WEBVTT 00:00:01.199 --> 00:00:08.320 This podcast is a ministry of Grant Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God. 00:00:09.119 --> 00:00:14.000 For more information about Grant Parkway, visit Grantparquay.org. 00:00:15.359 --> 00:00:22.559 Before I pray, I just want to remind you that redeeming love is the way God loves us, and it's also the way God commands us to love each other in marriage. 00:00:22.800 --> 00:00:35.119 What that means for us men is that we are called by God and we're created by God to love one woman called your wife in such a way that she no longer believes the lies she used to believe about herself. 00:00:36.079 --> 00:00:37.759 That's redeeming love. 00:00:38.079 --> 00:00:47.200 Your wife can no longer live with these voices in her head who accuse that accuse her and condemn her because she's loved by you. 00:00:47.520 --> 00:00:49.840 That's part of God's design for marriage. 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:55.920 That's why the Bible says in Genesis, and we'll read in just a minute, and the man and the woman were both naked and they were not ashamed. 00:00:56.399 --> 00:00:58.399 Marriage is where shame goes to die. 00:00:58.560 --> 00:01:04.400 And the reason shame dies is because you love your wife and you love your husband with redeeming love. 00:01:04.560 --> 00:01:09.040 You don't compromise, you don't settle, you don't let your husbands do the Popeye thing. 00:01:09.120 --> 00:01:10.079 Well, I am what I am. 00:01:10.159 --> 00:01:11.120 This is just who I am. 00:01:11.280 --> 00:01:13.840 You just smile and kind of go, No, it's not. 00:01:14.079 --> 00:01:15.599 There's more in there. 00:01:16.799 --> 00:01:18.400 That's redeeming love. 00:01:19.599 --> 00:01:21.280 That's the way God loves you. 00:01:21.439 --> 00:01:27.920 And it's easier to believe that God loves you with redeeming love vertically if you experience it horizontally. 00:01:28.079 --> 00:01:31.200 That's why today we're gonna begin a new series called Broken Together. 00:01:31.359 --> 00:01:35.120 It's just a raw, authentic biblical look at marriage, the way God designed it. 00:01:35.280 --> 00:01:40.560 We'll talk about a lot of things in it, but today we'll just kind of have a basic introductory, lay the kind of foundation. 00:01:40.719 --> 00:01:44.400 I'm gonna ask you not just to agree with some things, but to submit to what the Bible says. 00:01:44.560 --> 00:01:48.400 I'm gonna give you a litmus test for the health of your marriage today as you stand in this room. 00:01:48.560 --> 00:01:52.319 If you're single and don't be looking at your watch thinking, can we sneak out while he's praying? 00:01:52.560 --> 00:01:55.760 Because God's gonna tell you some things you should look for in a spouse. 00:01:56.000 --> 00:02:01.599 Some of you, your children, are gonna be blessed and happy because you're here today when you're 17 years old. 00:02:02.640 --> 00:02:07.439 Because God's gonna say something's gonna stick in your head that's gonna change the type of person that you look for. 00:02:08.400 --> 00:02:09.919 Are you ready for that? 00:02:12.240 --> 00:02:13.120 Let's pray together. 00:02:13.280 --> 00:02:14.800 Lord Jesus, thanks for the truth. 00:02:14.960 --> 00:02:18.080 It sets us free, and that's been your design all along is freedom. 00:02:18.800 --> 00:02:19.840 That's what you said in the garden. 00:02:20.080 --> 00:02:21.039 You said you're free. 00:02:21.360 --> 00:02:23.680 First thing you said to humanity, you are free. 00:02:23.919 --> 00:02:27.039 And we didn't believe you, and so we got ourselves into bondage. 00:02:27.199 --> 00:02:33.759 And we don't believe you what you say about marriage, and we get ourselves into bondage, and we say things to each other like, I don't love you, I don't think I ever loved you. 00:02:33.919 --> 00:02:34.960 That is a lie. 00:02:35.120 --> 00:02:40.240 That is our flesh protecting ourselves and our sinful preferences and hiding in marriage. 00:02:40.400 --> 00:02:42.319 You can't go hide in marriage. 00:02:42.479 --> 00:02:46.319 You're just standing there, two-necked people, and you shouldn't be ashamed. 00:02:46.719 --> 00:02:48.319 There's nowhere to hide. 00:02:48.560 --> 00:02:53.199 And so, Holy Spirit, lead us into the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth today. 00:02:53.439 --> 00:02:58.560 Remind us how glorious, how satisfying, how joyful marriage can be. 00:02:58.800 --> 00:03:04.479 God, I pray uh that for the people in this room that are thinking, man, I just I don't know how much longer I can do this. 00:03:04.639 --> 00:03:08.719 I pray that today you'd breathe just kind of fresh perspective into their souls. 00:03:08.800 --> 00:03:17.199 I pray for the teenagers in this room who haven't seen a joyful expression of marriage in their home, that you redeem marriage in their mind and in their appetites today. 00:03:17.439 --> 00:03:20.080 We ask you to do all of this, and we ask it in Jesus' name. 00:03:20.159 --> 00:03:21.840 And everyone said, Amen. 00:03:21.919 --> 00:03:22.800 You can have a seat. 00:03:22.960 --> 00:03:28.800 I said uh uh in introducing this series, I said that marriage is not where two perfect people get together. 00:03:28.960 --> 00:03:32.639 I used to think I was perfect, and then I got married, and now I'm convinced otherwise. 00:03:32.879 --> 00:03:35.199 Uh no, I've never thought I was perfect. 00:03:35.280 --> 00:03:38.639 Uh but it's not two perfect people that have it all figured out that get together. 00:03:38.719 --> 00:03:44.000 And here's the thing we don't like, a young lady came up to me just after the first service and she said, Hey, so glad I was here. 00:03:44.080 --> 00:03:45.680 Me and my fiance were getting married in June. 00:03:45.840 --> 00:03:46.719 Would you do our ceremony? 00:03:46.800 --> 00:03:50.159 And I said, You gotta come see me for four or five sessions of premarital counseling. 00:03:50.319 --> 00:03:52.240 She's like, uh-uh-uh- uh-uh-oh, okay. 00:03:52.800 --> 00:03:54.240 And I said, here's what we talk about. 00:03:54.319 --> 00:03:55.680 We talk about your family of origin. 00:03:55.840 --> 00:03:59.919 Because the Bible says in Genesis, for this cause a man shall leave his mother and father and cleave into his wife. 00:04:00.080 --> 00:04:04.960 When your husband comes from his fun his mother and father, he brings some family stuff with him. 00:04:05.120 --> 00:04:06.800 And your wife brings some family stuff with her. 00:04:06.960 --> 00:04:10.400 So we talk about your family of origin, we talk about money, we talk about sex. 00:04:10.560 --> 00:04:14.719 That's the session we call the big two, because most of your fights in marriage will be about money and sex. 00:04:15.439 --> 00:04:21.199 And she's like, uh, I the look on her face is I could just go to the JP and get this over with. 00:04:21.279 --> 00:04:22.560 I don't have to come see you. 00:04:23.120 --> 00:04:25.360 And I said, We just, there's no place to hide. 00:04:25.439 --> 00:04:27.759 And she's like, No, she smiles and she goes, I want that. 00:04:27.920 --> 00:04:28.720 That's exactly what I was. 00:04:28.800 --> 00:04:30.480 I said, All right, talk to your man and see if he wants that. 00:04:30.560 --> 00:04:34.240 Because women sometimes are more open to coming seeing the preacher than men are. 00:04:34.480 --> 00:04:36.480 Men are like, I got this, I don't need no man. 00:04:36.560 --> 00:04:37.120 He ain't perfect. 00:04:37.199 --> 00:04:37.600 Who is he? 00:04:37.680 --> 00:04:39.040 Who is he to tell me what to do? 00:04:39.279 --> 00:04:41.920 Just a redeemed sinner that loves you enough to tell you the truth. 00:04:42.079 --> 00:04:46.079 Uh, and so marriage is not two perfect people coming together and living in perfect harmony. 00:04:46.160 --> 00:04:50.959 It's two fallen, broken people who, when they're dating, they kind of hide themselves a little bit. 00:04:51.120 --> 00:04:53.519 And then when you get married, you think, okay, now I got her. 00:04:53.680 --> 00:04:54.639 Here you go. 00:04:55.040 --> 00:05:01.839 And all of a sudden you wake up next to the stranger and you're like, I don't know if uh so broken together. 00:05:02.000 --> 00:05:06.079 I want to get show you a video to kind of explain what we mean when we say broken together. 00:05:06.240 --> 00:05:07.920 So let's begin by looking at this. 00:05:08.879 --> 00:05:10.480 Let me voice a prayer. 00:05:10.720 --> 00:05:15.600 Lord Jesus, uh, it is sobering to see on the screen things that we relate to so tangibly. 00:05:15.759 --> 00:05:22.000 For many people in this room, uh, they saw themselves, they didn't see strangers in a video, they saw their marriage. 00:05:22.160 --> 00:05:30.560 Uh they saw that they're in their late 50s or early sixties and they've accumulated a big enough house and enough stuff that they don't have to connect, they just exist. 00:05:30.879 --> 00:05:37.279 Or they saw that, hey, other people struggle with making sinful choices and self-medicating in their marriage. 00:05:37.439 --> 00:05:43.439 Uh and just as tangibly as that we see that, let us see the freedom of the truth in the gospel today. 00:05:43.600 --> 00:05:46.800 Uh open up the eyes of our heart so we can see. 00:05:46.959 --> 00:05:50.720 We pray with the psalmist, Lord, open my eyes so I see wonderful things in your law. 00:05:50.879 --> 00:05:51.920 That's our prayer, God. 00:05:52.000 --> 00:05:53.040 We pray it in Jesus' name. 00:05:53.120 --> 00:05:55.199 And everyone said, Amen. 00:05:55.360 --> 00:05:55.680 Amen. 00:05:55.759 --> 00:05:58.879 If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open up to Genesis chapter 2. 00:05:59.120 --> 00:06:00.480 Genesis chapter 2. 00:06:00.560 --> 00:06:05.279 And I want to talk this morning just briefly about the biblical, I want to say think biblically about marriage. 00:06:05.439 --> 00:06:07.040 Thinking biblically about marriage. 00:06:07.199 --> 00:06:10.959 And while you're finding Genesis chapter 2 is just two pages in, first book of the Old Testament. 00:06:11.040 --> 00:06:12.480 I'm gonna tell you about my friend Sam. 00:06:12.560 --> 00:06:15.519 Because I think my friend Sam was a great example of what we do with marriage. 00:06:15.600 --> 00:06:18.959 Uh I say to people all the time when they get pregnant, and I say, Congratulations. 00:06:19.040 --> 00:06:22.240 And the second thing I say is, put the crib together in the nursery. 00:06:22.480 --> 00:06:24.000 And the guys are always like, What? 00:06:24.160 --> 00:06:25.680 And I'm like, just take my word for that. 00:06:25.839 --> 00:06:31.920 Here's why my friend Sam got his crib, got it home in the living room, unboxed the bad boy, and put it together watching the football game. 00:06:32.079 --> 00:06:34.480 Got it all together and just kind of like, oh man, I'm killing. 00:06:34.639 --> 00:06:36.639 I got this thing knocked out, blah, blah, blah. 00:06:37.040 --> 00:06:37.600 It was great. 00:06:37.759 --> 00:06:40.879 Got going down the hall, made the turn to put it in the nursery. 00:06:41.120 --> 00:06:43.519 Boom! Hits the door frame. 00:06:44.160 --> 00:06:48.399 It's about two inches wider than the door to the nursery. 00:06:48.639 --> 00:06:54.000 Has to take it back out, take the thing apart, and then put the pieces in the nursery. 00:06:54.240 --> 00:06:55.439 So I get a phone call. 00:06:55.680 --> 00:06:57.199 I'm so mad right now. 00:06:57.279 --> 00:06:57.839 What happened? 00:06:58.000 --> 00:06:58.639 Did it break? 00:06:58.879 --> 00:07:01.120 It doesn't fit in a nursery door. 00:07:01.600 --> 00:07:02.639 Why do I tell you that? 00:07:02.800 --> 00:07:04.000 A lot of us are like marriage. 00:07:04.079 --> 00:07:11.199 We kind of put together this our willingness that we piece together the marriage that we're willing to be a part of, and it doesn't fit. 00:07:11.279 --> 00:07:13.920 Or when we come to church, we hear the preacher talk about marriage. 00:07:14.000 --> 00:07:18.480 It doesn't fit into your idea or your preconceived notions about marriage. 00:07:18.560 --> 00:07:20.639 And I want to say, don't be defensive today. 00:07:21.040 --> 00:07:26.399 I'm just going to tell you, this is what the Bible says, and this is four or five foundational truths about marriage. 00:07:26.560 --> 00:07:28.319 And then from here, we'll kind of move on. 00:07:28.399 --> 00:07:30.720 We'll talk about our roles in marriage, the roles of men and women. 00:07:30.800 --> 00:07:32.639 I'll talk about lies that men believe in marriage. 00:07:32.800 --> 00:07:36.000 One of the lies that we men believe, and I'll just give you this, and this is free. 00:07:36.399 --> 00:07:36.959 It's this. 00:07:37.199 --> 00:07:40.240 I'm so tired, I don't have to blank. 00:07:40.639 --> 00:07:41.920 Just fill in the blank. 00:07:42.560 --> 00:07:45.759 Like for me, I talk for a living, which sounds easy. 00:07:45.920 --> 00:07:48.399 You guys some of y'all are like, yeah, what a loser you are, dude. 00:07:48.480 --> 00:07:49.439 Get a real job. 00:07:49.839 --> 00:07:52.399 And then I go home after talking all day to people. 00:07:52.560 --> 00:07:55.439 I go home, and guess what my wife wants to do? 00:07:56.399 --> 00:07:57.120 Talk. 00:07:57.360 --> 00:07:59.120 And sometimes I'm like, what? 00:07:59.600 --> 00:08:02.480 Don't you know I've been doing this all day? 00:08:02.720 --> 00:08:05.439 But her look on her face is, but not with me. 00:08:06.720 --> 00:08:07.360 Awesome. 00:08:07.680 --> 00:08:12.160 Because one of the lies I believe is I'm so tired I shouldn't have to talk as much as my wife wants to talk. 00:08:13.439 --> 00:08:15.120 And she never doesn't want to talk. 00:08:15.680 --> 00:08:17.199 She likes to talk. 00:08:17.600 --> 00:08:21.759 Matter of fact, I could have every conversation twice, and that'd be okay with her. 00:08:22.079 --> 00:08:25.279 And I just think, we'll talk about parenting. 00:08:25.439 --> 00:08:28.639 We'll talk about intimacy in marriage, which is a church word for sex. 00:08:31.279 --> 00:08:33.840 Sounds more clinical when you say intimacy, doesn't it? 00:08:34.159 --> 00:08:34.799 Intimacy. 00:08:34.960 --> 00:08:35.440 Intimacy. 00:08:35.519 --> 00:08:36.559 That sounds like, yeah, I'm good. 00:08:36.639 --> 00:08:37.360 I don't want any of that. 00:08:37.440 --> 00:08:39.759 But you say sex, men are like, huh? 00:08:40.720 --> 00:08:42.000 We're like Scooby-Doo. 00:08:42.480 --> 00:08:43.840 Yes, you rang. 00:08:44.399 --> 00:08:46.080 But it all starts back here in Genesis. 00:08:46.240 --> 00:08:49.600 If we're going to think biblically, let's read the Bible and understand what the Bible says about it. 00:08:49.759 --> 00:08:51.679 Genesis chapter 2, verse 15. 00:08:51.759 --> 00:08:55.679 It says, The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 00:08:55.759 --> 00:09:03.120 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat. 00:09:03.279 --> 00:09:05.679 For in the day you eat of it, you shall surely die. 00:09:05.919 --> 00:09:07.200 Two things we've seen already. 00:09:07.360 --> 00:09:09.679 Part of paradise is work and restriction. 00:09:10.639 --> 00:09:11.600 Work and restriction. 00:09:11.840 --> 00:09:16.960 I hear this, this is free, this is not in an outline today, but I hear people say all the time, Well, I just want to do what I want to do. 00:09:17.200 --> 00:09:21.600 The only person who gets to do what they want to do when they want to do it all the time is God. 00:09:22.399 --> 00:09:24.240 There's paradise and there's restriction. 00:09:24.399 --> 00:09:26.879 God says, and and this is perfection here. 00:09:26.960 --> 00:09:28.080 This is the Garden of Eden. 00:09:28.240 --> 00:09:30.799 God says, hey, you're not going to get your way all the time. 00:09:32.159 --> 00:09:34.480 You're free to do this, but you can't do that. 00:09:34.720 --> 00:09:36.000 Marriage is the same way. 00:09:36.080 --> 00:09:38.240 You don't always get to do what you want to do. 00:09:38.399 --> 00:09:42.240 Like I tell people, when your kids are little, take vacations, your kids will enjoy. 00:09:43.279 --> 00:09:46.879 There comes an age that you ain't got to go to Disney World anymore. 00:09:49.840 --> 00:09:51.279 Been to Disney World twice. 00:09:51.440 --> 00:09:52.639 I ain't going no more. 00:09:52.799 --> 00:09:54.960 You take your little kids to Disney World. 00:09:55.440 --> 00:09:58.080 Now my 17-year-old wants to go to Austin and listen to live music. 00:09:58.159 --> 00:10:00.080 That's my idea of a vacation right there. 00:10:00.240 --> 00:10:01.200 But the Bible goes on. 00:10:01.279 --> 00:10:04.000 He says, Then the Lord God said, It's not good that man should be alone. 00:10:04.159 --> 00:10:05.759 I'll make a helper fit for him. 00:10:06.000 --> 00:10:12.559 So out of the ground, the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. 00:10:12.639 --> 00:10:15.519 And whatever the man called, every living creature, that was his name. 00:10:15.679 --> 00:10:19.600 The man gave names to all the livestock, to the birds of the heaven, to every beast of the field. 00:10:19.759 --> 00:10:22.480 But for Adam, there was not found a helper fit for him. 00:10:22.639 --> 00:10:23.519 Let me stop right here. 00:10:23.679 --> 00:10:25.360 God says, I'm going to make a helper for him. 00:10:25.519 --> 00:10:26.720 And then God makes all the animals. 00:10:26.799 --> 00:10:27.919 And can you imagine being Adam? 00:10:28.000 --> 00:10:30.240 He's kind of like, hello, I thought I was going to get a helper. 00:10:30.559 --> 00:10:34.080 See, he names all the birds of the air, all the beasts of the field. 00:10:34.159 --> 00:10:34.480 Why? 00:10:34.720 --> 00:10:35.759 Men, it's priority. 00:10:35.919 --> 00:10:38.399 See, you have work restriction, you have priority. 00:10:38.720 --> 00:10:45.200 Priority is God says to Adam, by the order of creation, I don't want you to feel about anything the way you feel about your wife. 00:10:45.360 --> 00:10:47.360 That includes deer and the deer lease. 00:10:50.240 --> 00:10:51.279 Wait a minute. 00:10:51.440 --> 00:10:52.720 Now we're meddling. 00:10:53.200 --> 00:10:55.039 Y'all are going, get them women, man. 00:10:55.200 --> 00:10:56.000 Come on. 00:10:56.720 --> 00:10:58.559 No, he said, you just, it's priority. 00:10:58.639 --> 00:11:00.320 Ask yourself this question tonight. 00:11:01.440 --> 00:11:06.080 Does my partner still realize what a priority she is in my life, or he is in my life? 00:11:07.519 --> 00:11:08.480 It continues. 00:11:10.720 --> 00:11:11.759 Verse 21. 00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:13.759 And so the Lord God calls a deep sleep. 00:11:13.840 --> 00:11:16.639 He says, But but for Adam, there was not found a helper fit for him. 00:11:16.720 --> 00:11:19.039 So the Lord God calls a deep sleep to fall upon Adam. 00:11:19.120 --> 00:11:22.320 And while he slept, he took one of his ribs and closed up the place with flesh. 00:11:22.480 --> 00:11:26.720 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man, he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 00:11:26.879 --> 00:11:30.720 Then the man said, This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. 00:11:30.879 --> 00:11:33.440 She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. 00:11:33.600 --> 00:11:38.399 Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 00:11:38.559 --> 00:11:41.600 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. 00:11:41.759 --> 00:11:50.000 By the way, when it says there in verse 23, this at last, when Adam sees Eve for the first time, he says, This at last is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. 00:11:50.159 --> 00:12:04.480 The word this is the closest we can get to translating it from the Hebrew, because it's kind of like Adam was like, Finally! Oh my gosh, this right here! Yes! It's like he looked at her and said, Mmm, girl, you're so fine, I'll sop you up with a biscuit. 00:12:05.600 --> 00:12:08.480 And so you can't put that in the Bible, so you say, This. 00:12:10.399 --> 00:12:10.720 This. 00:12:11.679 --> 00:12:12.799 I'm not making it up. 00:12:12.879 --> 00:12:16.240 You check Kittle and Deach and all these German scholars, and that's what they're saying. 00:12:17.200 --> 00:12:20.080 They can't get it from the Hebrew to the English where it makes sense. 00:12:20.399 --> 00:12:29.919 Because he's just like, oh my gosh, in the Hebrew, it's like this exclamatory, ah! Yes! And the Bible says this. 00:12:32.320 --> 00:12:37.039 But this is so good that the Bible in the next verse says, therefore. 00:12:37.759 --> 00:12:41.840 In other words, what I'm fixing to say is because of what I just said, this up here. 00:12:42.480 --> 00:12:44.240 This, therefore. 00:12:45.279 --> 00:12:49.360 This is so good, man leaves his mother and father and cleaves unto his wife. 00:12:49.679 --> 00:12:54.399 Then that means that the number one woman in your life now is no longer your mother, it's your wife. 00:12:56.320 --> 00:12:56.639 Uh oh. 00:13:00.399 --> 00:13:01.360 Let me say it again. 00:13:01.519 --> 00:13:04.799 The number one woman in your life is no longer your mother, it's your wife. 00:13:06.000 --> 00:13:09.840 And then the Bible says, and the man and woman were both naked. 00:13:10.799 --> 00:13:12.480 They were not ashamed. 00:13:13.200 --> 00:13:15.279 Marriage is where shame goes to die. 00:13:17.200 --> 00:13:23.840 Let me just give you five things about marriage just by way of just kind of introduction this morning, just kind of laying it out, and I'll cut you loose and let you out of here. 00:13:23.919 --> 00:13:24.720 Are you for that? 00:13:25.679 --> 00:13:26.080 Hello? 00:13:26.240 --> 00:13:26.720 Thank you. 00:13:26.960 --> 00:13:27.360 Thank you. 00:13:27.840 --> 00:13:30.639 Number one, these are just foundational truths. 00:13:30.960 --> 00:13:32.879 This whole thing is gonna be built on. 00:13:32.960 --> 00:13:34.960 Number one, marriage is instituted by God. 00:13:35.120 --> 00:13:36.480 Marriage is instituted by God. 00:13:36.639 --> 00:13:37.120 What do I mean? 00:13:37.279 --> 00:13:40.480 Verse 18, it's God that looks down and says, it's not good that man should be alone. 00:13:40.639 --> 00:13:42.480 If you're single, look at me, I'm talking to you. 00:13:42.720 --> 00:13:47.039 God knows that you're alone, and God says it is not good that you should be alone. 00:13:47.200 --> 00:13:51.679 Every once in a while I get around a bunch of single people, and I thank God I'm not alone anymore, okay? 00:13:51.759 --> 00:13:53.519 I just like, oh, thank you, Lord. 00:13:53.600 --> 00:14:00.399 For example, Marcy and I have some friends, and one of it's a couple in our church, and and and the lady, she's this incredible singer. 00:14:00.480 --> 00:14:05.200 She sings on the worship team here some, and she used to sing with a band here in town, and they'd do different events. 00:14:05.279 --> 00:14:06.639 And I said, Hey, we'd love to come see you. 00:14:06.799 --> 00:14:08.480 She goes, Well, I'm I'm about done with my band. 00:14:08.559 --> 00:14:13.600 And so they were singing at some club way down at Westheimer where people wear flat front pants, okay? 00:14:13.759 --> 00:14:18.320 Uh and so she said, Hey, our our our set starts at, I don't know, eight or nine o'clock or something. 00:14:18.480 --> 00:14:19.600 I said, Oh, we'd love to go. 00:14:19.679 --> 00:14:23.759 So my wife and I sexied up and rolled down there in our minivan, okay? 00:14:24.080 --> 00:14:25.840 Only minivan in the parking lot. 00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:34.720 We get out, here comes the bald, fat guy rolling into the club, and I just, I was just like, I felt my wife's hand, and I was like, awesome, this is great. 00:14:34.879 --> 00:14:36.320 And she goes, What's so great about this? 00:14:36.480 --> 00:14:37.360 It's so crowded. 00:14:37.519 --> 00:14:39.600 Remember when you were like 22 and you'd go to a club? 00:14:41.200 --> 00:14:42.240 It was all that. 00:14:42.399 --> 00:14:50.480 With beer thrown in and people going berserk and some guy over here smoking a vapor cigarette and trying to be sexy like a model, poochie lip. 00:14:51.759 --> 00:14:54.000 And I said to my wife, I said, I want you to do like that. 00:14:54.080 --> 00:14:55.600 I want you to talk to me like that. 00:14:56.000 --> 00:15:01.360 And people were dancing, and white guys were dancing and stuff, and I was just like, This is hell. 00:15:01.600 --> 00:15:03.679 This is hell with alcohol thrown in. 00:15:03.759 --> 00:15:05.840 We should get drunk, so we'll forget this. 00:15:06.159 --> 00:15:07.039 Shut up. 00:15:07.279 --> 00:15:14.320 And I looked around and I said, You notice we stand out in here and we're just kind of like, here's why. 00:15:14.480 --> 00:15:16.080 We're not, we weren't alone anymore. 00:15:16.240 --> 00:15:18.000 I said, These people are all alone. 00:15:18.159 --> 00:15:19.440 They're all looking for somebody. 00:15:19.519 --> 00:15:22.320 I'm not there at the club, kind of going, yo, baby, what's up? 00:15:22.480 --> 00:15:22.879 What's up? 00:15:22.960 --> 00:15:23.840 I'm a Capricorn. 00:15:24.080 --> 00:15:24.960 What are you? 00:15:25.759 --> 00:15:28.879 I walk in with my wife, I'm just like, here's the thing. 00:15:28.960 --> 00:15:30.799 And I got sad for a little bit. 00:15:30.960 --> 00:15:33.919 I had to kind of kind of preach to myself, why? 00:15:34.159 --> 00:15:44.159 Because that room was filled with people, most of whom do not believe that the God of the universe looks down and sees that they're alone and has the capacity to do something about it. 00:15:44.399 --> 00:15:47.440 So what they do is they take matters into their own hands. 00:15:47.919 --> 00:15:51.840 I wanted to go out on the dance floor and separate some of them and say, you shouldn't do this in public. 00:15:52.240 --> 00:15:53.039 This is not good. 00:15:53.120 --> 00:15:55.440 I'm gonna put baby in the corner for now, okay? 00:15:55.919 --> 00:15:57.759 This, y'all gotta get this. 00:15:57.919 --> 00:15:58.559 Mm-mm-mm. 00:15:58.960 --> 00:16:00.320 But it God looks down. 00:16:00.480 --> 00:16:03.039 See, God, marriage is instituted by God. 00:16:03.279 --> 00:16:05.360 God says, it's not good of you be alone. 00:16:05.440 --> 00:16:06.879 I'll make a helper suitable for him. 00:16:07.039 --> 00:16:08.320 You're like, well, where do you get marriage? 00:16:08.399 --> 00:16:09.279 That's a great question. 00:16:09.440 --> 00:16:10.000 Let me show you. 00:16:10.159 --> 00:16:10.960 Verse 24. 00:16:11.279 --> 00:16:14.799 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife. 00:16:15.039 --> 00:16:16.559 Marriage is man and wife. 00:16:16.720 --> 00:16:18.000 It's not man and woman. 00:16:18.159 --> 00:16:23.279 God could have said his woman, and it could have been a relationship, a civil union, and they shall become one flesh. 00:16:23.360 --> 00:16:27.440 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. 00:16:27.600 --> 00:16:30.559 God is the first one to use the term man and wife. 00:16:30.799 --> 00:16:32.559 Marriage is instituted by God. 00:16:32.720 --> 00:16:36.480 Secondly, marriage is governed by the commands of God's commands. 00:16:36.639 --> 00:16:38.720 Marriage is governed by what God says. 00:16:38.879 --> 00:16:44.960 See, our view of marriage is really rooted in our unwillingness to submit to submit to anything but our own ideas. 00:16:45.440 --> 00:16:46.480 Let me say that again. 00:16:46.960 --> 00:16:50.720 Our view of marriage is really not how we feel about marriage. 00:16:51.120 --> 00:16:55.120 What it is, is our unwillingness to submit to anything but our own ideas. 00:16:55.279 --> 00:16:59.279 So it's not really how we feel about marriage, but how we feel about ourselves. 00:17:00.559 --> 00:17:03.440 There's things that God says it's governed by God's commands. 00:17:03.679 --> 00:17:11.359 See, it kind of regulates marriage because he instituted, he gets to say, now some of the commands of God are explicit and some of them are implicit. 00:17:11.519 --> 00:17:14.400 In other words, some of them are obvious, and some of them you can imply. 00:17:14.480 --> 00:17:20.799 You can take from the text, like, let me give you three of kind of the regulations that God kind of puts out about marriage. 00:17:20.960 --> 00:17:25.759 Number one, he forbids homosexual marriage or gay marriage, as we call it nowadays. 00:17:25.920 --> 00:17:27.359 And it's not going away. 00:17:28.079 --> 00:17:31.680 We just Christians keep kind of like, ah, ah, don't say that. 00:17:31.759 --> 00:17:34.400 And the gay agenda just gets crammed down our throat. 00:17:34.559 --> 00:17:39.119 Turn on your TV, and every sitcom or every show that's on, they have a gay character. 00:17:39.440 --> 00:17:41.279 And that's the way they desensitize you to it. 00:17:41.359 --> 00:17:43.119 It just becomes like, hey, man, it's just everywhere. 00:17:43.200 --> 00:17:45.039 I mean, come on, it's the 21st century. 00:17:45.200 --> 00:17:47.359 Again, marriage is governed by God's command. 00:17:47.440 --> 00:17:48.319 You say, What do you mean? 00:17:48.400 --> 00:17:51.119 How do you get that God forbids homosexual marriage? 00:17:51.279 --> 00:17:53.920 Well, God looked down and said, It's not good that man should be alone. 00:17:54.000 --> 00:17:56.559 I'll make a helper suitable for him or fit for him. 00:17:56.720 --> 00:17:58.880 Of all the things God made, God made woman. 00:17:59.039 --> 00:17:59.680 Let me tell you something. 00:17:59.839 --> 00:18:03.440 If you're a single man, there ain't nothing like a woman, okay? 00:18:06.000 --> 00:18:09.519 Yeah, I'm kinda like, where are you going with that? 00:18:10.160 --> 00:18:17.359 I'm just telling you, there's nothing like, because of all the things God could have made, by the way, the order of creation, God puts a priority on women. 00:18:17.440 --> 00:18:18.640 He doesn't put on anything else. 00:18:18.799 --> 00:18:24.000 Women, God bestows you and crowns you with dignity in the creation narrative because God says, I'll make you a helper. 00:18:24.079 --> 00:18:26.160 And Adam's like, come on, I'm tired of being alone. 00:18:26.400 --> 00:18:29.200 He makes all the animals, and Adam's like, Are you kidding me? 00:18:29.359 --> 00:18:32.880 And the Bible says, Hey, there was not found for Adam a suitable helper. 00:18:33.200 --> 00:18:36.880 Because he can't, hey, I can't think about any of this the way I think about what's fixing to come. 00:18:36.960 --> 00:18:38.400 That's why he says, This. 00:18:38.880 --> 00:18:40.559 Oh my gosh, this. 00:18:41.119 --> 00:18:43.599 God could have made a man for Adam. 00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:45.200 Why didn't he? 00:18:50.160 --> 00:18:51.839 I'll make it even more practical for you. 00:18:52.000 --> 00:18:53.279 Do you feel how quiet it got in here? 00:18:53.359 --> 00:18:54.799 It's kind of nervous awkwardness. 00:18:55.039 --> 00:18:58.000 They're kind of like, I thought this was about marriage, not gay marriage. 00:18:58.079 --> 00:19:02.319 Hey, listen, if you don't hold on to what the Bible says, the culture will take it away from you. 00:19:04.640 --> 00:19:11.119 Just look back at Genesis 1.28, one of the first commands, Genesis chapter 1 and Genesis chapter 2, two different accounts of the creation narrative. 00:19:11.200 --> 00:19:13.119 They're not contradictory, they're complementary. 00:19:13.279 --> 00:19:15.279 But in Genesis 1.28, God says this. 00:19:15.359 --> 00:19:17.759 It's called the cultural mandate in theology. 00:19:17.839 --> 00:19:22.799 But God says to Adam and Eve, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. 00:19:23.119 --> 00:19:24.400 God says, be fruitful. 00:19:24.480 --> 00:19:25.920 One is first commands to humanity. 00:19:26.079 --> 00:19:27.599 Be fruitful and multiply. 00:19:27.759 --> 00:19:30.880 That means it's God's idea that you have sex in marriage. 00:19:31.119 --> 00:19:31.920 Right, men? 00:19:32.799 --> 00:19:33.279 Yep. 00:19:33.519 --> 00:19:35.119 Yep, we like that part. 00:19:35.519 --> 00:19:36.960 Talk about that some more. 00:19:37.200 --> 00:19:38.240 Let me ask you a question. 00:19:38.400 --> 00:19:40.640 How does a gay couple be fruitful and multiply? 00:19:42.799 --> 00:19:45.039 See, it's explicit and it's implicit. 00:19:45.200 --> 00:19:46.000 It's all over there. 00:19:46.160 --> 00:19:49.119 See, one of God's regulations is he forbids homosexual marriage. 00:19:49.200 --> 00:19:50.799 Secondly, he forbids polygamy. 00:19:51.359 --> 00:19:53.200 He forbids polygamy. 00:19:53.279 --> 00:19:57.599 For this cause, man shall leave his mother and father, and the two shall become one. 00:19:57.839 --> 00:20:03.200 Not, it doesn't say, and the six shall become one, and the four or the three should become one. 00:20:03.359 --> 00:20:04.640 No, he forbids polygamy. 00:20:04.799 --> 00:20:17.039 You can turn on your TV tonight, and on one of the cable stations, they will have a show about sister wives, about these girls, and they're, and I'm just like, again, the culture desensitizes you to it by making it kind of entertaining. 00:20:17.200 --> 00:20:19.599 And the Bible says, hey, that's not the way it is. 00:20:19.839 --> 00:20:22.160 God, see, marriage is governed by God's commands. 00:20:22.319 --> 00:20:28.880 The third thing, the kind of regulation that's all through the Bible, that's very, is that God uh He forbids marriage to an unbeliever. 00:20:29.119 --> 00:20:32.480 2 Corinthians 6.14 says, be not unequally yoked with a non-believer. 00:20:32.640 --> 00:20:34.640 People say, well, what does unequally yoke mean? 00:20:34.720 --> 00:20:36.720 That means do not be unequally partnered. 00:20:37.119 --> 00:20:39.680 Now that's marriage, that's business, that's whatever. 00:20:39.920 --> 00:20:40.400 Here's why. 00:20:40.480 --> 00:20:41.039 Look at me. 00:20:41.200 --> 00:20:43.279 Because as a Christian, you have a moral center. 00:20:43.440 --> 00:20:46.559 A non-Christian does not have the same moral center that you do. 00:20:46.720 --> 00:20:49.839 Am I saying that non-Christians can't be capable of moral things? 00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:50.640 Not at all. 00:20:50.880 --> 00:20:56.720 Non-Christians can do good things, but the moral center, when it comes down to it, it is different. 00:20:57.680 --> 00:21:01.759 As a believer and an unbeliever, and the Bible says, do not be unequally yoked with them. 00:21:01.920 --> 00:21:04.799 In partnership and marriage, whatever. 00:21:04.960 --> 00:21:13.279 So when we say regulations, but I don't just mean when he says that marriage is governed by God's commands, it's not just governed by God's commands, what God says about marriage. 00:21:13.359 --> 00:21:15.599 Are you ready for the litmus test about your marriage? 00:21:15.759 --> 00:21:19.039 I can tell you how healthy your marriage is right now. 00:21:19.279 --> 00:21:24.960 See, because it's not just what God says about marriage, it's what God commands just to his people in general. 00:21:25.119 --> 00:21:29.440 Take for example, this is Philippians chapter 2, starting in verse 3. 00:21:29.599 --> 00:21:36.720 This is what the Bible says: Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves. 00:21:36.880 --> 00:21:40.799 Let each one of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interest of others. 00:21:40.960 --> 00:21:43.920 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. 00:21:44.079 --> 00:21:48.319 So when he says, have this mind among yourselves, by the way, this is yours. 00:21:48.480 --> 00:21:51.359