 Hey guys, what's up, it's Isaac and today I'm gonna be talking about the time I wanted to get married at 13 years old. But first, I just wanna give a huge shout out to my patrons on Patreon. Thank you guys for your support. It means the world to me. It helps me do what I do here. And if you wanna help support my ministry and the videos and blog posts and all the resources that I create, head over to patreon.com slash daily underscore disciple to help support this ministry. It's my goal to do this full time and you help me do that by signing up on Patreon link in description. Now onto the video. This is the story of me wanting to get married at 13 years old. I actually share this story in my new book, A Letter to My Father, What Your Son Wants to Tell You, but doesn't, you can pick up the book, it's link in description. But I tell this story in the chapter about purity, weighting, and girls. And so I wanna share it with you today. So I wanna paint a picture for you. I was 13 years old on my, I don't know what generation it was, but it was a old, old, I'm not an iPhone, an iPod. This was like an ancient thing. It was so small now. I have like a big, a pretty big phone now. And it was like a little dinky thing. And I watch YouTube on it. And at the time I was obsessed with a pastor named Vodibhakam. And so I would look up his sermons in just different clips that people would make, montage videos that they would make online of his preaching highlights. I was a weird kid. So I would search up these different videos and sermons. And there was one particular sermon that was called something like What He Must Be. And I was like, well, this is an intriguing title. My 13 year old mind thought. So I clicked on the button and I proceeded to watch. So I'm watching this sermon. And what I find out is that this sermon is actually all about what a young man must be before he's ready to get married. So Vodibhakam's talking about, he must have like a good spiritual life, solid spiritually, solid emotionally. And he must have a job. And there were some other things, but I was like a job. And I was like checking off things. I'm like, I'm pretty solid spiritually in my 13 year old mind. I'm pretty solid emotionally at 13 years old. No, I was not. But I don't have a job. So I was like, I need to get a job. And understand this, I had no prospects. It's not like there was like this one person. I was like, I want to marry her. There was none of that. But it was just like this sense from a 13 year old like, look, this is what's going to happen. I'm going to get married. And in my mind, I don't think I really thought I was going to get married, but it was like, I just need a job. I just need a job and then it'll happen for me. But I think what's kind of funny as I look back at this is just this idea that, look, God has designed marriage, it's good. There's nothing wrong with wanting to be married. Even as a 13 year old, I mean, you shouldn't get married at 13, but that desire, that's okay, because God designed us that way to want to be in that relationship. And something that I actually talk about in my book is this idea that my dad would often tell me as a younger teen, this idea that our desires, like our sexual desires, they're not wrong necessarily, but it's an idea of not yet. Like God has prepared those desires for a certain time in our lives. When we are married, when we are in that covenant relationship, when those desires can be fulfilled within that context of marriage between one man and one woman. But it's not time yet when you're 13 years old to have those desires really fulfilled. That's not what that time is for, right? So this idea of not yet. And I think that's really important to hold onto in our Christian culture because sometimes we can get in the space, like those things are wrong. The fact that we're, seeming like we're not sexual beings, that we're not, we shouldn't have those longings or desires at all, because those are just evil kind of thing. But we gotta understand, hey, look, God created us as sexual beings. He created us as people that have these desires and have these longings. But understanding that God has created those for a specific time and a specific context in our lives. So he's created those desires to be fulfilled within the context of that relationship, the marriage between one man and one woman, right? And what we often can get in the space of sometimes is we can justify our dabbling into whatever it may be pornography or premarital sex or just like crossing boundaries that shouldn't be crossed, right? Because we say, oh, well, I made this way. I need to be satisfied in this way. I need to, this is how I'm wired kind of thing. And not understanding that, yeah, to a degree that was how you're wired, but those desires, right? We're designed to be specifically fulfilled in that relationship like we're talking about. So we shouldn't be in the space of using that as an excuse, like, well, God created me this way. Because he didn't create you to use those things wrongly. We're twisting what God has created, right? We're distorting what God has created. And I think that's a lot of the fault of, you know, our own sinful desires at the fall, you know, the fall of man, Adam and Eve. A lot of those things that were good that were created right and holy, they were distorted and twisted. And we use a lot of these things as excuses like, well, God created me this way. This is the way I'm supposed to be. But we gotta be looking at, hey, what does God say about these things? What does God tell us how these things should be, you know, fulfilled? What does God have to say about marriage? What does God have to say about love and all these kinds of things? So I think it's important that we look at God's word and what he's told us about these things instead of just saying, wow, this is the way God made me kind of thing. So I just want to encourage you guys with those things. Just like this idea that, hey, look, those desires aren't wrong necessarily. Yes, we're created as sexual beings, but that's not an excuse to indulge in things like pornography, lust, or whatever it may be, crossing those boundaries, right? Jesus says, whoever looks on a woman, the lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. God's standard is really, really high, right? In terms of purity. And we know, yeah, we fall short. Yeah, we do break God's law, but we can find that redemption in the gospel and the fact that, yes, Jesus has come to take the penalty of our sin on himself and we can be free from those things. That doesn't mean we never make a mistake, but it means that, look, we are forgiven in his work on the cross and we have a new identity and that new identity loves God and is founded in his work on the cross. So we can now act out of a love for God saying, I don't want those things. I don't want to distort God's way of what he is designed. I wanna wait, right? I wanna have these things, have these desires fulfilled in their proper context, in the context of marriage. I don't want to go against what God wants just because I wanna be fulfilled or I want my desires to be fulfilled prematurely and in a wrong way, in a sinful way. So it's important to understand from a biblical perspective, sexuality in and of itself is not bad. We're created with that aspect of ourselves. That's core to who are being, right? But it's not an excuse to just use it willy-nilly. We should listen to what God has to say in his word and the right context to be able to fulfill those desires. So that's part of the reason that I love what my dad told me as a teenager and I still remember this day, this idea of not yet, not yet. Wait on God's timing for him to bring that person in your life where you can get engaged, get married and that can be the time when those desires can be met and it'll be so worth it. But I think it's just important now as a single person, this idea that, hey, I'm not gonna make excuses. I'm not gonna say, hey, look, this is how I was made. This is what I need to do. I'm gonna honor God with my body and with my mind in this time. Once again, if you wanna pick up my new book, A Letter to My Father, What Your Son Wants to Tell You but doesn't, you can pick that up, link in description. Thanks so much for watching, guys. If you enjoyed this video, give it a like and leave a comment down below with what your thoughts are on this issue. I know it's a little bit complicated but I think it's important that we go back to God's word and really found our bearings there. Subscribe to the YouTube channel and, because we're putting out new videos all the time, Mondays and Thursdays. Thanks so much for watching, guys and I'll see you next time. See ya.