SPEAKER_02: This morning, our scripture passage, the first scripture passage is taken from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 16, verse 18.
SPEAKER_02: And then the second will be from Matthew 19, verses 1 through 9.
SPEAKER_02: And if you uh don't have your Bible with you, there should be one located right in front of you there, in that little pocket in the pew in front of you, and you can find the scripture passage, the first one on page 876, and the second one on page 824.
SPEAKER_02: And uh I also want to say, if you're here and you don't own a copy of the Bible for yourself, that uh we would really like to give you that pew Bible that you have for you to take it home as uh our gift to you uh to read and to study.
SPEAKER_02: And so please, if you don't own a Bible of your own, uh please take that one and make it yours and study it, bring it back each week, and we'll go through a passage at a time.
SPEAKER_02: Luke chapter 16, beginning uh in verse 18, and then we'll go on to the Matthew passage.
SPEAKER_02: Luke 16, verse 18.
SPEAKER_02: Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery.
SPEAKER_02: And he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.
SPEAKER_02: And now in Matthew chapter 19, beginning in verse 1, Matthew chapter 19, verse 1.
SPEAKER_02: Now when Jesus had finished these sayings, he went away from Galilee and entered the region of Judea beyond the Jordan, and large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.
SPEAKER_02: And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?
SPEAKER_02: He answered, Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female?
SPEAKER_02: And said, Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.
SPEAKER_02: So they are no longer two but one.
SPEAKER_02: What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.
SPEAKER_02: They said to him, Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?
SPEAKER_02: He said to them, Because of your hardness of heart, Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.
SPEAKER_02: And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality and marries another, commits adultery.
SPEAKER_02: Thus ends the reading of God's word.
SPEAKER_02: This week and the next couple weeks, I want to talk in greater detail about marriage and divorce.
SPEAKER_02: A question that I think each one of us at some point, in some way, has been touched by in the culture that we live in.
SPEAKER_02: And I think it's a significant and important topic for us to talk about and to walk through the scripture and to see what the Bible says on these topics.
SPEAKER_02: Um this morning I want us to begin and we're going to talk about marriage.
SPEAKER_02: Um, I think that it would be uh premature and presumptive to talk about uh the question of divorce without first uh laying out what the Bible says about marriage, uh so that we have it clearly in our minds uh what uh God's will is and what his intention is for the institution of marriage.
SPEAKER_02: Now, to whom does this message apply?
SPEAKER_02: And I think it applies to all of us.
SPEAKER_02: Clearly, uh for those of us who are married, uh this is a challenge for us to understand anew uh the covenant commitment that we have made to our spouses.
SPEAKER_02: And so whether you are newly married or you have been married 30 or 40 or even 50 years or longer, uh, we need to be reminded again and again what God's word says in regards to the institution of marriage.
SPEAKER_02: Uh but if you're not married, please don't tune me out.
SPEAKER_02: Uh I know that for some, maybe marriage isn't even on the horizon, or maybe you don't even know if you will ever be married.
SPEAKER_02: But uh I want to encourage you to listen.
SPEAKER_02: One, uh it may be that even later in life, God brings a person into your life uh to marry.
SPEAKER_02: I've known people in their 40s and even 50s uh that have been married for the first time.
SPEAKER_02: I was 35 when I uh was got married.
SPEAKER_02: I thought after I hit 30 that life was over and I was never going to find anyone.
SPEAKER_02: And God, in his graciousness, just uh wanted me to wait for something even better than I could imagine.
SPEAKER_02: But for all of us, this applies.
SPEAKER_02: And I want to encourage you, even for parents of young children, that uh take to heart some of these things that we're going to talk about today so that you might teach them to your children.
SPEAKER_02: Um I think that when I look at the institution of marriage and I look at what's happening in our culture and honestly what's happening in our church, I recognize that uh in many ways we need to do something differently than we're doing.
SPEAKER_02: If the statistics nationwide are even close to accurate about those who profess to be born-again Christians, um I recognize that there is something that is amiss that we need to address.
SPEAKER_02: Let me make one other point to those of you who may be here this morning who have gone through a divorce.
SPEAKER_02: Uh by the things I say this morning, I don't want to cause you added pain.
SPEAKER_02: Uh perhaps as you listen this morning, that you might recognize an area of your life, or perhaps even an area of sin in your life that you haven't confessed, and this is God's call for you to turn to Him and grace and forgiveness and be embraced by the love of our Savior.
SPEAKER_02: And if you have experienced a failed marriage and you have been sinned against by your former partner, uh know that God loves you and that he is the healer of broken hearts.
SPEAKER_02: And so I don't want you to hear what I'm saying this morning and take it in a way that uh is not intended, but we do need to look through uh what the Bible says about marriage.
SPEAKER_02: You know, we do some good things in marriage and marriage preparation.
SPEAKER_02: I know here as a church we have mandatory premarital counseling uh for those who are going to be married here as a part of the church.
SPEAKER_02: We try to encourage them uh to go through that.
SPEAKER_02: Um, but even as I think about that, if you go through six or eight weeks, I know some churches even have uh longer premarital counseling than that, uh, really preparation for marriage needs to begin much sooner than during the engagement period.
SPEAKER_02: Um really, it needs to begin in childhood, it needs to begin during youth ministry, it needs to begin so that throughout the life of the church, as uh children grow up and they begin to think about being married, that they understand the reality of the weight of the commitment of the vow that they are going to make.
SPEAKER_02: And so I think as a church to recognize that uh in some ways uh we have uh done some good things, but that we need to build on it and do even more.
SPEAKER_02: And uh I would add to that that um even in regards to uh to marriage, um teaching children and understanding the essentials of it uh is vital to uh the the health of the church.
SPEAKER_02: In our culture, marriage, and I realized this when I got married, uh, having been in a lot of other weddings, um so much time and energy and effort is taken on that wedding day.
SPEAKER_02: I think of the amount of uh emotional energy of just talking about all of the details and all of the nuances and all of the different choices that have to be made, and some I'd never even considered and thinking through.
SPEAKER_02: But even as I was going through that process myself, I thought to myself, you know, wouldn't it be much better if I took half the energy that I was spending on this one hour or 45 minutes and took that energy and focused it on my marriage, not just my wedding day.
SPEAKER_02: And I think in our culture, we have made uh the wedding day of such high priority uh that it's taken an inordinate focus away from a young couple or an older couple preparing for their actual marriage because so much of their time and energy and effort is focused on the wedding ceremony.
SPEAKER_02: And so, even in thinking through, I think there is much ground that still needs to be plowed as a church, and how do we help young couples and even uh those who aren't ready for marriage yet to uh plan for marriage?
SPEAKER_02: I think even as a church, too, and as parents and of those who have loved ones, um, you know, there are times, and I've seen this even in my own life with friends of mine, that there are times as a church or as a pastor or as a parent or as a friend, where if we see somebody who is in a relationship that we recognize is not healthy or right or good, that as we understand what the high calling of marriage is, that we have the courage to step up and to step into that situation, even saying to the person, you know, as I see your relationship, I do not believe you're in a place to get married.
SPEAKER_02: Or as I've had to do with a couple of my friends over the years, that I've had this to meet with them and say, I want you to know that I don't think that this is a good relationship, and the two of you shouldn't get married at all.
SPEAKER_02: That there are too many problems, too many challenges, there's too much unhealth in the relationship, that where you are in the direction that you're going, uh you're not going to be in a place to have a healthy marriage.
SPEAKER_02: And so I think as a church, as we understand the calling of marriage, that we're willing to have the courage to say the tough things.
SPEAKER_02: And as parents, as friends, as uh as relatives, uh, as uh people who are close to the situation, even as a pastor, I feel the pressure of doing premarital counseling.
SPEAKER_02: And I I've had to uh tell couples that I don't believe that they should get married, and I don't believe that I'm the one to perform your wedding if you're going to move forward with this marriage because of the things that have come up during our time together.
SPEAKER_02: And let me say, you're you're not popular by doing that.
SPEAKER_02: But we need to have the courage to recognize how true love sometimes has to say the things that aren't easy to say.
SPEAKER_02: So this morning I want us to talk about marriage.
SPEAKER_02: I'm going to base it primarily in Matthew 19 and then Genesis chapter 2.
SPEAKER_02: Um and just dealing with the institution of marriage, we'll deal with other questions uh coming up in the next few weeks.
SPEAKER_02: And so I'm not glossing over them, but I want to deal with them uh having laid this foundation of what the Bible says in regards to marriage.
SPEAKER_02: And so this morning I want us to talk about two realities of marriage.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not going to say everything there is to say about marriage, but I do want to talk about two realities, uh the foundation of marriage, and then uh how marriage should look in practice.
SPEAKER_02: And so uh, first of all, I want us to look at the foundation of marriage and what Jesus says here in Matthew and what it says in Genesis chapter 2.
SPEAKER_02: So if you have your bookmark, uh we're going to be going back and forth between Matthew 19 and Genesis 2.
SPEAKER_02: So feel free to uh put a bookmark in there as we look at what the Bible says in regards to marriage.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus' approach by the Pharisees.
SPEAKER_02: There were different schools of thought in regards to marriage and divorce.
SPEAKER_02: Uh there was a very lax school of thought that thought for any and every reason that there was uh divorce.
SPEAKER_02: There was a more strict school that thought there were some uh reasons why divorce was legitimate.
SPEAKER_02: And they they approached Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: They really want to catch him on the horns of a dilemma in regards to this issue because it was such a cultural hot topic.
SPEAKER_02: And so Jesus begins to answer them.
SPEAKER_02: They asked this question, verse 3 of Matthew 19, is it lawful to divorce one for any cause?
SPEAKER_02: Which was one of the ideas that was floating around during Jesus' day.
SPEAKER_02: But he answers them and he says, Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female?
SPEAKER_02: And so in verse 4, he says that from the beginning, uh that the that there is something that goes prior to uh the fall, prior to uh Moses' directive uh to God's intention for marriage from the beginning.
SPEAKER_02: And so in verse 4 he says, have you not heard that from the beginning, this and so he says we need to go back to the beginning.
SPEAKER_02: And again, he says that in verse 8.
SPEAKER_02: Um in verse 8 he says, he said to them, because of your hardness of heart, Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.
SPEAKER_02: And so a proper understanding of marriage needs to go back to the beginning.
SPEAKER_02: Of what was God's intention for marriage.
SPEAKER_02: We need to understand uh the original intent uh for marriage.
SPEAKER_02: So Jesus tells us that we need to look at how God established marriage.
SPEAKER_02: We need to go back to the institution established by God in Adam and Eve.
SPEAKER_02: And so, any questions that we have in regards to this issue of marriage, we need to understand, first of all, what is the creation ordinance that God established between this man and this woman?
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus lists one of them in this passage.
SPEAKER_02: He says, uh, have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female?
SPEAKER_02: And so one of the things we learn about marriage, which would have seemed to have been up until our present day, an obvious established fact that by definition, marriage is between a man and a woman.
SPEAKER_02: That this is God's original intent.
SPEAKER_02: And look in Genesis, Jesus is gonna, uh he points us back to Genesis.
SPEAKER_02: Uh this is prior to sin entering into the world, this is with Adam and Eve prior to the fall.
SPEAKER_02: And uh, God had pronounced over the six days of creation, and every day he said, It is good.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible says that it is good.
SPEAKER_02: And in fact, uh, the entire created order, it is said that God's creation is good.
SPEAKER_02: Now we get to chapter two, he gets to the end of the sixth day, and it and God pronounces it very good.
SPEAKER_02: And now we see Adam there in the garden, verse 18, Genesis chapter 2, and the Lord makes a pronouncement, and he says, The Lord said, It is not good that man should be alone.
SPEAKER_02: And so for the first time in the created order, something is not right, is not good.
SPEAKER_02: And it says it here, it's not good that man should be alone.
SPEAKER_02: And so uh God tells us what the Bible tells us what God is going to do.
SPEAKER_02: God says, I will make him a helper fit for him.
SPEAKER_02: That I am going to make a companion, a helper, a helpmate, uh, somebody who is going to be the complement of man, who is going to be like man, but different from man, so that they are going to be complementary creatures in a relationship together.
SPEAKER_02: And so the Bible tells us that that is what God did.
SPEAKER_02: That he uh he shows uh Adam all of the beasts of the field.
SPEAKER_02: Um Adam names them, uh all of the livestock, and then we see um that God provides for Adam a wife.
SPEAKER_02: It says, so the Lord caused a deep sleep to fall upon man, and while he slept, he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with its flesh, and the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man, he made into a woman and brought her to the man.
SPEAKER_02: And I think it's significant that God creates woman from man, taken from Adam, to be distinct from Adam, and then is given to Adam to be one for them to be uh complementary in this relationship.
SPEAKER_02: Uh Matthew Henry, in his commentary, makes this great observation, and I think it's you've probably heard this in weddings.
SPEAKER_02: Um Matthew Henry makes this observation.
SPEAKER_02: He he says this about marriage.
SPEAKER_02: He says, Eve was not taken out of Adam's head to top him, neither out of his feet to be trampled on by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected by him, and near his heart to be loved by him.
SPEAKER_02: And I think in very poetic language, there is a lot of truth to what God did in creating Eve from Adam and giving Eve to Adam as a complementary creation.
SPEAKER_02: And so God's intention for marriage is only between one man and one woman for life.
SPEAKER_02: He designed this for the well-being of the family, and within the context, uh, it's the only context in which children are to be conceived.
SPEAKER_02: And I have a short video.
SPEAKER_02: I don't want to delve into all of the issues regarding this cultural question, uh, but there was a video that uh that was brought to my attention.
SPEAKER_02: It was made in Ireland, and so uh if you'll notice the difference in uh uh in their accent and and some of their words, but uh a video uh expressing why marriage is between one between a man and a woman.
SPEAKER_02: And so if we can cue that video and show that now.
SPEAKER_01: When a man and a woman fall in love, they can get married, right?
SPEAKER_01: So why can't two men or two women who love each other get married as well?
SPEAKER_01: Isn't it discrimination to stop them?
SPEAKER_00: Except it's not discrimination to treat different situations in different ways.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone in caring dependent relationships deserves legal protection, including gay people.
SPEAKER_00: But the relationship of a man and a woman is unique.
SPEAKER_01: Only a man and a woman can make new life, only a man and a woman can give a child a mum and a dad.
SPEAKER_00: No two men and no two women can ever do this.
SPEAKER_00: So it makes sense to treat something unique in a unique way.
SPEAKER_00: That's not discrimination.
SPEAKER_01: Marriage is a private promise between two people, but it has a big public purpose as well.
SPEAKER_00: That purpose is unique and important.
SPEAKER_00: To give children the love of their mom and dad in one family.
SPEAKER_01: Of course, not all married couples have children, but every child ever born has a most handed out.
SPEAKER_00: Marriage between a man and a woman recognizes this basic fact, and that's why marriage is a most important social.
SPEAKER_01: It's our way of saying that the differences between men and women matter, that the differences between mothers and fathers matter, and that kids have a right to fight they love words, a loving moment died.
SPEAKER_00: So let's not change the message of marriage by redefining it.
SPEAKER_00: For the sake of our children.
SPEAKER_02: There's a third point, a third truth in regards to the foundation.
SPEAKER_02: Of marriage, and this is one that I think to me is one of the most significant and central realities of marriage and is often overlooked.
SPEAKER_02: I think if the implications of it were understood and accepted and lived out, it would make a fundamental difference in how we relate as husbands and wives, and I think it would make a difference in our entire perspective on the institution of marriage.
SPEAKER_02: And so let me share with you this third truth that we find in the pages of the Bible, and that is this marriage is not a contract, but a covenant relationship.
SPEAKER_02: We don't think in terms of covenants.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible talks about covenants.
SPEAKER_02: We don't think in terms of covenants.
SPEAKER_02: We're very familiar with the idea of a contract, and oftentimes we equate the two, but they really are different and distinct in a very uh in a number of key ways.
SPEAKER_02: What's the difference between a contract and a covenant?
SPEAKER_02: Aren't they the same thing?
SPEAKER_02: And I would say no, they're not.
SPEAKER_02: And our understanding of the difference is key to our understanding of how marriage is supposed to function.
SPEAKER_02: And I think again, as young couples who are preparing to be married, uh, older couples, even as you evaluate your own relationship, to ask yourself, is this the reality by which I function out of, make my decisions, and treat my spouse?
SPEAKER_02: And so the idea of a covenant as opposed to a contract.
SPEAKER_02: Um, Winston T.
SPEAKER_02: Smith in his book Marriage Matters talks about what a contract is.
SPEAKER_02: And he says a contract is really you give to get.
SPEAKER_02: You give to get.
SPEAKER_02: That is the essence of a contract.
SPEAKER_02: He says this: a formal agreement to give to get is called a contract.
SPEAKER_02: If you do your part, then I'll do my part.
SPEAKER_02: We all live with contracts, he says.
SPEAKER_02: Contracts are often put into place to prevent people from manipulating one another.
SPEAKER_02: We use contracts to enforce rules of fair play.
SPEAKER_02: In that sense, even the pagans and tax collectors observed a crude form of love.
SPEAKER_02: You remember they even love those who love them.
SPEAKER_02: But that isn't the fullness of love that we're called to in marriage.
SPEAKER_02: Unfortunately, in our culture and even sometimes in our own thinking, we view marriage as a contract.
SPEAKER_02: That I have my, I've made an agreement with my spouse, and I have things that I've agreed to do, and she has had things that she agrees to do, and I fulfill my part of the bargain, she fulfills her part of the bargain, I owe this to her, she owes this to me.
SPEAKER_02: And if she doesn't fulfill her part of the bargain, then that gives me the right to not fulfill my part of the bargain because it's a mutual agreement, it's a contract that we have entered into, and and so there is a sense of expectation, a sense of obligation, uh a sense of uh of a right uh that we might have.
SPEAKER_02: We see contracts and even in sporting uh events, uh, sports figures, they're under contract and they decide that they don't like the terms of the contract, and so they're gonna renegotiate the contract to get a better deal.
SPEAKER_02: They may walk out on their contract.
SPEAKER_02: We see uh lawsuits of people suing uh for breach of contract.
SPEAKER_02: There's this, but there's a give to get.
SPEAKER_02: I give you something, you give me something, I get something from you, and so there's this transactional reality of a contract that unfortunately we view that as the foundation of marriage sometimes.
SPEAKER_02: And even if we don't say we do, often we do in practice.
SPEAKER_02: We may not say that this is how we function, but how we treat our spouses, well, if they're nice to me, I'll be nice to them.
SPEAKER_02: If they do things for me, I'll do things for them.
SPEAKER_02: And so there's this mindset of a contractual agreement in marriage.
SPEAKER_02: A covenant is a very different type of pledge.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, what is in view in a human covenant is not a contractual agreement.
SPEAKER_02: If you do this, I'll do that.
SPEAKER_02: Uh one theologian, uh, John Murray, writes this about a human covenant.
SPEAKER_02: He says, listen very closely, and I'll repeat some of the key words here.
SPEAKER_02: It is the giving of oneself over in the commitment of troth, of fidelity, of faithfulness, of loyalty that is emphasized, and the specified conditions of those upon which the engagement or commitment is contingent are not mentioned.
SPEAKER_02: It is the promise of unreserved fidelity and whole-souled commitment that appears to constitute the essence of the covenant.
SPEAKER_02: There is promise.
SPEAKER_02: There may be the sealing of that promise by oath, and there is the bond resulting upon these elements, and it is a bonded relationship of unreserved commitment in respect of the particular thing involved or the relationship constituted.
SPEAKER_02: Now I'll translate that into English.
SPEAKER_02: What he's saying here is that a covenant is uh you are giving yourself in unreserved loyalty and faithfulness wholeheartedly to the other person, irrespective of what the other person gives back to you.
SPEAKER_02: And so there is an understanding that you are promising yourself and giving yourself in this unreserved uh commitment of fidelity and faithfulness to the other person.
SPEAKER_02: And so that when you come into a covenant relationship with your spouse, you are saying that I am with 100% of my being committing myself to you and to no one else, and I pledge myself to you, and regardless of what you do and how you respond, I will continue to give myself to you because I am making this vow before God and these people who are here.
SPEAKER_02: And so the mindset then isn't kind of this uh quid pro quo that you do this, I do that.
SPEAKER_02: It is I am going to give myself to you regardless of how you respond, and that is the commitment I'm making before God.
SPEAKER_02: And when you stand up on your wedding day, you're making a vow before God and these witnesses that you pledge your love, loyalty, fidelity, your energy, your effort, regardless of how the other person responds, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do me part.
SPEAKER_02: And you are making a pledge before God that this is your heart commitment.
SPEAKER_02: If we think of marriage as a 50-50 contract, as long as she gives 50 and I give 50, we're okay.
SPEAKER_02: But as soon as somebody stops giving their part, the marriage is in trouble.
SPEAKER_02: But if we see that it is a hundred percent commitment, irrespective of what the other person does, that you are committed to the relationship, that you are going to respond, as God has called you to respond in this relationship, uh, not to manipulate, not to try to get from your spouse something, but because this is the pledge you made before God, then we begin to understand the weight of what marriage is and the call of commitment that one is making when they stand before God and those witnesses to pledge their life and loyalty.
SPEAKER_02: Now, somebody may be sitting here thinking to themselves, well, I don't see the word covenant in Genesis, and I don't see the word covenant in Matthew or in Mark or in Luke, so why do you say it's a covenant?
SPEAKER_02: Well, in the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi, or for those of you who are Italian, Malachi, in Malachi chapter 2, there's an indictment that God gives.
SPEAKER_02: We're going to go back to this book in coming weeks.
SPEAKER_02: Um, but in Malachi chapter 2, there's an indictment that the Lord gives to the uh to Judah, to the Israelites of that time.
SPEAKER_02: In verses 14 and 15, Malachi chapter 2, and and in verse 13, they're talking, you know, they're they're wondering, well, we we we pray, we we do all of these sacrifices, we, you know, we're emotionally engaged in our worship, but it seems like God's favor isn't on us, what's going on?
SPEAKER_02: And in verse 14 of Malachi chapter 2, it's the prophet says this, but you say, uh, why does he not?
SPEAKER_02: Why does he not accept our sacrifices of worship?
SPEAKER_02: And verse 14, Malachi chapter 2, because the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth.
SPEAKER_02: When you made that vow, you made it between you and your wife.
SPEAKER_02: But God bore witness to the vow that you made, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.
SPEAKER_02: And so the very thing that they had pledged to do, they had done the very opposite of.
SPEAKER_02: They had made a covenant commitment to this woman in this relationship of marriage to be uh their companion, and instead of being faithful, they had been faithless.
SPEAKER_02: And so marriage is universally established for life.
SPEAKER_02: It is a covenant commitment, uh, and it is what God has called each one who has entered into this relationship.
SPEAKER_02: And even if you're married and you didn't recognize that this is what your marriage is, um it still is your responsibility before God.
SPEAKER_02: And you you can't say, well, uh, I didn't understand this when I got married, and so I can't be held uh accountable or responsible for that.
SPEAKER_02: Um of us have a growing awareness of what our call is before God in a multitude of areas of our lives.
SPEAKER_02: And so whether you recognize the weight of the commitment when you made it or not, here and now God is calling you to recognize and understand the full implications and import of that vow that you made to your spouse the day that you pledged your life, your sacred honor to him or her.
SPEAKER_02: And so this is God's call to marriage.
SPEAKER_02: Uh there is a whole second point that I want to make, but time eludes us, and so I will pick up here uh next week and continue to talk about the display of marriage, because my the other point that I want to make is an understanding that marriage is a covenant commitment between a man and a woman before God.
SPEAKER_02: But that what I want us to see as well is what that looks like in the display of marriage and for us to understand that that our marriage, the institution of marriage, and our marriage is to be a display of God's relationship with his people, particularly of Christ's relationship to the church.
SPEAKER_02: And look at Ephesians chapter 5, verses 22 through the end of the chapter.
SPEAKER_02: And so we'll pick up there next week and pick up on the idea of a covenant and how this covenant relationship bears itself out in the practical realities, and even to see how this bears into a living illustration of the gospel and our relationship with Christ, Christ's relationship with the church.
SPEAKER_02: And so I'll close us here.
SPEAKER_02: Let me close this in a word of prayer, and uh we will pick up next week and continue our discussion looking at these weighty issues.
SPEAKER_02: Um, so join with me as I lead us in prayer.
SPEAKER_02: Father, as we gather here this morning and we think about the weight of commitment of this institution of marriage that you have given to the human race for our well-being, for our good.
SPEAKER_02: And Lord, we see that this isn't just for Adam and Eve, but it is for uh all generations, and it is for us.
SPEAKER_02: And Father, I pray for each one of us here.
SPEAKER_02: Uh for those who have who have never been married and maybe don't plan on being married, and yet to understand this, to know how to pray for their friends and their loved ones who are married.
SPEAKER_02: For those who are about to get married and considering the reality of what they are about to undertake, that they don't undertake this lightly or unadvisedly, but soberly and in the fear of you.
SPEAKER_02: And for those of us who are in marriage, Lord, that we might recognize anew that you have called us and what we have pledged to do is to give ourselves wholeheartedly and unreservedly to our spouse.
SPEAKER_02: And may we do that to the best of our ability by your grace.
SPEAKER_02: And Father, I do pray for those who are here who are um who struggle with the pain of a failed marriage, that your grace and your mercy, your love, your forgiveness, and your full restoration to all those who come to you might be theirs in full measure, and that they know that they are in good standing with you and that your love is on them as your children.
SPEAKER_02: And so be with us now, Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Be glorified in our lives.
SPEAKER_02: We pray in Christ's name.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.