How we doing the ports? How we doing?

I want to welcome you, if you're a guest with us, welcome home, if you're tuning in from Fort Worth or Houston or one of the streaming campuses or you're driving in your car listening somewhere around the country where glad you are as we continue this series first time.

If we haven't met my name is JP or Jonathan Bacluda and it's just a privilege to be here tonight and jump into this series.

So we're talking about relationships. Let me start with this question. Who is the best basketball player on earth? Do you know who the best basketball player on earth is?

Yes, you are correct. It is LeBron James indeed. Yes, it is. Yes, it is. Which leads me to my second question for you. Do you know who the worst basketball player on the planet earth is?

Yes, indeed. Again, you are correct. It is me. And so here's the interesting fact LeBron and I were the same size. We really are if we haven't met, find out afterwards. I know it's proportioned a little bit different, but we are the same.

So you say, well, how did you become the worst basketball player on the planet earth? Did you never practice? No, I did practice. Did you not play? I actually did play. Here is how I became the worst basketball player on the planet earth.

It is because I learned the wrong way. So at a very early age, little JP grown up at a farm in the middle of nowhere, Cuero, Texas, South Texas. And I'm just kind of watching the guys on TV and they're getting these rebounds and they jump up and they bring it down here. And so that's what I do. And I just practice that. And not only that, but I watch the Harlem Glove Trotters and they're doing these crazy hook shots and fadeaways.

And so I never, no one ever set me down and showed me the fundamentals. I'm just practicing the hook shots all day. If it goes in the baskets, it's pure luck. But that's what I do all day long. And so then out there on the farm, got this little hoop. That's what I do all the time. And then I get into school and get to this age where I can play basketball. And I never really have accepted by myself or with the neighbor, you know, just doing crazy shots. And they're like, okay, why don't you shoot a free throw? And I'm like, you know, and they're like, you know, you're like, you know, you're like, you're not going to be able to do this. And I'm like, you know, you're not going to do this. And I'm like, you know, you're not going to do this. And I'm like, you know, you're not going to do this. And I'm like, you're not going

to do this. What, what, what are you doing that? And I'm like, well, that's in that what you do. And, and, and I was terrible. And I was so bad because I practiced poorly. See, when you're 6'7 and you bring the ball down here from a rebound, it's just like saying to the opponent, here you go, you can have the ball. And, and you're not using your height to your advantage. I remember the coach saying,

he'd say, Pocura, I don't mean the Philippines. And I don't even know what that means. But I just know he was angry at me because I kept giving the opponent the basket ball. And the reason I say that is because I believe today we are in a relationship crisis.

And I believe the reason we're in a relationship crisis is because we're practicing poorly. We are practicing poorly lean in here because you've got to give me this.

As we consider the end goal of marriage to becoming one flesh and running together for a lifetime, our generation millennials or whatever you want to call yourself, we're not getting better at this.

We're getting married later and those marriages are ending more often. The greatest disasters and tragedy of marriage is the world has ever seen. It seems almost like we should go back to doing something they used to do long ago because whatever we're doing today is not working.

But you haven't given a lot of thought about that. You're just going to continue the model, the process. No one here wants to be divorced and yet half of you will be. Half of you. Why? Because you're practicing poorly, unbeknownst to you.

And so this evening I want to talk about poor practices when you're looking for love. What are the poor practices that I see in young adults when you are looking for love?

And we're going to address those poor practices with the scriptures, with God's Word. And if you do these things, you either won't find love at all or you won't find love at last.

And we're not only just practicing poorly, friends. What's happening is it's the foundation. We're learning from the wrong people. Our experts are the ones who are most terrible at this.

The ones that we watch in awe of, oh, in what they have, so beautiful. And then we begin to take instruction. And we begin to date like they do to the same end result that they have.

Let me just kind of explain what I mean by this is I watch HGTV. And there's this couple on HGTV. About a year ago I'm watching and I'm like, man, this couple's got to go on out.

It's not chipping, Jojo. That's not who I'm talking about. It's this other couple. And they're flipping houses and I'm like, what a dream. She's cute and he's attractive and they get to work together and they're making all this money and drive an escalade.

And they get to like flip houses for living and they're just living the dream and they're laughing and giggling and I'm like, oh, man, and I'm tempted to think and my foolishness is like, I want that. Maybe Monica and I should just kind of leave this whole ministry thing and just start flipping houses.

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