In 2008 I preached this sermon on Dating. I was then a single man and about a month later I put this into practice and started dating Ellisa. We got married on Jan 30, 2010. I believe what I said, and I believe it works. I'm not perfect and I didn't do everything right, but God is gracious.
Whenever I want to talk about dating or relationships with young people I use these notes. Often in a small group more conversational form, but I would also give this as a sermon again. (That is how it first appeared).
You can listen to my dating sermon online here.
Whenever I want to talk about dating or relationships with young people I use these notes. Often in a small group more conversational form, but I would also give this as a sermon again. (That is how it first appeared).
You can listen to my dating sermon online here.
To download it click here
Extensive notes are available for download below. Please let me know if you find this useful.
Dating Notes
Dating Notes
My favourite bit of your sermon was when you said, to get a girlfriend you need "to get out there... move states... *pause*"
Hasn't worked for either of us yet ;)
Good sermon mate. You spoke well and it seemed well thought out. Very handy for me, as we are studying 1 corinthians 7 this sunday at youth bible study!
Hope your enjoying the big city!
Jono
"it's not cool... chris says!"
a very good sermon. it covered a lot of bases and was balanced. only have to say that two people can't wait for the other to magically ask the other out but this is a very minor point
This is a great resource! You should submit this to my site at http://timschmoyer.com for a Freebie Friday and a chance to win a 1-year subscription to The ParentLink Newsletter. Seriously, great job!
Chris there is nothing wrong with imagining your wedding night with your future spouse. The wedding night is a celebration. It is something that has taken alot of hardwork to get to. You do that hardwork because you aspire to have a beautiful marriage with an awesome sex life. So it's ok to think about sex with your future partner as a part of aspiring to be a good husband or wife. This means that you should make an effort to keep yourself as physically attractive as possible. God has given us bodies to be good stewards of. Physical attractiveness is a sign of good physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health. Sex whilst not the only key - is key. It is critical to a healthy marriage. So many marriages go by the wayside because the sex life drops off. This is not acceptable. God gave it to as as a symbolic gift. So I say, picture your wedding night and your future sex life. Work it through in your mind. Is there anything wrong? Then do all you can to improve it. Enjoy the finer things in life. Embrace your humanity.
Love is a feeling. The action results from that feeling. I think you should put some more thought into this.
In regards to wanting your woman to exercise modesty, have you considered asking her to wear a hijab?
Apart from these three points, it was a mediocre sermon. I hope you do better in the future. Stick to what you know.
Hey Anonymous
I'd ask that if you are going to do things like criticise me you put your name to the comment. I think that's the Godly thing to do.
As to imagining your wedding night. What I meant and what I said was not that the wedding night is not to be celebrated. What I meant was when you are a 15 year old boy with a girlfriend, don't dream about (and masturbate) thinking about having sex with your girlfriend on your wedding night because you cannot know that it is going to happen. You should try to save those thoughts for your wife. Who most likely wont be your current girlfriend. It's best not to think about it in order to preserve yourself for your marriage.
As to your point about physical attractiveness. In my mind physical attractiveness is so completely subjective (that is it changes with culture and with individual taste), that I don't think it is a sign of much. There are fit fat people, emotionally stable ugly people, mentally fit lazy people, spiritually on fire obese people...
I do think it is a good idea to wish for a great sex life in your married life. But in my limited experience if you shape your view of sex on much of what the world says, then the only thing you will find come marriage is that sex is not like what the world says. It's so much better, but so much different.
As to your comment about love, I believe that love is mostly an action. God shows his love for us not by feeling nice about us but by acting to save us. In fact from acting loving, feeling can follow. It is incredibly dangerous to demand feeling before action.
Modesty is also a great biblical quality. Godly women dress modestly. Modesty is also something that is very cultural. So I would not consider asking my wife to wear a hijab. Simply to think about what's appropriate.
I happen to think I know a reasonably large amount about this topic. Many people have found this sermon useful and it remains one of our most downloaded at our church.