0:00 [Music] Yeah. Well, good morning, uh, River of Life. Uh, my name is Wenhai from NCCF in California, and I'm so thankful to have a chance to come to my first singles conference. Um, unfortunately, I miss 0:19 this conference as a single person, but I'm very thankful that I got a chance to make up for it as a father and a husband. And first of all, before I share anything, a big thank you to all the hands behind the scenes, the labor 0:30 of love to make this happen. It's just an amazing event. Thank you for all the hard work uh to make this this possible. And so I wanted to share today an encouragement specifically for the singles and the youth in our church. And 0:43 the simple encouragement is this. To seek the Lord with all of your heart in your single years. To seek the Lord with all of your heart in your youth. to give your best to him in this time and you'll never regret it. That's the theme of 0:57 what I wanted to share in today. So, you could turn with me please to Jeremiah chapter 29 and verse 13. Let's start there. Jeremiah chapter 29 and verse 13. This is a verse that was very personal 1:15 to me when I first came to NCCF many years ago. So just by way of background, I grew up and I went to different churches uh in my in my youth, but I never took my Christianity seriously. Church was just a nice to have. God was 1:30 a nice to have type of thing. But it wasn't until I came to NCCF and I met Brother Zach, that's when I realized, oh, I need to take my Christian life seriously. And this was one of those verses at that time that really challenged me. And it says this, 1:44 Jeremiah 29:13, you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. And it's interesting to note the context in which this verse is written. Who is this written for? Who is Jeremiah telling to seek the Lord? And if you look at the 2:03 context of this, you look at verse one in this chapter, Jeremiah's writing to the exiles. So in other words, these were Israelites who had followed the Lord, who actually did not follow the Lord for for years and they chased after 2:15 idols and other things and they had so much evil and the Lord finally said, "Hey, I'm going to punish you and I'm going to send these Babylonians to come into your country and capture you and take you away." So you could say that 2:27 these Israelites were at the rock bottom. And so as these people who are at rock bottom, the Lord says, "Hey, now you come. You come and seek for me with all of your heart." So, it's a message of hope when I see this verse. But 2:40 sometimes when we see a verse like that, we can say it's a little intimidating. How can I seek the Lord with all of my heart? Maybe there's some things I'm not willing to let go. Can I let go? And I love what the Lord says in verse 14. He 2:53 says this, "I will be found by you." And it's almost saying, "Hey, I know this is hard, but I'm looking at you and I say, I believe that you can let go of everything and that you can seek me with all your heart." Again, it's a message 3:05 of hope. The Lord says,"I will be found by you." And what he says after that is he says, "I will restore your fortunes." Now, here in this context, it's talking about physical fortunes. But of course, here in a church, we're not interested 3:18 in the physical fortunes, but the spiritual fortunes. And I really believe that God is in the business of restoration. And what does that look like? So, tech team, if you could pull up that first picture, here's a picture 3:30 for what restoration uh looks like. And so, not sure if any of you have uh spoons before or silverware, okay? And what happens if you have that silverware is that over time it gets a little tarnished. Okay? And as it touches the 3:45 air, it becomes kind of black. And for me, that's a picture of what life for me was like before I came to NCCF. There was sin in my life. And over time, the heart just gets a little darker and a little darker over time. And if you use 3:58 water to wash it off, you can't. But then what does God do when we seek him with all our heart? God is in the business of restoration. So he takes that tarnish and he wipes it off. You need some special chemicals to to take 4:10 that tarnish off if it's really bad. And God is is like that. He takes that tarnish away and he makes our soul like that right spoon nice and shiny and bright. And so for me that is a picture of a reality that we can have if we seek 4:23 the Lord with all our heart. That he is a God of restoration. Now when we talk about seeking the Lord with all of our heart practically what does that look like? How do we actually seek the Lord with all our heart practically 4:36 especially in our youth? And I just want to share a few areas that were very personal to me uh in that in that season. And the first thing practically for what it means to seek the Lord with all our heart is to be seek to be freed 4:49 from the lust of the eyes. Seek to have pure eyes. That is one way which in which we can seek the Lord with all of our heart. Um, we live in a day and age where it's so dark outside. Um, there's internet pornography, there's so many 5:02 ads, there's things that we shouldn't be seeing and it's just in our faces all the time. And especially for the singles, for the youth, I know how much of a challenge and how much of a struggle it can be. And those things can 5:14 be like a chain in our lives. and we can come to church, we can hear all these sermons and we can go to all the meetings. But as long as we have those things in our lives, it's a chain and it binds us and it keeps us from from 5:26 running the Christian life. But the good news is this. It's like what we sang earlier. Jesus is the great emancipator. He doesn't just forgive us from our sins, but he frees us. He breaks those chains. And I want to challenge everyone 5:38 here, especially the youth. Have you experienced that Jesus as an emancipator? Have you experienced Jesus breaking those chains? We know those verses in our head. We can quote it. But the question is, is that your testimony? 5:52 And I want to encourage every one of you that it can be possible that that can be your testimony, especially in this area in the lust of the eyes that Jesus can be our emancipator. So how do we go about that? One thing that was very 6:05 helpful to me at the time is a verse from 1 Corinthians chapter 7. Sorry, 2 Corinthians chapter 7. you turn there with me. 2 Corinthians uh chapter 7 and verse one. How do we cleanse oursel from sin? 6:25 How do we cleanse ourselves in the lust of the eyes? 2 Corinthians chapter 7 verse one. It says this, "Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." 6:41 And that last phrase really stands out to me. How do we cleanse ourselves? We cleanse ourselves by perfecting holiness in the fear of God. And I feel that a lot of people the mistake they make in this area is when it comes to purity of 6:54 the eyes, they cleanse themselves from defilement in the fear of men and not in the fear of God. And what I know is that sometimes people say, "Oh, you should get an accountability partner." So, and every time you you slip up or something, 7:05 hey, you have this accountability partner that can help you up and keep you accountable. I think the intention is good, but the reality is that that's teaching us to have a fear of man. But what we really need to learn, especially 7:16 in our younger days, is to have a fear of God. What does that look like? That means that if you're by yourself and you're in a room and no one else is watching you and you go to some site or you see some picture, the question is 7:28 how quickly do you turn your eyes from that picture, that is an indication of whether you have a true fear of God or not. So I would encourage everyone learn that fear of God and be careful about those little things, the little ads that 7:40 pop up. Be quick to turn away from it. Develop that habit of being having a fear and reverence for God. And that will help you to to overcome this. And I also want to share that in this area sometimes it can be very uh discouraging. Sometimes people you know 7:54 they fall like what do I do? And I want to remind everyone that God is is a father. And so even when we fall the important thing is to repent and then just run back. Get up and keep running this race. go back to him. Um, recently 8:06 I had a chance to talk to my my my kids and one of my kids I've been working with him on something and he was trying his his best and he kept trying but falling, trying and failing. And then one day he said to me, "Daddy, I'm 8:19 trying my best." And as soon as I heard that, I was like, "Okay, fine. I don't care how many times you fall, but as long as you're trying your best, that's that's enough for me." And I believe if that's my heart as a father, how much 8:31 more so our heavenly father who sees this child of mine struggling. Yes, they're falling, but he's trying his best to get up. And so that's something I would encourage everyone. Don't be afraid of God when you fall. Repent. Get 8:42 back up. Keep running this race. Go back towards him. God is a God of encouragement. And that's a verse from Romans chapter 15 verse 5. That's a wonderful verse as well. Romans chapter 15 and verse 5. I'll read in some translations it says 9:02 this. Now the God of perseverance and of encouragement. And I like that phrase, the God of encouragement. What does that mean when you have a God of encouragement? For me, it shows that God is really good at encouragement. He's a 9:19 master at giving encouragement. For example, if you were to say, "Hey, this person is the god of tennis." Well, what does that mean? It means he's really good at tennis, better than anyone else. So, if God is a God of encouragement for 9:30 me, it means that he's the master at encouraging us. And I'll just share a little a story that has encouraged me in this area. So, a couple many years ago, actually, I was at the office working. And at the end of a long day at the 9:43 office, I took out my Bible to to read. And then, as I was reading by myself at my desk, one of the big bosses in the company, you know, walked by to say hi to me. And then I noticed my hand slowly taking the Bible and just putting it 9:56 down behind my desk. Um, and afterward I said hi to the boss and and he left. And afterwards I was really disappointed. I was like, "Hey Lord, this was my one chance to be a testimony to say, "Hey, I'm a Christian. I'm here's the Bible 10:09 that I'm reading." And I missed it. And I So I was really sad. So the next day I go to work and I take a shuttle bus to to the office. And in the shuttle bus again, I have my Bible open. And believe it or not, that day the person next to 10:23 me looked over and said, "Hey, what are you reading?" And I said, "Oh, I'm reading a Bible." And I had a chance to make up for that miss. And I've written the bus for years. Nobody has ever talked to me on the bus about what I'm 10:35 reading. But just that day, that one day after I had slipped up the day before, God allowed this to happen. So what did that tell me? God is so much interested in encouraging us. So, I know that this is a battle that is not easy, but if we 10:48 keep fighting, we fall, fine. Repent. Come back to the Lord because he's a master of of encouragement. And I want to say one last thing in this area for the brothers. Um, especially one day, you're going to get married and before 11:03 you get married, you need to get your wife something. Have you thought about what is going to be your wedding gift? And for some people, it's a ring with a big diamond. Other people, it's a house. or maybe for some people it's a car. And 11:16 I want to suggest one gift to you. Consider giving your wife a pair of pure eyes before you get married. May that be the wedding gift that you give to her and say, "Honey, these eyes that I'm giving you, these are the eyes I'm only 11:29 going to use to look at you and not for anyone else." May that be the perspective of you as a brother. That's worth more than any amount of diamonds in houses, a pair of pure eyes. And may you give that to your wife on your 11:41 wedding day. So that's one area in which we can honor the Lord. We can honor the Lord by being faithful in this area to fight that lust of the eyes and to overcome it especially before we get married because once you get married 11:51 it's going to be a much more severe consequences if you fall. So dear young people please take this seriously especially in your youth in your single days overcome this and then enter your marriage with a set of pure eyes. So 12:03 that's the first thing. The second area that challenged me uh in in my single days is I can honor the Lord and to seek him by seeking to study the word of the Lord. That's something that's really critical especially in our 12:17 single days. Spend time to study the word of the Lord. When I was single, I think about 15 years ago, Brother Zach wrote me this this email um that I've kept with me ever since. And he wrote this to me. He said, "Wheni, for 40 12:31 years, I have urged young men to study the word seriously before they get married. Very few have taken my exhortation seriously. Therefore, they miss being useful to God." And that last phrase, therefore, they miss being 12:47 useful to God, was something that stood out to me. I know that I only have one chance to live and God has a plan for me. And whatever that plan is, I don't want to miss it. And that email from him reminded me that, hey, if I'm lazy about 12:59 studying the word of God, maybe God has a plan for me to do something. I'm going to miss it if I'm not careful to study the word of God in my youth. And so, that's something I want to challenge everyone. Take that seriously. Study 13:11 God's word in your youth. And here's an example of someone who is really good at doing that. And this is Ezra. If you would turn with me to Ezra chapter 7. So Ezra is after 2 Chronicles and before Nehemiah. So Ezra chapter 7 and we can start with 13:28 verse 9. It's a wonderful example for for us to learn from Ezra chapter 7 and verse let's start with verse 9. So in the context Ezra is going to leave Babylon and he's going to go back to Jerusalem. And I like that phrase that's 13:45 described about him in Ezra chapter 7 uh verse 9 at the end. and he went up to Jerusalem because the good hand of his God was upon him. I love that phrase, the good hand of the Lord was upon him. We always want that, hey, God is going 14:00 to be with me. God's never going to leave me, forsake me. Great. That's true. But how do we know for sure that the hand of the Lord is is going to be upon us? And here's why. If you look at verse 10, four, that's because because 14:12 Ezra has set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to practice it and to teach his statutes and ordinances in Israel. And I like that first part, God was with Ezra because he had set his heart to study the law of the Lord. And 14:26 that phrase set his heart is is such a beautiful phrase. Imagine the context of who Ezra is and where he was. He was in Babylon. And Babylon is a place without with God with so many idols, so many distractions, so many pleasures. And 14:39 imagine as a young person probably growing up in Babylon, all the temptations you would have faced to go out and enjoy these pleasures and to enjoy all these distractions. But what did Ezra do? He said, "No, I'm going to 14:50 set my heart to study the word of the Lord." And in the same way, many of us, especially in our single days, we have a lot of free time. We face those same distractions and those other things that take us away from the Lord. But so what 15:03 is our priority in our single days? I'm not saying we can't go have fun or go have a hobby or take a walk, but where is our heart set at? And I want to challenge everyone, use your single days to set your heart on studying the word 15:15 of God. You will never regret it. But practically, how do you study the word of God? How do you study the word of God? And the blessing of being in this church is that there's so many wonderful resources that we can use to study the 15:27 word of the Lord. Um at that time, brother Zach had given me two recommendations. One is to go through the through the Bible series and the second is to go through the verse by verse series which covers all the verses in the New Testament and through a 15:39 number of books in the Old Testament. And if you spend maybe 15 minutes a day uh doing that, it'll take you maybe about 3 to four years. But at the end of those 3 to four years, you'll have a really good foundation for which you can 15:51 start to understand the word of the Lord. So take that seriously. Spend 15 minutes a day. It's not much, but the study of the word of the Lord. And when you're studying, I would also encourage you to take a notebook and write these 16:02 things down because it's hard for us to remember everything first of all, but the other thing is what's really cool is that as you're writing down these notes, try to make it personal. And so sometimes in my notebook, what I say is 16:13 here's a verse that stood out to me and I put the dates and I explain, for example, the situation I'm in. Maybe it's a work situation I was facing. And then a couple years later, I go back and I happen to be in that section. I say, 16:22 "Oh, this verse was very important to me at that time when I was going through the situation." So it's not just knowledge anymore, but it becomes something personal that's part of yourself. And so that's my encouragement. Don't just seek for the 16:34 knowledge, but study the word of God. Make it yourself. Make it for yourself. And it's going to be it'll help you through life so much. And then in verse 11, if we continue here, I love the description here about Ezra as well. And 16:45 it says here um in the middle of the verse, Ezra the priest, the scribe, learned in the words of the commandments of the Lord and his statutes to Israel. like that phrase, learned in the words of the commandments of the Lord. The 16:59 Living Bible calls this, he was a student of God's commands. It's a beautiful phrase. And so, I want to encourage all the the singles in this church, let's become students of God's uh commandments. And it's not simply just knowing the knowledge, but one 17:13 thing about Ezra that I like is that he practiced it. That's something we read in verse 10. He said it's hard to study, but then he also practiced it. So, it's not simply saying, "Hey, I know these verses." Great. But in this situation, 17:24 how do I apply the verse to not complain or grumble in this particular session? How do I apply the the command to um to not lust with the eyes? So look for those ways to practice it. And that will again make these verses more more real 17:36 to you. And the good thing about studying the word of God is that this also helps with the lust of the eyes that I talked about earlier. Because if we have a Christianity that just says, "Hey, don't sin with your eyes." Fine. 17:46 But we have to replace it with something. What are we going to replace that with? Fill that empty spot now with the word of God. and that will will help in that area as well. So encourage everyone, we can honor the Lord by using 17:56 our single days to study the word of God seriously and you'll never regret that. The last area that I want to talk about um how do we practically seek the the Lord in our youth and another way we can seek the Lord and honor him in our youth 18:10 is that we put God first when it comes to seeking for a marriage partner. I know that this is a topic that many of the singles are thinking about, but my encouragement is to honor the Lord in this area. Put him first. And that's how 18:25 we can um we'll get his best. I The reason I say that is because if you think about how God arranged marriages in in the Bible, there's only two cases where we see God arrange a marriage. First is Adam and Eve and the other one 18:37 is Isaac and Rebecca. And so in both of those cases, what God did was he picked one person for the man. So it wasn't like, "Hey, Adam, here's 10 women. You can choose one." No, he's like, "Here's Eve and this is going to be your wife." 18:50 So in that same way, I believe that God has a choice for every single one of us. And that choice is what I call God's best. And I don't want to miss God's best when it comes to this area. And we have to believe that God is a loving 19:02 father and he's very much interested in leading us to his choice for us. Now, this can sound very uh daunting. You think about all the for me all the sisters in the world. How am I going to find that one person whom God has uh 19:15 picked for me? Now, in English, we have a phrase called picking a needle in a haystack. But in China, we have something better. It's called finding a needle in the ocean. And that's what it felt like to me. Okay, how in the world 19:26 am I going to find this needle in the ocean? I can't. But Lord, you can lead me to to that person. And it's really important. I I realized that in this area, we must let the Lord choose for us. We cannot choose the best for 19:39 ourselves. And I'm going to show you an example of that in in scripture. So please turn with me to Deuteronomy 33. Deuteronomy chapter 33 and verse 21. Deuteronomy 33 21. The context of this verse is that Moses is 19:58 about to die. And before he dies, he blesses the the different sons of Israel and to each of them they he gives a different blessing. And in verse 20, he talks about this this tribe called Gad. Okay? And look what he says about Gad in verse uh 21. 20:15 Okay? I'm going to read this for read this in the ESV translation. It says this about Gad. He chose the best of the land for himself. Okay, think about that for a second. He chose the best of the land for himself. So there was something 20:30 that happened and G said that's the best and I want to choose that for myself and I want to make sure that it comes to marriage that that's not our perspective that oh I chose the best for myself. No, God should choose the best for me. So 20:44 let's look at the story of God and and see what um happened. And so um take team if you could pull up that map real quick. So why did God say to God that he chose the best of land for himself? Um, this is actually a message that our brother 20:58 Jeremy has shared with us a few weeks ago. You can see it in the in our YouTube channel. It's called Beware of a Selfappointed Promised Land. He explains this in much more in depth, but I'll just summarize it briefly here in 21:09 interest of time. And what Brother Jeremy was sharing in that sermon is that as the Israelites were supposed to go into the promised land, you can see in the map that the promised land is on the the left. So, they're supposed to 21:19 cross the river and conquer that promised land on the left. But before they went to the promised land, there was these tribes, Manasseh, Gad, and Reuben. And they said, "Hey, I'm on the east side of this river, and this area 21:30 is really nice. It's got a lot of land. I got a lot of sheep. I'm just going to to stay here." And so these tribes actually did not enter into the promised land. They say, "Hey, I'm just going to stay here. I'll help fight the battles 21:42 in the promised land, but I'm going to build my land here. This is going to be my promised land, so to speak." That's the spirit of Jeremy's message. And it's really interesting to see what happened to those three tribes over over history. 21:55 Okay. And the one thing that happened is that they were the first group of tribes to be conquered by the Assyrians. Okay. So we know that the Israelites were conquered by the Syrians. But these first three groups were the first ones 22:06 to be conquered by the Syrians. Okay? And then the second thing is if you look at a modern map today, those three pieces of the land that's here on the right that doesn't belong to the Israelites. It's now the country of 22:17 Jordan. So they lost that land completely. So for me, what was the takeaway? These people chose the best for themselves, but they lost out. They were the first to get conquered. And that land is not even there anymore for 22:28 them. And so when it comes to the area of a wife, for me, this is really important. Lord, I don't want it to be said that Wenhai chose the best for himself. It must be said that God chose the best for WHI. That should be our our 22:40 testimony. And that way we won't have any regrets. So practically, how do we do that? And I want to encourage everyone that as we consider a spouse that we keep again God first there's many factors that we need to consider 22:52 the physical aspect the emotional but for the sake of time I just want to focus on the the spiritual aspect of this we must choose a wife that's in line with the spiritual principles that God has has set for us. We know in the 23:05 Bible that God says do not be unequally yolked. And often times we think of that as to say okay as a Christian I shouldn't marry a non-Christian. Fine. Okay. That's one way to look at it. But that's al also a very low level of 23:17 looking at it. To be equally yolked would mean that we have the same desire and passion for the Lord together. So let's say if you are 100% devoted to the Lord and you marry a sister who's 70% devoted to the Lord. Well, after your 23:30 marriage, she's not going to be at 100%. You're both going to be at 70 cuz it's much easier to go down than it is to to go up. Um, and I can say that um, I'm so thankful that God gave me my my my wife because the reason I'm here honestly is 23:43 because my wife is now at home chasing the the kids and taking care of them. That's why I'm here. But because she has the same vision to help with the church, etc., that's why I'm able to come here today. And so having a wife or a spouse 23:55 that is on the same footing as you spiritually is really critical. And there's a wonderful book that Brother Zach wrote. Um, it's called Love, Sex, and Marriage. I'd really encourage all the single folks to to take a look at 24:05 that and there was a phrase in there that really stood out to me and in this area he said this her spirituality must be such that it evokes your respect okay so it's not enough to say hey this girl's a Christian but the question is 24:19 does this person evoke my respect for her and say wow wow that's that's amazing that's the type of wife that um I want to to marry and before I got married I had a chance to see that about Crystal God showed me some things in her 24:33 I looked at her life and I was like, "Oh, wow. Not too many sisters would be willing to do something like that." That evokes my respect and that was something that helped me to have that assurance. Okay, we can walk together and be 24:43 equally yolked after after marriage. So, that's the the first thing, put God's principles first. And then the second thing I'll say in this area is I would really encourage you to seek for godly counsel. We've talked about submission a 24:54 lot in the in the singles time, but I would really encourage you, especially in this area, find an older brother, an elder whom you have confidence in and and trust them and help them to guide you in this situation. Because when 25:07 you're in the midst of considering someone, one of the things that can happen is that, hey, this person is the best. This person is the seems like the best. No problems whatsoever. Um, but you really need that someone next to you 25:17 to say, hey, maybe this might not be a best fit. And so for me personally at that time, it was it was brother Zach. And when he visited us in California, I would take him out to to Chinese food and I would say, "Hey, what about this 25:27 person? What about that person?" And he would give me his opinion and sometimes he would say when I this doesn't seem like a a good fit and I didn't see it. Um and I took a suggestion and I and that saved me from a lot of pearls and 25:39 and mistakes. So I would really encourage you young folks, please seek for counsel, seek for an elder, someone whom you trust and walk with them uh on on this path and it will help you to keep you from making a mistake. 25:52 The last thing I'll share about this area is to have faith in the Lord because I I remember when I was single, the waiting period was was very long. It seemed very long at least and I was praying. I was like, "Lord, I'm not 26:03 seeing answers to prayer. What's what's going on?" So, I want to share an answer to this um as well. So, please turn with me to Genesis chapter 24. It's a little story, but I believe this is true um in many areas as well. So, Genesis 26:18 chapter 24 and verse start with verse 14. And so, the context here is that Abraham's servant is going to go get um a wife for for Isaac. Okay. So, now Abraham's servant is near the city where he's supposed to be and he's praying, 26:32 "Lord, help me to find the person whom you've picked for for Isaac." Okay. And he says in verse 14, this is Abraham's servant praying. He's like, "So, may it be that the girl who says, "Let down your jar so that I may drink and who 26:45 answers, drink, and I will water your camels also." May this be the one. Okay, so he's he's praying. And then in verse 15, it says this, "Before he had finished speaking, behold, Rebecca came out." So the question is, when did 27:00 Rebecca start out of her helm? Was it when Abraham's servant started praying? No. I believe in the context of this that even before Abraham's servant got here, before he started praying, that the Lord said, "Hey, Rebecca, you should 27:13 go go get some water." And he moved her along. Even before he started praying and so this was a it's a small story, but I believe it's a it's an encouragement for me that Lord, sometimes when I'm praying, I'm not seeing things, but you're doing 27:25 something in the back before I even realize it, before I even pray. And my personal example for this is that um when I met my wife Crystal, we both live in a place in California called Sato. And we're both from China, by the way. 27:39 And it just so happened that I moved to Sonteo in 2008. And the Lord moved her to Sonteo in 2009. I did not start praying for a wife until probably 2015. So even before I prayed, I saw, Lord, you had already moved her into this 27:53 area. And I joked with her that, "Hey, maybe those years I bumped into you in the Chinese grocery store or something like I don't know. We'll find out." But I'm just showing that as an example to say, "Lord, I might be praying. I'm not 28:03 seeing answers, but never doubt the fact that the Lord is someone who loves you and he's silently planning for you in love." And so I encourage you, keep that faith in the Lord, especially in these waiting times when it when it's hard and 28:14 it's uncertain. Have that faith in the Lord. Um, and so the last thing I just want to share real quick is um, a verse I think we all know, but I I want to close with this verse. Um, this is from 1st Samuel 2:30. This is a nice way to 28:28 memorize this verse 1 230. 1st Samuel 2 2:30. It's a common verse that we've we've heard before, but I hope this will encourage you. And this is the Lord speaking to the Samuel about Eli. 1st Samuel chapter 2:30 it says this, 28:47 "Those who honor me, I will honor and those who despise me I will be this despise me will be lightly esteemed." And so all these things that I've said earlier, these areas of purity in the eyes, studying the studying the word of 29:02 the Lord, putting God first when it comes to marriage, these are all ways in which we can honor the Lord. And if we're faithful to honor him, we'll never regret it. We'll never regret it whatsoever. And I want to say to you, 29:14 dear singles, that you are so blessed. You're so blessed to be able to come to this church and hear these things in your youth before you you get married. And so I believe that God has a wonderful plan for each of you. And I 29:24 would encourage you, honor the Lord in all of these areas, and he will honor you. You'll never regret it. Uh thank you for giving me a chance to come here and thank you for letting me share. [Music]
