What Is Your Relationship Status?

In this episode, Kevin discusses the different types of relationships people have with Jesus Christ.  He encourages listeners to strive for a committed and faithful relationship with God.

Transcript

Kevin (00:01.42)
You know that Jesus is the consummate gentleman. From this perspective, if you were to meet someone ladies, and he was a gentleman, he was kind and loving and gentle and sweet and knew what to say and how to say it. He showed all the masculine traits that you look for in a man. And to my brothers, if you met a young lady who was the epitome of femininity, she was beautiful, she had the right heart.

catered, the real mothering kind of nurturing spirit that you're looking for. All the checks were checked from both perspectives. That's how Jesus is to us. He is just the perfect partner for us. So when it comes to being a Christian, again, we use that phrase a lot about being in a relationship and as Christians, it is a relationship. It is a living, breathing thing to call yourself a Christian. It is not.

merely just master servant, which it is that we are Jesus's servants. But beyond that, what makes Christianity and our faith so much different than any other religion is that this is a personal thing that we personally know Jesus. His Holy Spirit lives in us. Everything about our walk is a personal thing and Jesus's love is shown to us as believers. But the part that really stands out to me

about him being a gentleman is that he does not force himself on anyone. He has all the love he wants to offer us. He gives us everything, but he just offers it. And if you were in the dating world, even if someone was nice and sweet and had all the characteristics you were looking for, if they were too forceful and pushed themselves on you, they would not be as attractive because they'll press themselves on you.

Jesus is just like that. He is so kind and loving, but he is not pushy by any stretch of imagination. And the thing about that, here is God in the flesh who could command us to do anything he wanted, but he still wants us to choose him. Now, in the context of relationship, that's what it's like with you and now with Jesus. He wants us to choose him of our own volition, out of our own love, out of the fullness of our...

Kevin (02:25.932)
hearts. So that relationship example is true. But now, what kind of relationship do we have with Christ? Because here it is, he's ultimately single from that perspective. He's the consummate bachelor of bachelorette, so to speak, symbolically, of course. And here it is, he's offering himself to all of us. But we, as Christians,

What kind of relationship do we have? Do we honor him like we should? Are we really committed? Because a relationship that Jesus wants, he doesn't want to date us. He doesn't want to have a fling with us. He wants to marry us. We, as the scripture says, are his bride. But how many of us, Christian and not Christian, are not even really willing to accept him as the bride?

or accept him as the groom and with the bride. We're a lot of times, we're not going into detail with this on the episode, a lot of times we're runaway brides that we kind of leave Jesus hanging. Here it is. He's again, that consummate gentleman, that perfect picture of femininity, and we don't treat him as such. So I want to talk about that in this week's episode, three types of people who respond to God's offer.

to have a relationship with us. And unfortunately, it's not always positive. We don't always have the right perspective when it comes to receiving Christ. So the first type of people and the type of relationship they have with Jesus, the first type of people, example of people are the swipers. Now what do I mean by the swipers? If anyone's ever...

been online or you date online or you may have heard this before that you just someone that's online they have the phone and if you see someone you like you swipe right. If you see someone you don't like you swipe left. These type of people are the ones who swipe left. These are the people who Jesus again is the consummate perfect gentleman or the perfect picture of femininity and these people are swiping left. That God has given out

Kevin (04:43.052)
all the stops. He's doing everything he can to woo people back to him. And that's the whole motif of the episode too, because there's this quote I heard many years ago. And this guy said that the Bible is a love story that starts off with a divorce. And the rest of the Bible is the person who was cheated on, who is God, wooing his jilted lover back to himself.

But this is the same thing. So God is doing the wooing. And that's the part that makes it so interesting, guys, is that we're the ones as a whole that left him. So instead of us coming back to him asking for forgiveness, take us back. He's coming to us to woo us back to him. But that's the episode for another day. But the swiper, that's the person who, despite God's best efforts, despite everything he does, showing love and grace, he's the guy.

that shows up at the date with flowers. He's the one that opens the car door. He's the one that has all the good jokes, has great conversation, does all the things. And at the end of the day, get ready guys, this is going to hurt. That person says he's too nice. I know guys, you've heard that before. It's like a jabby stomach, right? He's too nice. That's what it's like with the swipers. Sometimes it's like they think he's too nice.

If they don't think he's too nice, they just don't find him interesting. They don't find him attractive enough or they don't find him intriguing enough or they think there's something wrong with him. You know, he's a nice guy, but she's a nice girl. But and yet their mind is focused on the bad boy or the bad girl. So they don't want something that's good. They don't want something that's pure and holy. They want something that's quick, something that's easy, something that's going to

get them what they want quickly. They don't want to have to have something that's permanent. And Jesus is not in, I'm going to say it like this, Jesus is not old phrase. We don't probably use this these days, nowadays. He's not for a booty call. He's not for Netflix and chill. Jesus is in this thing. He is looking for a bride. And that's the whole thing with our relationship with God. They were relationship. God is searching for a bride for his son. And we

Kevin (07:07.66)
are supposed to be that bride. But sometimes some of us, we swipe left. God has given us an exuberant amount of time and effort and he's doing, putting out all the stops. And some people it's sad to say don't even want Jesus. I saw this person on TikTok the other day, this young lady, and she said that whenever she's talking to someone and the moment they

mention Jesus, the word Jesus, she loses all respect for them. She doesn't have anything to do with them. This is an example of one of the swipers. The sad part, family, this group of people in this kind of relationship is increasing by the day. There are so many people who God is giving himself, showing his love, showing his grace, his mercy, his power, and they're swiping left. They don't have anything to do with him.

And the scriptures bear that out too. In the New Testament, Paul, most of the writer, the writer of most of the New Testament, he speaks about this. He says that people don't want to hear the truth, that people don't want to commit to truth. They don't want to commit to something that's great. And unfortunately, this is a number of people who are swiping is increasing and the age of people who are swiping is decreasing. It used to be for those of us who are, you know, my age and older.

Even if a person didn't believe in God, there was a certain level of reverence and respect. You passed by a church, took off your hat. you don't say that. You don't use that language around a preacher. You don't say that at church. Now, these people are swiping, I don't care about the church. I don't care about this person. I don't care about the Bible. I don't care about salvation. They're swiping left when it comes to the things of God. So unfortunately, this kind of relationship

is really not even a relationship but this is how they interact with God because we are all God's creation. By default we have some kind of relationship even if we don't want to acknowledge it. The problem is we don't put the relationship we have with God in this proper perspective. Let me give you a scripture. Matthew chapter 22 starting at verse 2. It says the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son.

Kevin (09:32.524)
and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding, but they would not come. Again, he sent out other servants saying, tell those who are invited, see I have prepared my supper, my oxen and fattened calves are killed and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet. But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his business. The rest took his servants, treated them spitefully and killed them. So you can see the analogy that Jesus is giving here.

Again, he's that gentleman. He's wooing. He's sending out the invites. He's sending out, he's in your DMs spiritually, trying to direct message you to let you know that he's interested in dating you and possibly making you his bride. But just like the scripture says, some people, I'm too busy. I don't feel like it. They made it worse. It says the scripture, they killed some of the people he sent out to invite to the wedding.

Now, of course, he's talking about the prophets, but nowadays, thankfully, at least in our context, people aren't being killed yet for extending the invitation, but maybe they're not being killed physically, but they're being killed spiritually, emotionally and politically because now the Christian voices are being stifled. Now, if you're trying to give out invitations to this wedding,

Just like the scripture said, people don't want to hear it to the point now you and I as couriers of these invitations are going to start facing more and more persecution and more and more backlash to the point to where just like it says, those people will be persecuted. Some of those who killed, some of us, if we live long enough, may see a time where you and I might be physically and literally in danger.

for extending the invitation to the wedding. Look at what it says. It's not just one thing to be sending the invitation to the wedding. These are people who you invited personally. This is a personal invitation. I don't know about you, but think about how hard that must be for anybody to personally invite someone to a place. You prepare for them and they tell you, I'm not interested. They tell you, I don't have time. I got something else to do and or even worse.

Kevin (11:58.092)
They ridicule and persecute the people you send to invite them. Is it no matter, no reason why God is so patient? And this is the key guys, this invitation is not a one time thing. He doesn't give us one invitation. While he is a gentleman, he's a persistent gentleman. He keeps offering invitations.

It's like he's not knocking on your door, banging, banging, cutting my wedding, cutting my wedding. What he does, he may just leave a note in your mailbox. He may just send you a text message. He may just send you an email. You go to your mailbox, it's a nice little note with some nice calligraphy with this invitation to the wedding. And think about it, you invite somebody to the wedding and they don't show up. That's heartbreaking.

because now you have to plan for all these people and then the people you're planning for aren't even coming. So now in a logical real life sense, if a person has a wedding and they plan for 500 people and only 200 show up, what are you going to do with 300 people's worth of food and things? You just wasted all that money and resources. Now God is like us. He's not wasting resources. He has infinite resources.

But it's still a case where just like that person who invited 500 and 200 came, Jesus is inviting the entire world. And unfortunately, scripture says that a lot of people just don't want to go. How sad is it? And that's something we don't talk about enough and as a quick aside, that's why as Christians, we got to do a better job of sending these invitations. We got to do a better job of hitting

the pavement and letting people know about this wedding that they're supposed to be at. They're the bride. Jesus is a star, but he's wedding us. And like anything, the bride is the one that people are looking at, right? And we're supposed to be that bride. And like the scripture said, somebody went to their farm. They went, I got to do this. I got work stuff to do. I got family.

Kevin (14:22.988)
stuff to do. You know what? I would come, but you insert whatever excuse you want to insert. And like I said, this is not a one time invitation, which means it's not a one time refusal. That a lot of people, these swipers, if you're looking on that app, Jesus's picture keeps coming up on the app. And instead of them saying, you know what? This Jesus keeps coming up on my app.

I might need to look at this and see what's going on. No, they keep swiping to the point to where they get to the point where they may even complain to customer service about this person keeps showing up on their phone. And that's what happens with a lot of people. And unfortunately, at some point, Jesus is going to return and those who have been invited to the wedding and those who accepted the invitation will be in a rejoicing and those who are on our outside, as the scripture says.

will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. So that's the first person when it comes to relationship. Some people, their relationship status with God is they're a swiper. No matter what God says, no matter what his people do, no matter how many ways God shows his love through himself and through other people, they still swipe left. That's the first one. The second kind of person, or the second kind of relationship that people have with God, and this is going to be real tricky.

is the adulterer. Now, a person who commits adultery is someone who is supposed to be married and of course they cheat on their spouse. Let me just say this, if anyone has ever been in a position where you've been cheated on before, you know how painful that is. You know how heart wrenching and just how your world

comes tumbling down around you. And like when they say a broken heart, if you've ever had your heart broken, especially in this context, it is literally your heart hurts. You literally are physically ill when you are going through something with someone who says they love you, who says they're devoted, who says they're committed, and you see they've strayed and gone with someone else.

Kevin (16:49.9)
If you look through scriptures, of course I want to show one in a minute. This is the one thing that you see the ire of God the most, especially in the Old Testament, New Testament too, but especially in the Old Testament with Israel. You see God's wrath so strong because Israel left him and went to worship other gods. So if you read Ezekiel and Isaiah, you need to really read those books.

Because you see the word choices that God uses to describe Israel and the word choices, harlot, prostitute, adulteress. Like he says, you spread, and one of the paraphrases says, you spread yourself open and allow these other nations to enter you. And you can hear the hurt. Isaiah is a great one that talks about that, about God showing his hurt.

and this pain for Israel for worshiping other gods. And that's what happens to a lot of people. It'd be one thing, like the first point, right? Once you swipe left, who just, okay, I just don't want nothing to do with God. Okay, that's hard enough. But this is infinitely worse because you told God you swipe right. Yes, I'm interested. Yes, I want to have a relationship with you. Yes, I value. Yes, you're tall, dark and handsome. Yes, you're beautiful.

Yes, you look like the person I could see spending my life with. And all the while, you got your eye, as well as other things, with someone else. Now, we are made in the image of God. Now, when we say that, that doesn't mean we physically are like God. At least, I don't think so. I don't see that, because God is a spirit anyway. He's not made of flesh and blood. But we made this image means that we can experience the same things he can experience. So if we...

on this plane, in this flesh, can experience heartache, can experience betrayal, can experience people cheating on us. God can experience it too. And I think there are a lot of times, not necessarily in this context, but there are things you and I go through and we experience and it's not pleasant, it's painful. And I think sometimes it's because God says, I want you to feel how I feel.

Kevin (19:14.476)
Ezekiel is a great example of this. Hosea, the book of Hosea, perfect example of this. When he told Hosea to marry unfaithful woman because this is symbolic of my marriage to you Israel. Now, we are not Israel per se the nation, but we say we're in a relationship with God, don't we? We're quick to say it. I have a relationship, a personal relationship with God. But in that personal relationship,

All of us have committed adultery at some point. All of us have strayed. All of us have eyes that have wandered. All of us have looked at something else. You know, one of the things, you know, I've heard women say that one of the most disrespectful things you can do when you're with a woman, if you're in a relationship with her, of course, is to start ogling another woman. If you're with her and some woman passes by you,

And she's standing right there. They say that's the most disrespectful thing you can do to a woman. And she's right. But we do that all the time when it comes to God. God, I'm with you. I'm trusting you. You are my rock, my everything, temptation. God, but you know what? I promise you, I'm with you. I'm going to obey. I'm going to follow you. I'm going to do. It's a nice job.

But seriously though, God, I mean, I messed up. I know I shouldn't do these things and I promise you, Lord, I'm going to be better. I'm going to be, you know, but here's a popularity so you can be better and everybody can know your name and everybody can cheer for you and know that you're somebody special. So we take our eyes off of God. There's a story I heard illustration years ago and they say there was this man who was going in Italy. No, he was in Europe.

He was going around all these countries, Europe, and Germany, and Italy, and France. Great time. And he walked past his cafe and he saw this beautiful woman. He was like, my goodness, I must talk to this lady. So he walked up to her. He was like, I don't even know she speaks English. I'm just praying. So he goes up to her. And he was following her to some degree. She was like, well, every turn, she turned, he turned. Every corner, she went. So she started noticing, like, who's this man?

Kevin (21:38.54)
But he said, I gotta follow her because I gotta find a way to talk to her. So finally she turns around, excuse me sir, why are you following me? You're scaring me. Why are you following me? He said, ma 'am, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I hope I'm not freaking you out. But I just wanted to introduce myself to you because I gotta tell you, you're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. And I just wanted to meet you. She said, really? Okay. If you think I'm beautiful, you should meet my sister.

because my sister is 10 times more beautiful than me. As a matter of fact, there she is right there. So he pointed to some lady, the guy looked and it was a woman and she was not nearly as beautiful as the woman standing in front of her. He said, woman, lady, you lied to me. You said that was your sister and she was 10 times more beautiful than you. She said, no, sir, you lied to me. You said that you really wanted me and I was the most beautiful woman in the world.

But when you thought something better came along, you took your eyes off me. That's what we do to God. The moment something seems better than God, or it seems like we can get what God wants to give us passion in the way he wants to give it to us. God, I'm waiting for a house, but I can get it faster with them. God, I'm looking for a relationship, but I can get it faster here. God, I want a raise. I want a house. I want this. I want that. But I can get it better here.

commit adultery in that sense. We take our eyes off of him. We don't value him and we say to him, you are only good up into where you're useful to me. Sounds just like someone committing adultery. Let me give you another scripture. Speaking of Ezekiel, I talked about it earlier. It's Ezekiel chapter 23, starting at verse 36. And it says, the Lord said to me, son of man, you must accuse Ohola

and Holaliba for all of their detestable sins. They have committed both adultery and murder, adultery by worshiping idols and murder by burning sacrifices, the children they bore to me. Further, they have defiled my temple and violated my Sabbath day. On the very day they sacrificed their children to their idols, they boldly came into my temple to worship. They came in and defiled my house." Wow. So we see that scripture, and I mentioned a few minutes ago, look at the word choices.

Kevin (24:05.548)
He said they were vile. He would say they were like prostitutes. He says they violated God in their testable sense. He said they committed adultery and murder in this case, in this context. Let me give you some other things to consider here. When it says, Ahola and Hololiba, he's talking Aholoa, Ahola, these words are so crazy. Ahola is Samaria. Hololiba.

It's Jerusalem. He's talking about Israel, Northern Kingdom, Southern Kingdom. So he's saying they cheated on God. They committed adultery with these other nations. And look at how bad it was. It says they, the children, were sacrificed to idol gods. Now what happened is in these other religions, a lot of them, their temples would be temples of prostitution. And these temples, they would usually have sex as a form of worship. And of course, when you have sex,

You have children. So some of these children, as a result of these temple services, they would get these same children and sacrifice them to these gods. But then look what it says, and then turn right around and go to the temple on Sunday and worship God as if he's their husband. You see what happens there? Now you and I, hopefully, we don't go as far as

sacrificing children, but we still sacrifice our time. We still sacrifice our faithfulness. We sacrifice our finances. We still do things that are bad and showing that we don't love God too. And then those same people, we would then do that and turn right around and go to the temple, i .e. the church and sing praises. Think about it. You and I, we're all good to this.

can go the whole week sleeping in another person's bed and then go to our husband's bed on Sunday and act like we love him and tell him how much we love him. I love you. I appreciate you. I can't live without you. But then we go right back to that adulterous bed. We go back to cheating. It's old song say cheating in the next room. We've all done it. So some people, the relationship with God is one of pure.

Kevin (26:32.236)
Unfortunately, adultery. And this is something that's scary because this is one of those sins that God does not take lightly. And he shouldn't. Just as you would not support or take someone cheating on you lightly, people won't take it either. Now the good thing about God is this. It's much as we've cheated on him and we've left him just like Hosea.

just like the prodigal son, he's always arms open, come on back. I know you cheated, but you're still my bride. I know you were lusting after other things, but you're still my bride. I know you falling short and you will land with this person, with this job, with this person, with these promotions, with these goals in mind, with this greed, with this lust, with this fame, all these things. You cheated on me, but...

You're still my -

But we have to realize that relationship we have with him, we're the ones that left him. He did not leave us. I'll give you another example I heard years ago. They said there was a couple, old couple was driving their car. The husband was driving and the wife was sitting in the passenger seat next to him. So they pulled up to a red light and they saw a young couple pull up next to them.

And the couple was snuggled up. He was driving with one hand, he had the girl on and he was just, you know, snuggling up, doing the lovey -dovey stuff. And the wife said, huh, I remember when you used to do that to me. I remember you used to hug me like that when you were driving. And then the husband said, you're the one that moved to the other side of the seat. That's us. God is still driving. He still got the arm out wanting to have love.

Kevin (28:30.86)
friendship with us, we're the ones that decided to slide over in our seat. And keep in mind, in that example, he's driving. All he wants to do is help us, be with us, and enjoy us as he's taking us down the road. But we're the ones that committed adultery and left him. And he's still saying, I have never left. So if you're in a position right now where you know spiritually,

When it comes to God, you've committed adultery. As long as you're breathing and God wakes you up, it is not too late to come back. Because if you truly do love the Lord and you truly have a relationship with Him, you have the best wedding counselor in the world, in the Holy Spirit. And He can tell you, come on back, let's sit. The other party is willing.

to reconcile but you have to be humble enough to come back to him because just like that example, he's still driving, he has not changed seats, it's up to you to slide back over. That's the second kind of relationship that some people have when it comes to God and the presence of relationship status. The last one for this week is the betrothed. Now betrothed means basically someone who and all of us are betrothed to some degree.

who the marriage, at least in the Bible context, the marriage was arranged before the actual wedding. So they knew these two people were gonna marry and there was a time period that passed. But during that period, even though the marriage hadn't happened, by all accounts, they were officially married. Perfect example of this famous story, of course, Joseph and Mary, which is why it was such a big deal because even though they hadn't had the wedding yet, in their context, they were already married.

So for us, the betrothed is the person who honors the wedding commitment, who honors the groom. That even though the groom is away, because in this context, they will have the arrangement for the marriage. The groom will go away for a period of time. And then one night he will come with this group of groomsmen, so to speak. And then he will come and get his bride. So with us, the betrothed, we're the ones.

Kevin (30:59.116)
that are waiting for the groom. The betrothed are the ones that still hold true to the fidelity of the groom. That yes, there is temptation. Yes, there are voices in the enemies trying to get you to be the adulterer or to swipe left. But the betrothed are the ones who truly do have a relationship and they honor that relationship. That they do value God, Jesus as Lord. They do

sit and wait for the wedding to come. They do not entertain other suitors. They don't have their phone still. The betrothed, they've already exited all the dating apps. The betrothed, they don't go out on dates just to get a free meal or just for companionship or just to see what's out there or just to see if I still got it. The betrothed are fully committed.

to Christ. The patrols are the ones that we all should aspire to. We should aspire to live our lives as like in the bride times back in the Bible times that the groom could come at any minute. There's a scripture, I don't have a reference here, but gave the example about the brides who were waiting for the groom and they had their lamps and some five had their lamps, they had oil, the other five did not have oil. They did not prepare for when the groom came. So when the groom came suddenly,

They went to the other five, give me some of your oil for the groom. And they said, no, no, no, we only have enough for us. So those five whose lamps were not ready, they didn't have enough oil, they missed out when the groom came. The patrols are the ones who always have their oil ready for the groom. We're always waiting. We're anticipating the marriage. We're looking forward to the wedding ceremony. We're looking forward to the day when the groom will come in triumphantly and the wedding.

take place. The patrols are the ones who are not going to make it. It's not going to be easy, but they are committed. They're saying that regardless of what I face, I'm not going to the left. I'm not going to the right. Yes, I may be tempted and this is the reality of it. Just because you're a patrol doesn't mean that you're not human. Doesn't mean you don't have ways that you may be thinking about.

Kevin (33:25.443)
Sometimes, I guess I'm still, how long is it gonna be? Here's a scripture that I think a lot of times we underestimate. The scripture that when Jesus says, in this life you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. I think we missed that. And I actually just had this come to me a couple of days ago when I was just thinking about the word. The scripture says in this life, Jesus said you have tribulation. The word tribulation wanted to ...

the translations of that word is pressure, right? So he's saying, you're going to have pressure from the world. You're going to have pressure to commit adultery. You're going to have pressure to swipe. Cliff, you're still waiting on that groom? I've been reading this Bible. Your Bible say he was supposed to come hundreds of years ago. You still got all your lamps?

You know at this point, I don't think Jesus is coming. Maybe, you know what, you might need to find you another man because anybody waiting this long, they ain't showed up yet, man, he probably got somebody else. So you gotta do what's best for you. You gotta find you a mate that's gonna be suitable. And even if not that, you know what? Okay, you can wait for Jesus, but guess what? Until he get here, you know you got needs, right? So I'm like somebody who be committed to the don't you, doesn't it? Well,

If you wouldn't have done this, then I wouldn't have done this. That's the same thing we do with God. Well, God, I was waiting, but you took too long, and I really wanted that house. I really wanted that car. I really wanted that spouse. I really wanted this thing. So I tried to wait, but you took so long, and I was praying, and I was fasting, and I just couldn't help myself. Now, if you're in a relationship with someone, and they told you that,

Would that be a good excuse? Well, I would not have cheated if you didn't X, Y, and Z. But the betrothed are the ones that still hold true to the task at hand, still believe that the groom is coming, still believe that the wedding's gonna take place. They don't focus on what's going on around them. They focus on the wedding. They focus on the groom. They focus on, my goodness, I cannot wait. How wonderful.

Kevin (35:46.828)
It's going to be when that wedding takes place. You ask anyone who's been married or about to get married, the excitement is so palpable when you know that day is approaching. And when you picked the right person and you know that God is with you with the right person, just nobody else that can come across your path that can make you straight. You only have eyes for that person. That's what Jesus wants for you.

He wants us to see him as if he's the only thing there is. That no other temptation, no other substitute can even hold a candle to him. And those are the truth. Yes, you will be tempted. Yes, you will be tested, but you will not stra -

That's what a relationship with Christ is. It's not going to be easy. Like the scripture I said, if you are going to be tempted, you're going to have pressure. Think about it. The scripture says, be of good cheer. I've overcome the world. He said the world. Because he's saying, you and I are going to be tempted by that same world. So he's telling us, you can trust me to overcome the world because I've overcome it. I've overcome.

the pressure. I've overcome the temptation. The Bible says, no, we have not been tempted in a way that Jesus himself hasn't been tempted. So when we're tempted to flee, we're tempted to not wait. We're tempted to be impatient and wondering how much longer we cut before the bride, the groom comes. Jesus says, be of good cheer. I've overcome the pressures of the world so you can do it too. One more scripture and we'll be done for this week.

Revelation chapter 19 starting at verse 6. And it says,

Kevin (38:08.364)
fine linen is the right living of God's people. So we see in that scripture, it says right there, that's the wedding. That when it comes back and it says, look at what it says, the white clothing, right? The good deeds of God's people. God gives us the new garment. All we have to do is make it to the wedding. All we have to do is stay faithful to the wedding.

And I'm sure all of us have been to weddings in our lives. And maybe you've been to some good ones and maybe not some good ones. But the ones that are good, the ones that are beautiful, that are memorable, there's something you feel in the air when you just know that God is all through this thing. You just know that God put these two people together. As wonderful as that feeling is, it pales and is a smidgen to what this wedding is going to be like.

You and I are part of that ceremony. But we have to take it upon ourselves to remain the betrothed, to remain faithful, to remain righteous in God's sight. And don't let the temptations of the other people, don't let the temptations of the world make us cheat on our group and be an unfaithful bride. So, it's a point of reiteration.

As we remember this week, what are the three types of people, the type of relationships that we have? We have the swipers, the ones who swipe left who don't want anything to do with God. We have the adulterers who say they love God, but yet still cheat on God. And then you have the betrothed, the ones who despite the pressure persist and staying faithful to the group. So hopefully this gives us an idea of the kind of relationship we have and we strive to be in right.

relationship with God. Because let's not make that just a cliche. When we say it's not a religion, it's a relationship. If you don't treat God the way you should as the king, the proper groom, then you really don't have a relationship either. And it's one thing to claim something. It's another thing to actually act as if what you claim is true. Jesus said in the scripture, when he comes back, he says that he's going to tell some people,

Kevin (40:35.052)
Away from me you workers of a nickel tee, I never knew you. Those are the same people, unfortunately, who think they have a relationship. And God says.

So let's make sure that whatever kind of mission we have for him is the right one and one that we can honestly say we're waiting for the groom to come. Thank you so much for watching and listening. Make sure you like, share, and subscribe to the YouTube page. And as always, make sure your light shines brightest for the Lord Jesus Christ beyond the benediction. Until next time, be blessed.