August 27, 2023
Check Yes or No
- Matt Nickoson
Sermon Notes
Song of Songs 2:8 NIV
Listen! My beloved! Look! Here he comes, leaping across the mountains, bounding over the hills.
We are 25 verses in, with at least 18 compliments and not one harsh word.
Song of Songs 2:9 NIV
My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Look! There, he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattice.
Song of Songs 2:10 NIV
My beloved spoke and said to me, "Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, come with me."
Song of Songs 2:11-12 NIV
"See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land."
Song of Songs 2:13 NIV
"The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me."
Song of Songs 2:14 NIV
My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding places on the mountainside, show me your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.
How are your words and actions building up the one you love?
Song of Songs 2:15 NIV
Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom.
"It's the slow leaks, not the blow outs; the insidious pests we seldom even consider that cut away at the heart of a home until it crumbles and two people end up walking away." - Charles Swindoll, Strike the Original Match
Dating is for the purpose of discovering the kind of person you want to spend the rest of your life with.
"If you do not allow yourself to rush into falling for someone that you have not become friends with first, you will be more sure when you let yourself go to the next step. Certainly, you might find yourself having all sorts of feelings. Enjoy them. But do not believe them. Only believe your experience of getting to know a person and seeing if you can share at a deep level. See if you find that he or she is a person of the kind of character you would trust as a friend. And as important as all of that, see if that person is a person that you would like spending time with if there were no romance at all. That is the one true measure of a friend, a person with whom you like to spend time, having no regard to how you are spending it. "Hanging out" is fulfilling in and of itself. And that, long-term, requires character, and in the deepest of friendships, shared values as well. You would want your best friends to be honest, faithful, deep, spiritual, responsible, connecting, growing, loving, and the like. Make sure that those qualities are also present in the person you are falling in love with." - Dr. Henry Cloud, Boundaries in Dating
Song of Songs 2:16-17 NIV
My beloved is mine, and I am his; he browses among the lilies. Until the day breaks and the shadows flee, turn, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or like a young stag on the rugged hills.
A relationship is ready to get to the serious stage when you have seen their worst days, and still feel totally safe with them emotionally, relationally, physically, and historically.
"A person who truly loves you should be able to handle the full truth about you. I met a man who fell in love with, courted, and married a young woman who had once been the "pass around" girl in her college. She had been through twenty or more sexual affairs during her college days. By the time she met the man she later married, she had come to her senses, committed her life to the Lord, and was deeply embarrassed about her past. Nevertheless, she confessed her past to her husband. She wanted no secrets between them. What was his response? He wept openly for the pain and grief she had suffered. He rejoiced that she had come to Christ. His love for her increased because he saw the transformation in her life as both a miracle from God and an act of courage on her part. He became her protector, loving her in a way that gave her a genuine shield against the world." – Tommy Nelson, The Book of Romance
Song of Songs 3:1-3 NIV
All night long on my bed I looked for the one my heart loves; I looked for him but did not find him. I will get up now and go about the city, through its streets and squares; I will search for the one my heart loves. So I looked for him but did not find him. The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city. "Have you seen the one my heart loves?"
"The image of this young lady walking the night streets by herself is one that emphasizes her solitude, her loneliness without Solomon. Marriage provides the security to deal with issues, and to do so as a team. The dream is helping her understand how much she needs that security." – Dr. David Jeremiah
Song of Songs 3:4-5 NIV
Scarcely had I passed them when I found the one my heart loves. I held him and would not let him go till I had brought him to my mother's house, to the room of the one who conceived me. Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you by the gazelles and by the does of the field: Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.
When both people feel heard, safe, loved, built-up, pursued, and desired – physical intimacy is the natural outcome.