SPEAKER_01: This podcast is a ministry of Grant Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_01: For more information about Grant Parkway, visit Grantparquay.org.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: That's redeeming love.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: That's part of God's design for marriage.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Marriage is where shame goes to die.
SPEAKER_00: And the reason shame dies is because you love your wife and you love your husband with redeeming love.
SPEAKER_00: You don't compromise, you don't settle, you don't let your husbands do the Popeye thing.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I am what I am.
SPEAKER_00: This is just who I am.
SPEAKER_00: You just smile and kind of go, No, it's not.
SPEAKER_00: There's more in there.
SPEAKER_00: That's redeeming love.
SPEAKER_00: That's the way God loves you.
SPEAKER_00: And it's easier to believe that God loves you with redeeming love vertically if you experience it horizontally.
SPEAKER_00: That's why today we're gonna begin a new series called Broken Together.
SPEAKER_00: It's just a raw, authentic biblical look at marriage, the way God designed it.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna ask you not just to agree with some things, but to submit to what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna give you a litmus test for the health of your marriage today as you stand in this room.
SPEAKER_00: If you're single and don't be looking at your watch thinking, can we sneak out while he's praying?
SPEAKER_00: Because God's gonna tell you some things you should look for in a spouse.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you, your children, are gonna be blessed and happy because you're here today when you're 17 years old.
SPEAKER_00: Because God's gonna say something's gonna stick in your head that's gonna change the type of person that you look for.
SPEAKER_00: Are you ready for that?
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, thanks for the truth.
SPEAKER_00: It sets us free, and that's been your design all along is freedom.
SPEAKER_00: That's what you said in the garden.
SPEAKER_00: You said you're free.
SPEAKER_00: First thing you said to humanity, you are free.
SPEAKER_00: And we didn't believe you, and so we got ourselves into bondage.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: That is a lie.
SPEAKER_00: That is our flesh protecting ourselves and our sinful preferences and hiding in marriage.
SPEAKER_00: You can't go hide in marriage.
SPEAKER_00: You're just standing there, two-necked people, and you shouldn't be ashamed.
SPEAKER_00: There's nowhere to hide.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Holy Spirit, lead us into the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth today.
SPEAKER_00: Remind us how glorious, how satisfying, how joyful marriage can be.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that today you'd breathe just kind of fresh perspective into their souls.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: We ask you to do all of this, and we ask it in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You can have a seat.
SPEAKER_00: I said uh uh in introducing this series, I said that marriage is not where two perfect people get together.
SPEAKER_00: I used to think I was perfect, and then I got married, and now I'm convinced otherwise.
SPEAKER_00: Uh no, I've never thought I was perfect.
SPEAKER_00: Uh but it's not two perfect people that have it all figured out that get together.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Me and my fiance were getting married in June.
SPEAKER_00: Would you do our ceremony?
SPEAKER_00: And I said, You gotta come see me for four or five sessions of premarital counseling.
SPEAKER_00: She's like, uh-uh-uh- uh-uh-oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, here's what we talk about.
SPEAKER_00: We talk about your family of origin.
SPEAKER_00: Because the Bible says in Genesis, for this cause a man shall leave his mother and father and cleave into his wife.
SPEAKER_00: When your husband comes from his fun his mother and father, he brings some family stuff with him.
SPEAKER_00: And your wife brings some family stuff with her.
SPEAKER_00: So we talk about your family of origin, we talk about money, we talk about sex.
SPEAKER_00: That's the session we call the big two, because most of your fights in marriage will be about money and sex.
SPEAKER_00: And she's like, uh, I the look on her face is I could just go to the JP and get this over with.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have to come see you.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, We just, there's no place to hide.
SPEAKER_00: And she's like, No, she smiles and she goes, I want that.
SPEAKER_00: That's exactly what I was.
SPEAKER_00: I said, All right, talk to your man and see if he wants that.
SPEAKER_00: Because women sometimes are more open to coming seeing the preacher than men are.
SPEAKER_00: Men are like, I got this, I don't need no man.
SPEAKER_00: He ain't perfect.
SPEAKER_00: Who is he?
SPEAKER_00: Who is he to tell me what to do?
SPEAKER_00: Just a redeemed sinner that loves you enough to tell you the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and so marriage is not two perfect people coming together and living in perfect harmony.
SPEAKER_00: It's two fallen, broken people who, when they're dating, they kind of hide themselves a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: And then when you get married, you think, okay, now I got her.
SPEAKER_00: Here you go.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: I want to get show you a video to kind of explain what we mean when we say broken together.
SPEAKER_00: So let's begin by looking at this.
SPEAKER_00: Let me voice a prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, uh, it is sobering to see on the screen things that we relate to so tangibly.
SPEAKER_00: For many people in this room, uh, they saw themselves, they didn't see strangers in a video, they saw their marriage.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Or they saw that, hey, other people struggle with making sinful choices and self-medicating in their marriage.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and just as tangibly as that we see that, let us see the freedom of the truth in the gospel today.
SPEAKER_00: Uh open up the eyes of our heart so we can see.
SPEAKER_00: We pray with the psalmist, Lord, open my eyes so I see wonderful things in your law.
SPEAKER_00: That's our prayer, God.
SPEAKER_00: We pray it in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open up to Genesis chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: Genesis chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to talk this morning just briefly about the biblical, I want to say think biblically about marriage.
SPEAKER_00: Thinking biblically about marriage.
SPEAKER_00: And while you're finding Genesis chapter 2 is just two pages in, first book of the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna tell you about my friend Sam.
SPEAKER_00: Because I think my friend Sam was a great example of what we do with marriage.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I say to people all the time when they get pregnant, and I say, Congratulations.
SPEAKER_00: And the second thing I say is, put the crib together in the nursery.
SPEAKER_00: And the guys are always like, What?
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, just take my word for that.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Got it all together and just kind of like, oh man, I'm killing.
SPEAKER_00: I got this thing knocked out, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_00: It was great.
SPEAKER_00: Got going down the hall, made the turn to put it in the nursery.
SPEAKER_00: Boom! Hits the door frame.
SPEAKER_00: It's about two inches wider than the door to the nursery.
SPEAKER_00: Has to take it back out, take the thing apart, and then put the pieces in the nursery.
SPEAKER_00: So I get a phone call.
SPEAKER_00: I'm so mad right now.
SPEAKER_00: What happened?
SPEAKER_00: Did it break?
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't fit in a nursery door.
SPEAKER_00: Why do I tell you that?
SPEAKER_00: A lot of us are like marriage.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Or when we come to church, we hear the preacher talk about marriage.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't fit into your idea or your preconceived notions about marriage.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to say, don't be defensive today.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just going to tell you, this is what the Bible says, and this is four or five foundational truths about marriage.
SPEAKER_00: And then from here, we'll kind of move on.
SPEAKER_00: We'll talk about our roles in marriage, the roles of men and women.
SPEAKER_00: I'll talk about lies that men believe in marriage.
SPEAKER_00: One of the lies that we men believe, and I'll just give you this, and this is free.
SPEAKER_00: It's this.
SPEAKER_00: I'm so tired, I don't have to blank.
SPEAKER_00: Just fill in the blank.
SPEAKER_00: Like for me, I talk for a living, which sounds easy.
SPEAKER_00: You guys some of y'all are like, yeah, what a loser you are, dude.
SPEAKER_00: Get a real job.
SPEAKER_00: And then I go home after talking all day to people.
SPEAKER_00: I go home, and guess what my wife wants to do?
SPEAKER_00: Talk.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes I'm like, what?
SPEAKER_00: Don't you know I've been doing this all day?
SPEAKER_00: But her look on her face is, but not with me.
SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: And she never doesn't want to talk.
SPEAKER_00: She likes to talk.
SPEAKER_00: Matter of fact, I could have every conversation twice, and that'd be okay with her.
SPEAKER_00: And I just think, we'll talk about parenting.
SPEAKER_00: We'll talk about intimacy in marriage, which is a church word for sex.
SPEAKER_00: Sounds more clinical when you say intimacy, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Intimacy.
SPEAKER_00: That sounds like, yeah, I'm good.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want any of that.
SPEAKER_00: But you say sex, men are like, huh?
SPEAKER_00: We're like Scooby-Doo.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, you rang.
SPEAKER_00: But it all starts back here in Genesis.
SPEAKER_00: If we're going to think biblically, let's read the Bible and understand what the Bible says about it.
SPEAKER_00: Genesis chapter 2, verse 15.
SPEAKER_00: It says, The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: For in the day you eat of it, you shall surely die.
SPEAKER_00: Two things we've seen already.
SPEAKER_00: Part of paradise is work and restriction.
SPEAKER_00: Work and restriction.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: The only person who gets to do what they want to do when they want to do it all the time is God.
SPEAKER_00: There's paradise and there's restriction.
SPEAKER_00: God says, and and this is perfection here.
SPEAKER_00: This is the Garden of Eden.
SPEAKER_00: God says, hey, you're not going to get your way all the time.
SPEAKER_00: You're free to do this, but you can't do that.
SPEAKER_00: Marriage is the same way.
SPEAKER_00: You don't always get to do what you want to do.
SPEAKER_00: Like I tell people, when your kids are little, take vacations, your kids will enjoy.
SPEAKER_00: There comes an age that you ain't got to go to Disney World anymore.
SPEAKER_00: Been to Disney World twice.
SPEAKER_00: I ain't going no more.
SPEAKER_00: You take your little kids to Disney World.
SPEAKER_00: Now my 17-year-old wants to go to Austin and listen to live music.
SPEAKER_00: That's my idea of a vacation right there.
SPEAKER_00: But the Bible goes on.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Then the Lord God said, It's not good that man should be alone.
SPEAKER_00: I'll make a helper fit for him.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: And whatever the man called, every living creature, that was his name.
SPEAKER_00: The man gave names to all the livestock, to the birds of the heaven, to every beast of the field.
SPEAKER_00: But for Adam, there was not found a helper fit for him.
SPEAKER_00: Let me stop right here.
SPEAKER_00: God says, I'm going to make a helper for him.
SPEAKER_00: And then God makes all the animals.
SPEAKER_00: And can you imagine being Adam?
SPEAKER_00: He's kind of like, hello, I thought I was going to get a helper.
SPEAKER_00: See, he names all the birds of the air, all the beasts of the field.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Men, it's priority.
SPEAKER_00: See, you have work restriction, you have priority.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: That includes deer and the deer lease.
SPEAKER_00: Wait a minute.
SPEAKER_00: Now we're meddling.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all are going, get them women, man.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: No, he said, you just, it's priority.
SPEAKER_00: Ask yourself this question tonight.
SPEAKER_00: Does my partner still realize what a priority she is in my life, or he is in my life?
SPEAKER_00: It continues.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 21.
SPEAKER_00: And so the Lord God calls a deep sleep.
SPEAKER_00: He says, But but for Adam, there was not found a helper fit for him.
SPEAKER_00: So the Lord God calls a deep sleep to fall upon Adam.
SPEAKER_00: And while he slept, he took one of his ribs and closed up the place with flesh.
SPEAKER_00: And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man, he made into a woman and brought her to the man.
SPEAKER_00: Then the man said, This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.
SPEAKER_00: She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
SPEAKER_00: And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: And so you can't put that in the Bible, so you say, This.
SPEAKER_00: This.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not making it up.
SPEAKER_00: You check Kittle and Deach and all these German scholars, and that's what they're saying.
SPEAKER_00: They can't get it from the Hebrew to the English where it makes sense.
SPEAKER_00: Because he's just like, oh my gosh, in the Hebrew, it's like this exclamatory, ah! Yes! And the Bible says this.
SPEAKER_00: But this is so good that the Bible in the next verse says, therefore.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, what I'm fixing to say is because of what I just said, this up here.
SPEAKER_00: This, therefore.
SPEAKER_00: This is so good, man leaves his mother and father and cleaves unto his wife.
SPEAKER_00: Then that means that the number one woman in your life now is no longer your mother, it's your wife.
SPEAKER_00: Uh oh.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say it again.
SPEAKER_00: The number one woman in your life is no longer your mother, it's your wife.
SPEAKER_00: And then the Bible says, and the man and woman were both naked.
SPEAKER_00: They were not ashamed.
SPEAKER_00: Marriage is where shame goes to die.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Are you for that?
SPEAKER_00: Hello?
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, these are just foundational truths.
SPEAKER_00: This whole thing is gonna be built on.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, marriage is instituted by God.
SPEAKER_00: Marriage is instituted by God.
SPEAKER_00: What do I mean?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 18, it's God that looks down and says, it's not good that man should be alone.
SPEAKER_00: If you're single, look at me, I'm talking to you.
SPEAKER_00: God knows that you're alone, and God says it is not good that you should be alone.
SPEAKER_00: Every once in a while I get around a bunch of single people, and I thank God I'm not alone anymore, okay?
SPEAKER_00: I just like, oh, thank you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Hey, we'd love to come see you.
SPEAKER_00: She goes, Well, I'm I'm about done with my band.
SPEAKER_00: And so they were singing at some club way down at Westheimer where people wear flat front pants, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Uh and so she said, Hey, our our our set starts at, I don't know, eight or nine o'clock or something.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Oh, we'd love to go.
SPEAKER_00: So my wife and I sexied up and rolled down there in our minivan, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Only minivan in the parking lot.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: And she goes, What's so great about this?
SPEAKER_00: It's so crowded.
SPEAKER_00: Remember when you were like 22 and you'd go to a club?
SPEAKER_00: It was all that.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: And I said to my wife, I said, I want you to do like that.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to talk to me like that.
SPEAKER_00: And people were dancing, and white guys were dancing and stuff, and I was just like, This is hell.
SPEAKER_00: This is hell with alcohol thrown in.
SPEAKER_00: We should get drunk, so we'll forget this.
SPEAKER_00: Shut up.
SPEAKER_00: And I looked around and I said, You notice we stand out in here and we're just kind of like, here's why.
SPEAKER_00: We're not, we weren't alone anymore.
SPEAKER_00: I said, These people are all alone.
SPEAKER_00: They're all looking for somebody.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not there at the club, kind of going, yo, baby, what's up?
SPEAKER_00: What's up?
SPEAKER_00: I'm a Capricorn.
SPEAKER_00: What are you?
SPEAKER_00: I walk in with my wife, I'm just like, here's the thing.
SPEAKER_00: And I got sad for a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: I had to kind of kind of preach to myself, why?
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: So what they do is they take matters into their own hands.
SPEAKER_00: I wanted to go out on the dance floor and separate some of them and say, you shouldn't do this in public.
SPEAKER_00: This is not good.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna put baby in the corner for now, okay?
SPEAKER_00: This, y'all gotta get this.
SPEAKER_00: Mm-mm-mm.
SPEAKER_00: But it God looks down.
SPEAKER_00: See, God, marriage is instituted by God.
SPEAKER_00: God says, it's not good of you be alone.
SPEAKER_00: I'll make a helper suitable for him.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, well, where do you get marriage?
SPEAKER_00: That's a great question.
SPEAKER_00: Let me show you.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 24.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife.
SPEAKER_00: Marriage is man and wife.
SPEAKER_00: It's not man and woman.
SPEAKER_00: God could have said his woman, and it could have been a relationship, a civil union, and they shall become one flesh.
SPEAKER_00: And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
SPEAKER_00: God is the first one to use the term man and wife.
SPEAKER_00: Marriage is instituted by God.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, marriage is governed by the commands of God's commands.
SPEAKER_00: Marriage is governed by what God says.
SPEAKER_00: See, our view of marriage is really rooted in our unwillingness to submit to submit to anything but our own ideas.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_00: Our view of marriage is really not how we feel about marriage.
SPEAKER_00: What it is, is our unwillingness to submit to anything but our own ideas.
SPEAKER_00: So it's not really how we feel about marriage, but how we feel about ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: There's things that God says it's governed by God's commands.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, some of them are obvious, and some of them you can imply.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, he forbids homosexual marriage or gay marriage, as we call it nowadays.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not going away.
SPEAKER_00: We just Christians keep kind of like, ah, ah, don't say that.
SPEAKER_00: And the gay agenda just gets crammed down our throat.
SPEAKER_00: Turn on your TV, and every sitcom or every show that's on, they have a gay character.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the way they desensitize you to it.
SPEAKER_00: It just becomes like, hey, man, it's just everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, come on, it's the 21st century.
SPEAKER_00: Again, marriage is governed by God's command.
SPEAKER_00: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: How do you get that God forbids homosexual marriage?
SPEAKER_00: Well, God looked down and said, It's not good that man should be alone.
SPEAKER_00: I'll make a helper suitable for him or fit for him.
SPEAKER_00: Of all the things God made, God made woman.
SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you something.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a single man, there ain't nothing like a woman, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm kinda like, where are you going with that?
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't put on anything else.
SPEAKER_00: Women, God bestows you and crowns you with dignity in the creation narrative because God says, I'll make you a helper.
SPEAKER_00: And Adam's like, come on, I'm tired of being alone.
SPEAKER_00: He makes all the animals, and Adam's like, Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says, Hey, there was not found for Adam a suitable helper.
SPEAKER_00: Because he can't, hey, I can't think about any of this the way I think about what's fixing to come.
SPEAKER_00: That's why he says, This.
SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh, this.
SPEAKER_00: God could have made a man for Adam.
SPEAKER_00: Why didn't he?
SPEAKER_00: I'll make it even more practical for you.
SPEAKER_00: Do you feel how quiet it got in here?
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of nervous awkwardness.
SPEAKER_00: They're kind of like, I thought this was about marriage, not gay marriage.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, listen, if you don't hold on to what the Bible says, the culture will take it away from you.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: They're not contradictory, they're complementary.
SPEAKER_00: But in Genesis 1.28, God says this.
SPEAKER_00: It's called the cultural mandate in theology.
SPEAKER_00: But God says to Adam and Eve, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it.
SPEAKER_00: God says, be fruitful.
SPEAKER_00: One is first commands to humanity.
SPEAKER_00: Be fruitful and multiply.
SPEAKER_00: That means it's God's idea that you have sex in marriage.
SPEAKER_00: Right, men?
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
SPEAKER_00: Yep, we like that part.
SPEAKER_00: Talk about that some more.
SPEAKER_00: Let me ask you a question.
SPEAKER_00: How does a gay couple be fruitful and multiply?
SPEAKER_00: See, it's explicit and it's implicit.
SPEAKER_00: It's all over there.
SPEAKER_00: See, one of God's regulations is he forbids homosexual marriage.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, he forbids polygamy.
SPEAKER_00: He forbids polygamy.
SPEAKER_00: For this cause, man shall leave his mother and father, and the two shall become one.
SPEAKER_00: Not, it doesn't say, and the six shall become one, and the four or the three should become one.
SPEAKER_00: No, he forbids polygamy.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says, hey, that's not the way it is.
SPEAKER_00: God, see, marriage is governed by God's commands.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Corinthians 6.14 says, be not unequally yoked with a non-believer.
SPEAKER_00: People say, well, what does unequally yoke mean?
SPEAKER_00: That means do not be unequally partnered.
SPEAKER_00: Now that's marriage, that's business, that's whatever.
SPEAKER_00: Here's why.
SPEAKER_00: Look at me.
SPEAKER_00: Because as a Christian, you have a moral center.
SPEAKER_00: A non-Christian does not have the same moral center that you do.
SPEAKER_00: Am I saying that non-Christians can't be capable of moral things?
SPEAKER_00: Not at all.
SPEAKER_00: Non-Christians can do good things, but the moral center, when it comes down to it, it is different.
SPEAKER_00: As a believer and an unbeliever, and the Bible says, do not be unequally yoked with them.
SPEAKER_00: In partnership and marriage, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Are you ready for the litmus test about your marriage?
SPEAKER_00: I can tell you how healthy your marriage is right now.
SPEAKER_00: See, because it's not just what God says about marriage, it's what God commands just to his people in general.
SPEAKER_00: Take for example, this is Philippians chapter 2, starting in verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: This is what the Bible says: Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Let each one of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interest of others.
SPEAKER_00: Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So when he says, have this mind among yourselves, by the way, this is yours.
SPEAKER_00: When you got Jesus, you got the capacity to think this way.
SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_00: He's not like, hey, this is for the Uber spiritual people.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: When you are converted, the way you think, that's why the Bible says in Romans 12, Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God, a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Taken the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
SPEAKER_00: Well, where's the litmus test?
SPEAKER_00: It's not do nothing when he says do nothing from rivalry or conceit.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta be careful because if you're not, uh, you relate to your spouse like they're your rival.
SPEAKER_00: I told the first service, I might as well tell you, somebody asked me, they said, What do you see more in marriage these days?
SPEAKER_00: Is there a common theme?
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Yeah, resentment.
SPEAKER_00: Because resentment leads to reward.
SPEAKER_00: We reward ourselves after we resent.
SPEAKER_00: We resent our spouse because they don't come through for us.
SPEAKER_00: They don't do what we think they should do.
SPEAKER_00: And so we don't, some of you don't come from families you weren't taught how to healthily have healthy disagreement, how to do conflict, how to fight in marriage.
SPEAKER_00: And so you just keep it to yourself and you're just seething cauldron of resentment.
SPEAKER_00: And after a while, you think, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: This isn't fair.
SPEAKER_00: I deserve blank, whether it's pornography, whether it's food, whether it's inappropriate social relationships on Facebook, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: You reward yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the problem with rewarding yourself.
SPEAKER_00: After a while, it takes more for you to feel validated.
SPEAKER_00: And so after a while, you outgrow reward.
SPEAKER_00: You move from resentment to reward.
SPEAKER_00: The final stage in the process is ruthlessness.
SPEAKER_00: All of a sudden you wake up and your spouse is just mean.
SPEAKER_00: And you're like, what?
SPEAKER_00: What's what's what's what's going on?
SPEAKER_00: Here's a question you should ask your spouse when you wake up like that.
SPEAKER_00: You should say, hey man, you resent me?
SPEAKER_00: You got resentment anywhere in you for me?
SPEAKER_00: Because it's not, I hear this all the time from men, my wife's, she was a lot nicer when we got married.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like, hey, preacher, can you fix my wife?
SPEAKER_00: Because she's mean.
SPEAKER_00: And I say the same thing to those men.
SPEAKER_00: I smile and go, go home and ask your wife, say, hey, I need you to love me enough to tell me the truth, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And your wife's like, oh, oh, okay, where's this going?
SPEAKER_00: Do you resent me?
SPEAKER_00: Have I done anything or not done things that have caused you to resent me?
SPEAKER_00: Usually I get a text at 12:30 in the morning.
SPEAKER_00: Can you come to our house?
SPEAKER_00: The dam has broken.
SPEAKER_00: Bring life preservers.
SPEAKER_00: And it's a woman who she lived with years of resentment and finally, boom, it just comes out.
SPEAKER_00: And I tell people, hey, it's a great opportunity.
SPEAKER_00: It's a great opportunity to start your marriage over right here in the midst of this.
SPEAKER_00: But the litmus test is not, hey, do nothing for rivalry, but in humility count people, others is more important than yourself.
SPEAKER_00: That's not.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a litmus test.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I want you to do.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the application, the takeaway for your marriage today.
SPEAKER_00: And it's simply this.
SPEAKER_00: When it says down there, who did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taken the form of a servant and being born in the likeness of men.
SPEAKER_00: Can you, in your marriage, can you make yourself nothing without the fear of being taken advantage of?
SPEAKER_00: Can you make yourself nothing in your marriage without the fear of your partner getting over on you and living with that burning sensation in your chest of I'm being violated here somewhere?
SPEAKER_00: That's a statement about the health of your marriage.
SPEAKER_00: It's a statement about the health of my marriage.
SPEAKER_00: That's why my wife can say to me, one of my buddies is like, so your wife left on Thursday?
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Yeah, she left on Thursday to go to the women's retreat that didn't start until Friday night.
SPEAKER_00: So what's she doing?
SPEAKER_00: I said, Nothing.
SPEAKER_00: He said, What?
SPEAKER_00: And I said, She told me they're gonna go up on Thursday and do nothing.
SPEAKER_00: And he goes, How do you feel about that?
SPEAKER_00: And I said, It's not how I feel about that, it's how I feel about my wife.
SPEAKER_00: Because see, if you're not careful, your relationship becomes circumstantial and not personal.
SPEAKER_00: My relationship with my wife is very personal.
SPEAKER_00: My wife looked at me and said, I need you all to get up off of me and don't need anything from me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go to the retreat on Thursday morning.
SPEAKER_00: Bye bye.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, my friend that was questioning me, he's divorced.
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, I don't think I'm ever getting married again, man.
SPEAKER_00: Women are just crazy.
SPEAKER_00: This is the man who had separate checking accounts with his wife because he said, My money, my business.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: Some of you have separate checking accounts.
SPEAKER_00: Did you feel that?
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are like, Well, what's the problem?
SPEAKER_00: The problem is you can't have a one-flesh relationship and have separate checking accounts.
SPEAKER_00: This is also the guy, my wife just recently started working part-time.
SPEAKER_00: And up to this point, he would say, Hey man, does Marsh know how much money you got?
SPEAKER_00: See, I don't have money and I keep it from her.
SPEAKER_00: We have money.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing hidden in our relationship because it's a one-flesh relationship.
SPEAKER_00: So she has access to everything.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: My cell phone, the bank account.
SPEAKER_00: She's on the bank account.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, she's on the bank account.
SPEAKER_00: Dude, you're just setting yourself up for trouble.
SPEAKER_00: Says the man that's divorced and pays child support every month, and his kids don't want to come see him.
SPEAKER_00: But I don't say that.
SPEAKER_00: I just let him lecture me, and I'm just like, third thing I want to tell you about marriage is marriage is designed for lasting joy.
SPEAKER_00: Marriage is designed for lasting joy.
SPEAKER_00: What that means is simply this: the longer you're married, the more joy you should experience.
SPEAKER_00: But here's what happens: you get what I call a train track marriage.
SPEAKER_00: You get enough stuff to you can you can do your thing and she can do her thing, and you're this fixed distance apart from each other.
SPEAKER_00: And it goes on forever.
SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna divorce each other, leave each other.
SPEAKER_00: You've just resigned yourself.
SPEAKER_00: See, after being resentful and rewarding yourself and getting ruthless, if getting ruthless doesn't work, then the last stage is just resignation.
SPEAKER_00: You just shrug and go, Well, I'm not gonna leave them because I I don't believe divorce is right, but man.
SPEAKER_00: And nobody wants that.
SPEAKER_00: Because God says, hey, it's designed for lasting joy.
SPEAKER_00: Of all the things God could have made for man, he made a woman.
SPEAKER_00: And all things he could have made for a woman, he made man.
SPEAKER_00: Fourth foundational thing it helps us think biblically about marriage.
SPEAKER_00: Marriage is a covenant.
SPEAKER_00: I'm doing a wedding Friday night.
SPEAKER_00: And Ryan and Megan, a young couple have been coming to our church, they're getting married, and they think they know what they're getting into, and they kind of know they've been going to premarital counseling.
SPEAKER_00: We meet for our last session on Monday night.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the things we'll talk about is their vows.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what I'll say to them about vows, what I'll say to you.
SPEAKER_00: This is what the Bible says about vows.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody remember your wedding vows?
SPEAKER_00: Remember that?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe when you took vows, you stood before people and you made a vow.
SPEAKER_00: You better think about that because that's a big thing.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a single person here this morning, let me tell you something.
SPEAKER_00: Don't read Bride magazine, get you some cheesy vow.
SPEAKER_00: You're my soulmate.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to talk all breathy so people think I really mean it.
SPEAKER_00: No, y'all be able to just look at each other and go, hey, listen.
SPEAKER_00: And they say things like this.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what the typical vow is.
SPEAKER_00: You know, do you take this man to be all awful into having to hold and sickness in hell for rich or for boy to death to his part?
SPEAKER_00: I don't let people off the hook.
SPEAKER_00: I don't let people say I do at the very end.
SPEAKER_00: I make you speak your vows out.
SPEAKER_00: And the women are always kind of like, awesome.
SPEAKER_00: And the men are like, what if I forget?
SPEAKER_00: I'll remind you.
SPEAKER_00: Here's why I make you speak your vows out because you are you're making a covenant with that woman and God.
SPEAKER_00: That's a spoken understanding.
SPEAKER_00: You say, I don't get what's the big deal about that.
SPEAKER_00: Vow's a big deal.
SPEAKER_00: This is what the Bible says in Ecclesiastes chapter 5, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: Guard your steps when you go to the house of God to draw near to listen.
SPEAKER_00: It's better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know what they are doing, that they are doing evil.
SPEAKER_00: Do not be rash, be not rash with your mouth.
SPEAKER_00: Let not your heart be hasty to utter a word before God.
SPEAKER_00: For God is in heaven and you are on the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore let your words be few.
SPEAKER_00: For a dream comes with much business, and a fool's voice with many words.
SPEAKER_00: When you vow, a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools.
SPEAKER_00: Pay what you vow.
SPEAKER_00: It is better that you should not vow than you should vow and not pay.
SPEAKER_00: Let not your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake.
SPEAKER_00: Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands?
SPEAKER_00: For when dreams increase and words grow many, there's vanity.
SPEAKER_00: But God is the one you must fear.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just draw your attention back to verse six.
SPEAKER_00: Let not your mouth lead you into sin and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake.
SPEAKER_00: You can't say, Oh, I never should have married this person.
SPEAKER_00: I made a mistake, and I just need to get out.
SPEAKER_00: No, you made a vow.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the thing that strikes me about people and vows.
SPEAKER_00: They all want to say, for better for worse, for richer for poor, in sickness and health, till death do us part.
SPEAKER_00: And so sometimes people come to me for premarital and for marriage counseling, and I'll help you any way I can.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be afraid.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody walked by this morning and said, Man, I'd be afraid to come to you for marriage counseling.
SPEAKER_00: I'm as gracious as I am passionate.
SPEAKER_00: Those aren't mutually exclusive things.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the deal.
SPEAKER_00: Like a guy came and he's like, I just, man, I'm just not happy and it's just not working out.
SPEAKER_00: And I think Ecclesiastes chapter 5, verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: Well, he says right here, hey, do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Now, remember your wedding vows?
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: Do y'all remember your wedding vows?
SPEAKER_00: Remember what you said?
SPEAKER_00: It would do well to go back and read them this week, just to remind yourself.
SPEAKER_00: We went on our honeymoon and got back, and my wife had our wedding vows printed up and framed.
SPEAKER_00: And they sat on a bookshelf in our little duplex, and I was kind of like, there were some days I was like, awesome.
SPEAKER_00: There were some days I was like, let's just lay that flat.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to be reminded.
SPEAKER_00: But I said to the guy, so what'd you say to your wife?
SPEAKER_00: He goes, Oh, traditional thing, you know, I uh you know, for better or for worse, richer for poor sickness and health.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, So is this worse than you thought it could be?
SPEAKER_00: He goes, Oh man, this is this is worse than I could imagine.
SPEAKER_00: I said, but that's what you signed up for.
SPEAKER_00: Well, no, I mean, I signed up for this.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: You said for better or for worse, for rich or for poor, is this worse than you can imagine?
SPEAKER_00: See, I don't know when.
SPEAKER_00: Should I believe you now, or should we believe you back when you made the vow when you had the tucks on?
SPEAKER_00: When do we start believing you, Mr.
SPEAKER_00: Integrity?
SPEAKER_00: This isn't helpful.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just asking you the question.
SPEAKER_00: God takes vows seriously.
SPEAKER_00: So seriously, in fact, in Malachi chapter 2, this is what he says.
SPEAKER_00: This is God, because Israel has profaned the covenant.
SPEAKER_00: Every covenant involves a vow.
SPEAKER_00: This is what God says in Malachi chapter 2, verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: He says, and the second thing you do, you cover the Lord's altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what would cause God to say, Don't bring me offerings?
SPEAKER_00: Don't come down here and cry and wail and and and and make a big scene.
SPEAKER_00: But you say, Why does he not?
SPEAKER_00: Because the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless.
SPEAKER_00: Though she is your companion and your wife by covenant, did he not make them one with a portion of his spirit in their union?
SPEAKER_00: See, do you hear that?
SPEAKER_00: Did he not make them one with a portion of his spirit in their union?
SPEAKER_00: A marriage is two people making a vow with God.
SPEAKER_00: Did he not make them one with a portion of the spirit in their union?
SPEAKER_00: And what was the one God seeking?
SPEAKER_00: Godly offspring.
SPEAKER_00: So guard yourself in the spirit and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth.
SPEAKER_00: For the man who hates and divorces, says the Lord, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts.
SPEAKER_00: So guard yourself in your spirit and do not be faithless.
SPEAKER_00: Marriage is a covenant.
SPEAKER_00: And we don't get to be faithless.
SPEAKER_00: We don't get to just say, oh, this is harder than I thought it was going to be.
SPEAKER_00: Really?
SPEAKER_00: What did you think it was going to be?
SPEAKER_00: Is it yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: But I stood there and looked my wife in the eye and said, May God do unto me if anything but death parts you and me.
SPEAKER_00: So I'll be with her until the day I die.
SPEAKER_00: Now there's some days she's ready to facilitate that process of my dying.
SPEAKER_00: It's just part of it.
SPEAKER_00: I I wish that weren't true, but apparently I can be frustrating.
SPEAKER_00: What?
SPEAKER_00: It's news to me.
SPEAKER_00: Last thing I want to say too, just as a foundation, by the way, it's just a foundation to kind of launch us into this series.
SPEAKER_00: Marriage has a mission.
SPEAKER_00: Before I tell you what it is, let me tell you what it's not.
SPEAKER_00: It's not raising a good family.
SPEAKER_00: Be careful that you don't reduce all of the Bible and all of Christianity down to the set of principles whereby you get the family you've always wanted.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what, that's not the mission of marriage.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, the mission of marriage is not a good marriage.
SPEAKER_00: You think, now, wait a minute.
SPEAKER_00: You you don't know what you're saying.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I do.
SPEAKER_00: The mission of marriage is not, you shouldn't leave here today and work harder on your marriage.
SPEAKER_00: I recently said to me, he goes, you and Marcia need to have a good relationship.
SPEAKER_00: I said, we do.
SPEAKER_00: It requires work, but yeah, we have a good marriage.
SPEAKER_00: And what's the key to having a good marriage?
SPEAKER_00: Stop thinking about marriage.
SPEAKER_00: No, so you don't understand.
SPEAKER_00: No, I understand what you're saying, but you need to understand what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_00: I haven't thought about my marriage a day in my life.
SPEAKER_00: I've been married 22 years.
SPEAKER_00: There's not a day I've said, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: Today, God, I want to have a better marriage.
SPEAKER_00: I have said, today, God, I need to die to myself.
SPEAKER_00: I have said, you know, God, I gotta love my wife like Christ loves the church.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes she's just crazy.
SPEAKER_00: And she wants to talk, and I'm just, ooh.
SPEAKER_00: I'm talked out.
SPEAKER_00: I'm out of words.
SPEAKER_00: Well, you can't give them all your best and bring me the seconds.
SPEAKER_00: No, I'm not.
SPEAKER_00: Hush.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, okay, just give me 30 minutes.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just lay down on the couch.
SPEAKER_00: Because one of the lies I believe is I'm so tired, I don't have to.
SPEAKER_00: And I get to fill in the blank.
SPEAKER_00: Go for a walk, talk, walk the dogs, go outside and play with my kids.
SPEAKER_00: I let those thoughts go through my mind.
SPEAKER_00: So does that mean you don't do that?
SPEAKER_00: No, I do it.
SPEAKER_00: I do it.
SPEAKER_00: Because my kids aren't gonna be in my house much longer.
SPEAKER_00: You better do it now.
SPEAKER_00: So what marriage has a mission?
SPEAKER_00: What is it?
SPEAKER_00: The mission of marriage is Psalm 34, 3, which says this: Oh, magnify the Lord with me.
SPEAKER_00: Let us exalt his name together.
SPEAKER_00: If you're single, let me give you a little tip right here.
SPEAKER_00: You want to marry somebody that when you're with them, God gets bigger in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Magnify the Lord with me.
SPEAKER_00: And let us exalt his name together.
SPEAKER_00: That's the mission of marriage.
SPEAKER_00: Marriage is about the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so as we just kind of kick off this series, I'm gonna ask if you just commit to come with us on this journey for the next four or five weeks.
SPEAKER_00: We'll talk about a bunch of different things, but this is the foundation that we'll stand on.
SPEAKER_00: We believe because the Bible teaches that marriage is instituted by God and that marriage is governed by God's commands.
SPEAKER_00: It's not governed by how I feel.
SPEAKER_00: Here's why that's good news.
SPEAKER_00: Look at me.
SPEAKER_00: You still with me?
SPEAKER_00: Here's why that's good news.
SPEAKER_00: Because how we feel is mercurial.
SPEAKER_00: It's up and down, up and down, up and down.
SPEAKER_00: God's commands are righteous and true all the day long.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says of his commands, he says, heaven and earth will pass away, but the word of God will stand forever.
SPEAKER_00: So when we submit to the truth that marriage is governed by God's commands, we're building our marriage on something, the most certain thing you can know in this life.
SPEAKER_00: And that gives a sense of permanence to marriage.
SPEAKER_00: It's designed for lasting joy.
SPEAKER_00: It's a covenant.
SPEAKER_00: And it has a mission.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a guest today, just relax.
SPEAKER_00: We like to teach the Bible and then we like to give folks some space to think about it.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe your big takeaway, man, is that we all go home and look at our wives right in the eye and say, I'm not going anywhere.
SPEAKER_00: I know it may be hard right now, but I want you to know I'm not quitting on you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not quitting on this.
SPEAKER_00: I gave a vow, and I'm not here out of duty, I'm here out of delight.
SPEAKER_00: You are the woman I want to live, love, and die with.
SPEAKER_00: But dang, you frustrate me sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: It's just part of it.
SPEAKER_00: And so I want to ask you if you would just say to God in this moment, God, I submit to whatever you say.
SPEAKER_00: And if we can help you, we'd gladly do that.
SPEAKER_00: We'll be available after the service standing down front.
SPEAKER_00: But right now, let's just think about what it means to be broken together.
SPEAKER_00: Not hiding anymore, not keeping things from your spouse.
SPEAKER_00: Just to come out into the wonder and the wideness, the mercy of God.
SPEAKER_00: Let's think for just a minute.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Holy Spirit, I pray for uh my brothers in this room.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us grew up in homes where women weren't cherished, weren't they weren't loved as the way Jesus loves his bride, the church.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's hard for us to have a frame of reference.
SPEAKER_00: But because of the gospel and the redeeming love of God, we can become something we've never seen before in marriage.
SPEAKER_00: Not perfect men, but redeemed men who love our wives with redeeming love that puts to death all the untruth in her head and in her heart and invites her to come out and stand in the wonder and the wideness of who God created her to be.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we want to be those kind of men.
SPEAKER_00: I believe in this room there's some sisters that want to be the kind of women that love their husband and aren't afraid of any of his hiddenness.
SPEAKER_00: He can just come out and say, This is who I am, this is what I struggle with, this is what I'm afraid of.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have to fake it till we make it.
SPEAKER_00: We can get down on our knees with our wife and say, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: We don't know, but God knows.
SPEAKER_00: We're all in on what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Holy Spirit, I pray for freedom.
SPEAKER_00: I pray for baby Madison that I met this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Pray for her mom and dad that they love each other and enjoy each other in such a way that that little girl grows up and wants to be married because it's so stinking enjoyable.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Lord, we repent of all the ways we've thought about marriage that aren't biblical.
SPEAKER_00: And we come to say we want to learn from you and your word.
SPEAKER_00: And so speak, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Your people are listening.
SPEAKER_00: We're doing that in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Stand your feet.
SPEAKER_00: Let me speak a blessing over you.
SPEAKER_00: Again, we'll be available down front if you have any questions or we can pray with you.
SPEAKER_00: We'd love to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_00: That we are broken people is not a surprise to God.
SPEAKER_00: That's why He came to redeem.
SPEAKER_00: Depart now.
SPEAKER_00: And live and do marriage, life, singleness, and everything else.
SPEAKER_00: In the context of a God that knows everything and loves you.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Bless you to miss you.