WEBVTT 00:00:00.719 --> 00:00:06.799 This morning's sermon scripture reading comes from Mark chapter 10 this morning, 1 through 12. 00:00:06.959 --> 00:00:14.320 You can follow along with me in your bulletin or page 794 in your uh cheer Bible there. 00:00:16.320 --> 00:00:18.480 Reading now God's holy word. 00:00:20.800 --> 00:00:29.839 And he that is Jesus left there and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan, and crowds gathered to him again. 00:00:30.399 --> 00:00:34.079 And again, as was his custom, he taught them. 00:00:34.880 --> 00:00:43.439 And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife? 00:00:44.320 --> 00:00:47.759 He answered them, What did Moses command you? 00:00:48.320 --> 00:00:55.520 They said, Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away. 00:00:56.640 --> 00:01:01.920 And Jesus said to them, Because of your hardness of heart he wrote to you this commandment. 00:01:02.399 --> 00:01:08.079 But from the beginning of creation God made man, them them male and female. 00:01:08.560 --> 00:01:17.680 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. 00:01:18.319 --> 00:01:21.920 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 00:01:22.640 --> 00:01:27.840 What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate. 00:01:29.200 --> 00:01:33.120 And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. 00:01:33.280 --> 00:01:39.920 And he said to them, Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. 00:01:40.319 --> 00:01:46.000 And if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery. 00:01:48.079 --> 00:01:50.480 Let us pray for the spirits enabling. 00:01:52.480 --> 00:02:08.560 Lord, we ask and we pray, Holy Spirit, that you would uh take these words that we've just heard, read, and that Lord, you would uh teach us, show us, Lord, your your good purposes and designs in the gift of marriage. 00:02:09.199 --> 00:02:19.120 Lord, we ask and we pray that you would show us your goodness and your and your wisdom in all that you have designed. 00:02:19.280 --> 00:02:20.560 In Jesus' name we pray. 00:02:20.879 --> 00:02:21.520 Amen. 00:02:23.919 --> 00:02:28.240 So we do continue in our series in the Gospel of Mark this morning. 00:02:28.479 --> 00:02:37.520 Uh and as we just read, we see that Jesus uh comes to to address the subject of marriage and divorce. 00:02:38.560 --> 00:02:48.000 And from the outset, let me just say this that I know this teaching can naturally have uh or lead to a wide range of responses. 00:02:48.719 --> 00:02:52.319 Uh it did in Jesus' day, and it still does today. 00:02:52.639 --> 00:02:57.199 And the the reason being that it can strike us as deeply personal. 00:02:58.159 --> 00:03:05.599 It was uh deeply personal to Herod when John the Baptist called him out and howled Scripture's line on this teaching. 00:03:05.840 --> 00:03:10.879 Herod's response caused John his life. 00:03:12.639 --> 00:03:18.000 Matthew's gospel account that was just read records the disciples' response. 00:03:18.479 --> 00:03:25.759 They said to Jesus' teaching on this, they said, if this is the case, then it's better not to even marry. 00:03:27.039 --> 00:03:33.599 The standard to them seemed just so high that it provoked a deep sense of inadequacy in them. 00:03:36.159 --> 00:03:46.000 The Pharisees, on the other hand, we see their response, they're much more confident because they've thought they've found a loophole. 00:03:46.960 --> 00:03:51.919 The debated issue for them was just how big is that loophole. 00:03:52.719 --> 00:04:01.360 And I say that because depending on your experience, this teaching may also have led to varying responses. 00:04:02.080 --> 00:04:10.800 But you see, it's important that we begin not with experience, but that we begin with what God says, what he has purposed, what he has designed. 00:04:11.039 --> 00:04:25.920 And I trust that we'll be led to see that he, knowing us better than we even know ourselves, and knowing his designs and his creation are always, always good and wise. 00:04:26.720 --> 00:04:29.279 I trust we'll see that this morning. 00:04:29.519 --> 00:04:33.120 And so the Pharisees, we read, come to Jesus with a question. 00:04:33.439 --> 00:04:35.120 And what was the reason for the question? 00:04:35.279 --> 00:04:41.120 Or perhaps, better said, what was the motivation behind the question that they asked? 00:04:41.759 --> 00:04:45.920 We're told that they came up to Jesus in order to test him. 00:04:47.040 --> 00:04:53.199 And that's important because the use of this word test is actually used four times in the Gospel of Mark. 00:04:53.439 --> 00:04:56.959 Three of which are used of the Pharisees. 00:04:57.439 --> 00:05:04.160 The first of which is used when the devil came to Jesus in order to test him in the wilderness. 00:05:04.399 --> 00:05:13.920 And why that's significant is because the writer here is wanting us to connect the dots here of what the Pharisees were trying to do. 00:05:15.199 --> 00:05:21.600 That they were trying to twist Scripture with an impure motive that lay behind that question. 00:05:22.160 --> 00:05:25.360 They weren't there to ask Jesus an honest question. 00:05:26.319 --> 00:05:28.079 And we know the difference between that, right? 00:05:29.279 --> 00:05:45.279 Where the student is in the class and is asking an honest question, seeking an honest answer, versus the student that that has a premeditated question and is out to mask a certain agenda. 00:05:47.519 --> 00:05:54.879 The devil is quite happy to use the scriptures in such a way to suit his own ends if he can. 00:05:56.319 --> 00:06:12.319 I think the lesson for us there is that we shouldn't be surprised if we we come across people who have some familiarity with the scriptures, but who want to use them in a way that serves an ulterior or impure motive. 00:06:13.920 --> 00:06:20.959 We shouldn't be naive just to think that just because someone can use or quote scripture to us that they're handling them rightly. 00:06:22.480 --> 00:06:37.759 If I have a dirty cup and drink clean water from it and it tastes gross to drink, the problem isn't with the water or the quality of the water, the problem is the dirty vessel that holds the water. 00:06:38.800 --> 00:06:51.120 And so, in the same way, the scriptures are pure, but they can be used in such a way that is twisted and distorted by an underlying agenda or impure motive. 00:06:52.879 --> 00:07:02.000 That looks to use the scriptures in a way that wants it to say what we want it to say rather than what God intends to convey. 00:07:02.319 --> 00:07:04.959 Those are always symptoms of a hard heart. 00:07:05.519 --> 00:07:09.360 And so when it comes to the scriptures, we always need to be asking this question. 00:07:09.519 --> 00:07:12.079 This is a good hermeneutical principle. 00:07:12.319 --> 00:07:16.240 What is God through the original author intending to convey to us? 00:07:16.480 --> 00:07:28.399 And to ask for the Holy Spirit to help us, give us a sincere and a humble heart, a soft heart, as we do so, no matter what his response might be. 00:07:29.839 --> 00:07:31.199 So what is the question? 00:07:31.360 --> 00:07:37.839 Well, the question posed to Jesus is, is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife? 00:07:38.639 --> 00:07:43.199 Now Jesus, knowing their debates, referred the question back to them. 00:07:43.279 --> 00:07:46.399 He says, Well, what did Moses say to you? 00:07:47.680 --> 00:07:56.000 And they reply, Well, Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away. 00:07:56.639 --> 00:08:00.800 And he is referring here to Deuteronomy 24, 1 through 4. 00:08:01.439 --> 00:08:07.120 Now the context is important here because there were two schools of thought on this passage. 00:08:07.360 --> 00:08:11.759 And the Pharisees, knowing this, are trying to stir things up. 00:08:12.480 --> 00:08:17.279 One of my sons was mowing the lawns this past week after we got back from vacation. 00:08:17.519 --> 00:08:30.399 And what he didn't know, and what I didn't know, was that uh while we're away, there was a set of bees that had sought to make their home under the ground while we were away. 00:08:30.480 --> 00:08:41.360 And and uh unfortunately, uh not knowing this, um he copped several of their stings as the mower blades went over the ground. 00:08:41.759 --> 00:08:49.360 Um and we were all quickly reminded that the easiest way to disrupt a good work is by stirring up a bee's nest. 00:08:51.360 --> 00:08:55.200 This was a nest that the Pharisees wanted to stir up. 00:08:57.679 --> 00:09:05.120 And it surrounded what constituted something indecent, legitimizing divorce. 00:09:05.679 --> 00:09:13.440 One party had an overly strict attitude towards divorce, the other had a very loose attitude. 00:09:13.600 --> 00:09:24.159 And I mean, if you look at the examples that we have in rabbinical writings, it's quite alarming how loose these laws were, interpretations were, I should say. 00:09:24.559 --> 00:09:34.879 The school of Halel saith, if the wife cooks her husband's food ill by over-salting it or over-roasting it, she is to be put away. 00:09:35.600 --> 00:09:43.279 Or if it comes to pass that she finds no favor in his eyes, she may be put away. 00:09:43.919 --> 00:09:48.240 And by favor, they interpreted that to be beauty, physical beauty. 00:09:48.639 --> 00:09:58.399 Now the obvious implications being that divorce was permissible on the grounds of basically anything displeasing to the husband. 00:10:01.519 --> 00:10:03.840 Now that has a familiar ring to it, doesn't it? 00:10:04.799 --> 00:10:09.200 The rise of no fault divorce being one example. 00:10:10.799 --> 00:10:17.600 Because one of the challenges that confronts us today is that we live in a throwaway world. 00:10:18.159 --> 00:10:24.720 What I mean by that is we can we can get almost anything instantly, certainly in America. 00:10:26.000 --> 00:10:29.679 Which also means that things are often easily discarded. 00:10:30.559 --> 00:10:32.960 And that can be reinforced in a lot of ways. 00:10:33.039 --> 00:10:37.679 Uh we feel hungry, and so we go down and get some fast food. 00:10:37.919 --> 00:10:46.559 Food is fuel, fuel to fuel, food is expedient, and then we discard the remains, move on with our lives. 00:10:48.080 --> 00:10:49.919 Easy come, easy go. 00:10:50.399 --> 00:10:52.240 Technology is another example. 00:10:52.399 --> 00:10:57.840 We perform frequent updates when we get a phone or a computer or a tablet or a car. 00:10:58.399 --> 00:11:01.519 But when they get old, well, we need to upgrade, don't we? 00:11:01.759 --> 00:11:08.399 And so we upgrade to the newer version and we discard out the old and it's in with the new. 00:11:09.759 --> 00:11:16.000 Or if we do feel dissatisfied in our work, it's never been easier just to look elsewhere. 00:11:16.799 --> 00:11:24.000 And then you see the tragedy of this is with this kind of reinforcement, is when it comes to bearing the value of relationships. 00:11:24.879 --> 00:11:33.759 People are treated like a commodity to be used and then discarded when they no longer satisfy our cravings. 00:11:35.919 --> 00:11:42.480 It's not that people necessarily want to throw away marriage completely, but they do want their own version. 00:11:43.759 --> 00:11:53.279 The law in Australia and New Zealand, where I grew up in 1975, established a category of de facto relationship. 00:11:53.600 --> 00:12:03.840 And if you look at the criteria of what constitutes this kind of relationship, you'll see that uh it attempts to hold on to many of the same characteristics of marriage. 00:12:04.080 --> 00:12:10.240 The difference being that it has personal autonomy in mind, not commitment. 00:12:11.279 --> 00:12:18.000 Although some laws do require uh two years of cohabitation uh in order to be considered de facto. 00:12:19.039 --> 00:12:26.080 But you see, in this case, it has arisen from this growing belief that that there's no God who designed the world. 00:12:26.559 --> 00:12:31.519 And so it makes logical sense then that marriage would be devalued. 00:12:31.759 --> 00:12:52.799 The rationale being that if this life is all that you have, if this life is is all that's given to us, and maximizing pleasure and meaning and whatever meaning you can can take and consume from it is the goal and the time allotted to you, then of course marriage should serve that interest. 00:12:55.120 --> 00:12:59.679 So if it brings enjoyment to you, well, well, then yes, you ought to be able to enter into it. 00:13:01.039 --> 00:13:10.720 But if it doesn't serve your interests, then it ought to be somewhat easy to be discarded so as not to impede this greater goal. 00:13:12.000 --> 00:13:15.279 It's man's attempt, you see, to create his own designs. 00:13:15.440 --> 00:13:16.799 None of this is new. 00:13:18.559 --> 00:13:21.279 And the question we might ask was, well, why? 00:13:21.840 --> 00:13:24.399 And the scriptures are clear on that's because of sin. 00:13:24.799 --> 00:13:26.639 And sin is selfishness. 00:13:26.879 --> 00:13:36.399 Sin says, I want what I want, even if that means discarding you or using you from to meet my needs. 00:13:37.840 --> 00:13:43.440 And isn't that that at the heart of what causes so much trouble and strife? 00:13:47.039 --> 00:13:49.759 And so here we had strife. 00:13:50.399 --> 00:13:58.879 And so Jesus points the Pharisees back to creation, and he says, in effect, take a look at God's design from the beginning. 00:13:59.200 --> 00:14:06.000 Marriage is his design, and it's his purpose for creation as a gift. 00:14:07.519 --> 00:14:21.440 So to oppose and discard his design is to run against the very blueprint of what God intended, and it only leads to moral, spiritual, psychological, and social chaos. 00:14:30.320 --> 00:14:38.879 That all throughout the beginning of Genesis, the refrain is God made such and such, and it was good. 00:14:40.399 --> 00:14:41.759 That's the constant refrain. 00:14:41.840 --> 00:14:49.919 But then it comes to the point in which Adam is alone, and he says, It is not good that man be alone. 00:14:51.200 --> 00:14:55.360 And so being made in God's image, he has sought for us to have companionship. 00:14:56.399 --> 00:15:01.039 Marriage reflects that intention as a creation ordinance. 00:15:01.600 --> 00:15:07.600 And so that leads us to ask the questions okay, so what is God's purpose and design for marriage? 00:15:07.759 --> 00:15:10.720 And Jesus tells us Genesis 2, 24. 00:15:12.639 --> 00:15:15.200 And you can turn there with me if you like. 00:15:15.519 --> 00:15:24.639 But he he he he he he he says, and referring back to Genesis 2, these words. 00:15:28.080 --> 00:15:34.799 Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they she become one flesh. 00:15:35.840 --> 00:15:38.879 And the man and his wife were both naked and not ashamed. 00:15:38.960 --> 00:15:40.879 That's where he's directing them to. 00:16:10.799 --> 00:16:19.120 But it's part of the leaving of those bonds that have been, or the status quo of what's been going on up until that point. 00:16:20.240 --> 00:16:27.440 Jesus said at one point, he said, leaving requires even the extent of hating your father and your mother. 00:16:27.679 --> 00:16:30.240 Now that ought to raise eyebrows. 00:16:30.879 --> 00:16:31.759 What do you mean? 00:16:31.919 --> 00:16:37.200 Well, he's using a hyperbole, of course, to get at prioritization. 00:16:38.559 --> 00:16:40.000 First things. 00:16:40.639 --> 00:16:50.879 Meaning, in this context of discipleship, he's saying, I must supersede family and even your own life in terms of priority. 00:16:52.480 --> 00:17:05.200 So applying this to marriage, it means being willing to deprioritize other attachments in order to serve and prioritize the establishing of a new bond together. 00:17:05.920 --> 00:17:18.559 It means asking, are you willing to prioritize your spouse more than family, more than even your own life for the sake of the other? 00:17:20.319 --> 00:17:24.559 You know, some marriages are challenged right at this exact point. 00:17:25.359 --> 00:17:31.039 They never really grow due to an unwillingness to truly leave, and it does happen. 00:17:32.640 --> 00:17:42.880 So although they might share room and board, other influences intrude on their ability to be attached to the spouse and grow together. 00:17:43.519 --> 00:17:59.519 So what Jesus is saying here is that is someone in your life, is there someone in your life who has control over you, over your heart, who has power over it at the expense of prioritizing your spouse? 00:18:00.720 --> 00:18:02.400 Who has your ear? 00:18:04.640 --> 00:18:11.119 Marriage requires leaving, but it also requires cleaving. 00:18:12.319 --> 00:18:14.319 The two of you shall become one flesh. 00:18:14.480 --> 00:18:16.799 Now to cleave is to embrace. 00:18:17.200 --> 00:18:20.480 Some translations use the term to hold fast. 00:18:21.440 --> 00:18:25.119 And there's a couple of things that are bound up in that term. 00:18:25.440 --> 00:18:28.960 The first is promise, and the second is exclusivity. 00:18:29.200 --> 00:18:30.880 Promise, exclusivity. 00:18:31.119 --> 00:18:35.039 Exclusivity meaning physically and personally. 00:18:35.359 --> 00:18:43.519 That is giving yourself to one another in a way that you don't do so to anyone else, including intimacy of sexual union. 00:18:46.400 --> 00:18:48.240 So first let's deal with promise. 00:18:48.480 --> 00:18:53.920 Marriage is not based upon emotions, but upon covenant keeping. 00:18:55.200 --> 00:19:06.160 If you hear some of the vowels that people use or want to use today, they're quite surprising and maybe even alarming. 00:19:06.559 --> 00:19:12.720 You and my every dream come true, and I can't wait to build a life with you. 00:19:13.680 --> 00:19:17.200 Or I will always make you laugh and laugh with you. 00:19:17.519 --> 00:19:22.720 I mean, those are nice things to say, but that's not what is meant by cleaving. 00:19:22.880 --> 00:19:30.880 The vowels keeping in line with biblical principles you see are always volitional as well as pertaining to the future. 00:19:31.200 --> 00:19:49.680 I take you to be my wedded wife or husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, and sickness and health, to love and to cherish as long as we both shall live. 00:19:51.599 --> 00:19:55.359 That's cleaving by promise and commitment. 00:19:55.839 --> 00:20:00.400 I mean, you don't even know what's going to happen in the future when you get married. 00:20:00.960 --> 00:20:02.960 You can't see into the future. 00:20:03.200 --> 00:20:08.240 And so what you're saying is, I promise to be faithful no matter the circumstance. 00:20:08.480 --> 00:20:21.279 I will commit to you if you are to find good employment and I find good employment and resources are great and plentiful. 00:20:22.480 --> 00:20:27.200 Or if we were both lose our jobs and are barely scraping by. 00:20:31.680 --> 00:20:34.079 If one of us to become bedridden. 00:20:35.519 --> 00:20:39.119 Or if we have the health to be able to do whatever needs done. 00:20:40.640 --> 00:20:47.359 Because you see, if it's about laughter, then what if the laughter dries up? 00:20:48.480 --> 00:20:54.319 If it's about your dreams and what happens when hardships come that challenge those dreams. 00:20:55.759 --> 00:21:00.480 No marriage is about commitment and promise, enduring in love. 00:21:01.599 --> 00:21:14.400 In this regard, Dietrich Bonhoeffer would say to couples entering into marriage, he said, it is no longer your love that sustains the marriage, but from now on, the marriage that sustains your love. 00:21:16.880 --> 00:21:21.599 I mean, he knew that a marriage goes through many seasons, sometimes hard seasons. 00:21:22.799 --> 00:21:38.640 But your commitment to these promises and these vows that you make toward one another and before God will set the foundation for love to be kindled and rekindled over and over again. 00:21:40.799 --> 00:21:42.880 Cleaving by promise. 00:21:44.640 --> 00:21:46.559 But also exclusivity. 00:21:47.440 --> 00:21:59.759 Exclusivity means being physically naked in terms of a sexual relationship, but also personally naked in a way that you don't give yourself to anyone. 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:00.640 Else. 00:22:00.880 --> 00:22:08.160 It involves cheering the deepest, intimate parts of yourself, being able to be vulnerable yet loved. 00:22:10.240 --> 00:22:13.200 It's a oneness in body as well as in person. 00:22:14.799 --> 00:22:21.920 And that's why God isn't trying to be a killjoy when it comes to Christians marrying other believers. 00:22:24.160 --> 00:22:30.960 You might be single this morning, and there's a reason why God wants you to marry in the Lord. 00:22:31.839 --> 00:22:41.519 The reason being that the deepest part of you is unable to be shared without disregard, or perhaps even worse, if done to the contrary. 00:22:41.759 --> 00:22:45.519 Some of you came to know Jesus when you were both unbelievers. 00:22:45.599 --> 00:22:49.359 And after you came to faith, maybe it was one of you came to faith first. 00:22:50.160 --> 00:22:53.039 And what was the thing you most wanted to be able to share? 00:22:54.240 --> 00:23:04.319 You wanted oneness and the ability to be transparent and share openly and honestly in what or who was now a central part of your life. 00:23:07.759 --> 00:23:19.359 The ability to share deeply and transparently about your faith, about Jesus Christ, is a precious gift in marriage that he intends for us to give to one another in the Lord. 00:23:19.839 --> 00:23:26.880 And so Jesus also says in verse 9, what therefore God has joined together, let not man separate. 00:23:27.759 --> 00:23:38.960 And so not only is it exclusively, physically and personally exclusive physically and personally, but it's also lifelong, and that only death can break it. 00:23:39.200 --> 00:23:48.000 The exception to this being in the case of marital unfaithfulness or a spouse's willful desertion. 00:23:49.599 --> 00:24:06.240 In these particular exceptions, we can say that although divorce is always the result of sin, and that it's a breach of God's good design for marriage and creation, to divorce is not always sinful. 00:24:07.119 --> 00:24:11.039 And not everyone in a divorce is guilty of sin. 00:24:12.720 --> 00:24:24.960 And why that's important is because often we, particularly in the church, can see or think of the divorcing person, the one as the one who ends the marriage. 00:24:25.279 --> 00:24:26.640 But that's not right. 00:24:28.000 --> 00:24:32.880 In that case, the exclusivity has been broken. 00:24:33.759 --> 00:24:34.079 Right? 00:24:34.240 --> 00:24:37.039 So it's not the innocent party ending a marriage. 00:24:37.279 --> 00:24:47.440 Divorce is the injured spouse gaining legal recognition of injury within the marriage, of that exclusivity having been entered outside of. 00:24:49.359 --> 00:24:53.359 And in that case, God sanctions the dissolving of a marriage. 00:24:55.920 --> 00:24:59.200 As painful and as hard as it sometimes is. 00:25:00.079 --> 00:25:06.240 And so marriage is a lifelong covenant that is exclusive physically and personally. 00:25:08.720 --> 00:25:20.400 And so, in light of God's design, in light of all this, we might ask the question well, how does the gospel relate to marriage so that we receive it and cherish it as a gift? 00:25:23.200 --> 00:25:28.640 And the answer is that the gospel says that you and I need more than just one another in a marriage. 00:25:29.200 --> 00:25:33.440 What we need is a heavenly union with a personal God. 00:25:35.119 --> 00:25:42.400 And you see, the good news is that a perfect love did come into this world in the person of Jesus Christ. 00:25:43.839 --> 00:26:10.319 Who by promise and by sacrifice came into this world, who lost everything in order to win you and I, from the clutches of sin and death, from our selfishness, who gave himself in the most intimate and vulnerable of ways, so that his death will be counted as our deaths, and his life would be counted as our life. 00:26:12.240 --> 00:26:18.799 The kind of love that sought to win you and now befriends you. 00:26:27.359 --> 00:26:38.480 Who speaks gracious words and truth to you with a view to seeing even more fruit born and proofs produced within you. 00:26:39.759 --> 00:26:46.720 Who forgives us when we fall short and fail, when we forsake sin. 00:26:47.440 --> 00:26:56.640 And who lends his ear to us in all of our fears and cares as we give them to him in prayers. 00:26:58.559 --> 00:27:15.119 A love that with eternity in mind and in view defeated death itself and has now gone home to prepare a room for us, having promised to cleave to us for all eternity. 00:27:15.599 --> 00:27:18.960 Friends, my heart needs that kind of filling. 00:27:19.599 --> 00:27:20.799 How about yours? 00:27:22.000 --> 00:27:30.799 My marriage needs me to rest in that kind of love, to soak in that kind of love, to abide in that kind of love. 00:27:34.880 --> 00:27:42.400 You see, what any and every marriage needs are hearts that are willing to receive and rest in the love of Jesus. 00:27:42.720 --> 00:27:44.880 Looking to the cross day by day. 00:27:47.119 --> 00:27:52.079 Because that's a heart that's that's that will begin to germinate, you see. 00:27:52.319 --> 00:27:58.240 A heart that is looking to the cross day by day is a heart that will begin to germinate and grow. 00:27:58.400 --> 00:28:01.920 That's a heart that will begin to bud and blossom. 00:28:02.160 --> 00:28:05.519 This kind of divine love that Jesus is giving to us. 00:28:06.400 --> 00:28:14.480 And it will begin to bud and blossom into all of those enjoyable qualities that we love about one another. 00:28:14.880 --> 00:28:32.319 Gracious speech, a simple joy, servant hearts, humble affections, even deeper bonds of love, all of which arise from him. 00:28:34.640 --> 00:28:42.480 That's a love to be treasured, that's a love to be abiding in. 00:28:43.279 --> 00:28:44.240 I need it. 00:28:44.559 --> 00:28:45.519 You need it. 00:28:47.200 --> 00:28:51.519 Are we making his love a priority over and above all else? 00:28:52.559 --> 00:28:59.039 Are you availing yourself to the love of Jesus and your need for divine love? 00:28:59.839 --> 00:29:03.759 Friends, he has many, many thoughts that has about you. 00:29:05.519 --> 00:29:08.960 He thinks about you always. 00:29:10.640 --> 00:29:12.880 He has much of his love to give you. 00:29:15.920 --> 00:29:25.759 And so I conclude with a few omitted but beautifully captured stanzas of the love of Christ toward his people from the song that we're about to sing. 00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:35.440 So, Lord, she stands before thee, forevermore thine own. 00:29:35.759 --> 00:29:41.039 No merit is her glory, her boasting this alone. 00:29:42.000 --> 00:29:53.839 That she who did not choose thee came, chosen at thy call, never to leave or lose thee, or from thy favor fall. 00:29:55.599 --> 00:30:09.359 Thine, thine, in bliss or sorrow, as well in shade or shine, of old, today, tomorrow, to all the ages, thine. 00:30:11.119 --> 00:30:22.960 Thine in her great commission, baptized into thy name, and in her last fruition of all her hope and aim. 00:30:23.920 --> 00:30:27.359 Let's pray and then continue to sing of his great love. 00:30:29.519 --> 00:30:31.440 Our Lord, we thank you. 00:30:33.119 --> 00:30:36.160 We thank you for your deep and great love toward us. 00:30:36.960 --> 00:30:44.480 Father, we thank you that you are a God who is so faithful and steadfast in love toward us. 00:30:45.279 --> 00:30:49.039 We thank you for the way in which you have bound yourself to us in love. 00:30:49.440 --> 00:31:06.160 Never leaving, never forsaking, always and forever love, unfailing, unchanging, so that we might have life and love to give to one another. 00:31:07.119 --> 00:31:22.000 And so, Lord, we ask, we pray to this end that you would strengthen us in love, that you would strengthen us in our marriages, you would strengthen us in our ability to see the design and purpose that you've intended in marriage. 00:31:22.880 --> 00:31:24.960 And that you would be glorified. 00:31:25.359 --> 00:31:27.039 In Jesus' name we pray. 00:31:27.359 --> 00:31:28.000 Amen.