WEBVTT 00:00:00.560 --> 00:00:05.280 So we have been working our way through Genesis chapter 1 through chapter 3. 00:00:05.519 --> 00:00:07.679 So here we are in chapter 2. 00:00:07.839 --> 00:00:14.320 We've been digging into this passage, for this is now, I think, maybe our third week, just in this distinct passage here in Genesis 2. 00:00:14.480 --> 00:00:18.079 Our question for this morning is can love last? 00:00:19.039 --> 00:00:20.160 Can love last? 00:00:20.480 --> 00:00:27.920 Is it possible for two people to fall in love and to actually stay in love? 00:00:28.559 --> 00:00:33.359 And I think in that we're asking, could this get good again? 00:00:34.640 --> 00:00:36.240 Can this stay good? 00:00:37.039 --> 00:00:41.280 Or what happened to the love that I had? 00:00:41.840 --> 00:00:42.960 Or what should I do? 00:00:43.119 --> 00:00:49.439 Or what should I do, what should I expect for perhaps love again or love for the first time? 00:00:50.399 --> 00:01:04.719 And I think it's tempting because of our past experiences, maybe our family history, maybe just a lack of experience in love, perhaps because of wounds, or perhaps of because of hurts, to hear a question like, can love last and sort of react to that? 00:01:04.959 --> 00:01:08.799 Because maybe you saw love begin so well and become so toxic. 00:01:09.760 --> 00:01:15.680 And yet we'll see a story about a 60-year marriage. 00:01:16.879 --> 00:01:20.719 And there's something in us that goes, man, I'm I'm for that. 00:01:21.439 --> 00:01:22.560 I am for that. 00:01:23.680 --> 00:01:26.640 Whether it's for me or somebody else, I'm for it. 00:01:26.719 --> 00:01:33.840 Because there's something in us, in our created nature, that we really want love to last. 00:01:34.480 --> 00:01:38.480 I married Christy when I was 25 and she was 24. 00:01:39.439 --> 00:01:46.239 And when I when I proposed to her 14 years ago from now, I thought I knew her. 00:01:46.719 --> 00:01:48.480 I thought I knew her really well. 00:01:48.719 --> 00:01:51.120 I had known her since she was 14 years old. 00:01:51.280 --> 00:01:58.000 I can remember the first time I met her when she was 12 years old, practicing her cheerleading jumps in her driveway. 00:01:58.239 --> 00:02:15.360 When I was 16 and she was 15, I would drive her home from school in my 1985 Toyota four-wheel drive truck, and I'd have Garth Brooks on, and I would just randomly drive off of the road into the ditch along the side of the road and then back on just to hear her scream. 00:02:15.520 --> 00:02:17.280 And I would do it, I loved it. 00:02:17.439 --> 00:02:17.840 I loved it. 00:02:17.919 --> 00:02:19.120 I've known her a long time. 00:02:20.080 --> 00:02:28.080 When I stood at the altar at Snellville United Methodist Church 13 years ago, I thought I knew this girl. 00:02:28.879 --> 00:02:31.199 I mean, I thought I knew her. 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:37.199 Because I did, because I knew her probably better than anybody else in my life. 00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:50.560 But what turns out is what you know if you've been married for a season, a period of time, for five years, ten years, forty years, fifty years, what you that you just keep knowing. 00:02:50.879 --> 00:03:02.000 Because you're changing and they're changing, and hopefully you're changing together, and because it ends up that all of us have a depth, that lifetime just isn't enough to truly know each other. 00:03:03.120 --> 00:03:10.159 And I say all of that because there's this two-word phrase in Genesis 2, 24, and it's all about knowing each other. 00:03:10.240 --> 00:03:13.439 It's all about knowing each other physically and emotionally and spiritually. 00:03:13.599 --> 00:03:17.680 It's all about being united and one flesh and oneness. 00:03:19.199 --> 00:03:27.759 Verse 24, therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 00:03:28.080 --> 00:03:32.560 So we're going to spend the next few minutes just on that one phrase. 00:03:32.879 --> 00:03:34.080 One flesh. 00:03:34.400 --> 00:03:35.360 Four points. 00:03:35.680 --> 00:03:38.319 What does that mean? 00:03:39.120 --> 00:03:42.479 So point number one is one flesh is about sex. 00:03:43.439 --> 00:03:45.759 The two were there, a man and a woman. 00:03:45.919 --> 00:03:51.759 The command had already been given, be fruitful and multiply, and then they become one. 00:03:52.639 --> 00:03:55.360 You know, there's a reason why you think about sex. 00:03:56.960 --> 00:03:58.800 And it's not because of lust. 00:03:58.960 --> 00:04:00.080 Well, sometimes it is. 00:04:00.240 --> 00:04:06.960 I mean, sometimes we lust after somebody, we want to have sex with them, dehumanizing them, and that's what lust is. 00:04:07.120 --> 00:04:07.840 That's lust. 00:04:08.159 --> 00:04:10.000 Sometimes you just think about sex. 00:04:10.319 --> 00:04:13.680 Sometimes you're married and you think about sex with your spouse. 00:04:13.840 --> 00:04:16.079 Sometimes you're not married and you just think about sex. 00:04:16.160 --> 00:04:17.199 You want to have sex. 00:04:17.680 --> 00:04:19.120 And there's a reason for it. 00:04:19.199 --> 00:04:21.680 It's because you were created as a sexual being. 00:04:21.759 --> 00:04:23.839 That's why you think about sex. 00:04:24.480 --> 00:04:26.720 That's not a bad thing, that's a good thing. 00:04:26.959 --> 00:04:40.319 And I don't know what church you've been in, but I know our church and our church will teach that inside of marriage, you should be having greater and greater sex. 00:04:41.839 --> 00:04:43.199 Men, are you taking notes? 00:04:43.279 --> 00:04:45.680 I saw some of you starting to break out your notebooks. 00:04:45.759 --> 00:04:47.199 You got excited about that point. 00:04:47.360 --> 00:04:53.199 And the reason why is because sex is good and it is powerful. 00:04:53.439 --> 00:04:56.240 It actually creates the uniting. 00:04:56.319 --> 00:05:00.639 It creates the one flesh, it keeps the one flesh healthy. 00:05:01.600 --> 00:05:07.439 And God could have made this as pleasurable as checking out a library book. 00:05:07.680 --> 00:05:08.079 Right? 00:05:08.319 --> 00:05:09.279 He could have. 00:05:09.519 --> 00:05:11.920 This command be fruitful and multiply. 00:05:12.160 --> 00:05:18.240 He could have made it as much fun as going to the library and getting a nonfiction book about bugs. 00:05:18.399 --> 00:05:19.519 He could have done that. 00:05:19.680 --> 00:05:23.680 That could have been the pleasurable experience of sex. 00:05:24.000 --> 00:05:27.439 But in his goodness to us, he didn't do that. 00:05:28.319 --> 00:05:30.240 I mean, isn't that amazing? 00:05:30.399 --> 00:05:42.000 That in his goodness to us, he graced us with this command and the practice of it, the power and the goodness of it, that it is life's most sublime experience. 00:05:43.680 --> 00:05:44.800 So that's point number one. 00:05:44.879 --> 00:05:45.759 I won't dwell on it. 00:05:45.920 --> 00:05:52.319 Point number one: one flesh is about sex, but it's about more than sex. 00:05:53.279 --> 00:05:54.959 Sex is part of it. 00:05:56.000 --> 00:05:56.879 This is holistic. 00:05:56.959 --> 00:05:59.040 This is physical, this is spiritual, this is emotional. 00:05:59.120 --> 00:06:00.959 This is about more than just sex. 00:06:01.040 --> 00:06:07.680 So point number two, one flesh is about being united, but being independent. 00:06:07.920 --> 00:06:11.839 So let's say, uh let's say there's a guy named Ted. 00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:14.399 And Ted has been single for a while. 00:06:14.639 --> 00:06:16.959 Ted's, let's say Ted, this is Ted. 00:06:17.120 --> 00:06:18.560 Ted is 25. 00:06:19.199 --> 00:06:21.040 Maybe Ted's 45. 00:06:21.519 --> 00:06:30.240 And Sally, she's 25, say she's 45, and they meet at Chili's one night through some friends over in Austin Blossom. 00:06:31.199 --> 00:06:36.639 And they are at Chili's and they meet and they just hit it off and they start dating. 00:06:36.800 --> 00:06:42.639 And a year later, and oh, by the way, in all that dating, they're two independent people. 00:06:43.839 --> 00:06:47.040 They think their own thoughts, they have their own lives, they have their own bank accounts. 00:06:47.199 --> 00:06:48.319 They're two people. 00:06:49.680 --> 00:06:51.519 And then they get married, right? 00:06:51.839 --> 00:06:56.000 At a church somewhere, or maybe outside, and it's beautiful. 00:06:56.240 --> 00:06:59.199 And then they go on their honeymoon and they're married. 00:06:59.360 --> 00:07:01.120 They are one flesh. 00:07:01.360 --> 00:07:04.480 And so from then on, they're connected, right? 00:07:04.639 --> 00:07:06.399 Now they are one unit. 00:07:06.800 --> 00:07:10.480 But the interesting thing about it is they're still independent. 00:07:10.560 --> 00:07:16.959 So one flesh is about being united, but it but you're still independent. 00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:20.959 So you're united, but you still have your own thing going on. 00:07:21.040 --> 00:07:23.199 And that's what marriage is. 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:28.480 Ted and Sally are one, they're attached, but they're connected. 00:07:29.600 --> 00:07:32.639 That's the power of the marriage covenant to make us united. 00:07:32.800 --> 00:07:40.319 But then that's still the best gift we can give to each other, and this is what our premarital counselor told us 14 years ago. 00:07:40.480 --> 00:07:52.160 He looked at both of us, Ronnie Brassfield, he looked at both of us, we're sitting on his porch looking over his pasture, and he says to us, the greatest gift you'll give to each other is your spiritual independence. 00:07:52.319 --> 00:07:56.480 I'd never heard that, I've never heard anybody say it, I've never read it, I've never heard anywhere. 00:07:56.879 --> 00:07:59.279 I'm still unpacking what that means. 00:07:59.600 --> 00:08:05.600 But what it means, I think, I'm trying to come into it a little bit, is it means you're united, but you're still independent. 00:08:05.839 --> 00:08:07.360 Adam was still Adam. 00:08:07.839 --> 00:08:09.120 Eve was still Eve. 00:08:09.279 --> 00:08:13.120 Very clearly, as we get in Genesis 3, they're thinking their own thoughts. 00:08:13.360 --> 00:08:15.439 They're still their own individuals. 00:08:19.439 --> 00:08:24.000 And this is very, very important that you still be you. 00:08:24.959 --> 00:08:32.240 Because if not, if not, you will use the marriage to fulfill yourself. 00:08:32.480 --> 00:08:34.240 And then you know what happens. 00:08:34.559 --> 00:08:37.600 Ted, Ted ain't as great as you thought Ted was. 00:08:37.840 --> 00:08:43.840 Sally ain't as great as you thought Sally was, and Ted's not going to fulfill you, or Sally's not going to fulfill you, and they won't. 00:08:43.919 --> 00:08:44.399 They just won't. 00:08:44.480 --> 00:08:47.519 And so you'll grow angry or you'll grow discontent. 00:08:48.960 --> 00:08:58.879 But if you're attached but independent, you don't use your spouse for something they were never created to be for you. 00:09:01.039 --> 00:09:05.360 You go to God for your acceptance and your value and your worth. 00:09:05.519 --> 00:09:16.000 And you come into your marriage, the united one-flesh marriage as an independent being with your value before God already secure. 00:09:16.159 --> 00:09:28.080 And so you come in before that imperfect other independent person, and you come in valued and loved and esteemed, ready to love and care and serve. 00:09:28.799 --> 00:09:30.080 So that was point number two. 00:09:30.159 --> 00:09:32.799 One flesh is about being united, but being independent. 00:09:33.039 --> 00:09:36.559 Point number three: one flesh is about vulnerability. 00:09:37.679 --> 00:09:42.639 Now there's a decision we all have to make, a constant practice. 00:09:42.799 --> 00:09:44.080 We all make it every day. 00:09:44.240 --> 00:09:54.240 And this is a practice, an ongoing decision that either builds or erodes relationships, but even more importantly, marriages for our conversation today. 00:09:54.559 --> 00:09:57.600 And we did this all the time when we dated. 00:09:58.240 --> 00:10:15.360 We did it all the time when you set out the blanket under the stars and you had the picnic and you're sharing how you feel about the future, and you're sharing about your family's past and the hurt you felt because of this and that and all that that went down, and you're sharing all of that. 00:10:15.519 --> 00:10:17.600 We did it so easily. 00:10:18.879 --> 00:10:22.639 And then over time we stop doing this thing. 00:10:22.960 --> 00:10:33.679 And we easily just begin to coexist, sort of like living out of logistics, and without realizing what we're doing, we're undermining our own desire for love. 00:10:36.000 --> 00:10:39.519 And it's just this practice of being vulnerable with each other. 00:10:40.799 --> 00:10:43.679 This is how we want each other over to start. 00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:46.399 This is the thing that will keep us together. 00:10:47.519 --> 00:10:52.480 It's to be in front of somebody else and say, I will dare to share with you. 00:10:53.120 --> 00:11:00.399 Even when I'm tired at the end of the day, I will dare to share with you what I'm thinking and what I'm feeling. 00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:06.159 See, when Ted met Sally, remember the Chili's? 00:11:06.960 --> 00:11:10.399 Or Sally met Ted, I don't know exactly who, approached who, don't know. 00:11:10.639 --> 00:11:17.919 But when that happened, they thought that the other person would be like this. 00:11:22.879 --> 00:11:24.240 That's what they thought. 00:11:24.559 --> 00:11:27.120 And then some some time passed, right? 00:11:27.919 --> 00:11:29.440 They got married. 00:11:30.240 --> 00:11:34.960 And over time, Ted was more like this, right? 00:11:36.879 --> 00:11:40.080 Sally was more like you thought Sally was gonna be this. 00:11:40.320 --> 00:11:42.720 And Sally ended up being a little bit more like this. 00:11:42.879 --> 00:11:47.279 You thought Ted was gonna be like this, but Ted ended up being more like this. 00:11:47.759 --> 00:11:48.080 Right? 00:11:48.240 --> 00:11:52.399 And this is true with all marriages, it's true with great marriages, this is true. 00:11:52.559 --> 00:11:55.840 There's a difference between expectations and reality. 00:11:56.240 --> 00:12:02.879 There is this constant difference, this gap that exists between expectations and reality. 00:12:02.960 --> 00:12:09.600 And you can either choose to move toward division out of anger, and I know you're sweet Christian, so you won't call it anger. 00:12:09.759 --> 00:12:12.639 Call it like, you'll just be passively bitter for the rest of your life. 00:12:12.960 --> 00:12:14.000 You'll do that. 00:12:14.320 --> 00:12:15.519 Still anger. 00:12:16.639 --> 00:12:20.399 Oh, you're not angry, you just isolate yourself for the rest of the marriage. 00:12:20.799 --> 00:12:24.320 You can either move toward division and anger. 00:12:26.320 --> 00:12:30.960 Or you can move toward unity through vulnerability. 00:12:32.399 --> 00:12:37.679 Because that gap exists, it always exists between expectations and reality. 00:12:39.279 --> 00:12:45.679 And the practice of just letting your spouse know who you are, what you're thinking, what you're going through, what you read, what's going on. 00:12:45.759 --> 00:12:56.080 And so when you get home at the end of the day and you're tired, and little Susie comes up, your little girl, she's so cute, she's five, she's been waiting for you, and you hug her and you kiss her and you love her, and you talk to her for five minutes. 00:12:56.159 --> 00:12:56.720 How was your day? 00:12:56.879 --> 00:13:01.120 And then you look her in the eyes and you say, Little Susie, I love you. 00:13:01.360 --> 00:13:09.759 I am going to talk to my wife on the front porch for 15 minutes, and you will not bother us because this is very important. 00:13:10.639 --> 00:13:16.559 And you will stay inside and you will color, and after that, I will come inside and I'll color with you. 00:13:16.879 --> 00:13:18.799 But you will not come outside. 00:13:19.600 --> 00:13:24.080 And you go out on the front porch and you talk. 00:13:24.320 --> 00:13:25.440 And are you tired? 00:13:25.679 --> 00:13:28.639 Yes, you're tired because you're a human being. 00:13:29.120 --> 00:13:34.240 And you do this when you're 30, you do it when you're 40, when you're 50, you do it when you're 80, you do this. 00:13:34.480 --> 00:13:43.600 Because the practice of being vulnerable between each other is the thing that keeps the relationship growing and building and healthy. 00:13:44.399 --> 00:13:45.759 It's the daily question. 00:13:45.919 --> 00:13:49.440 Will I make myself open to this person? 00:13:49.679 --> 00:13:51.679 Will I live in one flesh? 00:13:53.440 --> 00:13:55.759 Will I share myself or will I guard? 00:13:55.919 --> 00:13:57.120 Will I protect? 00:13:57.600 --> 00:13:58.960 And will I walk alone? 00:13:59.200 --> 00:14:02.480 See, dating was all about compatibility, right? 00:14:02.559 --> 00:14:03.519 That's what we were all looking for. 00:14:03.679 --> 00:14:04.480 Compatibility. 00:14:04.639 --> 00:14:06.159 All of us, every single one of us. 00:14:06.320 --> 00:14:11.919 Whether we were looking for it, we're married, or whether you're looking for it now, you're looking for compatibility, and you know what? 00:14:12.080 --> 00:14:14.080 It's supported by some vulnerability. 00:14:14.240 --> 00:14:20.960 But the whole thing flips around when you get married, and it's all about vulnerability, and it's supported by some compatibility. 00:14:26.399 --> 00:14:33.519 And love that lasts is about spouses who learn this and practice this. 00:14:33.919 --> 00:14:38.080 And what it does is it just makes us become better spouses. 00:14:39.200 --> 00:14:42.399 The gap still exists between expectations and reality. 00:14:42.480 --> 00:14:43.759 That'll always exist. 00:14:44.240 --> 00:14:46.879 But we learn how to love each other and serve each other. 00:14:47.120 --> 00:14:48.559 Last point, point number four. 00:14:48.799 --> 00:14:53.600 One flesh is about companionship that reveals brokenness. 00:14:54.080 --> 00:14:56.639 One flesh is about companionship that reveals brokenness. 00:14:56.720 --> 00:14:58.639 We used to have this dog, his name was Thomas. 00:14:58.720 --> 00:15:00.879 He was an 80-pound golden retriever. 00:15:00.960 --> 00:15:05.200 He was like a big, dumb, loving jock, is what we said. 00:15:06.480 --> 00:15:13.360 He was perfect at placing himself in the most inconvenient places. 00:15:14.159 --> 00:15:17.360 He could place himself just where you always had to pet him. 00:15:17.519 --> 00:15:27.279 He knew exactly where to lay, so you had to deal with him, you had to pay attention, you couldn't get around him, he was so big, he put himself in your path. 00:15:27.440 --> 00:15:33.679 And no matter how well I trained that dog, I could not train out of him that nature that he had. 00:15:33.840 --> 00:15:38.320 And sometimes he would lay right in the hallway, take up the whole hallway, and you'd have to step over him. 00:15:38.399 --> 00:15:44.240 And what he really liked to do is when you stepped over him, for him to stand up, is what he loved to do. 00:15:44.320 --> 00:15:47.039 And this was always it, I couldn't train it out of him. 00:15:47.120 --> 00:15:48.240 It was his nature. 00:15:48.399 --> 00:15:49.759 It's who he was. 00:15:51.279 --> 00:15:55.679 Marriage is like Thomas, it's good. 00:15:56.639 --> 00:16:07.679 And it will put itself in inconvenient places for your plan and your selfishness and your path. 00:16:08.000 --> 00:16:10.879 Marriage will show you your selfishness. 00:16:11.039 --> 00:16:16.799 I thought I was a nice person until I got married. 00:16:17.440 --> 00:16:21.120 I thought I was patient until I had kids. 00:16:21.360 --> 00:16:21.759 Right? 00:16:21.919 --> 00:16:24.399 These things reveal something about us. 00:16:24.559 --> 00:16:29.919 And what's so easy is to go, oh, that was Christie. 00:16:30.240 --> 00:16:32.080 You know, oh, that's my spouse. 00:16:32.320 --> 00:16:33.360 That's her fault. 00:16:33.519 --> 00:16:34.960 That's his fault. 00:16:35.279 --> 00:16:35.919 And you know what? 00:16:36.000 --> 00:16:37.120 Maybe some of the time it is. 00:16:37.279 --> 00:16:38.720 We won't say that it won't, but you know what? 00:16:38.799 --> 00:16:39.600 A lot of the time? 00:16:39.840 --> 00:16:42.000 It's just revealing something about us. 00:16:43.200 --> 00:16:49.679 It's companionship that reveals a sinfulness in us, our own sin, our own mess. 00:16:51.039 --> 00:16:56.799 And in that you realize that you are unimaginably weak but unconditionally loved. 00:16:56.960 --> 00:17:02.480 This is the great picture of marriage as a metaphor for the gospel. 00:17:02.720 --> 00:17:18.400 Tim Keller, in his book, The Meaning of Marriage, he writes this: When over the years someone has seen you at your worst and knows you with all your strengths and flaws, yet commits him or herself to you wholly, it is a consummate experience. 00:17:19.839 --> 00:17:26.000 To be loved but not known is comforting, but superficial. 00:17:26.160 --> 00:17:35.920 To be known and not loved is our greatest fear, but to be fully known and truly loved is well a lot like being loved by God. 00:17:36.400 --> 00:17:38.640 It is what we need more than anything. 00:17:38.799 --> 00:17:49.680 It liberates us from pretense, humbles us out of our self-righteousness, and fortifies us from any difficulty life can throw us. 00:17:50.720 --> 00:18:01.680 So if you want to know how love can last, well, we look to Jesus ultimately sacrificing himself for the well-being of his beloved. 00:18:02.880 --> 00:18:07.599 I was reading the Jesus Storybook Bible, which we read that to our children. 00:18:07.680 --> 00:18:11.920 It ends up being much more for me than for my children, that's why I keep using it in sermon illustrations. 00:18:12.160 --> 00:18:19.680 The first few drawings in it, in Genesis, are these happy, blissful, beautiful drawings. 00:18:19.839 --> 00:18:24.720 Adam and Eve are naked, they're always positioned, so you don't see everything. 00:18:25.279 --> 00:18:32.400 One scene they're on bikes, and that's interesting because for many reasons. 00:18:34.079 --> 00:18:38.960 But it is happy and it is blissful, it's beautiful. 00:18:39.200 --> 00:18:44.160 And then Genesis 3 plays out, and these two they decide they don't really need God. 00:18:44.880 --> 00:18:52.960 They bite the apple in a move for all control in their lives, they move into sin and shame. 00:18:53.680 --> 00:19:01.359 And then the first sad scene shows up in that little Bible, and that's where the two are now walking out of the garden. 00:19:01.680 --> 00:19:14.079 Their backs are to us, and they're walking away, and Adam has his arm around Eve, and Eve is sort of leaning in toward him, and you have to wonder what their conversation is. 00:19:14.480 --> 00:19:18.079 Like, what was their conversation walking out of the garden? 00:19:19.200 --> 00:19:21.440 I imagine there's a good bit of silence. 00:19:21.920 --> 00:19:28.799 I imagine perhaps one of them speaks up and says, What happened? 00:19:29.119 --> 00:19:30.480 Like, what was that? 00:19:31.920 --> 00:19:32.960 How did we get here? 00:19:33.039 --> 00:19:40.480 And maybe one of them says, Well, well, you did that, or maybe, maybe one of them says, No, I did that. 00:19:40.799 --> 00:19:41.759 That was me. 00:19:43.279 --> 00:20:12.559 But what we do know is the only way that marriage works healthy on the outside of the garden in an imperfect world is if they're saying to each other, I did that, I did that, I'm like this, I forgive you, I forgive you, I did that, I feel like this, I'm thinking this, I forgive you, I forgive you, I'm thinking this, I'm feeling this, I did that, I forgive you, and over and over and over again. 00:20:13.920 --> 00:20:23.279 Maybe you're here and you've really messed up when it comes to this idea of one flesh because you're single again, or you're on that path that's coming soon. 00:20:23.759 --> 00:20:33.759 Or you live in the disappointment of that love that has not happened, or the disappointment of love that happened, and they screwed up, and now you're living in the result of that. 00:20:35.519 --> 00:20:38.000 You know, those two walked out of the garden. 00:20:38.480 --> 00:20:41.680 They walked out sad, but they did not walk out ashamed. 00:20:42.480 --> 00:20:45.599 Because, see, God had already moved back toward them, right? 00:20:45.680 --> 00:20:47.279 You remember the story in Genesis 3? 00:20:47.359 --> 00:20:54.160 He moved back toward them and they were naked and they became ashamed and they hid, and they're hiding, and he comes into the garden and he seeks them out. 00:20:54.319 --> 00:20:55.759 And then what does he do? 00:20:56.079 --> 00:20:58.799 He covers them with clothes. 00:20:59.519 --> 00:21:08.319 So I think part of the conversation on the way of the garden is also something like I can't believe he was compassionate. 00:21:09.759 --> 00:21:11.680 I can't believe he was compassionate. 00:21:11.920 --> 00:21:14.480 He clothed them with animal skins. 00:21:14.720 --> 00:21:24.400 And this is the picture that he clothes you today, no matter what your story has been or is or will be with the idea of one flesh and marriage. 00:21:24.640 --> 00:21:29.200 He clothes you with the righteousness of Jesus the Christ. 00:21:29.440 --> 00:21:39.519 So you and your record are not the basis of your righteousness before God and in front of this world for your position before God or your value. 00:21:39.920 --> 00:21:44.160 Jesus is your covering and your righteousness. 00:21:44.480 --> 00:21:54.480 So, my brothers and sisters, may we all live with hearts broken, wide open, to live in honesty, and confession, and forgiveness with those that we love. 00:21:54.640 --> 00:21:55.839 Let's pray together. 00:21:56.160 --> 00:22:07.440 God, we thank you for the great metaphor of marriage, which helps us to understand how much you love us, that you fully know us, and you fully love us. 00:22:07.599 --> 00:22:25.519 For those of us in here who need such healing because of broken hearts, broken marriages, broken dreams, I ask for your spirit to work, to love, to mend. 00:22:26.400 --> 00:22:30.720 May we rest in your great love that is sufficient for us. 00:22:31.839 --> 00:22:43.839 May we preach to ourselves again that we have no shame in the righteousness of Jesus, and that you have clothed us, and that you move towards us. 00:22:44.079 --> 00:22:50.640 And again, today, as always, you are moving toward us in Jesus. 00:22:53.279 --> 00:22:54.880 In Jesus' name we pray. 00:22:55.119 --> 00:22:55.519 Amen.