Welcome back to The Marriage Project podcast. We are ending 2021 with Dan and Tiffani Matsuura who lead worship at their home church in Torrance, CA. They have been married for 13 years. They have 1 daughter who is 7 years old, and 2 dogs, one is 13 years old and one is 10 months.

Dan is the youth pastor and a worship pastor & Tiffani is a (new) missionary. Dan left his full-time position at a school district in 2019 to pursue ministry. Tiffani left a full-time, photography business in 2021 to pursue missions. She would consider herself a local missionary. Listen in on why they both left these positions, and how the Lord called Tiffani out of her successful wedding photography business to pursue Him above all else.

testimonies

“We both grew up in Christian families.” Both Dan and Tiffani went to Christian private schools. They both were into music since they were kids. Tiffani and Dan went to Christian punk & ska show together when we were in Jr. High. “We went to many local punk-ska shows locally. We ran into each other together a lot when we were kids!” Tiffani wrote. Tiffani shares it was a blessing that she never really fell into a tumultuous lifestyle. Dan shares some of the struggles he had in those high school years.

dating, marriage, and purity

“We started dating when we were young. I was 20 and Dan was 19. We got married young too. I was 24 and Dan was 23. We have always had a pretty good marriage. Dan’s so open and flexible. We have always been servant-hearted toward each other. I mean, marriage has had its ups and downs, trying to figure one another out.”

Tiffani and Dan emphasize the conviction of remaining pure, deciding not to sleep together before marriage. “One thing that could be a defining thing about us, is that we wanted our marriage to be pure. We waited until we were married to live together. We didn’t have sex until we were married. That’s one of our biggest testimonies. At a young age, maybe around 19 Dan was delivered from porn. This is something that is special about him.” Dan opens up about not always having that conviction and his struggle with pornography in those early teen/twenty years. But he took the steps toward overcoming that so as not to bring that into their marriage.

Tiffani makes a valid point about one example of staying pure before marriage, which was might be a silly example but the example of Cher in Clueless. If she was picky about what she put on her feet why would she be any less picky about being that intimate with someone? Tiffani discusses the gift of long-suffering. She sticks to something no matter how hard and that choice to stay pure before marriage was something she decided.

“Purity is pursuing holiness and righteousness and when you’re not pursuing those things so many other things start to manifest as your humanity gets out of line with the Lord. When pursuing the heart of God first and when surrendering to God you start to see the legs of those things, addictions, etc. get cut down.” — Tiffani

”For me as a wife I can see how special that Dan took that time to be delivered from pornography and those types of addictions. It makes a difference in our marriage. When he set his mind to it, he really got rid of it. He wanted to be pure in that for his wife.”

The blessedness that is purity? Nothing is hidden. “There are a lot of women that have that as a constant drone in the background, “Am I good enough? The most loving thing you can do for your wife is asking the Lord, ‘Where can I be pure more Lord?’” And same goes for women with this same sort of addiction.

spiritual testimony

“Submit, obey and surrender are hard words to get through but God asks these things of us” Tiffani shares.

When Dan and Tiffani were in the eighth year of their marriage, they were just getting back to leading worship. One of Tiffani’s worship leader mentors told her that something was hindering her growth and that thing? “That I wasn’t submitted to my husband.”

”When she told me this, I was completely surprised and I was like, ‘Nope’. I was frustrated. But this actually set so many things in motion. The more I learned about what Godly submission was, the more I knew that I needed to submit to my husband. This is actually our testimony. Not that I did anything to make this happen, but when I submitted to Dan, the alignment of our hearts to Jesus changed things.

When I submitted to my husband, things started to line up. Because he was already submitted to the Lord, we were now going after the Lord together. I saw that God began to accelerate what was already meant for us.”

Giving Dan space to make small decisions led to him making bigger decisions. Dan shares it was challenging to him too bc he was used to just being easygoing. Tiffani’s obedience to what the Lord was asking of her brought about Dan’s invitation to get out of his comfort zone as well.

She shares that as she submitted, she saw God flip the script. God started to raise Dan up.

“When we met, Dan was very reserved. He had a word spoken over him when He was young, that he would have “confidence in words.” He never was one to promote himself, so it was hard for him to speak publicly or promote himself. But when I submitted to him as a wife, the Lord began to promote him.” He went from being the background bass player, to lead guitar and started to lead worship on Sundays.

He grew and grew and the Lord promoted him beyond what either of them thought! In 2019, the church elders prayed and asked him to be an associate pastor at Coast.

“In our home, we are instilling a culture of honor and if submission is a trigger word, ask the Lord to untrigger it.” — Tiffani

A Worthy Treasure and intimacy with God

“Intimacy with God is such holds such a special place in my heart. This is a place that I am pursuing for my ministry. As I was preparing for this podcast, I was asking the Lord, "What does He want me to talk about? He showed me that Dan and I both are all about revival. We want to share that our hearts are all about the Great Commission. We desire, more than anything, that people can grow in their faith, and grow in their desire to seek after God. My new ministry is about revival. Plain and simple. We want to see hearts revived, and the lost saved. My ministry with A Worthy Treasure is all about revival. Right now, I’m focusing a lot on quiet times and intimacy with the Lord. When I say intimacy, it’s because I want to iterate how important it is to grow close to Jesus.

I just recently discovered my secret place with the Lord. I’ve been a believer all my life, but it was just recently when I met the Lord in a new space. I’m currently just following God’s voice for the next season.”

Matthew 28: 16-20

16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

You can connect with Tiffani @aworthytreasure on Instagram or Facebook, or at www.aworthytreasure.com .