Love Song: Part 2 - "Perfect Seasoning" with Craig Groeschel - LifeChurch.tv

Perfect Season-ing: Pursuing Love through Every Stage of Relationship

Scripture References

• Song of Solomon 2

Overview

Real love grows through distinct seasons. Using Song of Solomon 2, the message traces winter preparation, spring infatuation, and the lifelong call to pursue intimacy and protect purity. Whether single or married, each season carries a God-given purpose that shapes us for a relationship marked by depth, holiness, and lasting passion.

Main Points

Season 1 – Preparation (“Winter”)

• Winter is when roots grow unseen; God heals past hurts, builds character, and deepens spiritual foundations.
• Desire for relationship now may collide with God’s deliberate pace; don’t rush spring.

• Story: In college the speaker stopped dating for almost two years—Saturday “date nights with God,” reading the entire Bible, journaling, studying Christian marriage, and writing future love letters that later became gifts to Amy.

• Embrace practical growth: meet financial obligations, show up on time, learn basic responsibility.
• You cannot have spring without winter; resist resenting the season.

Season 2 – Infatuation (“Spring”)

• Song of Solomon 2:8-14 pictures lovers bounding like a gazelle, playing peekaboo, and exchanging sweet words—everything feels perfect.

• Infatuation is emotional, usually lasting 1 day to 6 months (rarely up to 2 years).

• What seems like “couldn’t get better” must give way to real, sacrificial love formed over years.
• Guidance for dating couples:
  1. Limit your time together—keep community and normal rhythms.
  2. Limit your talk—don’t over-promise or label the future too early; build a spiritual friendship first.
  3. Limit your touch—physical escalation clouds judgment; build on character, not chemistry.

• Illustration: Seventh-grade date disaster—nervous arm-around attempt bloodies Tiffany’s nose, showing how easily physical pursuit overruns emotional readiness.

In Every Season – Pursue Intimacy

• Intimacy ≠ romance; intimacy = transparency (“into-me-you-see”).
• Solomon invites the Shulammite: “Show me your face, let me hear your voice” (v. 14) – an appeal for open conversation.
• Practical applications:
  • Share dreams, fears, temptations; keep no secrets.
  • Husbands should lead by opening spiritual process—prayer, counsel, Scripture—so wives feel included.
  • Wives can strengthen husbands with specific encouragement, not vague praise.
• Close by ≠ close to; proximity without transparency produces distance.

In Every Season – Protect Purity

• “Catch for us the little foxes…that ruin the vineyards” (v. 15) – small compromises destroy the body/relationship.
• The speaker urges men to set the standard and lead.
• Dating couples either honor God together or sin together—there’s no neutral.
• Four boundary suggestions:
  1. State standards upfront.
  2. Keep four feet on the floor.
  3. Keep everything zipped, buttoned, and tied.
  4. Keep tongues in your own mouths as long as possible.
• A righteous marriage cannot be built on a foundation of sexual sin.

Result – Covenant Passion

• After preparation, guarded purity, and growing intimacy, the wife can say: “My beloved is mine and I am his…be like a young stag on the rugged hills” (vv. 16-17).
• Mature love surpasses infatuation; decades of sacrificial commitment create indescribable oneness.

Key Truths

• God appoints seasons; winter preparation is necessary, not punishment.
• Infatuation is real but temporary; lasting love forms after “it gets real.”
• Intimacy thrives where there are no secrets—transparency births romance.
• Purity requires proactive boundaries; small foxes ruin future fruit.
• Seek Jesus first; a Christ-centered life makes room for a Christ-honoring relationship.

Response

• Embrace the current season without envy or haste.
• Invest in spiritual growth—Scripture, prayer, community.
• Build (or rebuild) trust through honest, detailed conversations.
• Establish and enforce clear physical boundaries.
• Seek first God’s kingdom, trusting Him to supply the right relationship in the right time.

Closing

Every season has a purpose, but the most urgent season may be now: harvest time for salvation. The pastor invited listeners to surrender fully to Christ, the only foundation for lasting love.

“Today, by faith, I surrender my life to Christ.”

Prayer

The congregation prayed for God to heal past wounds, burn away sin, and conform each heart to Jesus, embracing His purpose in every season of life and relationship.