What is Man - The Book on Marriage

We've been in a series called what is Man? God's

design for mankind? What is Man? God's design for mankind?

And when we see all that God has created, can't

help but stand in awe. Kind of blows our minds

a little bit sometimes when you stop and look at

all of creation. But it also pushes us to this question.

With all these incredible things that God has created, what

is man? What even is man in comparison to all

the massive and mind blowing things that God has created?

Why would man matter at all? Why should God care

about lil ol Us? Why? And Psalm eight has been

our anchor text for this series. I want you to

listen to this. Psalmate says, Oh Lord, our Lord, how

majessic is your name? And all the earth You've set

your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of

babies and infants. You have established strength because of your foes,

to still the enemy and the avenger. When I look

at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon

and the stars which you have set in place, What

is man that you are mindful of him? And the

son of Man that you care for him? Yet you

have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings,

and crowned him with glory and honor. You've given him

dominion over the works of your hands. You have put

all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and

also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens,

and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the

paths of the seas. Oh Lord, Our Lord, how majestic

is your name in all the earth. We are so

small and seemingly insignificant in comparison to all of creation

when you look around. Yet God is mindful of us.

God does care for us. He cares so much that

He has a design and a plan for us too.

God holds the blueprints, I say, the blueprints for what

humanity is and what humanity is for. And so that's

what we're talking about in this series. What is God's

design for us when it comes to mankind? What is

God's design for mankind? I want everyone to say, the

author of life has the best plan how life should

be lived. I want you to remember that that the

author of life has the best plan how life should

be lived. And I have a question for everyone here.

Wants a bad marriage, even if you're not married yet

think about the future. Who here wants a bad marriage? Anyone?

Just checking making sure nobody wants a bad marriage. No

one would want a bad marriage. And a bad marriage

is actually really easy to accomplish. You just do whatever

you want. You don't have to try to have a

bad marriage. You just take your hands off the steering

wheel and just see what happens. That's how you have

a bad marriage. But who here wants a good marriage?

Come on, now, a good marriage? Of course, we all

want a good marriage. So if you want a good marriage,

just go to a grocery store, stop by the magazine

rack and pick up the thing that says ten tips

to having a good marriage, or open up a blog

post that says how to please you're a woman or

your man. There's so many tips out there for how

to have a good marriage. But I want to take

it a step further. That was kind of a trick question,

you guys, because I want to take it a step further.

Who wants the best marriage? Now? That's what we're actually after.

Now we're talking we want the best marriage possible. That's

what we're all looking for. And what I want to

argue today is that the best marriages are designed by God.

The best marriages are designed by God because he literally

wrote the book on marriage. He has a plan and

design for marriage and what it's supposed to look like

as the one who created mankind and the one who

invented marriage, because that's not something humans came up with.

We didn't come up with marriage. God came up with marriage.

And since God invented marriage, he has the best plan

on how it should be done because the best marriages

are only found in walking according to God's design for marriage.

And the best part about it all, I think this

is the best part is He didn't leave us in

the dark. He actually told us how. He didn't just

tell us, He showed us how. He wrote the book

on marriage. And today I want to take a look

and see what this book says about marriage. And we're

going to look at three different places in scripture that

should help us see three very I think these are

very important truths for us today. And if you're not

married today, don't tune me out, because this is stuff's

going to be very helpful for you to know for

the future. It will save you so much heartache and

pain knowing this information before we get married, because statistically speaking,

everyone gets married at some point. So the three truths

about marriage that I want to see in scripture today

that I think are going to be very clear is

that marriage is purposefully designed, it is particularly defined, and

it's practically applied. And look at that. I made them

all start with a P and they almost all rhymed.

That was pretty cool. Thanks. Marriage is purposefully designed, particularly defined,

and practically applied. So grab your bibles, please, and turn

to the Book of Genesis, the first book in the Bible.

And if you need a bible, Gabe has them in

the back there. Just wave at them. He'll run it

over to you. And that's our gift to you, want

you to keep it. But in the first text that

we're looking at is Genesis chapter two, and we're going

to be reading verses eighteen through twenty five. And here

it's where we're going to see that God has a

purpose for why he created marriage. The marriage was designed

for a reason. But before we get into that, I

want to pray. So let's pray God, we thank you

for this moment we think of. This moment is like

no other. We will never have a moment like this again.

And so God, we just tune in to you to

hear what you have to say to us today about

your design for marriage. And even if we are sitting

in here today not married, that we still keep this

information close to us, close to our hearts, so that

we can set our eyes toward a marriage in the

future that is glorifying to you and according to your

design and plan, because you design the best marriages. So God,

we thank you for your word. We pray that it

does work in us today as we go through it.

Jesus name, everybody said a men, all right. Genesis chapter two.

This is verses eighteen through twenty five. God had just

finished making Adam. He created Adam, and he places him

in the garden to work and to keep it. And

then God almost immediately points out a problem. He just

finished saying I'd created this and it's good. Created this

and it's good. A created man, it's very good. But

now he's going to point out a problem. Everyone say,

marriage is purposefully designed. Then the Lord God said, it

is not good that man should be alone. I will

make him a helper fit for him. It's not good

the man should be alone. So God points out the

problem right here that he's trying to solve. In the

beginning of this verse, it's not good that man is alone.

The solution that God has for fixing this problem is

to make a helper that's fit for him. So the

whole reason that God decides to make a helper fit

for Adam is because man needs help doing the job

that God gave him. Verse nineteen. Now out of the ground,

the Lord God had formed every beast of the field

and every bird of the heavens, and brought them to

the man to see what he would call them. So

he gets to name all the animals, and whatever the

man called every living creature, that was its name. The

man gave names to all livestock, and to the birds

of the heavens, and to every beast in the field.

But for Adam there was not found a helper fit

for him. So the problem hasn't been solved yet a

helper fit, and that word fit means suitable or adequate,

So an adequate helper for Adam hasn't been found yet.

None of the animals did the trick. And if you

were watching this story unfold and hadn't read ahead and

didn't know where this is going, you'd be like what's

God gonna do. That's how you should that's what you

should feel. In the midst of this narrative, there's the

problem still there. He went through everything else in all

of creation, everything else that God had created, wasn't a

good enough fit, wasn't a fit helper for him. So

what's God gonna do? Well, let's keep reading verse twenty one.

So the Lord God cause a deep sleep to fall

upon the man, And while he slept, 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 at last is

bone of my bone, 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 what

his wife were both naked, and we're not ashamed. So

the problem that Adam had was that he needed help

to do the work that God gave him to do.

And God's solution to the problem marriage, which just funny

because a lot of times I think like marriage doesn't

solve a lot, it gives me a lot more problems.

It's because we do it wrong. Sometimes. God's solution to

the problem of Adam being alone and needing a helper

was marriage. God created woman from man, created the helper

that's fit for him. The two enter into a one

flesh union, and now Adam has the helper to help

him get the job done. So it's in this moment

that God creates marriage. This is where he creates it,

and his purposeful reason for creating marriage is for man

not to be alone and to have a helper. And

I think this is going to be really important for

us to remember today. We got to remember this very crucial,

crucial point. So if we forget the reason and purpose

for why God created marriage, if we forget this while

we're going through this, it's going to make it very,

very difficult to understand why He defines marriage the way

he defines it. Not just understanding the definition, it's going

to be even more difficult for us to accept the

roles and responsibility he's given husbands and wives in marriage

if we forget why He created marriage. So it's very

important for us to remember this. So lock it in

your mind, keep it in there as we move forward.

God created a marriage so that man isn't alone and

has a partner to help him do the job that

God gave him to do. Marriage was purposefully designed. There's

reason and purpose behind it. And next up, the second

important truth about marriage is marriage is particularly defined. It's

very particular. Once you had turned with me to Matthew

chapter nineteen, and here we're going to see the Pharisees

doing what kind of pharisees do. All the time, they're

questioning Jesus, they're testing him, they're trying to trap Jesus

in his words. And it's in the midst of this

exchange that Jesus actually gives us the definition of marriage.

So I want to look at verses three through nine.

And the Pharisees came up to him and tested him

by asking is it lawful to divorce one's wife for

any cause? Jesus answered, have you not read? Now that

have you not read? Saying it to this group of

people is a slap in the face, because these people,

these pharisees, these lawyers, these experts in the law, are

the most read when it comes to the scriptures. Have

you not read that he who created them from the

beginning made them male and female, 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.

Jesus is quoting Genesis too. We just read it. Jesus

is quoting Genesis to here. So they are no longer too,

but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let

not man separate. So right here Jesus gives us the

definition of what marriage is, and he's very particular in

what he said. Marriage is one man and one woman

in a one flesh union for life. One man one

woman in one flesh union for life. What God has

joined together, let not man separate. But of course the

Pharisees have to push back, because that's just what they do.

They're trying to push back on what Jesus said. But

then what does Jesus do. We actually doubles down and

shows them that his intentions for marriage is the way

it was when marriage was created. Look at verse seven here,

and they said to him, why then did Moses command

one to give a certificate of divorce and to send

her away? This is great, he said to them, because

of your hardness of heart. Because you are so stubborn

and hard hearted, Moses allowed you to divorce your wives.

But from the beginning, what does it say? It was

not so divorce is not what God intended for marriage.

That's not what God intended when he created marriage. And

I say to you, whoever divorces his wife except for

sexual immorality and marries another commits adultery. So Jesus continues

to just drive this point home. He's getting too a

big point. His intention for marriage is to be a lifelong,

one flesh union between one man and one woman, and

there is a very short list of things that break

that lifelong covenant. The only acceptable biblical reasons we see

for divorce, or the only things that we see God

define as an acceptable reason that a marriage covenant, the

lifelong marriage covenant is dissolved, is sexual immorality, most clearly

seen in adultery. So we just read that that's the

first one. Second one is a non believer abandoning a

believing spouse. We see that in one Corinthians seven point fifteen.

And the third reason is death first Corinthians seven thirty nine.

But outside of those reasons, God sees those two individuals

are still in this lifelong one flesh union covenant of marriage.

God still sees those people as married. God has particularly

defined what marriage is. It's very specific about it. One man,

one woman in a lifelong one flesh union. So that

means if that's how God defines marriage, that everything outside

of that isn't a marriage. It's not a marriage. That's

a second important truth. The third important truth about marriage

is that marriage is practically applied. And this is where

we will probably spend most of our time here, is

that it's practically applied. God has a design for how

marriage is to be lived out. He's given husbands and

wives specific roles within marriage, and they all flow out

of that very first point that we talked about today.

They flow from God's purpose for why he created marriage.

We need to remember that God created marriage, so man

wasn't alone, and so he has help to do what

God to do, the job that God gave him to do.

And so what we're gonna do now is I want

you to turn to Ephesians chapter five, because we're going

to look at Ephesians five. It's very helpful to see

how we're supposed to go about this, how we supposed

to go about our roles in marriage. And while you're

turning there, I also want to remind us that understanding

is often found in obedience. I'm gonna say that again.

Understanding is often found in obedience. Sometimes we don't understand

why God would have us do something until we just

do it. And it's when we finally submit to Him

and walk in obedience to what he commands. Sometimes that's

when thing the light bulb goes off or on turns on.

You're like, that totally makes sense, Thank you God. Now

I get why you told me to do that. So

sometimes we don't understand that until we actually walk it out.

All right, we Inphesians five, let's start in verse twenty

two with a word to the wives. Wives, submit to

your own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband

is the head of the wife. Even as Christ is

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

Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives

should submit in everything to their husbands. All right, Wives,

be honest. He stoke to hear this. Most wives or

women in general are not super happy to hear this, Like, really, God,

is that the thing that's the thing you want to ask,

that's what you would expect of me. But the truth is,

this is what wives you are going to answer to

the Lord for when you go see him face to face,

he's going to say, how did you do it? Submitting

to your husband? But he's an idiot. First off, don't slander,

don't talk bad about your husband. And secondly, that's the

idiot you chose to marry thereby choosing to submit yourself

to his authority. And all the idiots said, I'm not

calling you it. It's yeah, but that is not just

any kind of submission that we're called to here. If

you read this verse, what does it say? It says,

as to the Lord that raises the bar a little bit.

And the example that we're given here is how we

as the church submit to Christ. So I'm telling you

that you need to have your submission to Jesus in

view when you consider your submission to your That's what

you need to have in view, because if you don't

have it in view, then submitting to your husband will

always be difficult. There's a way to understand the text

that's in Genesis three that talks about the fall of

mankind and when God says to Eve, your desire will

be for your husband. Okay, that sounds sweet at first,

You're like, oh, you're going to desire your husband. But

what does he say right after that your desire will

be for your husband, but he will rule over you. Well,

why would those two things be pitted next to each other.

It's because this desire is not a desire for your husband.

It's the same way the desire of sin desires to

have rulership over you. So there is this strife that

is born out of our sinful flesh. You're not gonna

want to submit. You're not going to want to You're

going to want to rule over your husband. So we

have to keep in mind or you, ladies, I'm not

a wife, I'm a husband. You wives need to keep

keep in mind your submission to Christ for this to

be any easier. Understand your submission to Christ when you

consider your submission to your husband, because verse twenty four

is it still up there. So also, wives should submit

what somebody's saying. Someone be brave and say loud. The

husband says aloud in everything I didn't write that God did.

That's a lot everything. So also wives should submit in

everything to their husbands. At times, your flesh is going

to be screaming so loud. How could I ever? You're

gonna come up with every reason why you shouldn't have

to submit to your husband, or why you don't think

it's reasonable too, or that you don't have to. But

this is where I think you got to ask yourself

a really important question. Do I trust God's way for

my marriage or my own? Do I trust God's way

for my marriage? Or do I trust my own way?

Who designs the best marriages? God does. The best marriages

are designed by God. The best marriages follow his plans.

And if you're sitting here thinking yourself, how do I

even begin to do that? Or like, where do I

even start? I like things to be simple, so I

say start simple. Just ask your husband what do you

think we should do? And then get this, just do it?

Just do it. And if he's not used to being

the one to make decisions or comes back with a

I don't care side, note husband's We're going to get

to you in a second. You need to care. We

as husbands need to care. We need to step up,

we need to not be passive. We need to make decisions.

But why if your husband say he doesn't care, then

give him some options, because you and I both know

you've thought through a lot of them. Every wife's got

all kinds of solutions, So offer some and say which

one do you think we should go with. Be the

helper that God made you to be for your husband,

support him in his job as head of your family.

God calls the man to lead and made women because

he needed help doing it. So help him, but do

it in submission to him as the one God put

over you. And I do feel like this is I

need to have this like side note here. I wrote

it in my notes. When is the only time you

disobey an authority that the Lord has put over you?

Whether it is right in the side of God to

listen to you man rather than God, you must judge,

and we must obey God rather than men. That's Acts

fourteen and fifteen. We always obey the highest authority, and

the highest authority is God. And the only time we

disobey an authority that the Lord has placed over us.

This goes for men and women, is if they command

you to do something that God forbids or forbids you

from doing something God commands. Because we always submit to

the highest authority, which is God. So in short, wives,

if it isn't sinful to do so, submit to and

obey your husband. That's what God's saying here. So this

text and Ephesians continues in verse twenty five, and husband's surturn.

So wise you can take a deep breath. 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, but nourishes and cherishes it, just

as Christ does the Church, because we are members of

his body. Therefore, man shall leave his father and mother

and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall

become one flesh. Again. That's Genesis two. This mystery is profound,

and I'm saying that it refers to Christ and the Church. However,

with that in mind, let each of you love his

wife as himself and let the wife see that she

respects her husband. Marriage is meant to reflect the relationship

that Jesus has with the Church. That's the relationship or

the illustration that God uses throughout the whole Bible to

talk about his relationship with his people is marriage. And

when we look at a marriage the way God intended,

that's what we should see. Jesus really relationship with the church,

Christ and the Church. So this is a very tall

order for us husbands. It's a tall order. We are

to love our wives, but we don't get infined what

that love looks like. God gets to define that and

how does he define it. If you want to see

the proper way that you are to love your wife,

you look at how Jesus loved the church. Jesus is

the model husband. It's perfect. Jesus is the example of

a perfect husband. He sets the high bar standard of

love that a husband should have for his wife. Jesus

gave up everything for his bride. He gave it all up,

He laid down his very life, and he did it

to what this text has to sanctify her, to set

her apart, to cleanse her with the word to present

her in splendor that means no spots, no wrinkles, no blemishes,

to nourish her or feed her, to cherish her as

something precious, to make her holy. Jesus laid down his

life to save his bride from her sin. He gave

up everything so that we his church, his bride, can

be forgiven and receive eternal life. And this is the

free gift of salvation offered to all who repent and

believe in him, All who believe that Jesus, the eternal

Son of God became a man, lived a perfect life,

died on the cross for our sins, and rose from

the grave. Everyone who confesses that Jesus's Lord will be saved,

not might be saved. God will think about saving them. No,

everyone who confesses that Jesus's Lord will be saved to

guarantee it's a promise. This is what Jesus the perfect

husband did for his bride. Now, husband's I'm looking at us.

This is our model to follow. This is the bar

that is set for us. How are we doing? How

are we doing now? We aren't going to be dying

for the sins of our spouse. There's only one person

who can do that's Jesus and he did it. But

is our greatest concern? Her holiness? Is that our greatest concern?

And take a pause here, it's not in my notes.

Our greatest concern can't be keeping her happy? Because what

does your flesh want? Everything contrary to God? What is

the world promise? Everything that leads to death? Our goal,

our greatest concern for our spouse, our wife, cannot be

her happiness. It has to be her holiness. And we

are happiest when we're holy in falling the Lord. So

there's just a cherry on top right there. For that.

Jesus laid down his life to make his church holy,

and we are told to love our wives just like

that is our greatest concern. How can I shepherd my

wife to look more like Jesus? How can I model

who Jesus is to my wife? Am I going to

submit to the Lord and sacrifice of my own wants,

my own desires? To love my wife like Christ love

the Church and fellas. This is not easy in the

same way it's not easy for wives to submit. But

this is the blueprint that God has given us for marriage.

This is the design that God has for what it

means for us to be husbands. The best marriages are

designed by God. But just as I asked the wives

a moment ago, do I trust God enough to submit

to him and do it his way? Or am I

going to continue to try it my way? Do I

take matters into my own hands and try to force

it to work? Or am I going to step up

and be the head of the household like God commands?

Or am I going to sit back and be passive

and just let my wife take care of everything because

I know she will. Am I going to shepherd my

family through God's word? Or am I going to let

the church do that? For the record, Adam passively sat

by and watched as Eve ate the forbidden fruit, which

led to the fracturing of everything. So look at what

passivity gets us. God designed marriage to thrive when the

husband leads and the wife follows or is the helper.

And when that gets out of order, marriage is way harder.

Marriage is already going to have its own struggles and

strifes and conflict, But how much harder is it when

we get things out of order? I say, It's like

trying to stand up straight with a crooked spine. You

just can't do it. The author of life has the

best design on how it should be lived, and God

is the author of marriage, so his design is the

only way that it was meant to work. And I

have one other honorable mention when it comes to the

roles that God has for husbands and wives. So let's

turn to One Peter chapter three, and we'll read the

first seven verses. Some of this will sound familiar, almost

like we need to hear the same thing more than

once to remember it. Verse one. Likewise, wives, be subject

to your own husbands, so that even if some do

not obey the word, they may be one without a

word by the conduct of their wives when they see

your respectful and pure conduct. Do not let your adorning

be external, the braiding of hair and the putting on

of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear. But let

your adorning be the hidden person of the heart, with

the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which

in God's sight it's very precious. For this is how

the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn

themselves by submitting to their own husbands. As Sarah obeyed Abraham,

calling him Lord Calm, down fellas, and you are her

children if you do good and do not fear anything

that is frightening. So wives, let's kind of put all

this together here. Wives, be subject to your own husbands.

That just means submit to him. Be respectful that it's

to show reverence. Have pure conduct, it's genuine, honest, without fault.

Adorn yourself with a gentle and quiet spirit. How to

you explain that? It's sometimes easiest to explain by talking

about what it's not. What's the opposite of gentle and quiet.

It's harsh and rough and loud. And these are the

same kinds of things that the older women are told

to teach the younger women in Titus. Stay in first, Peter,

but I'll have the Titus text on screen. Titus Chapter two,

starting in verse three. Older women likewise would be to

be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, or reverent like you

can't talk bad about it because it's such good behavior.

Not slanders. You don't go around talking bad about everyone,

or slaves to much wine. You're not a drunkard. They are.

They are to teach what is good, and so train

the young women to do what to love their husbands

and their children. That's to be affectionate with their husbands

and to be fond of their children. That's what those

words mean. What else? To be self controlled takes a

lot of self controlled out of a gentle and quiet

spirit about you. Train them to be pure again, that

means to be without fault. Train them to be working

at home. That means being domestically inclined the one who

cares for the house. So, no matter what else a

wife might be doing, are they taking care of the

household affairs. As God is holding men accountable for protecting, providing,

and shepherding his family, God holds women accountable for caring

for the household affairs. Teach them to be kind, that's

upright and honorable. That's especially pertaining to those you serve under,

and submissive to their own husbands. Not someone else's husband,

not some other man, but submissive to your own husband.

Why also, that the word of God may not be

reviled again, all these things are not easy. I want

to make sure I help. I just recognize that these

things are not easier. Flesh does not want to do

these things. But this is how the Lord calls you

to be as a wife. This is the role and

responsibility that God gives wives, and this is the design

to follow to have the best marriage. And every single

one of you has said you wanted the best marriage.

Back to our Ephesians five text, Paul moves to husbands

in verse seven, look at this Likewise, husbands, live with

your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the

woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with

you of the grace of life, so that your prayers

may not be hindered. This is hard for us husbands

to live with our wives in an understanding way. Sineces

a little challenging wise, because youve got to stop thinking about

yourself for a second. And this verse should immediately convict

us when we start to act like a tyrant if

we forget the whole lay down your life part of

loving your wife like Christ loved the church. So we

ought to strive to understand our wives. Strive to consider

the perspective of where they're coming from. Strive to consider

how they're going to feel about the decisions that we make,

how it will affect them. Consider our wives live with

them in an understanding way, not to steamroll over them

with our leadership that's easy to say. See, you got

to submit and just steamroll over. That doesn't sound like

the way God told us to do it, does it? No? No, Instead,

what do we do? The text says, we honor her,

we protect her as the weaker vessel precious to be cherished,

and weaker vessel is by no means of less value.

And we see in this text says that she's a

co heir with us, adopted just like we were into

the family of the Lord. It's our job as husbands

to protect, to provide, and to shepherd our wives and

our children. But God demands that we do it in

a certain way, and he gives us a little extra incentive.

When we don't live with our wife in an understanding way,

our prayers are hindered. God doesn't want to hear what

you have to say when he mistreat his daughter. Let

me say that again. God doesn't care what you have

to say if you mistreat his daughter. So we should

live with our wives in an understanding way. Kind of

the worship team come up, please, So I want you

guys to imagine with me. We're gonna go into the

imagination copter. That's a helicopter of imagination. I don't know

why I say some of the things I say, I

just say. Imagine with me a husband loving his wife

with the sacrificial love that Jesus modeled, keeping his eyes

fixed on Jesus as he shepherds his family towards Christ's

likeness through family prayer, Bible reading, and teaching. Not a

passive man of indecision, but a man who stands up

makes decisions for the family, decisions that most importantly lead

them in following after Jesus, but also just to make

decisions so the wife doesn't have to leads. A husband

whose desire and drive is to love and lead his

family the way God commands. And also imagine with me

a wife whose aim is to help the husband accomplish

all of what God has demanded of him, who's agreeable

and gentle, encouraging and supportive. When decisions are made, her

first instinct isn't a question or to push back, but

she jumps up to figure out how to get it done.

She manages the household in a way that the husband

never has to worry about the home. A wife whose

desire is to submit to her husband and be his

helper all to the Lord's glory. And now imagine this

husband and this wife are married to each other. That

sounds pretty sweet, doesn't it. This is how God does

it to be. This is the picture that God has

in mind when he speaks about marriage, and this is

the only way we will all get what we want

for our marriage. To have the best marriage possible, we

need to remember the marriage is purposefully designed. There was

a reason that God made it. It wasn't good that

man was alone. He needed a helper. And remember that

marriage is also particularly defined. God is a very specific

way to define what marriage is. One man, one woman

in the lifelong, one flesh union, and the marriage is

practically applied. God's designed for marriage isn't just an idea.

It's not just playing with idealism. It's meant to be

applied and it's meant to be obeyed. And if I

were to boil this all down, make it as simple

as possible, because again I like simple wives are to

submit and help, Husbands are to love and lead. Wives

are to submit and help. Husbands are to love and lead.

This is how God designed it all to work. This

is how he demands that we operate in it. God

wrote the book on marriage because He created marriage. The

best marriages are designed by God. The only question is

will you trust him and do it his way? Will

you trust him and do it his way?