Theology of Marriage - Marriage series (Sunday School)

So we've called this Marriage March, and it's a little joke

because, you know, March has been stolen by some other

things. You know, one of them was

Mustache March. And I just thought Marriage

March would be better than Mustache March or March Madness.

You know, everybody's thinking about college basketball well,

but marriage is or March is also a good time to prepare.

I'm in the middle of doing premarital counseling with a

couple who's going to get married at the end of April.

Many people are getting married in the summer.

I don't know if there's a specific popular time that

people get married. Usually it's, you know, summer

fall time frame because they maybe want to do it outside or

but people get married in all times of the year.

But we decided we would take the month month of March, not just

this year, but we want to look forward yearly kind of do a

marriage course eventually have our own conferences as well.

So we're starting you are a part of the the groundbreaking work

of having our own material to share for marriage mentoring or

marriage discipleship, marriage counseling, premarital

counseling. And so we do want to have

resources for you to use as well.

This is a 2 week study that we're going to do and my portion

of this Mike's doing next week. Today I'm going to talk about

the theology of marriage. So the theology of marriage is

really what the Bible has to say.

What what has God said about marriage?

And then so that we can know how we're supposed to be in our

marriages. And I believe I, there are three

key things that I think are important from the Bible.

I'm sorry, I'm just going to move up to this to the pulpit

here because I feel like I'm going to have to turn around a

lot. And, and I'm short and so you

guys can't even see me while I'm standing on the floor anyway, so

three points that I want to talk about are God's design, God's

purpose, and God's illustration for marriage.

Now in order to get a proper understanding of what the Bible

says about marriage, we have to go back to the very first

wedding ceremony and the very first marriage.

And so, well, let's look at our first section as we look at

God's design for marriage. And we'll look at Genesis

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2 where God brought Adam and Eve together, the first

human beings in a beautiful wedding ceremony.

It says this, but for Adam, there was not found a helper fit

for him. So the Lord God caused a deep

sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept he took one of

his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.

And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made

into a woman and brought her to the man.

Then the man said, This is at last is bone of my bones, and

flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman,

because she was taken out of man.

Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold

fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

And the man and his wife, we're both naked and we're not

ashamed. So the first thing I want to

point out in God's design for marriage and and God's design

for humanity is that marriage is about one man and one woman.

It always has been and it always will be.

Now people will question, well, why was there polygamy allowed

in the Old Testament? And that question is easily

answered, that God never commanded that anybody should

have multiple wives, but He allowed allowed them to do that

in their sin and in His sovereignty and Providence.

He brought about His plan even in man's failing to follow God's

design and follow God's commandments.

So it's always been one man and one woman.

In fact, if you look at the New Testament, you know, it says the

qualifications for an elder is to be the husband of one wife.

So all these other religions out there that have talked about or

had polygamy involved in their religion, just know that they

were never qualified to be a pastor and elder of a church in

the New Testament because they were supposed to be married to

one, one woman for life. So this also means that there

are only two genders. You know, I know that's not

necessarily a part of this, but we do need to understand that

God created man and woman. He didn't create any other sort

of human being. And there was no confusion.

We've always known that we were either man or woman.

There are physical characteristics to that.

There's DNA and all this stuff that we understand now in, in,

in science. But Simply put, there's only two

genders and God brought them together on purpose, which not

only means that there's a one man and a one woman, but in this

passage you see that it says that they shall become one

flesh. You see man and woman when they

come together in marriage, it's a symbolism and of of two

becoming one. And and part of that is

intimacy. And we'll get to intimacy later.

But this this oneness that is pictured when men and women come

together as they are physically and literally one at some points

in time. But spiritually there's a a

oneness to men and women as well that also is symbolic of God who

is 3 in one Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

We are not triune, but when God said let us make man in our own

image, there are several things that are implied in that.

None of it is that we, we look like God physically, but

spiritually speaking, we have some of the characteristics and,

and, and things that God has. We share some of the same

attributes. They're called communicable

attributes, by the way. So in God's design, there is one

man, one woman, and there's a oneness to that.

There's a beauty that in this story it says that Adam, he was

alone. He was all by himself.

If you go back to the earlier portions of this story, it's

said that he was allowed to name all the animals before woman

ever came about, but it said that there were it was there was

no help or fit for him. And so God decides says that

it's not good that man is alone and decides to take a a rib out

of his side and makes it into woman into even then he brings

them together. And the oneness in our marriage

points to a completion that happens when we do get married.

We're not necessarily the fullest human being until we

have a partner. And that oneness is is a part of

God's design. Now I have to say this, that

while I believe that a majority of the population should be

married, there is something called singleness in the Bible

as well. Some people are called to be

single and single for the rest of their lives, to devote their

lives to the work of the Lord, and that's a good thing.

But that is not normative. That's the exception to the

rule. I do believe that most people

should get married. And so if it was, if it was up

to me, you know, when, when all of our young adults, you know,

reached adulthood, you know, in our church, what we would do is

we would just get all the single women on one side, the single

men on the other side. And then we'd say find a

partner. Because this is going to make

you whole, a whole person. It's going to teach you a lot

about life in other cultures. By the way, they didn't, they

didn't, you know, do it, do it like how we do in America, you

know, wait so long to get married.

They were, in fact, paired up by their own parents, you know, So

it's not a bad thing to think about getting married early,

early on. If I would have got married

earlier, I probably would have sinned a lot less and probably a

lot more mature than I am further along.

But I have been married for almost 15 years coming up in

May. And in that marriage.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Yeah. God has completed me.

You know, that's where the, the, the the word complementarian

comes from, by the way, Complementarian.

Everybody thinks it's COMPLIMENT.

That's compliment. That's to say something nice

about someone else. Right.

But complementarianism is spelled not with the I but with

the E because it means more of a completing.

When men and women get together, they complete.

You've heard that saying before. What was it not in?

What was that movie with Tom Cruise?

And what did did he say you complete me?

Yes. And then somebody said you had

me at hello. Yes.

But the the you complete me thing is true.

It is true. We are completed.

There's there's a there's something we're missing when we

are, we don't have that partnership and God's using it

to make us a whole person. But complementarianism, let me

just explain that really quick because it's the word.

So that means that men and women have their different roles, OK,

That we don't believe that men and women are the same

physically. They don't have the same roles

in the home. They don't have the same roles

in the church. It doesn't mean one's greater

than the other. It just means that God designed

men and women to play and to be a specific person and to play a

specific role. Mike's going to talk about that

more in the end. I'm going to save questions

until the end. So if you have questions, please

ask them. But I want to do it at the end.

And so let's move on in God's design, Mark, Jesus talks about

this. Jesus quotes this section of

Scripture in trying to teach some principles about marriage.

And we find that in the book of Mark, Chapter 9.

Mark 9 · chapter mention

Let's go to it. It says, but from the beginning

of creation, God made them male and female, supporting that it's

a man and a woman. Therefore a man shall leave his

father and mother, hold fast to his wife, and the two shall

become one flesh. So they are no longer 2, but

one. And what?

Therefore God has joined together, Let not man separate.

And so here's what Jesus clarifies.

It's not like he's adding a new rule.

Divorce was always wrong in God's eyes.

It was never God's will and plan for divorce.

But what he's saying is, so you've heard this teaching and

let me remind you, because this is this is the portion where

Jesus talks about divorce in in the New Testament, because he's

asked by some of the Pharisees, the religious leaders, like what

did Moses mean when he wrote a certificate of divorce?

And he's saying, well, look, let's go all the way back before

Moses. Let me tell you God's design

here. God's design was that what God

has brought together the 2 become one.

Let man not separate, let not our our flesh, our desires, our

sin, our our way of thinking, our ideology come in between the

design that God made between man and woman.

Now, again, this is a touchy topic because many of us in this

room probably have experienced or in some way, shape or form

been affected by divorce in your family.

And, and so then the questions always is what is that of me?

Am I, am I living in sin right now?

And, and what I would say is divorce is a sin like all other

sins that God can forgive and we can move on from it.

And, and there's several places in Scripture that talk about,

OK, there are some caveats to that.

You know, if there's, you know, adultery, Jesus says that in the

New Testament, if, if one of the spouses is unbelieving and they

want to leave, then Paul says in First Corinthians, you can let

them go. And so there's, there's

abandonment or if one of the spouses passes away, then you're

free, you know, to go marry again.

But also, even if in sin and the other person is now married and

you didn't quite fully understand, you weren't fully

walking with God at the time. And, and now you're married

again, You're not living in sin. You're you're now following the

Lord because you're married now you can't get divorced again to

go remarry the person that you should have been with.

And that's probably we all know that that wouldn't work out

anyway, right? So let me, I just wanted to, to

just clarify that. But God's design is that it's a

lifelong commitment. God's design for marriage is

that we that's why we say till death do us part because as we

get later into this, it's it's symbolic again of of God's love

for us and God's commitment to us.

We are meant to stay with the same partner lifelong.

That's what God wants. Now I don't need I don't need to

keep beating the that up longer than what it is.

But practically speaking, this is what I've always said in, in

marriage counseling. And I'm just going to admit

right now, I, we've already done it in our marriage.

But, but if you're going through something right now, you're

married, but you've been going through fights and maybe you're,

you feel like you're at the edge, at the brink of something.

Let me just challenge you with this.

Never use the D word in your fights.

Don't use it. Don't bring it up.

Let's just say right now that that word is off limits because

what ends up happening when you bring that up is so much

insecurity, so much, you know, kind of shame and worry.

Like if, if, if we're supposed to be committed as Christians

lifelong to one another. But this thing or that thing is

causing you to question all that we've ever been through, all

that we've ever done together, and you're willing to call it

quits. Because now I understand it can

get so hard. It can get so, so dark.

It can get so troubling in marriage that that it's tempting

to think about that, right? And you think about it, the

temptation of what? What would life be like on my

own, just single, or what would life be like with with someone

else? I understand the temptation.

We all have that temptation. The Bible says even Jesus was

tempted like we are, yet without sin.

And so we've all have that temptation and it is can be

natural to us and our flesh, yet we have to fight.

This is why we're going through the theology of marriage first,

getting the, the foundation first is that God designed it

this way that it's one man, one woman for life.

And so I hope the person that married you made that clear.

Usually when I do premarital counseling, we, that's my first

lesson. I take people through very

intense. You know, people are thinking

it's going to just be this nice. You know, we're, we're getting

to know the pastor. This is going to be fun.

We're going to celebrate. And it's no, it's very intense.

Like, hey, what do you guys believe about divorce?

Let's talk about this. Here's what the Bible says.

Are you a Christian? Are you willing to, even when it

gets hard, keep this commitment to the end?

Because if you're not, you guys aren't married yet.

It's OK. You guys don't need to keep

dating. You don't need to keep going.

You're not ready for a lifelong commitment.

You know, when all those other things that we used to say in

marriage, I don't say, I don't know if we say them anymore at

the ceremonies. But you know, in sickness and in

health, for richer, for poorer, for better, for worse, till

death do us part. I mean, it all is is talking

about because sometimes the other person isn't putting in

any effort or the other person is really difficult or going

through a season of extreme immaturity or extreme sin.

Are you willing? As I said, this is all a kind of

an illustration which we're going to get to, to play the

role of Christ and bear that person's burdens and bear that

person's sin for a season. Be forgiving and gracious like

God is to you. If you're not willing to go

through that, then marriage might not be for you or you need

to understand God a little bit more.

All right, let's move on to now. God's purpose.

What is His purpose? That's His design.

Now, what's His purpose for marriage?

He's surely got a purpose for marriage.

Going back to Genesis 218, then the Lord God said it is not good

that the man should be alone. I will make him a helper fit for

him. I mean, practically speaking,

and we've all been lonely. I know.

We all know what that feels like whether you're married or not.

And one of the purposes of marriage is that we would have

someone that sticks close to us. That is our best friend.

That is someone that we can talk to and share life with.

I've heard that it was said like you can amass all the wealth and

all the possessions in the world, but it means nothing if

you have nobody to share it with.

And I believe that to be true. And also we all need help from

time to time, right? I love it when my wife and I

we're struggling with something that might not be related to the

other person, but it's something about our lives going on and we

can just come home and sit down and have a talk and I just need

to unload some stuff on you. How I'm feeling.

And another word for helper. It's interesting if you think

about God's design and kind of being made in the image of God.

God calls the wife the helper. And then the Holy Spirit in the

New Testament is called the helper.

The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will

bring to remembrance all that I've said to you.

Yeah. That's the purpose of the wife.

Yeah, exactly, exactly. If you're not listening to the

Holy Spirit, the second helper can help you remember what God

has said. Yeah, but another word for

helper. The the the Holy Spirit's also

called the counselor. The counselor.

And isn't it wonderful? And that doesn't mean that it's

just the the wife's role to be the helper or the counselor.

We're made in the image of God and in this oneness we get to be

this to one another. But again, as I was saying, it's

so wonderful to be able to just unload and talk.

And the best counselors are listeners, not talkers.

Honestly, the best counselors, the best sessions I've ever had

in counseling is when we just go there, just lay it all out.

I'm a verbal processor. So after I've said a lot of

stupid stuff, I start realizing it's stupid and the counselors

not like, not as hard on me as I am.

Sometimes we need someone to be a little bit, you know,

challenging to us as well. But my wife is so encouraging to

me. She is a cheerleader of mine,

big supporter. And when I have anxiety, when I

am struggling, I love that I'll be able, I get to say even when

I get down from preaching on a Sunday, It's the weirdest thing.

I come up here prepared. I spent, you know, I kind of put

my heart and soul into it and and I'll go home and I'm like,

did that make any sense, honey? Like, I just feel like I don't

know, I failed or something. I always just get that feeling

after I'm done and she lifts me up.

She knows that I'm insecure and that I need some support.

And maybe she'll, and if I press her hard enough, she'll actually

say, I'll say, but what about this?

And, and, and maybe she will give me some critical feedback

as well. But those both of those things

are good. And God has put that right into

the purpose of our marriage. Now I don't want it.

I don't. Let's now let's take it to the

other side and let's not overdo this helper role and, and turn

it into nagging, you know, or not trusting the Holy Spirit

that the Holy Spirit's not going to work in the other person.

You don't have to play the role of God in the person's life

either where where you're so impatient that their

immaturities, their sin or their struggles aren't coming about

that I've got to make sure that some change happens.

That's not any of the spouse's responsibility to do.

There is a a fulfilling of loneliness.

There is a a help in God's purpose for marriage and

practically speaking, the Bible has this beautiful thing in the

book of Ecclesiastes that talks about how 2 are better than one.

And I usually include this in every marriage ceremony I do.

It was in my own I believe right?

Ephesians 4 says in verse 92 are better than one because they

have a good reward for their toil.

For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow, but woe to him

who is alone when he falls, and has not another to lift him up

again. If two lie together, they keep

warm, but how can one keep warm alone?

And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, 2 will

withstand him. A three fold cord is not quickly

broken right here. This is just so practical,

right? It makes a lot of sense. 2 are

better than one. Two people are stronger than

one, right? Two people can carry a heavy

thing up the stairs while you're moving better than one can,

right? Even though you bicker at each

other while you're doing house projects or moving things

around, at least you have that helper there to help you move

things rather than have to call a company and pay some money,

right? Maybe sometimes it's better to

pay that money and not have to get in the fight about the house

project. That's what we're actually

thinking about that right now. By the way, we were, you know,

you guys heard the story of us staining our cabinets and how

big of a deal that was. But we made it through and we

love it. And there have been times we've

done projects together and it was like, this is a marriage

building exercise. This is great.

We had time together. And then there's other times

when we did projects where it's like, OK, I see why we hire

people to do these things. Sometimes, you know, in those

situations, I'll just say you need to pick the one who's going

to be the leader, you know, the one who's going to be the

designer, the, the, the, the one who says here's the vision for

it. And then the other person can

play the role of, of helper. And but that takes some humility

sometimes, you know, because if you're both wired that way, like

both this visionary, like I've, I've, I've overstepped sometimes

when it was my wife's project and she wanted to do it a

certain way, but I had opinions on it.

And those opinions really didn't matter.

Never do. OK, Well, I'm glad I'm not

alone. All right, Sometimes you just

got to let it be the project and you serve.

You're the number one servant right there.

This, that last verse, a threefold chord is not quickly

broken. At my my wedding ceremony, we

took this 3 stranded chord based off of this verse and it was

symbolizing our lives being braided and, and during the

ceremony, she I was holding it and she was braiding it and it

symbolized our lives in woven together.

And the middle strand represented Christ and we were

weaving our lives together around Christ.

And that's even stronger. Not just two, but the third

person, God himself. That can't be when you base your

marriage on God's design and have him be the purpose of your

marriage as well. Like He's the center of your

lives and so you guys are kind of headed in the same direction.

That will strengthen your marriage and it's not easily

broken. There are more purposes to

marriage. First Corinthians 72 But because

of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have

his own wife and each woman her own husband.

Verse 9 But if they cannot exercise self-control, they

should marry. For it is better to marry than

to burn with passion. I, I talked about this earlier

when I said, you know, I would pair up young adults, you know,

just let's, let's just let's get this to happen.

Let's make this happen soon. Now, I'm not bashing anyone who

took a long time to get married or, you know, spent several

years dating or, or whatever it is.

We, on the other hand, we got married five months after we

started dating. And I'll tell you what, we

brought a lot of baggage into the marriage.

We didn't quite fully know each other.

We committed to spending the rest of our lives knowing each

other, but we didn't quite know each other like we thought we

did. And, and we did end up, you

know, having a a lot of rough times the first many years of

our marriage. But one thing I would say,

though, is that the Bible is clear that if you struggle with

sexual temptation, you should get married.

It's pretty simple. Like that is one of of of God's

ways for you to end that sin. Now you shouldn't do it just for

that reason, but this should weigh in on your decision to

think about finding a partner is if you're constantly sinning

against the Lord because of your temptation to sin.

You see, again, God brought together men and women to

fulfill not just for procreation.

That's also a part of this, by the way, to, to fill the earth

and populate. But he, he, he made intimacy, he

made sex a good thing, pleasurable so that we would

procreate, but also so that we would have a fulfillment in one

another, that we would have have joy in one another, that we

would share something so special in this relationship more than

any other relationship. Again, pointing back to the

oneness that I talked about of man and woman that God created.

It's a beautiful thing used in its proper context.

Sex is only meant in a covenant relationship between a man and a

wife. So only marriage and only

marriage between a man and a woman.

That's the only place for intimacy and sex specifically.

And then the other thing is holiness.

As I said this, this is to help you fight your sin.

But even even beyond that, even beyond just the fighting of the

sexual temptation, and there's so much we could talk about

about sex and marriage. And that's a whole other course,

right? We'll talk about that in the

future, but but sin in general, God gives you your spouse so

that you can start living out the commands in Scripture and

you can have someone to remind you when you're not.

As I said, like the role of the the Holy Spirit in a sense, the

helper, the counselor, the one who brings to remembrance all

that I've said to you. There's a conviction, there's an

accountability, there's an iron sharpening iron type of a thing

happening in marriage first and foremost.

And then there's this thing where we're following the

commands. Everywhere in the Bible it says

love one another. Who are you supposed to first

practice that with? Your spouse?

If you can't love the person closest to you, what makes you

think you can really love? Do the love one another's to

everyone else out there in the church.

Now it seems harder, but because because you have the affliction

and the the the the friction and the conflict and things at home.

But this is the command that we're supposed to love one

another and the spouse is supposed to be the first one you

love and love the most and love the best and give the most of

your love to other than God. John 1334, a new commandment I

give to you that you love one another just as I have loved

you, you also to love one another.

By this all people will know that you are my disciples if you

have love for one another. And everybody we always look at

this verse and we think, Yep, we're supposed to love each

other at church. And yes, that's that's true.

But who's the most important person at church you're supposed

to love, right? She or he is included in that as

the number one person. You're supposed to love one

another. And so people should be able to

look at our marriages and say those people are disciples of

Jesus Christ because of how they love one another.

This should be, again, our goal, our purpose.

Our purpose is to learn how to love.

By the way, we are selfish people.

You know, coming into this, we learned so much about what he

meant to truly love another person.

You don't really learn how to until you're put in that

situation because to love another person isn't to love all

the ways that you thought you were supposed to love or the way

that you receive love. Well, I don't need this or that

or I don't receive love this way.

And, and so I'll just give it to them the way that I feel.

Is that really the greatest form of love?

Or is love what we see in Scripture from Jesus himself

sacrificial? We love the other people in our

life based on how they want to be loved, not how you think that

they should be loved, how they want to be loved and meeting

them where they're at. It's a sacrificial thing.

It's very easy to just go ahead and, you know, say I love people

with the the love that I like receiving from people for yeah,

we should be able to do that. But we should go above and

beyond what's comfortable to the uncomfortable, and marriage

helps us learn how to do that. And that's another one of God's

purposes to teach us how to love.

Now I want to move on then to the last thing.

What does marriage represent? Well, it's an illustration as

I've said and I've alluded to. We'll go to Ephesians 5.

It says in verse 22, why submit to your own husbands as to the

Lord for the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ as

head of the church, his his body and his him himself its savior.

Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wife submit in

everything to your husband's. Now next week Mike's going to

dig into the practical and roles and responsibilities of this

verse among several others. But the point I want to use this

verse today is to say that God's illustration for marriage is

about our relationship with God. It's the gospel.

It's Jesus Christ has come and, and and set apart and committed

to a certain group of people who are by faith committed to him.

We, our marriages represent the relationship that we have with

Jesus. It's the, the, the gospel.

That's why you see in this the as to the Lord Christ is the

head of the church himself, its savior.

As the church submits to Christ, wives submit to their husbands.

So again, it's this church Christ thing.

OK, so so wives are to be, you know, submissive because that's

what we are to the Lord in our relationships.

He's our our Lord. We love him, Christ is our head,

Christ is our Savior. And then, you know, it goes on,

says husbands. Then love your wives as Christ

loved the church. He gave himself up for her that

he might sanctify her, having clenched her by the washing of

water with the Word, so that he might present the Church to

himself in splendor, without any spot or wrinkle, or any such

thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own

bodies. He who loves his wife loves

himself. So we talked about the wife

representing the Church. The husband now represents

Christ's love. And so back we looked at that.

The whole world will know we're the disciples of Christ by how

we love one another. Well, they will also know who we

are, or they'll maybe even be pointed to the gospel by how we

love and submit to one another. Because the relationship of

marriage is an illustration of Christ and his bride, the

Church. The the husband is supposed to

be sacrificial like Christ, loving without expecting

anything in return, helping to disciple through the Word,

cherishing and honoring, loving. And it goes on to say, For no

one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes that

Christ does the Church because we are members of His body.

Therefore we come back full circle to where we started in

the book of Genesis that's been quoted several times.

Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother, hold fast to

his wife. The two shall become one flesh.

This mystery is profound and I am saying that it refers to

Christ and the Church. However, let each one of you

love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she

respects her husband. Now quickly on verse 33, there's

a whole book and kind of ideology written on this idea

that men are wired for respect, women are wired for love, and if

we would get that, we might be able to have better marriages.

Take with that what you will, but this whole passage that we

always use for marriage is really not talking about

marriage as the number one thing in the passage.

It's talking about Christ and the church.

It's talking about the gospel, this mystery.

Refers to Christ in the church. I love how the NLT uses it.

It says this is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the

way Christ and the church are one.

We are living examples of our faith in our marriages.

Our marriages are so important to God that he designed it right

into it that we would represent Christianity, that we would

represent the gospel, that we would represent the love of God

right in our relationships, in this oneness that we have.

We represent God in his, his, his character, in his nature, in

the the Tri unity, we represent his, his character and nature.

In his love, we represent his love for us.

We're a walking billboard and not just by ourselves.

We all know that as Christians by ourselves, yes we are to

represent Christ, but specifically in your marriage

together. You're supposed to be walking

together to present the gospel to the world.

But you have to 1st recognize this in your own heart to be

able to be able to, to represent it in the first place.

You, you need to in your own heart, have an understanding

through your marriage. Just like we say in parenting,

when we have that child, our first child, we, we start to

realize, oh, now I know the love of God, 'cause I'll never leave

this child nor forsake them. And, and even though they

abandoned me, I will, I will always, you know, go back for

them. I love them unconditionally.

We say that about parenting, but what about marriage really?

I mean, how often have we got mixed up in our own families

and, and, and made the the child parent relationship more

important, more gracious, more gospel centered than the

marriage, than our marriages. Our marriages are the most

important relationship on earth. We are not one with our kids.

We need to understand that we don't have this oneness

relationship with our children. It's only with the spouse.

So we need to make sure to put those relationships in their

proper place and not even let the kids come in between that.

It is holy to the Lord. It is holy because it is His

illustration that He wants to keep ever present in our minds.

We as the Church are the bride of Christ, and we together as

men and women are the bride of Christ, and we together

represent that beautiful relationship.

Let me pray for you guys, Father, oh Lord, today I'm

preaching on in service demonic activity and how the enemy tries

to come and take its toll on earth and to thwart the plan of

God and make it miserable for us, Father.

And we know that he is a strategist and one of his great

strategies against the church is to separate this illustration,

this this relationship of Christians in the world.

Satan wants to attack our marriages.

And I just pray against that. Lord, in the name of Jesus, I

pray, Father, that you would protect us, deliver us from evil

and temptation, and not just from him.

Then also I switched that to our own hearts.

We have evil in our own hearts, even as Christians.

We're not, it hasn't been fully eradicated out of our our nature

and our being. And so we still live by the

flesh. We still live by selfishness and

we forget to follow your ways and your word and to love the

way that you've said. And so, Father, I pray that

first you'd forgive us for the sin in our marriage, that you

would forgive us for not following your commands and for

not knowing or not remembering how important this is to you.

Pray that you would strengthen these marriages here today and

the marriages that that aren't in this room, but are

represented at our church. Father, I pray that you'd bring

about a a special blessing that starts today and moves on Lord

through the rest of their lives. That they would put one another

1st as they center their lives around you and that they would

Father just follow your design and bring you glory.

I pray in Jesus name, Amen.