Fear, anxiety, and insecurity are enemies of marital intimacy. We all carry shame and insecurity as the fallen sons of Adam and the fallen daughters of Eve. To cover up those insecurities and shame, we wear “fig leaves” that become patterns of dysfunction in marriage.

God can redeem you, redefine your marriage, and renew your relationship. The love story in Song of Solomon can help us take a personal inventory of our fears and anxieties. When we are honest with our spouse, we are better able to exist in marital intimacy where we are more fully known and fully loved.

Three things to remember to love and be loved well:

1.) You don’t need to get married to be loved—you already are!

No one will love you better than Jesus! You will never love well until you rest in God’s perfect love.

2.) Your mate is not meant to complete you—only complement you.

God gives you a mate to complement who you are but not to complete who you are. If you look to your spouse to complete you, you will begin to compete.

3.) Marriage is more for your sanctification than your satisfaction!

Sanctification is the process of God making you become more like Christ. It is in the community of marriage that you’re healed from your sin.

The number one thing you can do in your marriage is pray together every day.

Jesus is the ultimate lover of your soul. Only as you rest in God’s love will you be able to give and receive love. Until you rest in His love, nobody else’s love will ever be enough.

Join Pastor Phil as he shares lessons from the Song of Solomon on how to guard against the patterns of conflict caused by insecurity, fear, and anxiety.

Clayton King joins us as we are back in the Living Your Love Story series. Song of Solomon 7 and 8 detail how Solomon and his bride stayed in love for the course of their marriage.

Falling in love is just the beginning. Walking in love for a lifetime is the real treasure. How do you walk in love and keep the fire alive in your marriage?

1.) Stoke the flames.

2.) Keep flirting.

3.) Find the time for fun.

Join Clayton King as he shares practical tips for how to walk in love and keep the fire in your marriage!

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The A-Life means giving our treasures to God. You can’t live life abundantly if you’re not learning to live generously.

Jesus talked about money more than any other subject. He said that where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. He knew about the idolatry of money that has gripped people across human history. The problem is not with having money, it’s with your money having control over you!

Worldly treasure is temporal, but heavenly treasure is eternal. The eternal souls of men and women are heaven’s treasure. People are what heaven treasures. The way you break free from idolatry and captivity to money is by giving generously to kingdom priorities.

How do you lay up treasure in heaven? By investing your energy, opportunities, abilities, and money for the things that last eternally. When you begin to treasure what God treasures, you are laying up treasure in heaven. You can’t take your money with you, but you can send it on ahead. When you live generously and give your money for kingdom priorities, you turn your dollars into destinies.

Your treasure doesn’t follow your heart. Your heart follows your treasure. You naturally begin to love what you give to. You begin to value that which you serve.

4 principles for giving and living generously:

1.) God should get our first and best.

2.) God gets our first because He is the owner of all that we have.

3.) Giving our first and best demands faith. It should feel risky.

4.) When we bring God our first and best, He will take care of the rest.

Jesus will one day reward us not for what we had, but for what we gave. When we choose to give our treasures to God and live generously, our hearts will eventually follow.

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Do you believe that everyone matters to God? When you believe something, it impacts the way you live. We say what we think, but we do what we believe.

The abundant life is a life of service and compassion. It’s a life that says nothing else matters until people know that they matter to God. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the teacher of the law was wrestling with the question, “Who do I have to love in order to do enough to satisfy the commandment to love my neighbor?”

Both the priest and the Levite in the story were fully aware of the man’s needs, but they had a depraved indifference. We see two types of hearts in the parable of the Good Samaritan:

1.) A closed heart.

The priest and the Levite had closed hearts toward the need of the injured Jew. They moved away from him when he was in desperate need of compassion. If your faith causes you to move away from people in need, then you have a worthless faith.

What’s in your heart that is keeping you from missing God’s heart for people? Are you putting things in your heart that are going to help you move toward God’s heart? If you want clean hands before God, then get your hands dirty by loving people and stepping into the mess of their lives.

2.) An open heart.

Heroes are made because they are moved with compassion and service. Compassion is not so much a feeling as it is a choice. The Good Samaritan understood that everyone matters to God. He saw a need, met the need, and made a difference. His compassion had more power than his prejudices.

Compassion is love in action. Our job is to extend it to a watching world. Jesus became the greatest neighbor to the world. He became the Great Samaritan, and it cost Him His life. He calls us now to care for all those who are neglected and in need.

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The abundant life is a life lived with eternal values. Jesus taught we need to value the spiritual more than the physical, and the eternal more than the temporal. He cautioned us to take heed and beware of greed.

Covetousness is the enemy of contentment. It’s the lust for more no matter how much you have. Your jealousy shows your idolatry. You’re jealous of another and covetous of what they have because they have more of your idol than you do of your idol.

You cannot value what God values and give Him your full attention while you are consumed by the distractions of our culture. You can be full of all the world’s success and stuff temporarily and forever bankrupt eternally. Contentment is being satisfied with what God has given you, and godliness with contentment is great gain.

What does it mean to be “rich” toward God? To be truly rich means to treasure the eternal—the Word of God, the souls of men, and God’s eternal kingdom. To live a life of eternal value you must live for things that last forever!

Living abundantly means living for the things that last eternally. Take inventory of your heart to find things that you idolize. Your idols will never serve you, but you will forever serve them.

The rewards of heaven are greater than the rewards and recognition of this world. Join Pastor Phil as he teaches on how godliness with contentment is great gain!

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The A-Life is a life of continuous discipleship. A disciple is anyone learning to follow Jesus. As you follow Jesus, you grow to become more like Him. You can’t live abundantly if you’re not taking your next steps as a disciple.

The purpose of the Church and all believers is to be disciples who make disciples. It’s called the Great Commission. Discipleship in the Great Commission involves two things:

Reaching: Sharing the gospel through evangelism.

Teaching: Helping people learn to follow Jesus through discipleship.

We’re all called to reach people before we can teach people. You cannot fulfill the Great Commission if you’re not serious about reaching and teaching.

The nature of discipleship is giving away what you have already received. Discipleship is not about knowledge. It’s about obedience. You teach what you know, but discipleship is not the transfer of knowledge, it’s the transfer of maturity.

The mark of a mature disciple is a life lived for the Great Commission and the Great Commandment. When you love God, you love what He values. God will use any church and any person to reach the world that is greatly committed to the Great Commission and the Great Commandment.

You know the will of God for your life through God’s Word which is written for you.

Discipleship is learning to say “yes” to the Good Shepherd. You grow to spiritual maturity as a disciple when you learn to value what God values.

Ready to grow as a disciple? Join Pastor Phil as he continues our series on the A-Life Discipleship Journey.

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The abundant life isn’t found in our work for God. It’s found through God’s work in us. Before God can work through us, He must work in us.

The abundant life is a life of eternal value with supernatural power, freedom, victory, and liberty. In John 10, Jesus called Himself the Good Shepherd. He guides us in how to live an abundant life, fully surrendered to Him.

When Jesus talked about an abundant life, He was not talking about material prosperity or promising an easy life. Following Jesus can be very costly, but He is the only place where we find true freedom and satisfaction.

The abundant life is the resurrected life! The power of resurrection only comes by way of a crucifixion. The abundant life is not found through commitment but through consecration. Consecration is more than commitment; it’s about a crucifixion. You are consecrated to whatever you’re willing to die for. Are you consecrated to the Good Shepherd?

The abundant life is the obedient life. Following Jesus means trusting the Good Shepherd enough to do whatever He says to do. Through Jesus, you can have more than an average life. You can have an abundant life!

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Pastor Bruce Frank from Biltmore Church joins us on Live Sent Sunday to answer the question, “What does the Bible say about boldness?” He challenges us to share the gospel with boldness following the example of the early church.

We usually think of the church as a place, but the Book of Acts shows that the church is a movement designed for a mission. The early church was built on a conviction that Jesus died and rose again for our sins and had sent His followers to proclaim the good news of the gospel.

The danger of the church at any time is to go from a missional movement into maintenance mode. If you’re part of a movement, you’re moving, not standing still!

The message of the gospel has not changed in the over 2,000 years since Jesus died and rose again, and neither has the manner in which we communicate the gospel. The single term that best describes the manner in which God wants His gospel given is boldness, which is defined as “clear communication in the face of potential opposition.

Acts 4:23-31 details the boldness with which the apostles declared the gospel. In the face of great opposition, they continued testifying about who Jesus is and what He had done for all sinners. Pastor Bruce gives 3 lessons we can draw from the example of the apostles’ boldness:

1.) Rest in the sovereignty of God.

2.) Share in the story of God.

3.) Be filled with the Spirit of God.

God is always working around you, drawing people to Himself. He creates interest, convicts, convinces, and invites us into the story. He invites us to be fully dependent on Him and wants to use us to boldly declare the truth of His gospel!

Join Pastor Bruce Frank as he shares what the Bible says about boldness and how we can live boldly!

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Men and women are equal, but we are not the same. In marriage, she needs to learn his needs, and he needs to learn her needs. Meeting each other’s needs emotionally is essential to marital intimacy. Failing to recognize your spouse’s emotional needs is often the source of marital pain.

Solomon recognized the Shulamite’s beauty and told her that she was the most special woman to him. Every woman longs to feel beautiful and special. It’s the most important emotional need that she looks to her husband to fulfill. A woman will fall in love and stay in love with a man who makes her feel beautiful. She longs to feel beautiful, special, cherished, and treasured.

The Shulamite told Solomon he was strong and powerful. Every man longs to feel significant and receive their wife’s admiration. God created men with strength and for strength. A man will fall in love and stay in love with a woman who makes him feel strong.

The way to keep love alive in a marriage is to make emotional deposits in each other’s lives.

How a husband can meet his wife’s emotional needs:

1.) Love her unconditionally.

2.) Compliment her openly.

3.) Cover her affectionately.

4.) Create special memories.

How a wife can meet her husband’s emotional needs:

1.) Respect him unconditionally.

2.) Encourage his conquering energy.

3.) Affirm his strengths verbally.

4.) Respond to him sexually.

Men, we are the thermostats of our marriages, our wives are the thermometers! The question is not, “Will your marriage work?” it’s, “Will you work your marriage?”

Join Pastor Phil Hopper as he shares practical handles on how to meet your spouse’s emotional needs in marriage.

In Song of Solomon chapter 2, Solomon and the Shulamite are moving past the fleeting feelings of infatuation and fall in love. Their story teaches us what biblical dating looks like.

The Bible doesn’t say much about dating, but it says a lot about people and wisdom. Who you marry is the greatest decision outside of your relationship with Christ. Your spouse will make you or break you. Song of Solomon gives us principles for biblical dating so that you can have a love story that honors God.

Three questions to ask yourself to date in a way that honors God:

1.) Am I ready to marry?

This is a really important question. If you want to have a love story for God’s glory, you have to make sure you are prepared for marriage before you ever start.

2.) What’s my plan?

Dating is for observation and edification. Are you headed in the same direction socially, vocationally, and theologically? Compatibility has much more to do with whether you like spending time with that person than if you’re sexually compatible.

3.) Are you and your significant other catching foxes?

A fox is a threat to the success of your relationship. They can wreak havoc on the vineyard of your relationship. Foxes can be…

Confusion

Isolation

Denial

Sexual sin

God wants you to have an amazing love story that is lived to His glory! He wants whatever is best for you.

Join Pastor Chad Glover as he shares lessons about biblical dating from Song of Solomon.

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