Dating Toward a Blessed Marriage
In this podcast episode on relationships and dating, Pastor Tim and a panel of married couples talk honestly about dating as Christians: going in with the intent to marry, refusing to compromise your faith, and keeping physical boundaries so you come to marriage pure. Pastor Gennady adds pastoral counsel to date as if it may not work out, and every guest leaves one practical piece of advice for singles. The morning opens with two worship songs and a reading of Psalm 47.
Psalm 47:1-9
2 Corinthians 6:14
Matthew 6:9-13
Read the transcript
Resurrected three days later, Lord, thank you for everything you've given us. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. And for our first song, we'll be singing, "Lord, I lift Your name on high." Lord, I lift Your name on high. Lord, I love to sing Your praises. I'm so glad You're in my life. I'm so glad you came to save us. You came from heaven to earth to show the way from the earth to the cross, my debt to pay. From the cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky, Lord, I lift your name on high. Lord, I lift your name on high. Lord, I love to sing Your praises. I'm so glad You're in my life. I'm so glad You came to save us. You came from heaven to earth to show the way. From the earth to the cross, my debt to pay. From the cross to the grave. From the grave to the sky, Lord, I lift Your name on high. You came from heaven to earth to show the way. From the earth to the cross, my debt to pay. From the cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky, Lord, I lift Your name on high. Praise God. And for our second song, we'll be. Singing, the Savior is waiting. Savior is waiting to enter your heart. Why don't you let him come in? There's nothing, as far all, to keep you apart. What is your answer to him? Time after time, he has waited before, and now he is waiting again to see if you're willing to open the door. Oh, how he wants to come in! If you'll take one step toward the Savior, my friend. You'll find his arms open wide. Receive him in all of your darkness will end within your argument. Abide. Time after time, he has waited before, and now he is waiting again to see if you're willing to open. In the door, oh, how he wants to come in! Oh, how he wants to come in! Praise God. Praise the Lord, my dear brothers and sisters, for this morning. And I'm going to be doing our Bible reading for this morning. And before we do that, if you guys remember, we were reading Psalm 46 last time, and it was talking about how God is our refuge and our strength. But this time in Psalm forty-seven, it continues. But it continues to actually praise God for who He is, that He saves Israel even in the hard times. So I'll be wanting to read Psalm forty-seven for you guys today, which is in page eight thirteen, Psalm forty-seven. And I'll give you guys just a little bit of time to open up to that spot to follow along. And the Bibles are in the pews for who doesn't have the Bibles. And it says here, "Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples! Shout to God with the voice of triumph! For the Lord Most High is awesome. He is a great King over all the earth. He will subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet. He will choose our inheritance for us, the excellence of Jacob, whom He loves. God has gone up with the shouts." The Lord, with the sound of a trumpet, sing praises to God. Sing praises, sing praises to our King. Sing praises, for God is the King of all the earth. Sing praises with understanding. God reigns over the nations. God sits on his holy throne. The princes of the people have gathered together. The people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong to God. He is greatly exalted. Praise God. And now we'll have Pastor Tim come up and do a couple announcements for us this morning, and we'll continue with our little marriage. Church advice, part two. After that, God bless. Good morning, church. It's good to be in the house of the Lord. And how we just read this psalm that God has all the shields with Him. So if you trust in Him, He will shield you. He will give you the strength to overcome and be overcomers. We will continue our, I would say the. I kind of named it the podcast series. the The younger generation they understand. So this is our podcast series. It's once a month, and right now we're going through the relationships slash dating topic. Our next one, which is going to be in a month, is going to be about marriage. So we're going to have new guest speakers. So invite friends and family that that you feel will benefit from these topics. We will continue next week as usual on the topic of the Holy Spirit and how we can apply it in our lives daily and what it does daily in our lives. But as for now, let's do just a few minutes of meet and greet, and we'll get into our topic. Amen. God bless. 啊! All right, Jacob. We're gonna have PowerPoint. Can you please set it up? Okay. There we go. Okay, we're continuing. So we're continuing our topic on. Okay, hold on a second. Can you? Yeah, monitor maybe down. How did everybody like last week? Yeah, yeah. Some, some good advice, some good tips, and once again, the re the reason why we are doing these podcast topics is because we want. Our members, our children, to hear things from the church, not from the world, and to learn certain things from the church, not from their friends, or from their schools, or from the world. Therefore, to have a blessed marriage, you need to have a blessed before marriage. And this is a very strong topic, an important topic, because right now the world has twisted dating into how it says you should do it, and what we see is a very high divorce rate—one in every three. Actually, even more like marriages they end because of people's pasts that were uncovered later on. So we we feel that this is a very important topic. And if you do have questions, I believe that the greeters did pass out papers and pens to those who have. If you do have a question, you can just write it down. And brother Dima, he'll maybe walk around. You can just kind of raise your. Your hand, and he'll come and take the paper and give it to me, and then we can read it off, and our guests can answer it. Are you guys ready to roll? Amen. So, last time we talked about very important things, which were red flags in a relationship that people need to avoid. Last time we talked about. Like, what did you want it to see in your future spouse? And from what I kind of got last week was that these people who are sitting up here, they had one thing in common: is that before marriage, or before even dating, they all were fasting and praying way before they even met each other. And God kind of connected them, and now we see very blessed marriages. But that happened before the marriage. So, if if you just want to kind of catch up, then then you can watch our last week's live stream. But we will continue. And I wanted to to start with our young couple, Brother Vlad and Sister Jessica. What, in your understanding, like what did it mean to have a healthy Christ-centered relationship, and how how did it look like in your mind? Like, what's a Christ-centered relationship, and did you feel that that was something important? Yeah, I mean, I definitely think it's important. I think God should always be in the center of everything, and when God is in the center, you're living biblically. Because if you look at the world, who doesn't have God, their relationships are really a mess. And even before marriage, there can be a lot of things that happen, a lot of problems. And keeping yourself pure and following the Bible, and asking the Holy Spirit to help you will really get you through that period before marriage, which is a very important one. And to keep yourself pure and things like that. So I think that's kind of what Christ-centered looks like to me. Um, I don't know if I answered it correctly. Okay. Well, Jessica, what about your thoughts? I think it's important for a Christ-centered relationship for both spouses to be selfless every day, not just about big things, but about little everyday things. Trying to. Do the best for your partner before thinking of what you want to do. So yeah, being selfless like Christ. Being selfless, I like that. Alex. Well, for me, Jesus, he left a Bible for us, right? And apostles wrote a lot about how we should be following Jesus as an example, and. We as a man, we tend to have our own, like I would say, ambitious or point of view, and everything that we think, you know, that we're doing it right. But when you start looking at Jesus and you're looking at the Christ, what he did for his church, what the Bible is teaching us, then you start realizing that you need to work on yourself a little bit more and include. Your spouse more and love her more and unconditionally doesn't matter what happens and so that's that's the teachings we get from the Bible and from Christ. And is the question before marriage, right? Correct. Before marriage. So I would say Christ-centered is to be who you are and not pretend. You know. Who you're not to establish boundaries. That's something that needs to be talked about. And praying for each other before marriage. Yeah. Okay, Lana. Yeah. So, so like, what is a Christ-centered relationship in your understanding? Because right now a lot of relationships, they kind of people date. They try to try everything, but but then what you see is they get married, and all of a sudden that marriage is a lot different than they're dating, and then they kind of like split away. But what is a Christ-centered relationship? Because we are Christians, so in your thoughts or in your mind. Yeah, it's already been said. I would say it's the most most important thing, like to seek God, like in every like question, in every like situation. You know, I would say, I would say because it's what says in the Bible. If you gonna seek God first, like if if the Christ is like center of your relationship, yeah, it's gonna be every every like problem. Of course, you're gonna have like problems like in your like marriage or. Wherever, like, but if you're gonna seek Christ first, Bible says everything gonna be like, will give in to you. I would say the Lord. It's okay. So seeking Christ, okay, Lana. So this is before marriage. Yes. Yes. Okay. So basically, if you rely on your understanding, you know, sometimes you feel like, okay, this person will be like really good for me. However, but if you give it to God, you know, He will. He knows who is best for you. You know, if you give it to God, everything, your relationship, and. And you probably said before, you know, when you rely on your understanding, the relationship did not work out. And then when you say, "Okay, God, you do it, you do your way," you know, and it always works because God is always perfect, you know, in every way. Yes. And did somebody want to add anything here? Yes. Here, hold on a second. I think the question can be simplified. It says, "A Christian dating or Christian relationships." So when we start in to date as a Christians, how should we date? So, just because the question is pretty much, we as Christians, how our dating is different than the people in this world? It's a Christ-centric relationship between the dating parties. Actually, should be. And so, how is it's different than than the people of this world? Well, Henry, Pastor Henry, how about you? Like you answered that. Well, we we had some of those answers, but I'll tell you like this because the relationship may not be any different. The only difference is that number one, you understand that you're a Christian, and you have to date as a Christian. And my perspective, and my suggestion, and my advice to all of you. When you start in dating, and you think this is your future wife, date in a way that this may not be your future wife. So you got to be very careful during the dating. Understand that a lot of dating did not work out, and many people ruined their reputation because they thought, "Oh, we're gonna get married. Who cares? We're gonna behave how we wanted." And I know a lot of dating did not worked out. So my advice is to you as a Christians: date a person like it may not work out. So you don't cross the boundaries as a Christian. And then if it works out, then you get married. That's where all the boundaries. It's not crossing now. You just live as a married couple. Again, advice as a Christian, young to a Christian young people: date someone in a way that it may not work out. Most people think, okay, I love her; she loves me. It's gonna work out. And and they cross boundaries, and then they ruin their reputation. What they did maybe get out of their hand, and people start talking about. Now you start dating another sister, and she knows everything about your previous dating that you have crossed your boundaries, and now you have ruined your reputation. So not to ruin their reputation as a Christian, date a person like it may not work out. And then if it did, then that's the God's will. And the reason it may not work out because every dating that it starts, people think, "Oh, this is a person from God." And then I would say eighty percent of the time it does not work out. The only way you know that this is from God is that when at the end it worked out, and then you know, okay, this dating was from God to me. Yes, and we actually heard from our guest speakers that it came to the point that they were already engaged, and they had to break up the relationship because they saw that it was not right. So that was a very good advice from our pastor. That date, like he said, and I'll just repeat it one more time: as if, as if it will not work out. I don't want to say something different. So, date as if it will not work out. And if it does work out, like he said, then, Adema, can we get a mic? Yeah. Okay. Okay. Thank you, Lonnie. Okay. Let's move on. And this one, I will start from Alex and Yana. What are some common mistakes Christians can make while dating, so everybody here can avoid those mistakes? And how, Pastor Henry, he already kind of. Brought this next slide, but I want to hear maybe you have some advice for our people. No, it's kind of hard for me to say that because I technically did not date, and but as growing and being born in a Christian family and growing through Christianity from basically my childhood. What Gennady said is one of the things that I've seen: young men and and women, brothers and sisters, dating, and then it got very far, and then they split up, and then the other that either. Mostly, it's for sisters where they start to be looked at it a little bit different. And for me, I took it as a kind of like an an example not to do that. If you are a Christian man, if you are. Believe and read Word of God Bible, and you wanna praise the Lord in your life, and you don't wanna have and live with the regret. You wanted to not get into the dating where you're not serious about it, and when you are in a dating, like Gennady again said, you are treating your other with the person you're dating with, is that you don't compromise them and yourself as well. And like I've seen in my previous live experience, when the people start dating, they are going away by themselves only. Nobody sees them, and then nobody knows what's going on. And then the the date breaks that breaks out, and there are a lot of questions. And then when I've seen some other people that were dating, but they were dating in a church, they were caring for each other, and they were caring in a way that nobody even had a question. And but those relationship most likely works out. That's just because the the people come in with the fear of God in their dating. And one of the biggest thing that I would suggest, especially for young brothers and sisters, is to have that fear of God. And know that he sees you all the time, and doesn't matter where you at. Does the church see you? Does the pastor see you? Does the elder brothers see you, or your parents? God sees you. Okay. I would say the biggest mistake when it comes to dating is if you don't have the intent of marriage. Then, that's that's the mistake right there. Also, if you are having to compromise your beliefs while you know getting it, that's that's a big mistake. And if you are not going into it without, if you're not going in with with praying, so if you're not praying about it, just jumping into dating, that's that's a mistake too. Okay, and I wanted to ask you guys a question. How about dating an unbeliever? Well, that that was a big thing for me. I was in the service with a lot of people around me, in the public, and I did have, like I already know, I stayed single for a long time, and I had a lot of people that wanted to start a relationship. I'm talking from female side. And for me, it was very important. Several things is that the person who you wanna date has to be a Christian, and not only Christian is that you are sharing the same beliefs, and you most likely go in the same churches. At least you know that church that this person goes to. That's one thing. Second thing, thinking that you are. Whoever that person might be, thinking that the beauty of a for for young guys will sometimes attracts them more than what's behind. And if the person is not a Christian, if the person is unbeliever, that beauty will soon fade. And all of the things that unbelievers have will become kind of forced on you, and then you might become an unbeliever. And you think that you are stronger to bring her on other side to become a believer, or him to become a believer. It's a very risky business, if you will, if you want to say that way, because we read that a lot in the Bible, and Bible is a good example for us when people who married an unbeliever. Married, not even dating. The most time they end up being not Christians or not being godly, because there's this world. There's so many compromises you will have to make, and sure enough, you give the the spot in your heart for devil to keep you like by the hook, and then you're doing things that you don't want to do anymore, and then after a certain amount of time, you fall away from God. Okay, so, so your answer is like it's not a good idea. It's a risky idea because there's a higher, a higher chance that they will pull you away from Christ and you bringing them to Christ. I know one example when a girl really liked a guy, and she was not a Christian. And the guy liked the girl. She came to church. She accepted Jesus Christ. But the guy, he was a true Christian person, and he gave. He didn't date her, but but they were meeting in church, like kind of like just meeting in church, and he gave her a whole year. To be in church and to watch her how she's doing, her whole family turned to Christ, and then he saw that that girl really accepted Jesus Christ, and he married her, and they still together. Okay, Amen. For our young couple, Jessica and Vlad, is like how. Like rushing the process. Do you guys see that? It's it's good to rush it or not? Well, it depends on what you think rushing is. For some people, it's rushing; for some people, it's not. You know, for me. Our process was a little quicker than usual, but the reason why that happened is because we had full faith in God, and we saw that everything, every part of the process was actually blessed. And you know, we prayed, we fasted, and you can just see in your own life that okay, this worked out, this worked out, this worked out, and you're like, wow, God is really blessing this process. And even myself, I was shocked with how fast everything happened because, like, you know, even to get like a wedding dress can sometimes take you know half a year. But we got it the same day, or like the venue, for example. Everything was booked out for a whole year, but we got it. I think it was only a month later, or something. Month later, we got married. Something like that. It was really fast, and I wasn't pushing for that myself. But it just kind of fell into place by itself. But I think that's fully God who was controlling that process. And to this day, I do not regret any part of it, and I'm really happy we got married a little quicker than usual. So that's from my perspective. Well, then I have a question for Jessica. I guess this is the next slide. How long should a couple date before considering engagement? Like, I know that some people say, "Oh, I need to date two, three years to know that person." Like, is there a need for that? I don't think there's just a like general one answer. I think going into the dating field, you should already have engagement in mind. Even if you haven't met him or her yet, I think you should only start dating when you know you're ready to start getting married eventually. So I don't think there's just one specific answer. Yeah, for us, like, we were able to do a fast because God put it into place and everything was working out for us. It wasn't so difficult. It wasn't like we had to work and work and try to make it happen. God just made it happen for us. Amen. Lana, what is? What are your? What do you think about couples? Like, how long should a couple date before engagement? And I want also Eugene to answer that one because of your story. How how like you guys met? It was it was pretty cool. I thought. Well, I think you should start dating when you're ready to get married. Okay. So so before you continue, what we already heard multiple times is that one. If you're gonna date, have an intention to get married. So for the guys, if you're asking out a girl, have an intention to get married, not just to date. From what I'm hearing, okay. And long relationships sometimes leads to temptations and and sin. So I would not recommend that. Okay, and how long did you date before you got engaged, and then marriage? Well, the thing is with Evgeny, you know, basically what happened: he came to our church. I got to know him as a friend, like for a year, and then when he came to me and he proposed to me. Our engagement was in one month, and our wedding was in three months. Okay, so there's not like three years, five years. No, I would not recommend that. And praise God, we've been almost together for 26 years. You know, on July 8th, we will be together 26. So praise God, and we will be grandparents pretty soon. Well, congratulations. So praise God. And same question to you, Jim. I think there is no like perfect time timeline for for that. And I would say like date too long. Yeah, it's not not a good idea. Yeah, just if we have to like you have to know each other like good enough. I think just pray to the pray to the like you like know know each other and know just because yeah. I would say, yeah, yeah, pretty much like it was like everything been said. Yeah. Yeah. So, long dating could lead into temptations. Then a person can fall into sin. But have we heard if your process of prayer starts before you even know the the one who you want to date, God will make that connection. And there's no point or there's no reason, have we heard, to date? Because Alex, how long did you guys date? And if they're talking over the phone and coming here twice to either who comes counts as a date, I don't know. Well, what we see is that Alex was from a different state. Like he didn't even know Yana. He just saw her where. Well, in different different country, on a on a picture. On a picture, he saw her in a picture, and he's like, "Who is this beautiful princess?" Yeah. That I want to meet. And then one thing I can I wanted to add to it. It's like you can never date, if that's the right word, of date it out to a point to like you are 100 know that this is gonna work out and everything. All of that is put in your heart by our Jesus Christ, Lord. He gives you that feeling that this is the person. You have that assurance within you. Is it all gonna be perfect, worked out from the dating that your future life is gonna be all very nice and good and smooth? No. We work as a family. We're building our family. We're building and growing our relationship and marriage. Based on Word of God, we're learning something from somebody, and we applying this into our lives. You, you know, as you already married, you already know that there are certain things already lifted off of you, like that sin and all of that stuff. Now you start working and making it very strong. And you don't, you cannot do that during the dating time. You can only do this with your spouse, with your wife or husband. Yes. And Yana, we're running low on time, but I really wanted to get into this one. Why is it important to establish physical boundaries in in relationships? And I guess I would add, is it even important? It's very important because if you don't establish him, you are going to cross them. No matter how close you are with God, because that's what temptation is. David fell into sin, and he was a God, you know, a man after God's own heart. So you have to establish those boundaries. And so, what kind of boundaries should? A Christian establish. Well, I I used to read these Christian books, and this one person said that if you are able to do like as a as the guy, if you're able to do these things with your sister, then that's okay. You know what I mean? That's the boundary. If you're able to do that with your brother, then that's okay. But if not, then that's already the line. Yeah, that's good. Okay, Lana. Same question. I want to hear from multiple people. Why is it important to establish physical boundaries in dating? And is it even important? Well, when you are engaged, let's say, or dating, you know, you already have like strong feelings towards each other. You know, it's easy to get into sin. So we just took a third wheel, like third person, with us, you know, to stay away from the temptations and sin. It's very important. So when we will be standing in the front of the church, when the church will be blessing, we will be pure and clean. Okay. Very important. And in your mind, if a person does cross those boundaries, what could happen in a relationship? Well, to be honest with you, well, now when I see the other people who actually do that, sometimes they don't have blessed marriages. They have a lot of issues. You know, they're not on the same page. They have anger issues towards each other. This is sad. I don't know. Like I don't see any blessing. Yeah, and I actually wanted to. I actually wanted our senior pastor to, to kind of help the youth understand what could those boundaries be, and what are some, I guess, what are some fear, or in a way. Like, how could it affect their future? Because you kind already touched on it. And well, boundary number one: most of the pastors will not unite you with an unbeliever, because in in Second Corinthians chapter six, Apostle Paul even saying, "Do not be unequally yoked with unbeliever." So that's a first boundary. When you start dating, you start dating an unchristian person is actually is not allowed in a church. Number two, I mean, based on what our guests already spoke, and a lot of them spoke very well, but most of them did not have a long dating. And I actually, based on what I saw, youth in our church, in different churches, if it's a person within your church, there is no reason to date a long time because you're not going to find out anything more about that person. And sometimes you would date longer just because you wait, and a person is finishing a college, and we gotta wait. Nowadays, we do encourage if it's a long distance relationship that people would find out each other a little bit more, not by dating, but take a little bit of a time because lately there has been some issues and problems with long distance relationship. Where people, when they got married, doesn't matter how long they dated, when they got married, all of a sudden they found out that this person was not true who they are. So that's another my advice. And on boundaries, on boundaries. Just remember, when you dating, and before we actually will do the wedding ceremony. We or any pastor, they will talk to you, and they will ask if you have crossed any boundaries. So, if you know, and there are some boundaries. If you fall into the sin, actually, the majority of pastors and churches first they will have to resolve the situation. It will have to come out. This situation, the church will know about it, and then they'll see how they will actually conduct the next steps. So, just remember, as a Christian, yeah, they may not. The church or the parents will not say that. Well, if you do this or that, it's automatically sin because you might say, well, where it's in the Bible? We just recommend don't do those things that will lead you to the sin. So, any boundary that you would say, well, where it does, it says, where in a Bible it says that it's a sin, we recommend: don't do the things in dating or relationship that might lead you to the sin. Stay away from those things. And for a man or a young man, the advice: It's like this. If you really love a person, if you really love this lady, if you're a true man, save her from yourself unto the marriage. So a true man he will cherish and save this young woman, a young lady, from himself to be clean and pure unto the marriage. Because that's what Jesus Christ does. Yeah, he's the one that looking over us and clean us. So you should start looking over that person to make sure she will end up to be pure and clean unto the marriage. And it continues in a marriage where it's a husband's responsibility to make a wife pure and clean before the Christ. Okay, thank you. And what what we're kind of getting at is that a sexual sin it's not allowed because those are boundaries that are crossed and that can ruin our relationship. And how we heard already that if you cross those boundaries and it doesn't work out, those memories stay. And you get married to another person, but those memories stay. So that's one of the biggest ones that we, as Christians, are to avoid. In how we heard, take a third wheel, don't date too long unless it's already a long distance relationship, and it's not necessarily dating. It's more of like just giving that time and. If if it all works out, then you already proceed. So avoid sexual sin during your relationship. And the last question, and I would like for for each one to answer: If you could give every single person here just one piece of advice before they leave this morning, what would it be? So, Brother Vlad, if you could give them an advice to to all the single women and men, what would it be? Well, I can kind of give an advice, mostly for men because I'm a man. I would say, of course, trust in God to take control of this process of your life. But at the same time, don't be scared to ask someone on a coffee date or to talk to them. Because a lot of people think that you know God will just send me that person and I'll get married the same day. You know, like you still have to put in some effort yourself. And I see that a lot of men are kind of scared these days to maybe even ask for a number or something or get get to know the girl a little better. Of course, always pray, trust God, but there's still a little bit of work required from you as well. Jessica, we talked about it before, so my answer is pretty similar. Girls, don't be so fast to immediately shut down a guy, unless he's not Christian. Like if you see it's not actually going to go anywhere, then obviously you don't have to. But it's good to, you know, go on coffee dates, get to know people. Don't be, like, immediately shut off if you're trying to date to get married. Okay, Yana, or or Alex. For me, it was and it is, and that's the only advice I will say. Fear the Lord. Follow his word, and everything what they say so far will fall into its place with God's guidance in your life, and that's it. Yana, pray for your future spouse. I think that's probably the best thing because knowing that you've prayed and are praying, God is not going to just you know not listen to those prayers. He has them in mind. Eugene, I would say become become the person you are praying for. I mean, like, and trust God more than like than yourself, and trust God time into than more than yours. Yeah, like that. I was actually also thinking about trust God more than yourself. It's actually a good one because sometimes we try to make things work, and we're putting all this energy that we're just like sweating, and it's not working. But trust God, and how we heard, it will just work. Yes, Londa. So I would give advice: just pray and fast, and God will guide you to the right direction. You know, so don't rely on your understanding. Just rely on God, and He will guide you, and He will show to you what is right for you and what is wrong. I mean, yeah. Okay. Okay. Does Does anybody have any questions for our guests? If not, we'll just stand up and finish off the service. We'll we'll pray. Thank you for coming. I know it's some of some of the the guests just came from a trip, so it was a last minute thing for them. But once again, thank you guys for being here, and we hope to see you more often. So let's pray. Lord God, we thank you for this morning, God, that we could all learn, Lord, how to date into a blessed marriage, Lord God. And God, so many good lessons we heard today, Lord Jesus. I just pray, God, that the power of the Holy Spirit takes these lessons and applies it into into all of the lives, Lord God. Those who are still God seeking that that second half addition to their life, Lord God. I bless them. I bless them in the name of Jesus Christ, Lord God. That that they do things right, Lord God. That they do things that that honor you and please you, so you can bless them in their future and bless them in their marriages, Lord God. Bless our church and everybody who's here. May the power of the Holy Spirit be upon us in Jesus' name. We pray, Amen. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For your kingdom, your power, and glory, forever are yours.
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