Contend For A Biblical Marriage

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Morning, CCW.

Get your Bible this morning, turn to Genesis 2.

And uh, it's been a good weekend.

How many of you were excited about football this weekend?

A lot of hands.

Some of you are gonna have to come to the altar because I've been told we're in Alabama, and uh it was a good weekend, I think, for everybody.

Um Friday night was especially good.

I know that we represent a lot of schools in here, but my son only plays on one, and that was Chelsea High School.

Man, let me tell you about Weston jumping up and down all through the stands because of the 15-14 win.

I thought we might get in trouble for the way he was celebrating.

Uh, but it was such a good game and uh fun to see 4,000 people in our town all together, uh kind of united at a front.

So that was exciting.

And um I saw only one ranked team lost to an unranked team yesterday.

So I guess everybody, everything went as well as planned.

Um the Blue Hens, Delaware Blue Hens.

You know, I didn't see anything about the Blue Hens, but I'll be looking later if y'all are wondering.

That's where I'm from.

But anyhow, it's an exciting time.

Genesis chapter 2.

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

I've been excited about this series.

We started the year stand on the mountain, then we talked about how to stand, which is with the weapons of warfare, and now as a church, we're gonna look at um five or six specific things that we need to stand for that are biblical things.

Contend for biblical marriages today.

You won't want to miss next week, it's contend for right sex.

And then we're gonna continue on and standing against racism, uh, government, widows and orphans.

This is gonna be a great series with a lot to talk over.

Uh, but you don't want to miss.

I'll give one last commercial.

Connect groups start tonight.

And I know it's Labor Day weekend, but you're here, and I see that.

So if you hadn't signed up, it would be a great time.

We'd love to get to know you better through our groups.

And uh, anyhow, Genesis chapter 2.

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

You know, we are living today in an unprecedented time where our enemy, the father of lies, is coming at us with his best weapons of lying.

I mean, it's a time of misinformation, disinformation, a time of spin, a time of deceit and slander and everything on every side, leaving the average person to wonder who's telling the truth?

Is there truth?

We hear people from this side and that side and everywhere saying their thing, and it leaves people to go, I'm not really sure what message can be trusted as truth.

And when you have disillusioned everyone on every platform of information, church, that is a war on truth.

And I believe we're at the cusp of a climatic time in human history where either we're gonna see the greatest revival in a generation that's ever been seen, and the greatest generation to ever be seen, or we might see the last.

We are poised as a church in this to carry the banner of truth in this war.

The church must hear me, we must contend.

Jude said, I write to you to exhort you that you would contend for the faith.

Would you pray with me?

Father, we love you and we thank you for the opportunity that we have today, Lord, to worship you, to meet together, to exhort and encourage one another.

But Lord, equip us, edify us, Lord, teach us.

You are the teacher.

So, God, I pray that you would speak through this microphone, God, and let your Holy Spirit move on the hearts of men and women this morning.

Father, get us out of the way so that you can work.

We love you in Jesus' name.

Amen.

The first point this morning is this: an example for biblical matrimony.

When I say there's been an attack, there's certainly been not just an attack on the truth, but there's been an attack for the last few decades on marriage, on what marriage is, but not only on marriage now, but on manhood and womanhood.

Really, the attack now has gone down and scaled down to a basic understanding of what is humanity.

When Genesis 1.27 said, God made man in his own image, that is on full-blown scale attack.

Bodhi Bachman shared that there's been a bill proposed.

Listen to this bill.

It said, any language ascertaining myths or stereotypes of heteronormativity and gender normativity should no longer be authorized.

That's a mouthful.

What did I just say?

It's saying that it is a myth to say that people are normally heterosexual.

And for you to say it should be banned, or that people born, a male born in a man's body is a man, is not normative.

A female born in a woman's body is not, it's a myth, this bill says.

Biblical marriage and sexuality are being bombarded.

And in order to know how to contend for biblical marriage, we have to explore the author of the design's opinion.

So join with me in Genesis chapter 2.

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

We're going to look at verse 18 and then skip over to 21 through 24.

And the Lord God said, It is not good.

Highlight that phrase.

It's interesting and important.

That a man should be alone.

I will make him a helper comparable to him.

Down to verse 21.

And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept.

And he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in its place.

Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, he made into a woman.

And he brought her to man.

And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.

She shall be called a woman, because she was taken out of man.

Hear this, God's biblical definition of marriage, verse 24.

Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they too shall become one flesh.

Letter A is this.

We see God's design for humanity.

God's design for humanity.

I want to hit the teen boys for just a second here, because I think it's important that you hear this.

It says that a man, a man will leave and cleave his father and his mother.

I'm not trying to be callous, but it says God has no design where a man stays and plays.

He leaves and cleaves.

Amen?

God has no design in which you live in a basement, looking like an astronaut, fortnighting your way through the world on your parents' dime.

Amen.

He said, Leave and cleave.

Therefore, if you're gonna leave and cleave, it's a good idea to have a job so you don't have to rob.

Are you with me?

He said, leave and cleave.

Did you know one of our forefathers, James Monroe, on signing the Declaration of Independence was 18 years old?

Let that sink into where we have come.

He said to men, leave in Cleve.

Well, my parents made this pretty easy.

Post-Tennessee Temple University, when I graduated from college, I came home and they made a deal with me.

They said, letter A, you can stay here, pay a little rent, and be under our rules, or letter B, you can pay a little rent, stay in your place, and abide under your rules.

Well, it didn't take me very long, and I said, you know what, let her be.

And I moved into the Stonegate apartments six months.

It was primal.

I ate cereal and sandwiches and Pop-Tarts for six months.

I had a 19-inch TV, one chair, and I had one bed.

Okay?

When Heather moved into that place with me after marrying me, it was magic what she did.

She came into the place, she was appalled, she looked around, she said, You don't even have a shower curtain.

I said, I got a bath towel.

Why would I need a shower curtain?

It was magical what she did to that place.

I mean it.

Jesus Christ raised from the dead, Jesus Christ raised Lazarus, what Heather did to the apartment.

Number three miracle of all time.

It's amazing.

God's design, hear me.

In verse 24, there, he said, a male and a female.

He said, therefore, now when there's a therefore, you got to figure out why it is therefore.

Therefore, a man will leave and cleave.

Well, the word cleave is powerless, and that means glue.

Two become like one.

And it said, men leave.

It calls out men for a reason.

The role of man is leading and protecting the family.

I want to quote Barry Key, our Sunday school teacher, who quoted Matthew Henry.

He said, Woman was not made out of man's feet to be trampled, not made out of his head to be ruled over, but out of his side to be equal, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be loved.

Man and woman were made for one another.

Ladies, Scripture tells us you're expected to submit to the leadership of your husband to be his helpmeet.

You submit the lead.

Men submit your life.

It says you're to submit everything as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her.

You submit the lead, but men, you submit your life.

That leave and cleave, that glue, if you're like glue, God's biblical definition, then you'll have a strong marriage.

But two have to be one, like glue.

You see, we face mayhem in our families today because society wants to redefine God's design for marriage.

Society is infiltrating your children's ears.

The Bible knows nothing of a same-sex marriage by God's definition.

Hear me, church.

It says male and female in a covenant.

To have the word marriage instituted by God in the beginning, he said, one man and one woman to become one.

When government and civil society try to redefine what God instituted, we're asking and antagonizing the wrath of God.

It provokes his wrath.

Genesis 6 said, Every man did that which was right in his own eyes, and the earth was full of violence, and God, because of that, brought a worldwide flood.

Further in Genesis, we see the sodomization of society, and because of the wickedness and perversion of Sodom, God brought fire.

It brought his indignation.

They were decimated for perverting God's plan of what was natural.

Letter B, we see God's design for help.

God's design for helping.

Verse 18, I told you it was interesting.

Lord God said, It is not good that man should be alone.

I will make him a helper.

Comparable to him.

Why is that interesting?

Because if you look at Genesis chapter 1, God said, Let there be, and there it was, and it was good.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

God said, Let there be, and then there it was, and it was good.

God said, Let there be, and then there it was, and it was good.

And the break screech in chapter 2, and it says, God said, Let there be, then there was, and it was very good when he created man.

And then chapter 2, for the first time, he said, It was not good.

What was not good?

Genesis 2, 23.

God begins to act on that.

And Adam said, Now this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh, she shall be called woman, taken out of man.

Woman was made, because God said, It is not good.

I see this situation, this aloneness, this need for a helper.

So therefore, male and female were made.

Every man after Adam would be called, after Adam would be called to leave and cleave his father and mother for biblical marriage.

A covenant between male, that word male, listen to this, is our rain, and the word female is thylus.

The word thylus comes from a Greek word which means one who can nurse.

God clearly distinguished roles so we could make no mistake.

A male cannot nurse a baby.

The creator, designer of all creation, had no gender confusion.

As a part of his plan, Psalms 139, David said it this way: You formed my inmost parts and saw me in my mother's womb.

God, the intellectual designer of all things, was never confused.

He's never made a mistake.

He understood what he was doing, and so he made male and female the help to go together.

So in marriage there's balance.

You're probably not just like your wife.

Amen.

She's probably not just like you.

Better, amen?

Men, we lean towards stability, and even from the name female, thylus, women lean towards nurture.

Stability and nurture come together for balance.

It's like Weston last year's, last year in the elementary school, there was a lot of days where he would forget money on Friday.

Friday was snow cone day.

And when he forgot money for snow cone day, in my mind, that was a great opportunity for him to experience something real called pain.

Real pain.

The embarrassment of not having a snow cone when other people did.

We're talking, you know, severe depression and trauma.

And his mother would go, No, not my baby.

He can't be there sitting with no snow cone with all the other kids looking at him.

So every Friday that he forgot, we had to go drag two or three dollars.

Man, what a good plan they got.

You ever thought about that?

Thousand kids having to pay three dollars for ice every Friday?

That's a good profit.

All your kids are invited here Friday.

We're gonna have ice.

Church is gonna, the budget's gonna blow up.

But she would think that's terrible.

She can't stand the thought, and I go, well, it's a good learning lesson.

Forget your lunch one day.

Good lesson.

Forget some equipment for a sport one day.

Right?

But we're balanced together.

God brought us together for balance.

God designed marriage.

I want to say that again, and I want you to think on it, brew on that.

God designed marriage in Genesis 2.24.

Adam did not call out to God for marriage.

God designed it.

So therefore, God designed it, and Adam does not get to redesign or redefine what God designed.

I wonder, did Adam even know he was alone?

Adam's busy naming animals, walking through the garden?

Did Adam know that it was not good?

He was busy.

Adam could have done a lot of things had there been no Eve.

We understand that.

He could have been doing a lot of things.

Not one of them is procreation.

Not one of them is populate the earth, which is God's next sanction in marriage.

He says, go therefore and multiply.

He tells them to multiply.

He says, have sex.

Now we're going to talk more about that next week.

But God's design for family was found in procreation.

The design, it takes one male and one female.

Now hear me, an atheist teaching health class to your fifth grader has to teach God's design.

Are you with me?

They may not believe in God at all, not believe in any of this, but they have to teach God's design.

And so we see this picture.

Well, the biblical picture even further.

Without Eve, without a help meet, is there marriage?

Without a help meet, is there matrimony?

Without Adam and Eve being together, there is no picture spiritually, there is no picture of a bridegroom, Jesus Christ, coming for his bride.

There is no picture of Jesus Christ dying on the cross, shedding his blood for everyone, being the ultimate bridegroom who loved and sacrificed everything for his bride.

If there is no Eve, there is no picture of this type of love.

Jesus and his church.

You see, the gospel says Christ died for our sins and rose from the grave.

And the picture is shown through your marriage.

A biblical picture of submission and sacrifice.

Well, the second thing we want to look at this morning is an example for biblical maturity.

And I want you to take your Bibles and turn to Acts chapter 18.

Acts 18 · chapter mention

I wanted to give you a real life example of a couple in Scripture that shows us a few things from their marriage.

So this is a little more practical.

We see the fight in point number one, the fight and the reason we have to contend, the ground floor, the foundation.

We must believe in biblical marriage the biblical way.

And here is an example of a couple that shows their marriage example in a few ways in scripture.

That point was an example for biblical maturity and in Acts chapter 18.

Acts 18 · chapter mention

It's just a few little insights.

There's not a ton here, but there's enough to pull something from.

Acts 18, 24 through 26.

Says, Now a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the scripture, came to Ephesus.

This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things of the Lord, though he knew only the baptism of John.

So he began to speak boldly in the synagogue when Aquila and Priscilla heard him.

They took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.

Letter A.

This morning, mature Christians give private exhortation.

This power couple is being used in the New Testament, and we see them meet Apollos.

And we see this moment, sort of a small, you'd miss it, just a small exhortation.

This small moment between Apollos, Aquila, and Priscilla.

Have you ever been a part of an awkward public rebuke?

Let me put it this way.

Have you ever been a part of somebody else's marriage problem and they got in a fight and you were there?

Ever been out to dinner and you could feel the tension?

Just across the table, you know they got out of the car and they had been fighting.

You ever been in these situations?

Had it ever escalated and you actually were there when the yelling commenced?

This is awesome.

Front row seat stuff, right?

It's like, whoo, you can't pay for this stuff.

Well, we were sitting in our house one time, and um, I'm not gonna give names because they might watch, but we'll call them uh John and Tina.

Uh John was messing around with Tina, and he said something sort of just he was trying to just give a little jab.

And across the room, Tina threw her head and the look alone.

Sent a few of the men back in the couch.

And she said, John, why would you ever say something as stupid as that?

And I was like, John, why did you do it?

And you put us right here in the middle of all of it.

Man, that public review, it still hurts me.

When I think about it.

But you've been a part of some stuff like this before.

Heather once I made a bad move in a game called Euchar.

She threw a card down on the table.

She said, Why did you play that?

It's like, I don't know.

Sorry.

I thought it was just fun.

I didn't know.

Very competitive.

She likes her games.

Aquila and Priscilla met a young, fiery preacher who gives a great word.

I mean, it says that he is full of energy and vigor.

But a little tiny part of it was off.

And Aquila and Priscilla do not listen.

They don't debate him, they don't call him out.

Much can be learned from four words.

It says, they took him aside.

They took him aside.

You know, that's the Matthew 18, 15 way, church.

It says if you have a problem with someone that you ought to go to them and go to them privately.

You take them aside.

Many times and too often do we go to many other people with the problem that we have with somebody.

You know what that's called?

It's a bad church where it's called gossip.

It says they took him aside.

That shows their heart.

It wasn't a public rebuke.

By the way, Matthew 5, 23 and 24 says that don't come and worship God and have an aunt with your brother.

It says, don't come and sing and have a problem with your brother.

It says, this is obedience.

Go get your issue resolved, and then you can worship with a clear heart.

That's disobedience to God, to come and worship with unresolved things.

Apollos, I bet, didn't really realize what he had done.

He was teaching with passion what he thought he knew is right.

And I thought about that.

Some situations are like that.

Satan will take a misunderstanding and it'll blow something up.

But a godly couple privately took aside a young man to exhort him.

Proverbs 17 9, this is what it says.

This is a great verse about this.

He who covers a transgression seeks love.

But he who repeats a matter seeks to separate friends.

I'm going to say it again.

He who covers a transgression seeks love.

But he who repeats out of their mouth repeats a matter, separates friends.

You see, I believe they loved Apollos and they showed it.

Do you love like that?

Aquila and Priscilla wanted to help.

Verse 27 tells us, if you look at it, we know that they wanted to help because verse 27 says, and when he desired to cross to Achaea, the brethren wrote exhorting the disciples to receive him.

They wrote his letter.

They were a part of getting him to the next place.

They wanted to continue his ministry.

And so it says they wrote that letter.

They exhorted other disciples to receive him.

I want you to hear me, couples.

Our marriage is an example of Jesus Christ to the world.

Do you realize that?

When Aquila and Priscilla heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.

So what did they do?

They didn't just exhort him and say this was off.

They went and took him aside and began to explain.

So that's letter B.

Mature Christians give personal education.

They didn't just leave it and say, bro, you're wrong.

No.

They began to tell him, and by the way, everybody here, if you see a problem and don't come with a resolution, what are you doing anyway?

So they saw an issue and began to help him with resolution.

I want you to see in Titus a little passage.

Turn your Bibles over to Titus.

Titus chapter 2, verses 1 through 7 talks about the qualities of a sound church.

Titus 2:1–7

If we're going to be examples, our marriages are going to be examples to the world around us.

There's some things you need to see.

Titus 2, 1 through 7 says, But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine.

Hear this, man, that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience.

Women, it says, the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things, that they admonish the young women to love their husband, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their husbands, and the word of God may not be blasphemed.

Back to the men.

Likewise, exhort the young men to be sober-minded in all things, showing yourself to be a pattern of good works and doctrine, showing integrity, reverence, and incorruptibility.

So it basically says these things.

Verse 2 and 6 says, Men, exhort, educate, and be an example.

Men here, exhort, educate and be an example.

Then it goes back to the women and it says basically the same thing.

It says, exhort young women, educate, and be an example.

And I got thinking about our church dynamic, and I want to ask a question.

How many here?

It might just be a few, I'm not sure.

How many here have been married for 50 years or more?

Raise your hand.

Anybody here 50 or more?

Milton Nelly's not here today.

They for sure have.

Anybody?

Okay, I see one.

How about?

Are you 49?

40 or more?

Alright, a little more.

Okay.

25 or more.

Many.

20 or more.

I'm not going under that because I don't want to be held accountable.

We're at 19 coming up.

Am I right?

Did I get that right?

Okay.

This is what I thought about that.

Your marriages.

You got people who have been married for a multitude of years represented in this room.

And there's people here, 5, 10, and going strong.

But here's what I thought.

We're to exhort, example, and educate.

Before you leave today, if you've been married 50 or 40 years, maybe you should look around and find someone to take to a lunch.

That's been married 30 or 25 years.

Maybe if you've been married 30 years, you look around and find someone to take to lunch that's been married 15 years.

For what reason, Pastor?

To be an example and to educate and help.

You have been through things that they have not yet been through.

That's the whole point.

That we have an opportunity to invest.

By the way, the ladies will love me saying this.

We have a women's mentoring group that's meeting, and that's the whole purpose.

An opportunity to invest.

We have connect groups, hear me.

I am my connect group, I go after every time a young couple.

I want at least one younger couple.

It might be seven of us older couples, but at least one that we can be investing in, sharing what we have learned.

Hear me.

The biblical pattern for discipleship are happening in these groups, and you have an opportunity.

You may not have to take them to lunch.

You may be cheap.

This is your way.

Come to Connect Group.

If you're not cheap, let me tell you, everyone that's under you, you've been married 50, 40 years or less, they don't have the money.

You'll be a blessing to them.

They'll listen to what you got to say.

Our Bible studies.

That's the point of our Bible studies.

Our discipleship campaign could be this: each one, teach one.

Aquila and Priscilla looked at young Apollos.

Now they said, man, look at this energy.

They loved his energy.

A generation with energy like that.

The people that are five, ten years, we need that energy.

And we need a generation to love this book and read this book and discuss this book.

And we need young business professionals and teachers and bankers and coaches and nurses, all of them to be going into their field, educating their families to love Jesus.

Our marriages need to help produce biblical maturity.

I want to ask you a question to think on.

Who did you meet with this week?

We all need to be investing.

We're practicing a lot of things today.

How much Bible practicing is happening.

Now hear me, parents, your first call of discipleship is right there in your own home.

Your marriage is a picture to the people that are right near you.

And so your children are first to see whether or not Jesus Christ dying on the cross is a picture in your marriage.

But we're practicing a lot of things.

How much sport happens at your home?

How much phone happens at your home?

How much video game?

How much shopping happens?

How much the mark of the maturity of a sound church is in the building of people who are educated about the Bible.

Are we educating mature believers at home and in church?

This has been convicting for me this week.

Point number three is this an example for biblical mission.

We're going to get back to Acts 18, the front part of it in just a moment.

Biblical mission.

You see, we live in a society that has painted romantic marriage as an end within itself.

And we have all these expectations.

And I want to tell you today, I cannot ask my spouse, I cannot ask Heather to give me identity, give me purpose, give me meeting.

That creates faulty expectation.

C.S.

Lewis said this happiness is not the goal of marriage.

The Great Commission is the goal of marriage.

1 Corinthians 6.19 says, What know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you?

You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.

Therefore, glorify God in your body.

We're taught in the society, man, if you can just marry somebody, have the picket fence, you'll be happy and you'll have the dream and it'll be romantic forever.

But the reality is God put man and a woman together so that he could be seen for generations.

Is your marriage a biblical example?

Well, letter A, their marriage mission made them hospitable.

Look at Acts 18, verse 2 and 3, and then we'll just skim verse 18.

Acts 18:2

It says, and he found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontius, who'd recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome, and he came to them.

So because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and worked, for by occupation they were tent makers.

Verse 18, so Paul still remained a good while.

Then he took leave of the brethren and sailed for Syria, and Priscilla and Aquila were with him.

What we see here is a picture of biblical hospitality in Aquila and Priscilla.

The Greek word for hospitality is, this is tough for me to say, phyloxenia.

Philoexenia, and the word means love of strangers, fond of sharing, or to lodge.

This is hospitality, love of strangers, fond of sharing or to lodge.

And I need you to consider the early church.

It was so vital that hospitality be used because this is the formation of Christianity, and there is great persecution.

And so because there's great persecution, when they went from city to city, they were in danger.

And so they needed hospitality of other brethren to go and have just meetings.

And so they would go to somebody's house or they would lodge with somebody, they would be taken in and eat with other Christians, and that hospitality of the church began.

It says, and they continued and were able to because of the hospitality of their church community.

We are here.

Don't miss this.

We are here today because of the continued effort of the hospitality of the beginning of the church.

We are meeting today because they were hospitalized, they were hospitable then.

This church exists today because of the early church.

They took Paul in.

He was a brother in need.

It says Priscilla and Aquila kept Paul and he stayed with them.

Well, when Heather and I moved here in 2015, God called us.

Let me tell you, this type of thing isn't just for anyone or whatever, but God called us, and it was 500 miles away from our previous church home, what we had grew up as adults in in Indiana, and 600 miles away from any of our family members.

And God called us here.

And we were having a conversation about how it would all work.

And Benji's father, David Wilson, says, Well, he asked me what some of the problems were at the time and the economy.

I said, There's no way I'm gonna be able to sell my house.

He said, Well, you'll just move in with me and Christie.

And I'm like, What?

I've been married 10 years, haven't lived under anybody's house, not my parents' house.

When it said leave and cleave, I got the message and got out of there.

And he said that, and I'm like, We got three kids?

Like, that's that's really gonna intrude on your space.

And you know, they're not, I mean, they're good, but they're not angels.

And they're like, he's like, Yeah, you'll just move in here.

And Heather had never met Christy before.

And I'm like, and I'm trying to think of how to explain this plan to my wife.

This is my plan.

God said, Go, we're gonna go, and we're gonna live with the Wilsons who you've never really met.

And she said yes, and I said, Woo!

Okay.

So we embarked on this journey, and we stayed in their house around eight months there, and I thought it was gonna be like madness for them mainly.

And I thought they're gonna kick us out of the church.

Just so we were trying, we were trying to mind our P's and Q's, really.

They could have told me to do anything, I'd have scrubbed the floor with a toothbrush, whatever.

But we were living that, and I got thinking about that hospitality.

We couldn't at that time have made it in that situation without the hospitality of the church.

And the church continues, and ever since Heather and I prayed, we prayed with Christie and David, and we promised, we now live in this house, that God, any opportunity he would give us to be a blessing of hospitality, that we would use our home.

It's his home, it's his stuff.

But I think about that hospitality from the church.

There's a difference in hospitality and entertaining.

There's nothing wrong with entertaining, but I want you to hear the difference.

Entertaining was quoted, is about you, what your house is like, impressing.

Hospitality is about others, giving a meal, a bed, a shower.

As a married couple, I want to ask you, church, as a married couple, will you make a commitment to being hospitable for the sake of the gospel?

What if you were asked to take somebody in?

What would that look like?

We're gonna be talking in weeks to come about contending for widows and orphans, and I'm really like pumped about our church's stance and how we've moved forward in fostering and adoption, and there's people in our church working through that process right now.

But what they're doing is they're being host, they're being hospitable for the needs of others.

Maybe God's calling you toward that.

What if God asks you?

Whatever God has placed in your hands, church, is a tool for hospitality.

The things that you've been given by God, think about it: money, your house, your car, your food, they're all stewardship responsibilities.

You can be a canal of God's blessings, or you can be a bottleneck.

And I think what hurts us, we are so inundated in this culture with the idea of comfort.

What I might miss for the sake of being comfortable.

And I want you to think, who might you miss knowing for the sake of being comfortable?

What help might you miss?

What leap of faith might you avoid for being comfortable?

Would you give more?

Would you move?

Would you change job or direction?

In your marriage, what would you agree to do for the sake of the Great Commission, the gospel that people would see Jesus in your marriage?

Hear me.

All that we have is because of a good God's hand.

And we are a canal of that blessing coming through and moving along, or we are a bottleneck and it stops at our hand.

Are you being hospitable?

Letter be.

Paul said, Aquila and Priscilla laid their necks out for my life.

Why?

It's a picture of Ephesians 5.25 where it says that as Christ so loved the church and gave himself up for her.

Their marriage is a picture of Jesus Christ, the bridegroom, loving his bride.

Anyone here ever have to move furniture?

You find out pretty quickly the type of workers that are there.

Right?

If you ever have to move a piano or something like this, a piano, we'll take a piano.

If you're moving a piano, somebody will step behind it and will pull.

And guys, someone will be on the other side and be pushing.

And there's a third person who looks for the piano bench.

You've seen this, right?

God gives every bird their food, but he doesn't throw it in their nest.

I was thinking this week about our marriage and Tuesday, 19 years, happy anniversary, getting some points here.

But we started, we started the ministry together the day we got back from our honeymoon.

Um we'd run a youth ministry at Middletown Baptist Church in Delaware.

And I thought about those days and I remember the words of a man talking about marriage.

Before it all began, he looked at me and he said, A good marriage is not two people standing face to face, gazing into one another's eyes.

He said, rather, a good marriage is two people standing side by side, gazing into the eyes of God.

I haven't gotten everything right.

But I can tell you, church, I love Jesus the best that I can.

Loved Heather.

And the filter for our marriage is the great commission.

I got thinking about the greatest things that have kind of happened or we've experienced, and three things popped into my mind.

And I don't, I really don't know what we would do outside of church.

It's just been such a part of our life.

And it's not my brag, it's his brag.

God dragged me off a fence, kicking and screaming, or whatever you want to call it.

And could have been anything, but I really thought about the greatest things that we've ever seen and the greatest places.

And we've been on some great trips and vacations.

The greatest place, and I think Heather would agree with me, that I've ever seen was Teen Camp.

A place where the Spirit of God would fall on hundreds of kids every year.

And Wyatt, for a long time, if you ever asked him what his favorite vacation destination was, it was Camp Gotel.

I was so happy that God allowed us to have this memory.

And the greatest sight I can promise you that I can picture in my mind of ever seeing with my wife in our marriage is working together, God allowed us to lead a youth rally, and I got to see 350 students crowding a stage, and it's imprinted in my heart that they gave their life to Jesus Christ in this moment, and God allowed us to do this together.

And the greatest feeling that I've ever had, this side of heaven, is worshiping with my wife's hand in my hand and one of my children sitting around my neck, knowing that God was touching me and touching her and touching them in a room full of people.

And I'm so thankful that God allowed these things in my life.

And here's my hope.

I hope one day that my kids will say, My mom and dad showed me Jesus because of their marriage.

But they love Jesus.

And I hope one day that my heavenly father will say, Because of our marriage, Well done.

Well done, good and faithful servant.

How about your marriage today?

I'm going to invite you in a few moments.

I have one illustration.

Is your marriage a funnel of the gospel?

Man, what a picture it would be today during a time of invitation.

Won't you just grab your spouse and pray with them?

Maybe you hear you say, Pastor, I don't have a spouse right now.

Maybe you'll just devote yourself again and say, God, this, you may not be married, but you can be a picture of the Great Commission.

Two married couples, two people everywhere.

Well, I came across this little example I wanted to share, and we'll be done.

There's a little boy who built a model ship, and he put it in a case after he had gotten done every little small detail, glued all the pieces together.

He had worked on it for hours, and to him it was just perfect.

Every detail correct, down to all the woodwork, and he put it in his glass case, and he was so proud for people to come to his room and see this boat in this case.

He would bring people in.

And he knew just this: that his little brother wasn't gonna play with it, his friends weren't gonna play with it.

The only way that this thing was going to be perfect was that it would stay in its case and not get used.

Well, his parents also bought a boat, a real boat, and began to spend weekends in their boat.

And at first, man, it was so exciting to get out on the harbor.

They loved it, and it was a lot of work to maintain, but they took their boat out, and it was such an enjoyable time feeling the water, feeling the air.

Well, that over time got hard and difficult, and so they used it less and less.

It became expensive, and after a few months, they went to look at their boat, and they recognized that there was barnacles growing on the side of it, and algae all over it, and they went to start it, and the boat had a dead motor, and it just became ineffective.

These two boats worked in very different ways.

The model boat was preserved by being kept safe and comfortable in a glass case, really never being touched.

The real boat was preserved by being used.

Without being used, it began to corrode and it began to rust and began to waste.

Which one do you want to be?

Would you bow your head and close your eyes this morning?

Today, couples, I'd love for you to say an anthem, you and your wife, to God.

We will contend for our marriage.

We will fight.

And I want to declare to my God today that I and my wife will be in a marriage that God uses.

God use us.

God use us.

Let the gospel flow through us.

God use us.

Give us an opportunity to be seen of our children, our grandchildren, our community.

God use us.

So I'm going to ask you to stand to your feet.

And in a moment, we're going to open this altar for invitation.

I want to invite you.

Today, will you contend for marriage?

Will you say to God, yes, that's what I want.

And I want to commit that to him before God today.

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