Let No One Separate

My name is Drew. I'm the pastor here at Hope Heights. Thrilled that you're here. I had casts as a kid. I, in fact, had casts when I was in middle school because my feet were growing too fast. And so my doctor made me wear casts on my feet my summer of seventh grade to try to slow down my feet, but my feet were too strong. They busted through the casts. That actually didn't help me emotionally to feel like the kid who had big feet that had to wear casts. But I've been hurt before and broken many bones in my life and worn casts, all sorts of different kinds of casts. They're a signal right to you. If you see someone with a cast, you kind of see, oh, something was hurt. Obviously, they're trying to hold something together so it can heal. And I wanted to share with you a story that's not so much it's our family story, but it's actually more of my wife Kelly's story. A few years ago, we were at Silverwood, I think it was for her birthday. We bought her Rollerblades. That was what she was excited about. And our daughters were excited. So we got her Rollerblades and we went family rollerblading. I think, actually I was walking, but just for my own safety. And our kids were rollerblading, and they were having a fun old time at Silverwood park down the road and went down a hill. And there were some things that happened, which still is debated in our family, of who maybe pushed who or fell on who. But Kelly ended up with a broken ankle. She ended up on the ground, and her ankle was not in the right direction. And her big, strong husband carried her off the trail. Remember that? That was the cool part of the story, to the car, and it wasn't real graceful. And we got her actually, that night. We didn't go to the doctor, but then we decided to, as her ankle swelled up a lot and was very dark colors and hurt her a lot, and went to the doctor, and very quickly, within seconds, he diagnosed that it was probably broken. And they healed up. Thankfully, there was a brace cast kind of thing put on it, and it healed up. And it was amazing, right? Thankfully, we live in a time. We can go get it healed up. She can walk. Everything's great. But not long after that, maybe six months. So after that, we were walking around just on a hike, and I don't know. It was a hike, man. Just on a walk. And she, like, something just hit her leg, like a stick or something, like brushed her leg. And her leg began to hurt again and actually bruised a little bit again. This might have happened to you. This happened to me too. In a location where I've already had an injury, you get a very insignificant injury again, but your body reacts as if it was the original injury. Remember, she got a bruise again and she was like, oh, it really hurts. And her foot all of a sudden was like, swelling up. And we thought all you did was get, like a scratch from a branch. We thought, who knows, maybe someone hit just the right spot and it like, did some kind of magical thing and it like, re. Broke her leg or something. We talked to a doctor, and a doctor just says, oh, your body does this thing where if you've already been hurt in a place, then even a little bit of another hurt or a wound or even just a little poke in that place might signal to your body that that big thing, that really hurtful thing is happening again. And then your body responds as if it's that. So your body might respond, like by bruising and swelling again to try to protect itself and heal itself from. From that broken leg, right? Which I've heard. Look it up, right? This happened. Like, I saw a story of a man who was bit by a snake and then later was on a hike and got scratched and his leg responded as if he was getting bit again by a snake. It's just a response your body has to a wound that you have. I share this because today we're talking about a topic. We're in the book of Mark. We've been in the book of Mark for a long time. We're finally through the middle of Mark. We're on the second half of Mark. We into Mark 10, and we're in an area of Mark, and we are walking into an area of Mark. Not because we picked this topic, but because Jesus picks this topic and Mark does. As we continue through Mark and today, the Pharisees and the leaders come to Jesus and they say, jesus, we want to know what you think about divorce. And when you hear the word divorce, the word divorce might, and probably for all of us, somehow can be like a scratch of a stick, right? We're in a school auditorium on a Sunday morning. But even in the. Even just hearing the word, you might already feel like a reaction, right? Of a lot of things, of a lot of a really hard broken wound that has happened to you. It might be directly part of your life as you've been part of a divorce. And maybe because as a child you were part of a divorce. Every single one of us is somehow connected, I would guess, very closely with a friend or a relative, if not in our own lives. With this I want to share this. This is the thing I want us to think about today as we go through this passage, though. This is a real thing. It doesn't just happen when my leg gets hurt. It happens deeply in me when I've been hurt, wounded, and I'm just a person living in a sinful, broken world that I react to things. And I want us today. I've been praying all week extra for this morning so that this week, the Lord, the Spirit of God this morning could teach us, could encourage us that we wouldn't swell up and bruise. But we could and we could really hear what God has for us today. I promise you, this passage has some very encouraging things for us. And it's not just what do we think about divorce? But I want us to not just hear that and it be like a scratch. We get on our hike and then we re encounter a very deep, very hard wound that we've heard. I want us to move into this and get to hear the really good news that there is in Mark 10 because there's really good news. Jesus. There is one verse in here that this week really deeply ministered to me. I had a little cry on my deck this week as I read this verse. And so I pray this week we could enjoy that together. As we do this again, we are in the book of Mark, so if you want to flip to Mark 10, we just got there. Welcome to Mark 10. We've made it through nine chapters of Mark. A few weeks ago, I had a little bit of a panic. I was driving in my car and I was remembering, when is Mother's Day? In my mind, Mother's Day is the first Sunday in May. And I was like, is that the week we're talking about divorce? And I was like, that's the worst planning ever of servants. We cannot do the divorce week and Mother's Day the same week. And then I realized next week is which we didn't. We don't plan this very well. We're not that good at planning stuff. Next week's the verse about let the children come to me. That couldn't be a better week for Mother's Day. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for planning that out. This week, though, we're gonna get to dive into this question these leaders come to Jesus with and man, he like, it's Jesus, right? He answers so well. Last week we got to talk about sin and hell, so why not this week jump into divorce and marriage and all that stuff. So we are in Mark 10. I'm going to read it. Read it for us. And then we're just going to take some time to walk through it. We've been loving. I've been loving at least standing up and just hearing the word of God and praying. So if you'd stand with me, I'm going to read to us Mark 10, just the beginning here, 1 through 12, and read the Word of God. And then we'll pray and get into this together and hear what God has for us today. And he left there and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan. And crowds gathered to him again and again, as was the custom. And he taught them, this is Jesus. The Pharisees came up and in order to test him, asked, is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife? And he answered them, what did Moses command you? And they said, moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away. And Jesus said to them, because of your hardness of heart, he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. And therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife. And the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate in the house. The disciples asked him again about this matter. And he said to them, whoever divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery against her. And if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery. Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you. That we've got to walk through the Gospel of Mark and see your kingdom and what that looks like. And that you've brought really good news. I pray we would repent and turn to you. Or that we'd embrace this good news. That we'd embrace life and joy and the peace that comes from knowing you. I pray today, as we hear these words, that they'd wash over us. And we'd hear what we're supposed to hear. That your spirit would encourage us to move towards you. That you'd wash away the things that are not of you. Lord. That today lies would be cast out of us. That hearts would be made anew. That stony parts of our hearts would be made flesh. Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you for these people. In this moment, we get together, we pray this in your son's good name. Amen. All right, you guys can grab a seat. All right, let's dig into this a little bit. We're going to just walk through the passage together. And this passage points us to some other places. In fact, Jesus even quotes some other places in this. We start here. They left there right before this. We saw. This is where Jesus was. He was holding a child and he was talking with disciples. We had this section where the disciples were talking about how great, who was the greatest of them. And we had got to hear Jesus talk about this real danger there is and thinking we're the greatest. This warning he gave to them about this sin especially I think this sin of pride, of thinking we're the best and this turning to him. And so we're not turning to this hell, this Gehenna, this place away from God. And so then we move to this other thing. Now this, this starts this series in Mark where we get to keep going or they leave places and move towards Jerusalem. And we're. So we're starting this walk towards Jerusalem, which this is important in the story because Jesus will move towards Jerusalem and eventually then we'll get there, he'll have. He'll ride in to Jerusalem, which is where he'll have his trial and he'll be arrested and he'll be crucified and he'll raise from the dead, big spoiler there. And he'll rescue all of us from sin and death forever and ever. But we get to start this march. The second part of Mark moves us towards Jerusalem. And so that's what some of this location is helpful for. He left this region of Judea and beyond the Jordan and the crowds gathered him. So he's teaching people. But what's really helpful here is to know this area that he's going to is the area that we've been to before where Herod was the king. You remember this story of Herod. We heard about Herod because Herod's the one who beheaded Jesus, cousin and very good friend and disciple, John the Baptist. In Mark, we heard this story where it kind of like. It's like we got a side story. It was like a flash. It was like one episode of the series where you heard the story of someone else and. And went back to the main story about Jesus is a story where John the Baptist comes before Herod and Herod likes him. But Herod has recently left, divorced his wife and his brother's wife has left her husband, his brother. And there's a complicated family there and they've married and they actually John the Baptist comes to them and says, like, you shouldn't have done that. And she's very upset and they have this party. And at the party, her daughter's dancing, and Herod wants to please her, and so she asks for the head of John the Baptist, and he gives it to her. There's a lot there. But essentially, John the Baptist dies. And part of that is because of his opposition of this exact question of calling them out on this divorce. And so we wonder here, the Pharisees test him. And I think maybe part of this test and part of why we're given this region is because we're in Herod's region now. Jesus is now in this region. We know the Pharisees are pretty upset. These religious leaders are upset. How could maybe we slow this down or stop this guy? This. He seems to be gathering a lot of traction. Huge crowds are gathering now. What does this look like? And maybe if Jesus also talks about these things just like John did, he would also have the same end that John had. And so this could be. We're not told here, but this could be an opportunity for them to stop Jesus because he could have the same outcome as John. It also could just be an opportunity for them to test them as they've tried to test Jesus. They do it sometimes just so that they can get Jesus to say something that would upset other people in their community. And so this for sure, would upset them. There is a divide in their community. There's kind of different thoughts, different ways of viewing divorce from you cannot get divorced no matter what, to you can. And there's actually lots of reasons you can. And so they're asking this, hoping maybe if he says, yes, you can, it would upset some and no, you can't, it might upset others. Like, that's a lot of. We think what's going on culturally in that moment as they walk up to him. I. We don't know a lot of. Almost all the commentaries, all the historians said we don't think they really want to know what Jesus thinks about divorce. We think it's actually they just want to try to test him and trick him so that he would upset people and cause a problem and make people not like him and maybe slow down or at least stop the ministry he's doing, which is also really hard. Heartbreaking, right? But they don't actually want to know what this is. His answer actually helps us understand that. So Jesus then responds to them by just asking them what he knows they would know. He says, well, why are you asking me? Right? He just says, what does Moses say? What does the law say we actually know in Deuteronomy what he says, he knows they would know this. This is what they would base their understanding of divorce off of. He knows they love the law. And this is where they would say, hey, the law says this, so we have to do this. And so he asked them, what is Moses command? And then they can say right away, well, Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away. If you think of the. See the way it's even said in this. And we know that from Deuteronomy 24, there is law written that says this. We can look actually at that. This is like a wild run on sense. I'm going to read the whole thing so you get the feel of the whole thing. But really, we just want to look at this top part. When a man takes a wife, this is what they'd be referencing. This would be the passage that would be debated over and really dug into. Especially this first part. When a man takes a wife and marries her. If, when he finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, there's that certificate of war, and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house. And if she goes and becomes a another man's wife, and the latter man hates her and writes her certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house. And if the latter man dies, who took her to be his wife, and then her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination before the Lord. Period. It's a long sentence. It's like talking to a kindergartner. This is the important part, this first part. This is the passage. This is Moses had to create, right? He had to say, what do we do with this thing? Because this is a thing. People get married and then they decide, specifically, culturally, just the men, just the husband get to decide, do I not want to be married to this person? And this is where they would interpret it differently. They'd use the same passage, but some would say this beginning, if a man takes a wife and marries her and then finds no favor in his eyes, stop. Some groups would say that's like a stopping point as they interpret it. And some would say, well, I look at the whole passage because he has found some indecency. That word indecency actually is tied more to, like, adultery, sexual indecency in her. So first, some groups in the Jewish community would say, if he finds her to be to have committed adultery, then he may leave her and serve her with this certificate, these official divorce papers. That's okay. Moses is like, that's okay. If that's happened. Some groups say, well, indecency could be broader than that. So maybe let's find broader than some groups had got to the point of saying, well, if I don't have faith, if I don't find favor in her, to the point of even. There are stories of writing kind of new law, as in, like, the way she cooks, the way she performs her duties, the way she cares for us. I don't like. I'd like a different wife. So the whole range of this, right? Pretty terrible whole range of this. And so this is what Jesus says. So tell me what Moses said. And they tell him what Moses says. All they do, though, is go back to what Moses said. Now, I'm going to stop here because I think this is similar, though, to where we see kind of a spectrum in the church even still today. We have passages. It's also unclear in the sense that we don't just say, here's the verse. This is how it is. This is why. This is a topic that is also really difficult at times to know what to do. I'm just going to give you this really quick. Today is not. The point of today, is not to unpack all the views of divorce and land somewhere today. I just want to. I just want to show you kind of where biblically we see in the church the different views, and if anything, you might leave going like, ugh, that's more confusing. But I want to at least get you there. And this is the thing maybe helpful to start looking at, pray about, dig into a little bit, sit with some gospel friends, discuss this, talk to people who have been through this, who've really wrestled through it. But here's what I'd say are some biblical views of divorce. There's kind of like five main sort of on the spectrum of it. And some of the tricky passages that are what make it difficult and the words in those passages that make it difficult. These are kind of some of the three passages that we see. Mark. The passage in Mark here makes it difficult because Jesus doesn't give kind of nuance to it. He actually is going to just say, it looks like he's just saying, you should not get divorced. We shouldn't separate people. But in Matthew, we hear the same thing said. He says, but I say to you that everyone who divorces his Wife, except on the grounds of sexual immorality. The word there is porneia, which actually people interpret a little differently, whether that's just adultery or just any kind of sexual immorality, or some even just say it's like immorality, like a generally. Then First Corinthians tells us, but if a unbeliever leaves, let it be so. The brother or sister is not bound. In such circumstances, God has called us to live in peace. So then there's another part to factor in. If a person is not a believer and you're married, how does that, does that add to it? Is that okay, then not okay. There's this word bound that we see in scripture and connected to marriage. And so what does it mean to be bound? Can you unbind it? And then in Romans we also hear, for example, he's just giving an example, but he uses marriage, for example. By law, a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him. So then there's. That adds to it. Does that mean you only could be released from marriage by death? So it's all like seem. Well, that makes it tricky. How does it actually work? Are those in different contexts? Are those in different people groups? Are we seeing those in response to things? It's not like a clear cut thing. So this tends to be the kind of main five biblical views of like, if people are. This is in the context of people are faithfully saying, I'm really trying to pursue the spirit of God and say God in this instance with this family, what do we do here? Because it's a lot more than just a hypothetical theological discussion, right? So we go from one side, which would be historically, people have said there is no divorce and we do not remarry. We've seen in the church, we've seen there is divorce allowed only from adultery and there's no remarriage to. There's divorce because of adultery or abandonment or abuse. And you can be remarried in instances or you can see kind of the spectrum here, right, where you can be divorced. A broader view of it because of the term would be a covenantal violation. There's lots of new terms in this world that are also made too. And you can be remarried. And then there's also just all the way to the other end. Kind of we should just go case by case and see what the Spirit you can even see in here, like how this moves, even kind of how charismatic a group of People would be how much spirit led. Depending on. Or just straight. We just look at Scripture, right? Depending on tradition of the church. These are people who all would say, we believe Scripture is true. We believe the Gospel is true. Jesus rose and died. We, like, put our faith in him. That would be like, pretty close. In all those things, there's the Holy Spirit, the Trinity is real. Like, we'd say those orthodox, foundational things. We still are all like, on this spectrum of things here. So Jesus is talking to a group of people who also would say within the Jewish community, we are on this place. And I think they're trying to test and say, but tell us which one of these is right. So then the other ones will be upset with you also. Then we can dismiss you as like, you're obviously not God, because God would know what's right. Really difficult. We also see a lot of other verses in Scripture other than Deuteronomy. In Malachi, we even hear God say that he hates divorce. A friend of mine who was years ago went through divorce. I asked him how it was going and he said, I agree with Malachi, too. I hate it. I think there's depending on where you are in it, how you've experienced it, right? We hear in the Sermon of the Mount also explanations about it. We hear lots of discussion also about marriage, which is where Jesus is going to take us. Here. This is what the thing I love about this passage in Mark is that this isn't. Jesus doesn't go, this is how it's supposed to be. You guys are getting it wrong and you're getting it right. He actually does. He models for us, I think, the way that we should be looking at these things. And he shows off how often I get myself stuck on issues. Throughout all of Scripture, he reminds them. They say, moses says, we can do it. Remember, we can send her away. And he says, because of your hardness of heart, he wrote this commandment. He says the reason he had to do that was because you're broken, because it's even an option that you created, probably a thing we shouldn't even had. You're looking for an escape plan when you're not enjoying the thing that originally God even gave you. We shouldn't even be having to talk about the exit plan in the midst of this. How much of Deuteronomy is us just dealing with consequences of sin and having to accommodate for those, rather than actually encouraging you to move towards what is right and true and what's holy and joyful and good? A picture I've been thinking about this week is this picture of sitting in a home, looking towards the exit, rather than enjoying the home around us. And it's made me think about. It's helpful maybe to think about a different category, a different topic even of how often in my life I've thought about this with a brokenness that I experience in my life is I think about, like, how much of this can I do and still be okay with Jesus, rather than how much can I enjoy what he's given me or even him himself? I just think, how much can I get away with this? How much can I, like, not do what God has for me? I'm looking like for the exit, sort of to get out of this thing God has for me, rather than just say, what if you enjoyed the thing God has for you, there's a reason he has this for you. This seems to be a way of life, I think, for people who are cursed with sin, that we find ways to accommodate sin and brokenness rather than enjoying them, enjoying him and what he has for us. And he seems to suggest here with this provision that Moses creates, that he's just trying to limit a problem and not actually solve a thing. But this is what's great. Jesus then goes to the intention God actually has. He says, he doesn't say, here's the right way. Here's how you should interpret that passage. He says, you know what? You went back to Moses. You didn't go far enough back. Let's go to how God actually created it. This is how he models it for us. How should we think about this thing? Let's go back to what God has for us, the way God built this to work. Moses was just trying to help manage a lot of brokenness. And let me show you when it worked, what it looked like. And so Jesus then does something very interesting. He quotes Genesis. He goes all the way back to the beginning. He quotes the first marriage from Genesis 1 and 2. These are two different parts of Genesis from 1 and 2. But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they're no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate. These are from these two passages. He just quotes Old Testament. I think it's really important for us to know. Jesus doesn't say, hey, you guys, don't stop thinking about divorce. You should think about how you could be great husbands, how you could be great wives. How you could be married? Well, he just says, what did Moses say? Well, what did. What did God actually do? What did he actually create? And he goes all the way back. He's just quoting Genesis 1 and Genesis 2. So God created man in his own image. This is such a powerful verse. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female. He created them. Jesus is saying a lot here by quoting this. He's affirming these passages. He's saying God created these people equal but different, and he wants to bring them together. And those people actually bear his image. Those people together give a picture to the world of what God is like in the world they're in. There's all these temples with all these statues all over the place that people go to and say, hey, Zeus picture. And they might throw some money. And they go, I'd like Zeus to do this thing for me. And. And now he goes, I'm gonna make living pictures of me because I'm a living God. And he creates these, like, statues, but alive images of him because he's a living God, the true living God. And he brings them together. The other thing Jesus then quotes, not only that is he also then says, that is true, friends, but also then those people will leave their father and mother, and they'll hold fast their wife. That man will leave his father and mother, hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. It's just one little verse that we read. How powerful. Of all the things Jesus could quote, all the things he could look at, how important for him that he wanted to see these. I'm going to bring these two lives together, and they're going to become one flesh. Even used the word flesh, not. I'm gonna put two roommates together. I'm gonna assign two people to the same cubicle who are gonna get some projects done together. I'm gonna make these two, like, best buds. They're gonna start, like, a cool podcast series where they're gonna do road trips and stuff. And you'd be like, man, they're the best. I'm gonna make them into one thing. They're gonna merge into one flesh. And that flesh, that thing, is gonna be an image bearer of me. It's gonna be this beautiful and holy thing. And so when you say, I don't find favor anymore in part of my flesh, I'm gonna remove it. It's devastating, deeply wounding. Because you're not just saying, I'd like you to move to a new cubicle. I'd like you to. To find a New place to live. You're saying, I'm tearing flesh apart. He's helping us see here. When you're saying, like, well, Moses said we can do this thing. You're saying you want to exit plans so that you can tear apart something that we put together, which is deeply wounding forever. Maybe not forever. We know there's a day when these things will be healed, thank God, because of Jesus, but for a long time. And then he says something that's not from Genesis. He says something very true, though, which is, this is where I had a little cry on my deck when I sat in this. He says, what? Therefore God has joined together, let not man separate. This is a phrase I say at every wedding. Some of you in the room, I might have got to officiate your wedding. This is a phrase we say at weddings, you might have heard at a wedding. It's just because it's in wedding talk. Let what God has joined together, no one separates. Some version of this, right? It's from here. It's from scripture. This reminds us of a few important things. He's saying. This is this beautiful thing that God has made. He's put people together. He's made them one flesh. And you're asking me, is there a way we can tear that apart? This is a really big question you're asking me. And he's also saying here, when you're putting those together, you're forgetting there's still one more person involved here, God, who actually is the one who has put them together. He's the one who's made it beautiful. He's the one that actually those two bear the image of. He's the one who's still there. He's the one we'll get to in a moment here. The one who really is the one who doesn't let us separate. I'm going to put a pin in that. I want to come back to that. I just want to get to this last part. Jesus, then. This is a tradition of rabbis at the time and disciples that they would kind of teach to a crowd. And then people were allowed to ask them questions. This is very normal. This is why we see this over and over in the Gospels. But at that time, in that area, you teach to a crowd, other people were doing this. And then people could ask you questions. Then you'd answer some of those questions. But then you'd take your few disciples and you'd sit, like, privately with them, and you'd maybe dig in a little more. You'd be able to answer more questions or. Or you'd even say some, like, harder things with them. We kind of still do similar things, right? You kind of teach generally to people. But then there's certain people you like, really dig in with. Well, he takes his disciples. Then. We've seen this in Mark already in the house. And they ask him about this again. I'm sure they're like, why didn't you just tell them? What's the right view of this? You brought them all the way back to the way it was supposed to be. You explain to them what marriage is. And then he said to them, whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. And if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery. He just kind of reiterates, but makes very clear, if you leave your wife for someone else, then you've committed adultery, you've been with someone else. He's kind of just defining what adultery is. But he also says this the other way. He says, if a woman does this. So people have different thoughts on what he's trying to say here. I think he's trying to be very serious, how serious divorce is. What you're actually, he's saying is a really big deal. He's also here saying something really, really important. At the time, there were some women who did get divorced, but generally women were not allowed to ask for divorce. Generally, men could just. Could actually just say, I would like a divorce. And then they could get a different wife. In fact, there was. Sometimes it was considered committing adultery against the other husband, not against the woman, because she was seen as less than. This is one of those moments where we see how Christianity actually changed culture for giving women equal rights. He actually, this is one of the places in Mark where we see Jesus actually goes. She also could leave her husband and she commit adultery. Now, this is like a negative way of talking about it, but Jesus is saying she also has the right to leave. If she does, it could be committing adultery. But he's putting him on the same playing field, which is pretty bold of him in these passages. Just kind of a side note, but interesting in this. What I want to do, though I don't want to miss this. Verse 9. I don't want to miss this. This is the one that is in my head because I remember memorizing this. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate. This is the one I would say at a wedding, we could declare over a couple, that we'd pray over a couple. I think in Mark, they're not totally aware of this. Because they haven't seen him go to the cross and die and rise from the grave. But we are. He's not just saying, I want you to understand how important marriage is, how important you are. What I've done here made one flesh. This isn't just. I'm not just bringing friends together. This isn't just like a casual thing. It's not just people hanging out to like this. There's something deep here, and there's a deep tearing that happens here. And I want you to pursue each other. And God is involved in this. He's also giving them this picture, as we've seen over and over. That thing, though, is bearing the image of something greater. And that greater thing is what I cried over on my deck. Being reminded that we have a God who says this to us. Whatever I've joined together, let no one separate and does whatever he has to to make sure we're not separated. And we know this from Ephesians 5 and the way he talks about marriage in Ephesians 5, Ephesians 5, we hear about. We get instructions for all sorts of things. What it looks like to be a parent and a boss and all sorts of things after we hear the gospel. And this is this passage that talks about marriage and what it looks like to mutually serve and love one another, to submit to one another. We hear in the beginning of this. It's like the title of this section. We hear about wives, but then we hear about husbands. And this is the description of a husband in this, which. We don't wanna miss this. All these passages we go. This just tells me how I'm supposed to live. And we could hear that in Mark. This just tells me how I'm supposed to think about divorce or marriage. But I think we're missing it. We're missing it if we don't go. But it's ultimately just bearing an image for the greater truth that if we don't walk away with, we're not going to be changed people. So let me just read this to you here. This. This is from Ephesians 5. Husbands, love your wives. As Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. That he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word. So that he might present the church to himself in splendor without 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. For no one ever hated his own flesh. See all the language, that's from, like, Genesis 1 even, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church because we are members of his body. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. So Ephesians here is going. You're reading this and you're going, okay, Husbands. All right, I got to. Okay. I should sanctify my wife. Cleanse her, washing her, water the word. I gotta wash her with my Bible. Or then I gotta present her. And spotless. I gotta make sure. A lot of baths, I guess, and then I'll blemish. I gotta love her. Well, be willing to give my life for her. And then once they want to make it really clear, what I'm telling you essentially, is, first and foremost, we have a God who said, nothing is going to separate me from you. So I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get to you and whatever it takes to run after you. And whatever it takes that gets in between us, whether that's sin or death or your own disobedience or your own brokenness, I'll do whatever I have to to make sure that we stay together. This is about that much more than it is about your own marriage. How very quickly I make this about my own thing. And I go, okay, I gotta find ways. I gotta make a checklist so I can love Kelly. Well, yes, yes, yes, yes. I want to love Kelly this way, so deeply that she's more beautiful than before. I want to care for her soul. I want to give myself for her every single day. That's the greatest job I can have. But only because I first learned and understand and was changed that Christ loved the church in this way. First, let's read it slowly. First, think about this. Christ sanctifies us. He cleanses us. He presents us spotless, holy, without blemish. How does all these things happen? In the same way. He loves us. He didn't hate us. He nourishes us. He cherishes us. We're of his own flesh. When we baptize someone, we say they go under the water and come out. That we're united with Jesus, right? That we die with him and rise with Him. It's because we're like, we're one flesh with Him. This is the great, the great, great news that we get to hear. As Christ loved the church, he gave himself up for Us, this is the great news we get to hear. This is from a book, gentle and lowly, which if you were here a few years ago, was quoted often is really helpful to understand some of this. But this, I think gets at it. We cannot present a reason for Christ to finally close off his heart to his own sheep. No such reason exists. Every human friend has a limit. If we offend enough, if a relationship gets damaged enough, if we betray enough times, we are cast out. The walls go up with Christ. Our sins and weaknesses are the very resume items that qualify us to approach Him. Nothing but coming to him is required first at conversion and a thousand times thereafter, and to with him upon death. Ephesians 5 reminds us that Mark 10 is not just talking about a divorce of two people, but a divorce that we essentially want to do with our Lord, that we want to walk away from Him. And he says, I will not let that happen. I will go to a cross. I will be nailed to that cross. I will be put in the ground, and I will suffer and I will die. But I will rise from the dead so that I can be with you forever. I will be a husband that you could never have. I will be the spouse you could never have. I'll be the friend you could never have. I am that and so much more. So whether you are married or you are divorced, or you are single, or you're a child, or you're an adult, or you're a believer or a non believer, or you've run so far from God, or you've worshiped other gods, or you're going to go home right now and you're going to sin, sin, sin all Sunday afternoon, or you yelled at your kid on the way here, or you're struggling if you believe, or you don't know where you stand with God, you don't even know if he exists. In all of those we have a husband who says, I will not separate from you. I'll do whatever I have to, whenever I have to. We hear this verse in Mark 9, 10, 9, that whatever that God has joined together, let no one separate. He calls that to us in our marriages. But ultimately he's saying, the image that you're bearing in a marriage is the image of a greater reality that we all hold in our church. An image that neither death nor life, nor angels or rulers, nor present things, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height or death, nor anything else in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. So the deep down, the desire I Have that I want so bad that I sometimes put on my wife that I want her to fulfill actually comes in Christ. The desire that I want so bad that I put on a relationship that's out there somewhere comes in Christ. The relationship with my friend or my kid or a co worker or that's just like out there. It's been given to us in Christ and he says it's right here. I offer it to you and it will not be taken away from us. It's really, really good news. I'm going to invite our worship team up to, to help us sing about this good news, to remind us of this good news. I think encourage us to continue asking the question maybe how can I not get out of this relationship with the Lord even, but continue to move towards this good relationship. I have a few questions here. As we move to a time of response of this good news, a few things to consider. Do you know Jesus who gave up his life for you? He has made a way so that you would don't ever have to be separated from him. Are you looking out, Are you looking for a way out of God's way? Consider when that is happening or why that's happening. Consider who reminds you of God's pursuit of you. Sometimes I get in the way of that. I, I want people to want me and I. You gotta have those friends who are like remind you that God is pursuing you, that he's running after you. That remind you just as in our marriage we have people who encourage us to move towards each other. I need people who encourage me to move towards the even greater marriage. And maybe who do you know who needs to know this good news? That whatever, wherever you're at, there is a God who deeply cares for you and you do not need to be separate from Him. We also love to respond in other ways. We take communion out in the hallways here at Hope is where we take communion. And so on both sides there are tables with crackers and juice. They're gluten free. They're kind of all things free. So everyone should be able to take them. We'd love for you to go with your family or friends and take communion. It's an opportunity for anyone who's a believer to, to break the cracker, to drink the blood, to remember that Jesus body was broken and his blood was shed, that he went that far so that we could be with him, that we would not be separated from him. He actually was separated from God so that we would not be separated. So we do that to remember that really good news each week. We love to sing together, so please do that in response. There's people who would love to pray for you in the back of the room. They'll have yellow lanyards. Please take them up on that. They'd love to pray for anyone, for anything. We always love to give here. The gospel just changes us into generous people. And so you can give in person. In the back, there's a black box. Or you can do that online. Let me pray for us. But I wanted to pray for us just by reading Psalm 136. It's one that, if you remember, like years ago here at Heights, we all. I think it was during COVID actually. We all recorded this psalm. You all sent me videos, this. And we played this remember back. Remember Covid? We played this back. This is a psalm that I remember. This is a song that feels almost like a poem read over a spouse. And so I'm going to read this to us as our prayer as we head out into a time of communion and worship. So let me pray for us here with Psalm 136. Give thanks to the Lord for he is good. His steadfast love endures forever Give thanks to the God of gods his steadfast love endures forever Give thanks to the Lord of Lords for his steadfast love endures forever to him who alone does great wonders his steadfast love endures forever to him who by understanding made the heavens for his steadfast love endures forever to him who spread out the earth above the waters his steadfast love endures forever to him who made the great lights for his steadfast love endures forever the sun to rule over the day for his steadfast love endures forever the moon and the stars to rule over the night for his steadfast love endures forever to him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt for his steadfast love endures forever and brought Israel out from among them. For his steadfast love endures forever With a strong hand and outstretched army for his steadfast love endures forever to him who divided the Red Sea in two, his steadfast love endures forever and made Israel pass through the midst of it Steadfast love endures forever but overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea, his steadfast love endures forever to him who led his people through the wilderness his steadfast love endures forever to him who struck down great kings his steadfast love endures forever and killed mighty kings his steadfast love endures forever he gave their land as a heritage his steadfast love endures forever A heritage to Israel, his servant his steadfast love endures forever Is he who remembered us in our low estate his steadfast love endures forever and rescued us from our foes his steadfast love endures forever he who gives food to all flesh his steadfast love endures forever Give thanks to the God of Heaven for his steadfast love endures forever.