Chapel speaker encourages students to think carefully through dating choices

Riverside, Calif. (Sept. 20, 2018) – The biggest decision in life is what a person decides about God, Matt Brown told a chapel audience at California Baptist University on Sept. 20. The next biggest decision, he added, is choosing a spouse. 

Brown, lead pastor of Sandals Church in Riverside, spoke on Proverbs 31. He encouraged students to make good choices when it comes to dating. Brown reflected on his time as a student at then California Baptist College, where he met his wife, Tammy.

“The best decision of my life at Cal Baptist was giving my life to Christ. The second best decision was dating Tammy,” Brown said.

When choosing a person to date, study how they love in several areas of their life, he said. First, only date someone who loves you, Brown said.

“If you have to change everything about yourself to get someone to love you, then they don’t love you, they love who you’re not. And you can’t keep that up forever,” Brown declared.

The person also should love to work, Brown said. If a person cannot do homework, what will they do at a job, he asked. Graduating, paying bills and raising kids all takes work, Brown explained.

“It’s easy to fall in love, it takes work to stay in love,” Brown said.

The person also needs to love people, Brown said. In Proverbs 31:20, the woman “extends her hand to the poor and she stretches out her hands to the needy.”

“How does a person treat people they don’t know, they don’t like, who aren’t cool, who aren’t beautiful, and who aren’t their friends?” Brown said. “The heart of the person is reflected in how they treat people.”

Finally, the person needs to loves God, Brown said, reflecting on I John 4:7, which says “Love is from God.”

“This is why you want to date someone who loves God, because if you don’t love God and you don’t know God, you don’t know love,” Brown said.