How to Cultivate a Good Marriage

[SPEAKER_00]: And my topic today is how to cultivate a good marriage.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because right at the core of a family is a marriage relationship.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now you might say, well, I'm single.

[SPEAKER_00]: And again,

[SPEAKER_00]: That might be true, but I also want the church to elevate or God elevates the family.

[SPEAKER_00]: So even if that's not the reality that you have, I do want it to be a soft spot in your heart that you support and love and cherish because as families grow strong, so does the church grow strong and

[SPEAKER_00]: And you get to be part of the larger family, and if a Lord were to give you a spouse one day, then all of this, then again, makes sense even at a greater level.

[SPEAKER_00]: Is that all right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: Again, we're at different times in our life.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of us, our spouse has passed away.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so we are here and we're part of the larger family.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what the church is supposed to be.

[SPEAKER_00]: But even as a single older gentleman or lady, I mean, you are wanting to celebrate family and cherish it and lift it up and pray for it.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's really what I'm trying to do on a Wednesday night.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, in talking about marriage, I always start this way when I do a wedding, which I'm going to do this weekend, which is pretty cool.

[SPEAKER_00]: Marriage is a gift of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: It truly is a gift of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: And, first Peter talks about that in that it makes life more enjoyable, more fuller.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that's God's intention for it because we're not meant to be alone, but we are to be together, whether that is in marriage, first of all, or as a larger family, as a church.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I used to think outman, staying single, was the way to go.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's freedom.

[SPEAKER_00]: I could do whatever I want, travel the world, and I got about a 25-year-old and I realized, hmm, that's maybe not what I want.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm so thankful because

[SPEAKER_00]: It's way better path, truly, my wife is a gift of God for me.

[SPEAKER_00]: In order for the gift of marriage, though, to be all the God intended, it has to function.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have to follow the vision God has for it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Um, and you know the marriage is to portray Christ's love for the church, it's crazy.

[SPEAKER_00]: The people don't, I mean, they don't see God, but when they look at your marriage, if you're married, they are to see this covenant, loyal relationship, till death do us part and realize, okay, that's what it means for God to love us all the way to the end.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now again, we do that imperfectly, but that's what God's design for marriage is.

[SPEAKER_00]: And even the intimacy of sex is to teach us about the love of God for his people, an object lesson to show how much God loves us.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's amazing to me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because every good and every perfect gift comes from above, from the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: Our culture, as you know, is obsessed with sex.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we get instructed on television and social media and every other thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: But what it does, it tends to put, elevate sex to such high-stream levels that it's going to put a strain on any kind of marriage.

[SPEAKER_00]: if that's the way you come into it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because the expectation is unrealistic, it's insane when you put sex so high that the current culture places it.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're just setting yourself up for a lot of pain and a lot of suffering.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because the Bible, believe it or not, doesn't put sex at the center, who's at the center?

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus, and when Jesus is at the center, all of it then takes place, all of it, when it's properly related to Him, makes all the difference.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if you will, sex is icing on the cake.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's icing on the cake.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not everything, but here it is.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's an indicator of how healthy a relationship is at the present time.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because when tensions come between spouses,

[SPEAKER_00]: You can imagine that, that's probably true.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because it's the first thing to go.

[SPEAKER_00]: So everything that God intended for marriage and N-sex really is Christ at the center, you guys relating to one another in love and purity and then it makes it go better.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Genesis 224 is the passage.

[SPEAKER_00]: I always preach out of when I do a marriage wedding.

[SPEAKER_00]: Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother

[SPEAKER_00]: and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, in order to have a good marriage, it's built upon some things, okay?

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to say, you give emotionally, you give spiritually, then you give physically.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, single folk, you can give emotionally, you can give spiritually.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have to wait for marriage to give physically.

[SPEAKER_00]: That you don't give husband privileges out to boyfriends.

[SPEAKER_00]: They are for marriage.

[SPEAKER_00]: But give emotionally, that first one, it's intimacy.

[SPEAKER_00]: intimacy is working out of a friendship.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because when it all comes down to, it comes down to this, it comes down to our deep friendship.

[SPEAKER_00]: With a lot of sizzle, you know, a lot of potential for lots of exciting things, but it's basically a great friendship.

[SPEAKER_00]: So you have to work at it.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, when you're first dating, everything's exhilarating, everything's awesome, you know, she says so many awesome things, everything she does is awesome, everything he does, and she does is awesome, you know, you're like two helium balloons floating around, you know, it's just like effortless, so easy.

[SPEAKER_00]: But what you have not seen is, what is she like when she's mad?

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you have seen that, I don't know.

[SPEAKER_00]: What is she like when she's bored?

[SPEAKER_00]: What's she like when she's stressed out or discouraged?

[SPEAKER_00]: Or when life is monotonous?

[SPEAKER_00]: That's all the things that are up ahead.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's why you promise ahead of time that I'm going to stay true to you and we're going to work this out till death to us part.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's the promise ahead of time.

[SPEAKER_00]: Dating always is about showing your best side, but again, marriage comes and then every perfect side and perfect facet, now gets shown the real things.

[SPEAKER_00]: Cultivating a good marriage then is all about developing emotional intimacy.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that comes through friendship.

[SPEAKER_00]: And friendship comes through communication, communication,

[SPEAKER_00]: If you weren't very good at it while you're dating, you're probably not going to get any better, in marriage unless you put an effort toward it.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's why I say, when you're single, you need to have good communication abilities, good communication abilities.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's like the top reason for divorce is poor communication, because selfish lovers don't listen and learn very well from each other.

[SPEAKER_00]: They communicate this to each other, learning about you is tedious and tiring, okay?

[SPEAKER_00]: And I really don't care about your silly chatter or your bullish, you know, whatever.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I'm floored how seldom communication happens even in the marriage.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it boils down then in marriage, oftentimes, just to the necessities.

[SPEAKER_00]: So you're off doing your own thing, you're kind of spinning in your own orbit, and you come together for you, tell a terrian communication.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, let's get our schedule together, who's taken the kids to drive right, and what's here?

[SPEAKER_00]: All the things and bills and errands to run, and it's no wonder why the physical intimacy is not there.

[SPEAKER_00]: when you're not even working on the emotional intimacy.

[SPEAKER_00]: Emotional intimacy comes with good communication.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think of James chapter one, verses 19 to 21, basically, it says, less talking, more listening, less anger.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, let me read it actually.

[SPEAKER_00]: So instead of filling the air with nothing or lots of words on your part, there is some listening involved in that and drawing the person out.

[SPEAKER_00]: It says, know this, my brothers, my beloved brothers, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, because anger doesn't accomplish the right sense of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: So

[SPEAKER_00]: communication.

[SPEAKER_00]: Men, that means if you want your wife to be attracted to you, you have to put down the phone.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have to turn off the television at least for 30 minutes a day.

[SPEAKER_00]: Try to make it a goal to talk to your spouse 30 minutes, 20 to 30 minutes, try to get 30 minutes in, where you're downloading the day, you're talking to one another, and you're not watching television and doing your stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: Try to do your stuff so that you can continue to communicate, because it's going to be the key to everything, okay?

[SPEAKER_00]: And when guys, when you talk to them, look at her in the eyes, I'm all the eyeball,

[SPEAKER_00]: And then you ask her about her day, and if she says, well, I had lunch with Lisa today.

[SPEAKER_00]: You all response after it could be a dead end.

[SPEAKER_00]: You need a conversation.

[SPEAKER_00]: So you don't say, well, that's nice.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you go a little bit further, and you say, really, what happened?

[SPEAKER_00]: Would you guys talk about?

[SPEAKER_00]: And then you, you listen, you listen for, and you think about a follow-up question.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because again, you're being interested in her.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you say, well, why do you think she said that?

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, you get into it a little bit.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if there's conflict that happened at that lunch, will you help her process it before you fix it?

[SPEAKER_00]: What would cause her to react like that, you think?

[SPEAKER_00]: Did you do anything to irritator?

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, you just draw it out.

[SPEAKER_00]: And women, you may want when the man comes home to your house, maybe to wait a little bit because his mind is a one track mind.

[SPEAKER_00]: It can only do one thing at a time, so wait until it comes down and rest a bit.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then before telling all the details of the day, try to get the big picture out first.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just the big picture.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because if you go into all the details, he'll probably not off.

[SPEAKER_00]: And because again, we're not wired for that kind of stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: We got to have the big picture first.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not, you know, I got up in early in the morning and I didn't get a shower and then your mom called and I got out the house and just say, I just bought a new dress.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just say it right away, just I bought a new dress.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because that's the big thing that happened and that helps him process.

[SPEAKER_00]: So be interested in his day, try to understand the situations that he's facing at work, you know, those kind of things.

[SPEAKER_00]: Again.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oftentimes we don't ask, and then it becomes, we're just satelliteting, you know, just our siloing, you know, we're not, we're not coming together, we're not talking about our life together.

[SPEAKER_00]: So learn how to have good conversations.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that, that's, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that

[SPEAKER_00]: giving emotionally.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, number two, give spiritually.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this was my first talk right in January.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is a discipleship.

[SPEAKER_00]: Every relationship, the goal of every relationship is to get them to be more like Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: And their goal for you is for you to become more like Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have a holy agenda with everybody that we meet, especially in the church, okay?

[SPEAKER_00]: And especially in our home, we should care how the soul is being developed because the more Christ-like the better the marriage.

[SPEAKER_00]: Did you get that?

[SPEAKER_00]: The more Christ-like, the better the marriage.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, we can laugh about communication challenges, but you should care how yours spouse is processing the world, especially the hard things of life, because they are working out situations in their mind, and that may not be biblical.

[SPEAKER_00]: and it may not be Christ honoring.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe they're going to call the sack of anger and bitterness or whatever it is, or disappointment or discouragement, and you have to pull that out to help them think rightly about it, untangle them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Again, that takes patience, you don't want to just fix them, but you're communicating, I care about you.

[SPEAKER_00]: because you want them to become and grow in righteousness.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's discipleship, because spiritual intimacy means that you, personally, are doing the hard work to get your heart in a good place so that you can contribute to the relationship.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because if you stay all mopey and because you're in a bad mood, well, you don't even know what the other person is failing and doing.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you need to get yourself in a place reading, praying, setting your mind so that you can minister to your spouse.

[SPEAKER_00]: That is so important.

[SPEAKER_00]: It also means two things for Betsy and I.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think this is spiritual intimacy has everything to do with these two words.

[SPEAKER_00]: Number one.

[SPEAKER_00]: Repentance and vulnerability.

[SPEAKER_00]: Repentance and vulnerability, repentance.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know it doesn't sound very sexy, but if you, to stay outwardly attracted to one another, it has little to do with the outward appearance, okay?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's all about grooming on the inside, and because selfish people are difficult people to work with, if they don't confess their sins, there's gonna be a repellent to any kind of intimacy in the home, in your relationship.

[SPEAKER_00]: So repentance, that should be happening on a regular routine, like weekly if not daily, that you might be coming to your spouse and saying, and this is what you'd want to say.

[SPEAKER_00]: You get alone, you get alone, yell at from the other room.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you know what I'm talking about that, because I'm in the eye.

[SPEAKER_00]: And say, I was wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: I sinned against you and be specific about what your sin was.

[SPEAKER_00]: You've heard this a lot of times for me, but it's like you can do this vague, I'm sorry stuff and it doesn't cut it because they don't know if you are admitting your sin.

[SPEAKER_00]: So on up to your part of the sin, I was wrong when I spoke with that spicy attitude.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's repentance, no, I'm sorry.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sorry, what would you say for me?

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just sorry, okay, that doesn't help anything.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then your confession, don't leverage your confession to elicit theirs.

[SPEAKER_00]: Own your stuff because so many times, I'm sure my wife can give you times when I didn't reciprocate or when she didn't reciprocate, I have to repent over my sin

[SPEAKER_00]: because I've got to own my things.

[SPEAKER_00]: I can't be so concerned about justice.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, this isn't just because she did something, and she should be repenting.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, let that go.

[SPEAKER_00]: Love the many way, just like Jesus does to you.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can fast and repent.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that's repentance, transparency.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do I say transparency?

[SPEAKER_00]: Something like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Openness, vulnerability, same thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Transparency, okay?

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, before you get married,

[SPEAKER_00]: because promiscuous teenage years can bind you up and put you together with people that you never intended to marry.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's going to cause an obstruction to your marriage.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like marriage memories that provide comparisons to your spouse,

[SPEAKER_00]: Parties where you got intoxicated, which led to sexual encounters, and you're ashamed of or you can't even remember, I mean, you're bringing that into the relationship.

[SPEAKER_00]: You just know you're going to bring that into the relationship, some of you.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it doesn't mean that you need a clean, squeaky past to have a good marriage, but you do need to come clean.

[SPEAKER_00]: you do need to be transparent about what happened.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so that you can seek healing and wholeness because transparency is frightening, but man, it's freeing.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is freeing.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when you talk about transparency, you're talking about a vulnerability in a relationship.

[SPEAKER_00]: Your marriage should be the place where you can be.

[SPEAKER_00]: authenticity means you're trying to bring, uh, close the gap between what you profess and who you really are.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in marriage, you should be doing that a whole lot quicker than any other place.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if in the dating season and up to this point, you guys haven't been that transparent.

[SPEAKER_00]: or you haven't been doing a lot of confessing with one another when you get into the church or into ministry all that does is widened because you don't want to be vulnerable and it'll it'll trap you a lot of pastors get in those traps that they don't want to be vulnerable and you don't want to go down that path

[SPEAKER_00]: Um, Christian marriage is a place where you should be the most genuine and transparent.

[SPEAKER_00]: No surprises, no secrets, no fear of judgment, loads of grace, right, which is learned.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's learned, uh, loads of grace and forgiveness.

[SPEAKER_00]: Um, and I'd say men, if you, if you want a healthy sex life, but that has everything

[SPEAKER_00]: So if you're not willing to do the hard work there, you wonder why you don't have the third with physical intimacy.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because those who are deeply walking with Jesus, they're selfless, they're loving, which makes dynamite romance.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's where the secret lies, okay?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because the health of your sex life has more to do with your spiritual maturity than the shape of your body.

[SPEAKER_00]: Please hear that, okay?

[SPEAKER_00]: Work on the inside.

[SPEAKER_00]: So give emotionally, give spiritually, give physically.

[SPEAKER_00]: And again, this is where this is for marriage, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: This is for marriage.

[SPEAKER_00]: And God brought it about in this world so that we could become one.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that that marriage bond can stay tight.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's interesting that God brought us into this world with five senses.

[SPEAKER_00]: Um, because he's like this is squizzed artist, you know, giving us taste, and eyes, and ears, and smell, and we get to experience the world at such a different level.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't need our noses could take in oxygen without smelling.

[SPEAKER_00]: We could see things without color.

[SPEAKER_00]: We could eat things without much taste, I mean, it would be just utilitarian, but that's something God we serve.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that amazing, it's not the God we serve.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when he commanded us to propagate the race, he could have done it without pleasure attached to it.

[SPEAKER_00]: God's not a utilitarian person.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's an artist and we get to enjoy all his creation.

[SPEAKER_00]: All the beauty of God's world is for us to lift our eyes up and wonder and worship him.

[SPEAKER_00]: he wasn't.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was wanting to give the best gift to us in marriage.

[SPEAKER_00]: So here's three reasons for adding it to marriage.

[SPEAKER_00]: Deep oneness.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just deep on Genesis 2 24.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the two would become one flesh.

[SPEAKER_00]: God is helping us bond together for life.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sex is an aid in the process of oneness, so cleaving with mind, body, soul.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's such an intimate knowledge.

[SPEAKER_00]: in the act that the Bible often refers to it as knowing somebody.

[SPEAKER_00]: Genesis 4 1, Genesis 4 17.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sexual intercourse is the most vulnerable and intimate of settings, a knowing that is exclusive for marriage.

[SPEAKER_00]: And harmful if there's no commitment there.

[SPEAKER_00]: very valuable.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it's for one, it's also for protection for Corinthians one, seven, let me read just.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is good for a man not to have sexual relationships with a woman, but because of temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband, the husband should give to his wife, her conjugal rights and likewise the wife to her husband.

[SPEAKER_00]: For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does like why the husband does not have authority over his body, but the wife does, do not deprive one another except perhaps for a agreement for a limited time that you may devote yourself to prayer, but then come together, last Satan would tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is for a protection, marriages the only legitimate outlet for the sexual desire, so you want to be generous with one another.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's for the purpose of one, this but also to thwart temptation.

[SPEAKER_00]: Your bodies are not your own there for each other.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now hear me though, it's still a voluntary act.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, you should not be forcing yourself on to someone because that is sexual assault, that is evil, it is voluntary.

[SPEAKER_00]: Biblical love is always self-sacrificing for the needs of the others, which means that your patient sometimes, you wait,

[SPEAKER_00]: but you're also not waiting that you get in a perfect mood or when it's perfectly convenient, you're thinking about each other.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you don't use it as a weapon.

[SPEAKER_00]: When you get angry at each other, withholding, you know, if you withhold too long just because you're angry, you just actually let the devil lie right down between you two of you in bed.

[SPEAKER_00]: because you don't want to do that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Remember, sex isn't everything, but it does, it is an indicator of the health of the marriage at that time, at that moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there might be, if you don't want to come together, it's probably something that it's at red light on the dashboard saying, there's something to reconcile, okay?

[SPEAKER_00]: You might be needing to repent.

[SPEAKER_00]: You might need to have a good conversation.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's the Blinky light that's saying all that.

[SPEAKER_00]: One is for protection, but also for pleasure.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, God is an amazing God.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when he thought of marriage, he just dialed up the pleasure way up.

[SPEAKER_00]: He wasn't covering his eyes.

[SPEAKER_00]: He wasn't blushing when he thought of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I think God is not against, he's not against pleasure.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, an entire Bible, I'm sorry.

[SPEAKER_00]: entire book of the Bible.

[SPEAKER_00]: The song of Solomon is dedicated to the joy and pleasure of romantic love.

[SPEAKER_00]: So if God wanted us to be more reserved and more pretty shabout that, he wouldn't have placed that book in the Bible.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hence, again, sex was never to be disregarded or discarded after the kids came.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's still to help oneness come in together, mind-sold body.

[SPEAKER_00]: But having said that there is a lot of pain associated in this area to work through because sin abounds in this area and it wounds can be deep, so you have to be patient with your spouse.

[SPEAKER_00]: It may take some time, but the more that you can work and talk and be slow, go slow, and work this out again.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's that one that's that God intended.

[SPEAKER_00]: What's his vision?

[SPEAKER_00]: What's God's vision for marriage?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's the display, God's or Christ's love for His bright, the church.

[SPEAKER_00]: And John Piper, I end like this,

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a quote of his, we were given the power to know each other sexually, so that we might have some hint of what it will be like to know Christ supremely, that's crazy.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it's not a shameful thing, God wants us to understand that the joy and intimacy of heaven.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's an akin to that, even in the sexual relationship.

[SPEAKER_00]: That one is that closeness.

[SPEAKER_00]: God's purpose, I keep quoting, God's purpose in human sexuality, is to be a foretaste of our relationship with him in heaven, pretty incredible.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so I want to close with that.

[SPEAKER_00]: But,

[SPEAKER_00]: Again, these are just reminders.

[SPEAKER_00]: Most of you know this, but we can get in cold the sacks and we're just like banging our heads against the wall like, why isn't it's working?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's usually because we haven't put the time in emotionally, we're not communicating.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're not

[SPEAKER_00]: pouring into each other, spiritually trying to get help each other to become more more mature in Christ because the more mature in Christ, the better the marriage, the better the friendship, the better the intimacy, physical intimacy, and then in the end it better displays the love of God, the love of Christ for the church.

[SPEAKER_00]: The reason why this is so important because the most important institutions in life are the marriage, so I want you all to prepare, if you're not in marriage yet, you're preparing yourself for that moment by helping other people, because you're gonna be doing that 24-7 in a marriage.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then the next one is the church.

[SPEAKER_00]: And what we're trying to do is shine the light bright until Jesus comes.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so it matters, the family matters.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you're part of the family, you're just a son or daughter.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just remember, your mom and dad have a lot of weight to carry.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're trying to stay together in a deep bond because that blessing of that union spreads over you as the family.

[SPEAKER_00]: So don't tear them apart.

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't make extra work for them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Try to help them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Try not to, you know, try to be kind and generous and helpful because the home is a community project as well as the church, amen.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we have a lot to pray for.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we're gonna go to prayer, but just like any time, we're not worthy to go to prayer.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can feel like, okay, my marriage, oh, I'm not worthy to pray, yes you are.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, when it is worthy to pray, we are calling out for help.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just like you will find many reasons, like a home man, I don't feel like worshiping because I am just had a bad day, no, we need to move in the way to say, my help is in the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: My help comes from the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: I am going to praise him because he is the answer, which is what we are going to do first.