Before I Walk Down the Aisle

Hello, hello everyone and welcome back to Saved Nights. What is going on everybody? This is so exciting. This is crazy. As you can see by the title, I am either uploading this the day of or the day after, talking in real time. I get married four days from today and as you can see, I am just about to walk down this dang aisle and I thought this was a perfect time to make an episode, even though the chaos of the world and the wedding planning moving across the country from California to Florida has been so insane, I really wanted to sit down and figure out some time to just speak, to just give a message to the Lord and also kind of yap about what God is wanting to do through this ministry and this next season that I'm stepping into, because I haven't had time to just like sit down and tell you guys. So that's pretty much what today is going to be about. If you do not know me, if you've never seen my face, my name is Emmy Moore. I'm about to get married, but I am the host of this podcast, Save Not Soft. Save Not Soft has been a podcast going strong for about three years. And this podcast is to let others know that they are heard, loved, and seen by God. And that this path of Christianity is not an easy one. It's not necessarily the worst thing ever is the bestest thing ever and the path is narrow it's not wide and I think um we have to know how to navigate through trials and tribulations that comes along saying our yes giving our yes to Jesus and sometimes it could feel like oh my goodness what is happening in this podcast is catered to teach you the word of God um to encourage you to read your Bible and grow your relationship closer to the Lord this is not a supplement for God's word this is this is honestly just not even an addition it's a tool to help you gain a closer relationship with the lord but does it but it doesn't supplement his presence um so yeah that's basically what this podcast is um yeah i'm all over the moon i can't even tell you the last time i sat sat down and filmed an episode because something you guys don't know is that uh the past this this whole entire year i've pre-recorded all of my episodes months and I mean months in advance because when it came to me moving cross country, me just transitioning my entire life, wedding planning, about to get married, I've never been this busy in my entire life. This has been the craziest season of my entire life. So we filmed all those episodes ahead of time. So if I'm coming off a little rusty right now, I'm sorry. But yeah, it's been a while and I'm just really excited to sit, chat. I'm gonna be honest, I only got about 30 minutes because I got to go to an appointment for my wedding. So this is pretty much the only time I've had. I'm about to walk down the aisle and the reality of I'm no longer going to be just Emmy Moore is hitting me. I'm going to bed at night and I'm like, wow, I'm not going to sleep in this bed alone for about like four more days. And that's insane to think about. I've never been in a committed relationship except for Malik. Malik is my first everything. He is just literally the most perfect man I got in my eyes. I sometimes joke that he's perfect because sometimes I feel like he is. He has just been such a safe space for me. He feels like home. He has been so patient and has been so kind through the entirety of this process and just such a great leader. He leads with the passion of Christ in his heart. He has eyes and hands to help people and to serve others. He is the biggest cheerleader. I know he just cheers me on and other people around me. And just to see him grow us, even just us in our engagement season has been such a blessing. And I just reflect on our love story. And I'm like, wow, I truly have received a love that I even know that I could have ever achieved or received. And if I could find that good of love here on earth, that just testifies to me how good of a loving father the Lord is. And so there's been a lot of growing in this season. I wanted to give you wisdom on that and share kind of an update where I'm at, et cetera. There's going to be a lot of shifts happening in this ministry because God's just shifting my life. I think something people don't really realize when it comes to getting married is, especially for me, because I'm not just carrying the mantle of marriage now, but also ministry, everything shifts in the midst of it because it's not just, hey, I'm going to get married and you're an addition to my life. No, Malik is not an addition. He's not a part of me. I'm not an addition to Malik's life. It's not, hey, here's Emmy and she's going to fit in my little pretty picture of what I've created and what I want my world to be. It's no, we're bringing two completely different worlds, combining them together in one and everything shifts in the mist. And navigating that shift has been such an interesting thing. It's been the most interesting things I've ever experienced because there's been a lot of self-sacrifice. There's been a lot of crucifixion of self, my own desires, my own ideologies, ways that I would do things, and a lot of selflessness in the best way. And I think that's what's been driving me a lot into going into marriage is the excitement of like, wow, I no longer have to just worry about me. I could give all of my energy, all of my thoughts, all my attentions onto somebody else. And that excites me. I think that may scare other people like, oh, well, I want time for me. I've had time for me my entire life. I'm ready to serve somebody else. And I'm just excited to be alongside Malik with that process. And when the Bible talks about wives submitting to their husbands in Ephesians 5, it's compared as how the body of Christ is under the head, right? The husband being the head of the household and the body mimicking the body of Christ, which is the body. And if you look at the body, the body is quite literally submitted under the head. The body is to support the head and to keep it up. And without the body, The head can't make the right decisions without the neck. It can't turn the head right and left. And I'm starting to understand the functionality and the characteristics of what a wife should be, apart from things that are foundationally taught in church, like being a Proverbs 31 woman, what it means to be a woman who submits, but really just putting my hands to the plow and really understanding what that means. and reading Colossians 3, Ephesians 5, looking at biblical marriages, looking at Jesus relationship with the church and how he walked with his disciples and how he walked with the body of the church while he was here on earth It gives you so much of an understanding of the compassion that he holds And even in Ephesians 5 it says that husbands are to love So women excuse me, wives are to submit, but the man's job is to love his wife. And that comes with sacrifice, that comes with selflessness, that comes with being a leader and staying close to God's heart. and I think whenever Malik and I come back from getting married and we're able to sit and record an episode we'll be able to tell you guys more about that but it's been a lot of learning about hey what are our roles and what are we really stepping into I say all this to say is that when you step into a role like this it changes the trajectory of everything I'm going to say a very big mistake that Malika and I started to make in the beginning of our engagement. And it was how we thought that ministry, work, finances, relationships, friendships, family members, whoever it may be, were pretty much this high exalted priority and marriage would have to submit to all those attributes. And we kept falling short and we're like, why aren't we satisfied? Why aren't we coming to a solution? Why does it feel like we're not agreeing? Not even not even an argument, but there's a disagreement of where we're wanting to settle, where do me and you just hit on the same page. And the mistake that we made was that we were trying to have all these things be an ultimate prioritization and authority, and our marriage would submit under that. But what we started to realize through a lot of counseling and just through speaking to others, married people, is that it is first our relationship with the Lord, marriage, then everything else submits under that. And the moment we got that, I kid you not, you started to see the transformation break out. So because marriage is now the highest form of ministry that we are now operating in, all these other things that we once had our attention to, whether if it was TikTok or Instagram or work or friendships, they no longer have the same authority that they did because there is a marriage in a higher priority that is now in our lives, which is marriage. And now all these little things that we were trying to have our marriage submit under is now the very things that have to submit to our marriage. I say all that to say, I'm giving a very big long explanation to share you guys something that's very bittersweet that I have to share with the Save Not Soft fam. And it's not going to be as bad as you think, and the time is going to fly, okay? I just got to tell you that. I'm just going to warn you, and I love you guys so much. With that being said, Save Not Soft has been, I could cry, this ministry has changed my life, not for what it's done for me, but what it's done for you guys. I have seen people healed from diseases, from sickness, from traumas, from heartaches, from relationships. I've seen people encounter the presence of God. I've seen miracles outbreak. I've seen the hand of Jesus all over you guys and over my generation. It has blessed me. This ministry has blessed my spirit. Serving people is like the biggest joy I have in my heart. is to serve others and to let them know that they're so loved by Jesus. And my ministry now kind of got an earthquake to it because Save Nos Off is no longer my first ministry. It's now going to be my husband. And I'm gonna be honest, y'all. I'm gonna need some time to figure out this wife stuff because I'm only 23 years old. I just moved to Florida and I'm exhausted out of my mind um this season has been the hardest season of my entire life for sure um by far like even harder than my testimony childhood trauma this has been the hardest season of my entire life and I think as a minister and someone who preaches the word of God it's very hard to admit that and I almost felt shame for a really long time of saying that because I was like man like I'm supposed to be encouraging these people but like I'm falling short. I'm going to bed crying and bawling my eyes to sleep at night. But I believe my vulnerability is a superpower in the sense because I'm reminded of second Corinthians when Paul talks about the thorn in the flesh. And I heard Jackie Hill Perry say something about this of how it's, I, she believes, and I believe this too, it's intentional as to why Paul never named what his thorn was so that we didn't have to identify with him or accuse him what that thorn is, but instead it created space for us to question what is my thorn what is the thing that's on my side as I'm still doing the things of God and man I've had some thorns in my flesh in this season I've had so I have so many trials and tribulations that I will testify later on that man even just an increased fire in the entirety of my life I've had people on social media be I've been so ridiculed my character has been slandered by others which that is biblical because the bible says that people hate you they've hated me first and it's crazy because i believe this is the most obedient i've ever been in my entire life and yet there was an increase of being ridiculed being diminished and my character being slandered by people who call themselves christians and um just just a lack of empathy and um it's so crazy because i've just been filled the holy spirit filled with his love filled with the softness and there's just been such a harshness and such a fire through this season and such a testing and a trial of still holding on with my intimacy with the Lord and even when it comes to moving out of California coming to Florida all the trials and tribulations that comes that leaving my friends and family not having a community here not having leadership not having a church like I left everything just like Ruth who had left her old old homeland to come to a new one to seek something better to be married into the heart of boaz that's exactly what i'm doing here and it's been a really hard and an exhausting transition and there's so many things i wish i could tell you guys but i have to allow my story to be written and i will tell you once the once the pen is done with this chapter but i have to be transparent as a leader that there has been very many nights where it's been very very hard and there is a grace for me to reset and rest for the sake of myself, my salvation with the Lord. It is commandment to rest. It is literally the fourth one to take a Sabbath and to rest in him. And I think the season has been so much chaos to where I just feel the invitation of the Father to just say come to me if you are weary burdened and heavy laden and I will give you rest in me And not just a rest that will make you sleep, but a rest for your souls. And I need that. I need a rest for my soul. So say all this to say, I'm going to be taking a break from Save Not Soft for the rest of this year. Even when it comes to speaking engagements and everything. My first ministry is now my husband. I need to figure out that ministry before I figure out this one point blank period. Also being totally transparent because y'all at the end of the day, I'm not going to sit here and lie. I'm going to be very honest about where I'm at. Um, in my humility, I just, I just have to show it. I just have to share it. And I have to, I have to be obedient to the Lord and just trust that he's going to honor it. I just moved all the way from California to Florida. I have no community. I don't have a church home. I don't have any, any, any leadership whatsoever. I am brand new to this place. I am in no place to lead and to shepherd God's flock and take care of his people. If I'm not being shepherded myself, I was on lockdown back at home. I had a system. I had people, I had people around me. I don't have people here like how I once did. So as a leader, I have to take a break. I have to figure it out for the sake of y'all because I would not be a good leader if I did that. So I also just want to be really transparent about where I'm at and how this is basically just me being very real of I have no business leading y'all if I'm not being led. My leader is going to be my husband, but I have to let him lead me first before I just jump into a ministry. Everything's change is changing and we need to figure out a system. And I believe the Lord is going to be very strategic of how this ministry is going to outbreak. There's so many things that God's been putting in my heart to pray for you guys about even the trajectory of the entirety of the kind of the United States and what, what Gen Z is needing to hear. And I need a rest. I need to hear God's voice. I don't take it lightly, this platform that I have. I know you guys have ears and stomachs that are hungry for the gospel. And I'm not in a ignorant position that I have a high influence to help, to teach, to disciple. And my goal is to do well in discipling. And I need time to spend time with the Lord, to get in my secret space, to figure out my marriage, I need grace to figure out where I live so I could disciple correctly. First Peter five talks about shepherding God's flock. And it's been something that's really been affecting my spirit because God's flock. And I would say this to anybody who has ministry on their heart and God's calling them to ministry. And I'm talking ministry in a sense of preaching, being a part of a church, et cetera. When you're a shepherd, the flock isn't yours. It's God's. A shepherd is just simply a caretaker. So I'm caretaking for a flock that isn't mine. And when it talks about those who are shepherds in 1 Peter 5, it says that those who shepherd, not to do it out of their own sake, for their own hidden agendas, but sincerely to serve God's people. And because we want to, not because we have to, but because we want to. And to equip them. And what do shepherds do? They look after the sheep. They sleep at the pen. at the gate of the pen. So if wolves try to come, the shepherd is at the door ready to protect the sheep. And I understand that where I am in ministry, I am a shepherd to some women. And I want to let y'all know, I am going to take this break. I'm going to get in this closet. And I want to lead efficiently. This is not a game to me. This is very serious work. And I, you just can't pull leadership out of the sky. Like it takes a lot of oil and there's a new mantle that's fallen upon me, not just ministry, but now it's marriage. So this is gonna be exciting and I'm excited what the Lord is gonna do through it. The goal is for people to be disciples, for souls to be set free, for the captives to be set free and for hearts to return back to Jesus, for the prodigals to come home. The goal is, is that Gen Z is gonna see Jesus and generations before and after. I believe that revival is around the corner. I believe that we are also, what God told me in the beginning of this year, that is the year of the bride, that's a time of readiness, restoration, and repentance. And it's not something we're just gonna do through a podcast. It's gonna be something that we do in our secret space and even within our own local church communities. And I believe that there's going to be an urgency to turn to the brethren physically instead of media-based, online. Um, there's just like a lot of areas where I just feel the shift of God and I need to get away from everything. Just like how Jesus consecrated himself and just tuned his ear to the heart of God and said, Lord, what are you saying? I need to do those same things. So that's my announcement. I don't know exactly when I'm going to come back. Um, I don't have a date in mind. I just know the rest of the year, like not until January 1st, you're not getting a peep for me because I need to rest bad, bad, bad, bad. But it's going to be amazing. It's going to be great. And, you know, it's needed. I think the, a lot of the church leaders I look up to prioritize rest and I would be disobedient if I didn't do this. So I'm just communicating it, showing my heart, et cetera. And yeah, there's, there's so many things I've learned just in this season. So much wisdom that God's imparted in me. Some that I've already kind of shared wisdom I'll share later, which I believe God is still going to impart into me more. But this year, God gave me the word of the year of the bride. And when he gave that to me, I was like, okay, God, is this really from you? Because I'm about to get married. I was thinking, Lord, is this you really speaking? Or do I just have bride brain right now, but the Lord assured me that this year was the beginning of the bride, a bride meeting, the bride of Christ, the church, that God is coming back to a spotless bride. So what does this mean for us? And I'm not even just talking about me personally. What does this mean for every single person who's listening to this right now? I want to let you know, I am not going to be the only one who walks down an aisle. All of us are a bride to Jesus. And you know while a physical marriage is something so beautiful in a covenant that literally gives you more intimacy and insight of what it like to experience parts and characteristics of the heart of God I believe even if you singled you married That the gag Because Jesus has chosen you, his bride, to be reconciled into his heart for you two to live together forever. And I believe when Jesus is prompting and reading, as we read about his second return, he's coming back to what? a bride dressed in fine linen spotless and ready and we look a lot in the parables and in the gospels and Jesus talks a lot about his return in the kingdom of heaven and I believe that these scriptures are ones that we really need to pay attention to regardless if you believe we're in the end times or not and I don't even want to hear somebody be like oh my gosh I mean becoming an end times preacher. Jesus was an end times preacher. That's a lot of what he talked about. He kept talking about his second coming. Even hypothetically, if it doesn't come while we're breathing our last, there is going to be a time to where you're going to encounter the Lord. You do not know the day or the hour, but the question is, will you be ready? And the heart posture of what I believe God has been putting me on this year is being ready to receive him. He's coming back to a spotless bride. How do we remain spotless? It's by storing up your oil. It's by repenting, keeping your eyes on Jesus. Like how Hebrews 12 says, I'm chasing after the prize. I'm throwing off every single hindrance and I fix my eyes on Jesus, right? And so I believe, and what I believe the scriptures say, it's not even my own belief. It's literally what scripture says is that there is an urgency to store up your oil. And every time I read the book of Matthew, and I read about the 10 virgins, it just provokes an urgency and a fear of God on the inside of me that I believe we just haven't been taking seriously. And there's been two parables that really been speaking to me. One is the wedding banquet, the other the 10 virgins, I'm actually trying to look for it right now, but I kind of wanted to go over it with you guys and just encourage you to read the scripture um it's matthew chapter 25 and it's the parable of the 10 virgins and it says and at the time the kingdom of heaven will be like 10 virgins who took up their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom five of them were foolish and five of them were wise the foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them the wise ones however took oil and jars along with their lamps the bridegroom was a long time in coming and they all became drowsy and fell asleep at midnight the cry rang out here is the bridegroom come and meet him then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps the foolish one said to the wise give us some of your oil our lamps are going out no they replied there may not be enough for the both of us and you instead go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves but while they were on their way to buy the oil the bridegroom arrived the virgins who were ready went in with him in the wedding banquet it and the door was shut later the others also came lord lord they said open the door for us but he replied truly i would tell you i do not know you therefore keep watch because you do not know the day or the hour this provokes the fear of the lord and it provokes the fear of the lord because man i only got a few more minutes but it provokes the fear of the lord because we do not know the day the hour or the time and i'm literally just going to leave off this message with this and Please read it. Pray on it on your own. In ancient Hebrew Jewish weddings, it was custom that when the bride was met by the bridegroom and they were to have their wedding, she would not know where it was. There was a process. There was the betrothal, the processional, then the celebration, which is basically like in the beginning. It's the engagement, wedding, party. That's basically nuanced terms. And so the bridegroom would come and pick up his wife and marry her and she would never know the day. And so it was the wife's job or the bride's job to be ready for his return. And so this is what I just want to prompt to those who are listening today. Are you ready for his return? Are you storing up oil? You store up oil by spending time in the secret space, by being plugged into church community. the the word of god says that uh at at the end of age or at the when in the second return at the end of times people will turn away from the faith and become lovers of themselves are you actively becoming a lover of jesus are you storing up oil are you being being ready are you are you setting yourself ready to be a bride for jesus and are you ready for his return and we do that by prayer by seeking his heart, by falling in love with his scriptures, and not just supplementing our prayer time with podcasts, but it's literally just knowing him, not knowing Jesus because of what all these podcasters may say about him, but what does he say about himself, and how do you know that, and are you in his word, and are you plugged into community, and are you in alignment with what he says, do you obey with what he teaches, do you even know what he teaches, do you know who he is, And that's just my encouragement. While I'm gone these next few months and I come back, my biggest encouragement to those who have been a part of Save Not Soft, please, for the love of Jesus, just depend on him. You do not need me to bring you to the Lord. I believe I'm a tool. Absolutely. But ultimately, Jesus is our biggest, biggest intercessor. And I just want to encourage you to store up your oils. It's not the end of the world that I'm going to be gone for like six months. It's going to be just fine. You guys, it's going to fly by. but store up your oil store up your oil I love you guys so much I'm going to go get married I only have 30 minutes because I have an appointment and I literally have to go um but I'm so thankful I had to just bring something in really quick but I'm so thankful uh I'm excited to take a big fat rest so excited um and I'm just so blessed by the Lord and ironic this podcast is called save not soft because the Lord has made me so soft this season in a bet in a good way in a good way um but I could talk to you guys more about that when I get back so I'll still be posting on stuff I'm not like going totally MIA but this is an area where I have to be obedient and submit it to the Lord and uh it's gonna be okay so I'll see you guys in 2026 yep that's that that sucks to say out loud but god i have to be okay i love you guys the lord loves you so so much spend time with him he wants to see you he wants to see you amen okay i love you guys oh okay love you guys bye