through David gives us eight exhorting commands to implement in our lives that will help us in the knowing and in the doing of God's will. The first one is found in verse number three. The first thing one must do is trust in the Lord. Psalm 37 verse 3, God through David says, trust in the Lord. This is the first and primary thing you must do in your quest to find a spouse. You must personally trust in the Lord. You must trust in the Lord for the salvation of your own soul. You must trust that God's word is sufficient to guide you in life. You must trust that following God's ways are better than following your ways or following the world's ways. And you must trust that if God wants you to be married, that he will lead you to the right person at the right time. Exhortation number one is to trust and to trust in the Lord, to believe that God knows better than you and is better at finding a spouse than you are. To trust in the Lord is to fully rest. upon His promises. To trust in the Lord is to turn away from your own wisdom, to turn away from trusting in yourself and others. We find this truth highlighted in Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, don't we? We know it memorized. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He will do what? He will direct thy paths. So let me also say under this point that one of the ways we trust in the Lord is by trusting in God's appointed means of counsel. And the Bible tells us that in the multitude of counselors, there is safety. One of the ways we trust in the Lord is by turning to our parents and asking their counsel, turning to our pastor and asking him to give us counsel, turning to our close friends and asking them their wisdom. It's turning to those who know us well and will tell us the truth about what they see if we find ourselves in such a season. The first exhortation is to trust in the Lord, to trust in the one who's infinitely good, to trust in the one who is sovereign over the circumstances of life. Trust, trust. Exhortation number two is to do good. Notice the exhortation following trusting in the Lord in verse three. God through David says, trust in the Lord and do good. The same exhortation is repeated in verse 27. In the middle of verse 27, David once again says, do good. So the first exhortation is to trust. The second exhortation is to do good. And the doing of good generally refers to the doing of God's will, which specifically can be viewed as the implementation of the first and great commandment. What is the first and great commandment? The first and great commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love others as yourself. How do we go about finding a godly spouse? Answer, by doing good. by striving to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts so that we might live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. How do we do good? Doing good looks like living in harmony with the truths of God's word, striving to be like Christ, putting the needs of others before our own, by being engaged in practical ways of kindness in your family, through your church, in your community. You see, the doing of good is the fruit of trusting in the Lord. If you are truly trusting in the Lord, you will do good. Jesus trusted in the will of the Father, and he went about doing what? Doing good. If you truly are in submission to Christ, you will be like Christ in doing good by loving others, serving others, praying for others, telling others the truth of the gospel, and living in submission to the Father's will. Rather than being mesmerized by some person of the opposite sex who is before you. and just having a one-track mind, well, I can't serve the Lord because they're completely before me and I have to seek after them. No, do good. This is how you find a godly spouse. You go about it, first, by trusting in the Lord, second, by doing good. Exhortation number three is found in verse number four. The third thing you must do is delight yourself in the Lord. Psalm 37 verse four. Delight thyself also in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. The meaning here is the seeking of happiness in God and God alone. The meaning is to delight ourself in the Lord. Him being our soul's singular satisfaction. This is an important one, especially as it relates to the topic of contentment. If you want to find a godly spouse, not just a decent spouse, you must strive to love Christ more than anything else. You must be content in Him. If you are not content in Him, If you are not content where God has you, and you start going around trying to find satisfaction in a relationship, that is going to be your God. You are going to think and say, I have to get married, I'm not happy being single, I'm not satisfied with how God is treating me, so I will take matters into my own hands. I need someone, I need anyone that I can be married to. Do you want to know the root cause of why Adam and Eve rebelled against the Lord? What was their root sin? Their root sin was discontentment. It was a failure to delight in God's way alone. They became dissatisfied with what God gave them. So they took matters into their own hands and they tasted what true dissatisfaction really tasted like. And the same can be said of Abraham, going to Hagar rather than waiting on the Lord for the promised child. Take heed, take heed to that poison of discontentment. And the way to fight discontentment is by delighting yourself in the Lord. The command in verse four is to delight ourselves in the Lord, to expect all of our happiness and joy from Him. And when we do, notice David says in verse number four that God will give us the desires of our heart. When God is our supreme happiness, When we become content in the doing of His will, God blesses us with those things that are in accordance to His will that we long for. What a gracious Father. So in regards to marriage, when we delight ourselves in the doing of His will, keeping our eyes focused and fixed on running our race with perseverance, God in His grace, God in His love, God in His compassion towards us brings about what we are looking for in a spouse. He will, He promises, but the promise is conditional. We must first delight ourselves in the Lord, and when we do, he will give us the desires of our heart. As we come to know God, God changes our heart. As God changes our heart, he gives us his desires. So in doing good and delighting ourselves in him, we trust that he knows, he sees, and he cares. We delight ourself in him. That's exhortation number three. How do we go about looking for a godly spouse? Answer, by delighting yourself in the Lord. Exhortation number four is found in verse number five. In verse number five, God through David says, commit thy way unto the Lord. Notice it, verse five, commit thy way unto the Lord. Trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass. The fourth thing you need to do is to commit your way to the Lord. Now it may be somebody here tonight getting antsy and saying, Pastor, I thought you were gonna answer the question. I thought you were gonna go beyond just giving us bumper stickers from Hobby Lobby. These are nice little mottos, but we want Bible truth about how we can go about finding a spouse, and therein lies our problem. We treat the Bible as nice little mottos rather than practical truth that can help us in life. This is the way in which we ought to walk if we want to find a godly spouse. Look at it again. The fourth thing you need to do is commit your way unto the Lord. This is practical. The phrase commit thy way can be translated to roll thy way upon the Lord. The sense is that of a rolling of a heavy burden from yourself to the Lord. How fitting is this as it relates to the topic of marriage? You want practical? I'll give you practical. How do you go about looking for a godly spouse? Here it is, by not becoming overly anxious about it. don't become burdened about it. Rather, roll it onto the Lord, submit it to His cause. Practically speaking, it means saying in your heart, Father, I'm going to trust that you will send the right person at the right time across my path. And until that person in time comes, I'm going to remain busy in the doing of your will rather than my own will. And this also means, practically speaking, that you don't become pressured by others and cultural norms. Sometimes pressure from others can cause an unnecessary burden. Sometimes pressure from the culture can be a source of burden. For example, how many sometimes think, say, and pressure? You are 18 and you are out of the home. It's time for you to start looking for a spouse. You've graduated college and you don't have someone you're interested in? What's wrong with you? Were you homeschooled? Why are you not married yet? You're 30 years old, you're 35 years old, and you're still single? What's your problem? And meanwhile, such single people are seeing their friends, family members, get married, start families, and have children. I'm telling you that sometimes the pressure of others and the pressure of society can cause unnecessary burdens upon us. So the exhortation of verse number five is to cast our care upon the Lord, to cast our burden upon the one who can bear it up. Is to roll our concern upon God and let him deal with it as he pleases. I like what Martin Luther says about prayer in regards to our burden. Martin Luther says, pray and let God worry about it. That's what prayer is. True prayer. True prayer is coming before the throne of God's grace and saying, Lord, I'm done handling this burden, this problem. I'm giving it to you. You deal with it. I'm not going to let it keep me up at night anymore. I'm not going to let it eat away my joy in the Lord. Lord, you deal with it. Pray and let God deal with it. This is what we do in the seeking of a spouse. We pray. We submit it to the Lord, and we let God worry about our needs and our wants. Submit your desire to the Lord, to the Father who loves you, and leave it be. This is exhortation number four. Exhortation number four is to commit your way unto the Lord. And then looking to verse number seven, we find exhortation number five. Exhortation number five is to rest in the Lord, to rest in the Lord. God through David says, verse seven, rest in the Lord. The command can be translated, be silent to the Lord. Quietly submit yourself to his will. as opposed to being busy and loud, trying to figure out who the perfect spouse will be, emailing here, calling there, texting there, finding a profile on this dating website here, that dating website there, going on this blind date and that blind date, being consumed with hurry, hurry, hurry, I have to find somebody to marry. I'm hoping you recognize that all these exhortations connect as links in a chain. The exhortation is to Rest. Take a breath. Let your heart be still. And it will be still if you are delighting yourself in the Lord. It will be still if you are committing your way to the Lord, if you are trusting in the Lord. That is the very definition of being still. Being still is knowing that God is God. You want to know how you go about finding a spouse? Rest in the Lord. God is telling us here to take a nap. That's how Adam found his spouse. He was literally resting in the Lord. I can see it now. What did you learn from church today? The pastor said, if I take a nap, poof, I'll wake up and I'll have a spouse. Oh my. But in all seriousness, I hope you will see the wisdom of the exhortation. The exhortation is to relax yourself in knowing and doing His will, rather than questioning, doubting, worrying, becoming trouble that means to be still. To be still and know that God's ways are higher than our ways. God's thoughts are not our thoughts. To be still is knowing, Romans 8, 28, that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. Rest in the Lord. Be at peace in your heart and trust that He will bring the right one to you. Exhortation number six is to depart from evil, to depart from evil. Notice verse eight. God through David says in verse eight, cease from anger and forsake wrath, fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. Notice also verse 27, the first three words of verse 27 are depart from evil. So on the one hand, we're given the affirmative exhortation of doing good, verse three, verse 27. On the other hand, verse eight and 27, we are given the admonition and need to depart from evil. And by the way, if you are doing good, you will depart from evil. Doing good and doing evil cannot coexist in the Christian life. You cannot do good by sinning against the Lord through fornication. You cannot do good by practicing the world standard of dating. You cannot do good by getting emotionally involved with people you do not intend to marry. You cannot do good by dressing like a harlot or a hunk and posting pictures of yourself on social media to attract the eyes of carnal people. The warnings spoken in verse eight and verse 27 speak about not becoming conformed to this evil age. It speaks about coming out from among them and being separate. The warnings include fearing God and mortifying, putting to death the deeds of the flesh. You're not going to find a godly spouse if you're addicted to pornography. You're not. You need to do all that you can to remain morally pure. Depart from evil, hate it, shun it, fight against it, and seek after purity of life. Do you want to find a godly spouse? Then you must be like Job and strive to have a testimony of one who fears God and turns away from evil. You're not going to find the right spouse if you associate with sinful people and sinful practices. Because the Bible says evil communications corrupt good manners. Evil communications corrupt good morals. Exhortation number six is to depart from evil. Exhortation number seven is to wait on the Lord. Look back up to verse number seven. Verse number seven, rest in the Lord and wait, what's the next word? Patiently for Him. Verse nine, but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. Verse 34, in case we missed it the first time, David repeats himself in verse nine, verse 34, and he says, wait on the Lord. Isn't it interesting how this theme of waiting is a repeated phrase frequently spoken by David who is portrayed as a man after God's own heart? Think there might be a correlation between a man after God's own heart and one who waits upon the Lord? I think so. God says, wait, not once, not twice, but three times. Wait, because we like to just zoom by in life. Wait, wait, wait. And we say now, now, now. So God has to say it again. Wait, wait. Who likes to wait? We want our Amazon delivery delivered now by drone. We want our order through the drive-through pronto. We want to have victory over our besetting sins yesterday. We want to have perfect knowledge of God's word ahora. We want God to work on our timetable. We don't like to wait. We want things at this moment. It's not our natural tendency to wait. Yet God is teaching us that it is best to wait on Him. It's best to let Him lead us and guide us rather than running ahead of Him and forcing what we want to take place. Don't lose me now. You want to know how you can go about finding a godly spouse? You must wait. Wait on God to prepare you for that moment. Wait on God to prepare your spouse for that moment. Maybe you are ready and he or she is not. You ever think about that? God still has some teaching to do on their end before he brings you guys together. He still has some chipping away, some sanctification work to do in their life. So wait, let God do his work before he unites you two. Wait, wait on the sovereign arranger of circumstances to weave together his perfect plan. Now the word wait does not mean to throw yourself in a lazy boy chair and play video games all day until Cinderella falls through the roof. Pastor said, wait, so I'm just playing video games, eating Cheetos, drinking down soda from Circle K. I'm just hoping Cinderella will come out somewhere. That's not what wait means. Likewise, on the other end, waiting does not mean women, ladies, young girls, living in your parents' basement and scrolling Facebook all day until Prince Charming comes knocking at your parents' door and carries you out through their threshold. To wait means to be busy about growing in the grace and knowledge of Christ. To wait means to depend wholly upon Him while you're seeking to do His will, while you're seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Adam was doing what God wanted him to do in cultivating the garden as he was waiting. He didn't even know a spouse was in the picture. But God in his grace brought one along at the right time. But Adam wasn't just sitting there petting the zebras by the waterfall. Adam was doing what God wanted him to do, cultivating the garden. So we work. We stay busy, busy in the Lord, busy obeying our parents, busy serving others, busy doing good, busy serving in the church as we are waiting on the Lord. The seventh exhortation is to wait, wait on the Lord. And then connected with this seventh exhortation is the eighth exhortation, which is the keeping of God's way. Verse 34 says, wait on the Lord and keep His way. As you're waiting on the Lord, you must walk in the pathway that He commands. And how do we know that pathway? His word is a light unto our feet and a lamp unto our path. To wait on the Lord is not turning to the left hand or to the right. To wait on the Lord is to keep His way, to walk in the way, to walk in Bible truth, to be a doer of God's word rather than a mere hearer of God's word. And interestingly enough, this is what Solomon the preacher in the book of Ecclesiastes says is the whole duty of man. Ecclesiastes 12, 13, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep His commandments for this is the whole duty of man. Keep his way, keep his commandments. I don't care what my friends are doing, I'm going to keep the way of the Lord. I don't care what pressures come across my pathway, I've already decided, I'm resolved, I'm going to keep the way of the Lord. You want to find a godly spouse? Keep his way. These are the eight exhortations given to us by God through David in Psalm 37. These are the practical suggestions I'm setting before you as guidelines that will help you find a godly spouse. I'll give them to you again. If you want to find a godly spouse, you must trust in the Lord. You must be faithful in doing good. You must delight yourself in the Lord. You must commit your way to the Lord. You must rest in the Lord. You must depart from evil. You must wait on the Lord and you must keep his way. Do you see the primary focus of all the exhortations? It's on the Lord. In your striving to know Him, in your striving to live a life that's well-pleasing in His sight, in your striving to honor Him and glorify Him, He will lead you and guide you to someone who is striving to do the same thing. Amen. You see, as Christians, we don't depend upon silly little horoscope readings to show us who we ought to marry. We don't trust in the shaking of a magic 8-ball to find out God's will. We don't confide in senseless philosophical personality tests on social media platforms to fit us with others. If we truly belong to the Lord and if we follow all eight of the exhortations in this psalm, if it is in accordance to God's will, in God's perfect timing, He will bring someone who will help us live a life that's devoted to Him. Is He our guide or not? Does the Spirit promise to lead us and guide us or not? Did the pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud lead Israel exactly where God wanted them to go or not? Well, the same is true in our life. The Holy Spirit, through the word, leads us and guides us down His perfect pathway that is fitting in His will. And we find this truth beautifully illustrated in the book of Ruth. I challenge you this week to read the book of Ruth and see these eight truths played out in the lives of Ruth and Boaz. As Ruth and Boaz were faithfully waiting on the Lord and doing good, God in his grace knit their hearts together and brought them to a place of holy matrimony. In your reading of Ruth this week, take me up on the challenge, it's only four chapters. In your reading of Ruth, take careful notice of Ruth's submission to the authorities that are in her life, Ruth's willingness to work hard, Ruth's humble, gracious, and thankful spirit, and then take notice of Boaz. and specifically Boaz's desire to worship the Lord, Boaz's desire to protect and provide for those in need, notice his love for the foreigner and the outsider, notice his refusal to take advantage of Ruth when he could have, notice his desire to do right according to the customs and practices of that day, and notice his willingness to love and cherish one that God brought across his path. It's a beautiful story. It really sums up the question that is at hand. Neither of them were looking for marriage. Neither of them were looking for a spouse, but as they kept their eyes on the Lord, God brought it about. If you want a biblical answer to the question at hand, read and study the book of Ruth. Search out the godly characteristics of Ruth and Boaz. Because they did things God's way. The final verses of the book concludes that God blessed them exceedingly abundantly above all that they could ever ask or think. Through their marriage relationship, Ruth became the literal ancestor of Christ and became a human instrument, catch this, Ruth became a human instrument in the hands of God to bring satisfying happiness to all who place their faith in the Messiah. And we are beneficiaries of that. You see, thousands of years later, After Boaz and Ruth get married, God ordained through their godly living that Christ would come. And through Christ's coming, we will have life, peace, forgiveness of sins, and the promise of heaven. Did they know that before they got married? Did they know that when they got married? No. But as they kept their focus on the Lord, God blessed them in innumerable ways. So back to our question. Does it matter who we marry? The answer is absolutely. As I said at the beginning of my sermon, who you decide to marry has lifelong effects and generational effects. It affects not only matters in the temporal physical realm, but also in the eternal spiritual realm. It matters. It matters. You may not think that it matters, but it matters. Now, having answered the question through various biblical exhortations, I want to conclude by giving a pastoral challenge to the parents of young children who are presently living at home, as well as a pastoral challenge to the church as a whole. Here, parents thought they were off the hook tonight. Here, parents thought, this is a great night. I get to relax, take a nap. The pastor's giving a children's sermon to the children who are at church. Well, it's time to wake up. Parents, I have a word for you. And the first word that I want to give to parents of children who are still at home, whether they be 8, 14, or 18, is this. In the light of the question at hand, I would strongly urge you to encourage your children to live by the principles that I have shared from God's word. If you desire your children to marry in the Lord and to find God's best for their life, my exhortation to you parents is to reinforce and rehearse these truths in the ears of your young ones over and over and over and over and over and over and over until they get it. Encourage them. to do things God's way. Again, this is second to their salvation. If you didn't, or if you didn't do things God's way, or if things didn't work out the way you had hoped, at least hope that things will be better for your children. Come on, parents, I'm speaking from personal experience. I think most of us can speak of instances in the past regarding relationships with others in which, looking back, we wish we had done things differently, yeah? We wish we would have been confronted with a sermon like this one. We wish we would have prayed more. We wish we would have waited. We wish we would have listened to our parents and our pastors who tried to warn us, but we didn't. So we ask the question, is it all wasted? No. not if we view it through the sovereignty of God. God can use our mistakes to warn others, to show them our scars, and to plead with them not to make the same mistakes that we made, yeah? This is a practical application for parents and grandparents. Be real with your children. Tell them of your battle wounds. Encourage them to do things God's way. Parents, don't let your children crash and burn if you can help it. And I'm speaking of the ones who are in the home. Don't support them in their stupidity. Don't let them be emotionally drunk and googly-eyed with the first person who tells them that they're the prettiest thing on earth. I will never understand how or why a Christian parent approaches parenting with a hands-off approach. That's not parenting. You say, what does a hands-off approach look like? It looks like this, or I should say, it sounds like this, quote, Well, I'm going to let them learn things the hard way. I'm gonna stay out of their personal business. I'm not going to say anything. I'm not going to ask questions. I'm going to let them date others at the age of eight, 12, 15. It's just a little cute relationship. They need to learn how life really is, so I'm going to let them talk to whoever they want and date whoever they want. Besides, I agree with try before you buy. Parents, if this is your approach to parenting, if you parent in such a way, don't be surprised if your teenager runs away from home or comes to you with a pregnancy test that says positive. Yeah, I want to waken you up a little bit. Is that what you want for your child's life? Is that what you want for your life? I'm being serious. You say, well, those things happen outside the church. They happen inside the church as well. Don't be surprised, parents, if they grow older and they marry some good-for-nothing bum that you have to put up with around the holidays. Parents, listen to me, listen to me. It's better to instruct them now than to regret it later. It's better to warn now than to weep later. It's better to have them mad at you now and appreciate you later. You only get so many years to train them, so many years to warn them, so many years to teach them God's word. Teach them. Now, if they grow up and they rebel against you and God's word and the counsel that God's give, that's one thing, right? But for them to grow up and never have heard, never had any warnings from dad or mom, for them to grow up and look back and never know what dad or mom desired in a spouse, that's on you. I am preaching this sermon for such a purpose. God forbid that any parent, any child in our church should come week after week to the house of God and say, we didn't know. We weren't told. I didn't know what God expected. No one warned us. No one shot straight with us. No one tried to wake us up. No one offended. Well, I'm saying tonight, you know, I've told you, Now it's on you. It's on you, parents. This is a real deal. And one final thing, parents, before I give a word of exhortation to the church, I would strongly suggest that you do not allow your children to date by the world's standards. I'll speak of this in a future sermon, but the worldly idea of dating is not biblical. It's not pleasing to the Lord. The accepted concept of getting romantically and emotionally, physically involved with a member of the opposite sex that you are not intending to marry is not wise or beneficial to anyone. Don't get sucked into that vortex of doing what everybody else does. Don't get pressured to let your children do what their friends at school are doing. They, the friends at school, are allowed to talk and text and Facebook and Instagram and TikTok and message whoever they want, whenever they want. They, the friends at school, are allowed to stay up late and send pictures to whoever they want. They, the friends at school, can go wherever they want without supervision, without parents' consent. Parents, you must come along and say, no, not in my house, not under my roof. You can call me old-fashioned old maid grandma if you want to, but I care too much about your purity, I care too much about your testimony, I care too much about your future. Come on parents, do you need to look your children in the eye and say, you can get mad at me all you want, but I've lived life longer than you have. We're going to do things God's way, not the world's way. Remember Joshua? As for me and my house, we are going to serve the Lord. I don't care what the neighbor across the street does. I don't care at all. They all can point their fingers at us and call us Bible thumper fanatics if they want to. We're going to do things God's way. Parents, gird up your loins. Be strong, lead the way, set the tone of your home. Stop letting your children parent you. Stop letting society set the tone for what's right. Your children are asking the question to the pastor, and I'm encouraging them to do right. So you need to come alongside and help them in the application of doing right. A sermon lasts for an hour. You're with your children hours every day. Help them. Set up rules. Set up regulations. As I say often, don't let them have free reign on the phones. Don't let them have free access on the internet. I'm trying to help you. I'm trying to keep you and your family from unnecessary heartache. You don't see things as I see them in the counseling sessions. You don't see behind the scenes. You don't see the tears. You don't see the brokenness of homes, the regret. I see it. I see it. So I plead from the pulpit because I see what happens behind the curtain. Take heed. Do things God's way. Parents, come on. If I'm unbalanced, if I'm unbiblical, if I'm extreme, cast it aside. I don't think I am. Go home, parents, put down your phone. Think about it. Think about what is being said in God's word. Think about how you can better educate and shepherd the souls of your young ones. Write a list for yourself. Read some books. Go outside this pastor. See what other pastors say about shepherding other children. We've got to get busy about this. Come on, kids are asking. They want to do right. We have to help them do right. Finally, let me give a concluding word to the rest of the church. I've spoken to the young ones. I've spoken to those who are single, those who desire to be married one day. I've spoken to parents. Now let me speak to the rest of you who are here, all right? You don't get the evening off either. Maybe you're here thinking, why did I even come to church tonight? This sermon has no application to me. I mean, I'm widowed. I'm not planning to get married. I'm divorced. I'm not planning to get married. Or you say, I'm already married. I'm not planning to find another spouse. Well, if this is you, I hope you will recognize that the application of this sermon is for you to pray. To pray for the young ones of our church. to pray that God will cause them to wait on Him, to pray that they, the young ones, will learn to trust in the Lord, to pray that God would keep them pure, to pray that God would keep them from being spared from the sorrows that you've experienced. Is this not a fitting application for all of us? You may not be young, you may not be planning to get married, but you can and should pray. You can and should encourage others to do right. You can and should tell them that they would be wise to do things God's way. The application for the church as a whole is to be supportive of a pastor preaching a message like this so that young ones know that this is a serious matter. Church, during sermons like this, show the young ones that you're in cahoots with the pastor by saying, yes, amen, pastor. Shake your heads. Let your kids listen to it. Kids, nudge them if you need to. Take notes. You're gonna be listening to this every year until you get married. Right? Don't sit there, sulk and self-pity, saying, oh, I have nothing to benefit from this sermon, huh? The exhortation of Psalm 37 is to apply to every Christian at every stage of life, whether you're married or not. Listen, you wanna know what God's will is for your life? Here it is, here it is. Wherever you are, whatever situation, here's God's will for your life. Trust in the Lord. Keep His way. Wait patiently for Him. Commit yourself to Him. Do good. Keep yourself from evil. Delight yourself in Him and rest in Him. So you're already married and you're wondering, how can I make my marriage better? Great question, I have the answer, Psalm 37, here it is. Trust in the Lord, keep His way, wait patiently for Him, commit yourself to Him, do good, keep yourself from evil, delight yourself in Him and rest in Him. But pastor, I'm married to an unbeliever. My spouse doesn't know the Lord and salvation. What should I do? Great question. I have the answer. Trust in the Lord. Keep his way. Wait patiently for him. Commit yourself to him. Do good. Keep yourself from evil. Delight yourself in him and rest in him. That's. First Peter, Chapter three, you live godly and your godliness will be an example to your last spouse. My time is up, but I hope. Each and every one of us will sincerely think about what has been presented to you in scripture, and I pray that you will carefully apply the truths of God's word to your life. How do I find a good, godly husband? How do I find a good, godly spouse when I am old enough to get married? Answer. You can find a godly spouse by getting as close as you can to the good shepherd, Jesus Christ, and let him guide you. That's it. Get as close as you can to Jesus Christ, the shepherd who guides his children, and let him guide you step by step. I fear sometimes in the wanting to know God's will that we become too focused on the knowing of God's will rather than in the knowing of God. You wanna know what God's will is? Know God. If you know God, he will reveal his will to you. It's that simple. Don't get so anxious about knowing God's will. Become passionate. in knowing God. In your knowing God, He will reveal His perfect will.