Unmistakably Yours | Pastor Paul McGee

You must be a pretty well liked young guy, Amen.

And so we do love and appreciate him.

And as she already said, she's he's grown up around here.

But it's good to see some of you.

I mean, we haven't seen him while it's good to see Steven's

dad here today or Xavier's dad, Steven, that is rather Amen.

Steven's dad's not here. But we're we're glad to have

Steven with us this morning, Amen.

And we're also glad to have Sam's mom and, and sister and

brother-in-law and all the crew, Amen, here this morning.

So happy, Bob, it's good to see you again back there, Amen, this

morning as well, Amen. Terry and Rhonda, of course,

coming over as well to be a part, Amen, of Xavier's baptism.

And what a great thing that is, Amen.

It's nothing like going down into what we all times say,

watery grave of baptism, Amen. According to the scripture,

Amen. There's something that happens

whenever we do. It's more than just a sign.

Scripture tells us that we repent and are baptized for the

remission or the removal of our sins.

Something actually happens. Amen.

I'm going to be turning to Genesis chapter 26 today and

Genesis 26 · chapter mention

reading a few verses of Scripture.

Was drawn to this passage toward the latter portion of this week.

I pinned down a few notes back in the month of January when

reading through the Bible for this year.

And I pray that I pray it's a blessing to somebody today.

And I want to say this, I feel like I almost owe a preface

here, but I'm going to, in certain terms, I'm going to talk

about the marital relationship this morning.

And I know that we come into a place like this and especially

in today's world, the dynamic of that is, is multitude, right?

You, you may have come and you may have been divorced or you

may be single, or you might be with the same person that you've

been with for 60 years. You know, I know the whole

dynamic of that, you know, may be different.

But wherever we are in that, I believe this is applicable.

All right? I believe this is applicable

whether we are going to be in a relationship, the next one that

we're in, or if we just came out of one or four and one

presently. All right, if that makes sense.

And nonetheless, I come from a biblical basis.

OK, from a biblical basis. And I don't know why the Lord

led me here, but I'm here. And so I'm just going to be

obedient today. Amen to the Lord.

Genesis 26. And I want to read verse #6

through 11 this morning the Bible says.

And Isaac Dewell and Gerard, the men of the place asked him of

his wife. And he said, she is my sister.

For he feared to say she is my wife, lest, said he, the men of

the place should kill me for Rebecca, because she was fair to

look upon. And it came to pass when he had

been there a long time, that Abimelech, king of the

Philistines, looked out at a window, and Saul.

And behold, Isaac was sporting with Rebecca his wife.

And Abimelech called Isaac and said, Behold of a surety, she is

thy wife, and how saddest thou she is my sister.

And Isaac said unto him, Because I said, lest I die for her.

And Abimelech said, What is this that thou has done unto US1 of

thy people might likely have lain with thy wife, and thou

should just have brought guilt, tiness upon us.

And Abimelech charged all his people, saying, He that toucheth

this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.

My, my key focus this morning is really verse #8 that it came to

pass when he had been there a long time, that is Isaac had

been Rebecca had been that Abimelech, this king of

Philistines, looked out at a window and saw kind of

undetected by Isaac and Rebecca, but saw, behold, Isaac was

sporting with Rebecca his wife. And from that Abimelech knew

with certainty, that's not his sister, that's his wife.

And so with the help of the Lord this morning, I want to speak on

this subject unmistakably yours, unmistakably yours, Amen.

Can we go to the Lord in prayer right now?

Father, I thank you God for the songs that have been sung here,

God, and I feel it undercurrent of your spirit, God coming

alongside me. Lord Jesus, right now, God, for

the next few moments, I pray, O God, that you're able to help me

today. Let my words, O Lord Jesus, be

concise, but Lord, let them also, God be full Lord of love

and biblical truth. I pray, O Lord Jesus today, God,

that you're able to help us, God, not just in our

relationship with you, but in our relationship with others.

God, we'll praise you and we'll thank you Lord, for what you do

here today in Jesus name and everybody saying Jesus name,

Amen. You may be seated this morning,

Amen. So this this past Friday, of

course, all of the storms were on the the verge of coming or

not coming, However the dynamic, you know, takes place.

And I'd already spent some time with this passage by that Friday

night by the time it arrived. And so everybody was at home at

our house. Both kids were at home, my wife

and I was at home. And there's a lot of times we're

like ships all passing in different directions, but we

were all home because of the threat of the bad weather.

And so I don't know about you, but I benefited from the storm

because it was beautiful out. I'm, I'm, I'm not trying to put

off anything else that tragically happened somewhere,

but it was nice outside. The wind was blowing and it was

just very comfortable. So I went out in my backyard

where my wife already was sitting on the swing.

And that's where she and I kind of resorted, admittedly today,

I'll tell you that there was stuff that we needed to be

doing. There was stuff that needed to

be done. But we spent some time back

there on the swing and, and we, we have a have a wood pile right

behind my swing and I had a spare piece of wood sitting up

there. And this year and both last

year, that's attracted some wood boring bees.

And so while we're sitting there, the bees are coming and

going and you know, they're quite big and intimidating at

that. And so my wife was in war mode.

She was in war mode with these bees.

She she had some decorative pillow that we have outside and

she was using it as a family swatter and she was swinging

left and right at these bees. She swung so hard one time and

hit it. She thought she had done it.

She even ripped her decorative pillow trying to do this.

And so she just swinging and doing all this stuff.

So after so many encounters with the, the, the boring bees, we,

we have a trampoline in our backyard.

And so we moved to the trampoline.

Now imagine this for a moment. We have a pretty quaint

neighborhood that we have a lot of neighbors real close.

You know, it's like our yards about each other quite quickly,

you know, not too much feet in between our houses.

And imagine this Gray haired lovely lady and myself both

pushing into our late 40s, headed to 50, pulling ourselves

up on this trampoline to lay down on our backs.

Nonetheless, as we're peering up into the sky, there's a tower

not far from our house that has a lot of vultures.

But whenever the wind's blowing, they love to become personal

kites in the skies. And so we're up there, we're

talking, we're pointing, we're looking at these vultures in the

sky that's harnessing the wind. And, and we're just talking,

right? We're talking, we're laughing.

I'm I'm showing her some seating that I'm considering for my

office and she's looking at that.

We connected and we shared and all that Friday night, there was

not any money involved. There was not a special venue

unless you want to call the trampoline that we just simply

had each other's presence. It was simple, but to me it was

meaningful and enjoyable. There's a strange phenomenon

going on in our world today. It happens in homes, restaurants

and churches, anywhere for that matter.

You see a man and a woman sitting at the same table in the

same place, and they're both on their phones.

And it's not just the phone issue, it's this.

They're married, but they're not really together.

They walk side by side, but they don't walk hand in hand.

They share a roof, but they don't share any rhyme of life.

And unless somebody told you, you wouldn't even know that they

belong to each other. Oh, help me.

Jesus, you've seen them. Maybe you've even been there

yourself at some period of time in your life.

Married couples who act more like roommates than they do soul

mates. They split bills, they divide

chores. They share kids.

But they don't share hearts anymore.

And if a stranger had to guess, they wouldn't.

Research from the University of Virginia's National Marriage

Project found that 45% of married people under the age of

45 say they feel emotionally distant from their spouse

regularly. The question isn't just are you

married? The question is, would anybody

be able to tell it? Would anybody know who your wife

or your husband is? Could a stranger spy in on your

life and say that woman must be his or that man must be hers?

Not because of a ring on the finger, not because of a post,

not because of anything like that, but just because of how

you treat that other person? Help me, Jesus.

Could a child even say daddy loves mommy?

Or could it say mommy loves daddy?

Could a friend even period say those two there, they're still

connected? Could a watching world even say

there's something different about how they touch, how they

talk, how they look at each other?

Or would they have to guess? In Genesis 26, Isaac enters

Gerard. Here in our scripture text, he's

he's pretending that Rebecca is his sister when in fact she was

his wife. He's doing just like his father

Abraham had done on 2 occasions. You read this at different

places in Genesis prior to this time.

Abraham at one time enters into Egypt and he's calling his wife

his sister. He enters even into Gerard one

time and he's calling his wife his sister.

Amen. And both of them have a fear

they're wives. The Bible says we're fair to

look upon modern day language. They were knocked out.

They were hot. They were something special.

You understand what I'm saying? I mean, they were dripping.

Oh, yeah, I'm, I'm getting in there.

I don't even know the language, but I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm just kind

of just walking a little bit. Amen.

They were fair to look upon since they were so beautiful.

They were worried about another man that may want their, their,

their significant other. And so as husbands, you got to

understand the dynamics of the culture as husbands.

They were fearful that the men of these cities would want their

wives, Amen. And so if it was a husband, they

just saw the husband as a obstacle to get the wife.

So they would just kill off the husband in order to get the

woman. And so that's the reason why

they said when we enter these places to say that you are my

sister, because the men then wouldn't see that man as a

obstacle. It says someone they wanted to

get the favor of, right? Someone that they wanted to get

in good, good relationship with, if per say, he had the authority

to even hand his sister way to be wet.

And so that's the reason why they did these things.

That's the reason why Isaac even operated under this facade of

this of this deception. And but here's what the thing

with Isaac, with with Abraham and Sarah.

Sarah was literally Abraham's half sister, but Rebecca wasn't

even Isaac's half sister, Amen, As as Sarah was.

And so concerning Abraham, when we look at his story back in

Genesis 12 with Pharaoh and Abimelech in Genesis chapter #20

the Bible tells us that both Pharaoh and Abimelech learned of

Sarah's true identity by divine revelation.

Look at the scripture Genesis chapter 12 verses 17 and 18.

Genesis 12:17

This is the occurrence of Abraham and Sarah a man in

Egypt. The Bible says, and the Lord

plagued Pharaoh in his house with great plagues because of

Sarah, Abram's wife. And Pharaoh called Abram and

said, what is this that thou has done unto me?

Why did this thou not tell me that she was thy wife?

And so this revelation of this this woman be on his wife was

brought by divine revelation. That happens again also in

Genesis 20 and three, whenever Abraham and Sarah came to Gerard

a man, the Bible says in verse 3.

But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him,

Behold, thou art but a dead man for the woman which thou has

taken, for she is a man's wife. So on these two occurrences in

Abraham's life, both, for she is a man's wife.

So on these two occurrences in Abraham's life, both times his

wife, indeed his wife by some type of divine revelation,

whether it was of Isaac, it learns the truth that that woman

was truly his wife. He didn't learn it from heaven.

It wasn't that a great plague come.

It wasn't that some divine dream come from him.

It wasn't from heaven. It really was from earth.

It even wasn't the voice of God that come alongside him and

spoke to him. But it was Isaac's own actions,

her husband's own actions that gave away that woman is my wife.

Abraham must have been pretty good if you think about it.

He must have been pretty good at at consciously concealing his

husband, wife relationship with Sarah that it took some divine

dream or a divine plague in order to reveal it to them.

Amen. But Isaac must have been equally

pretty good as well because verse 8 tells us it came to pass

when he had been there a long time that this deception was

finally figured out. Several days had passed.

They had already been in this company and they had thought

that here was Rebecca being his sister.

But the Bible says then in verse 8 that Abimelech, king of the

Philistines, looked out at a window and saw and behold, Isaac

was sporting with Rebecca his wife.

Now folks, let me tell you something.

There is a whole pot of meaning and possible definitions for

what sporting is. Other translations say The

amplified says he saw Isaac caressing Rebecca, his wife.

The the the contemporary English version says he saw Isaac

hugging and kissing Rebecca. The SV says he saw Isaac

laughing with Rebecca, his wife. The message Bible adults here

mostly aren't. We hopefully says that it's all

Isaac fondling with his wife Rebecca.

The new King James Version says that there was Isaac showing

endearment to Rebecca, his wife. One of the scholars said that

the word translated as sporting derives from a Hebrew word for

laughter, but depicts erotic activity.

We're talking about in the context of marriage here, OK, So

we're not really sure the true absolute definition of the word

of sporting. I'm not really sure.

I can't stand up here confidently and tell you exactly

what Ahimelech. Amen.

What Abimelech observed between Isaac and Rebecca, I can't tell

you today. But I can tell you whatever he

did observe was culturally apparent and unmistakably known

to him that that doesn't take place unless those two people or

husband, there was something that tipped him off enough to a

degree that that type of activity is the type of activity

that takes place between a husband and a wife.

That type of voice, that type of touch, that type of longing in

the eye, whatever it is, that's something that takes place

between a husband and his wife in so much that he got away from

there. And when he had time aside with

Isaac, he said emphatically, without any reservation, that

woman is not your sister. That woman is your wife.

So what happened? Here's what happened.

Abimelech got a window into the lives of Isaac and Rebecca from

this moment. We understand this isn't a

scripted moment. They didn't know they had an

audience. So it's just a benign

interaction between a man and his wife.

And Abimelech is observing. He's watching.

It seems as though from a distance.

He's not even hearing say words. He's just reading their

behavior. No dream from God.

He didn't hear a confession. He just watched undetected and

he knew that's his wife. I questioned us today.

Then in this building, the Bible was good for all types of

things, salvation and relationship.

Could an outsider deduce who your spouse was by observing how

you treat them? And what would they see?

What would they hear, What would they notice?

Wasn't a divine warning that came, or a dream for that

matter. Though I don't know if we can

exclude what happened here with Abimelech and what he saw.

I don't know if we can exclude that from being the divine

revelation. And the reason why I say that is

because God designed a unique connection between a husband and

wife for enjoyment, if you will. Ecclesiastes 9 and verse #9 the

preacher is talking to us. Solomon is saying that this is

what he says in verse 9 of Ecclesiastes 9 Live joyfully

with the wife whom thou lovest all thy days of thy life, of thy

vanity, which he have given thee under the sun, all the days of

thy vanity. For that is thy portion in this

life and in thy labor, which thou take us under the sun.

Look at this. The Bible says that all

Scripture is God breathed. It's inspired of God, which

means it's God breathed in the book of Timothy.

So God inspired what what the preacher, what Solomon wrote

here in Ecclesiastes and basically has Solomon write this

if if you if you just kind of break it down.

Solomon is telling us that our portion in our life and labor on

this earth is joyfully living with our wife.

I want you to just take that in, soak that in for a moment.

Of all the things that he could have said was our portion or our

share or our part in this life, the one thing that he hones in

on, he says your share, your portion in this life is living

joyfully with your wife. What's that mean?

That means if I'm not, then I'm missing a significant aspect of

what this life is. He could have had a list of

things that he had just planted right there in verse #9 Blake.

And the labor of this life is to live joyfully with your life.

Here's the fact of the matter. And I, I'll speak to men.

We could also speak to women. But this is vice versa here

today. Sometimes even as men, we pursue

work and ministry and legacy more than we pursue joy.

But it even goes to the degree to mean it's our inheritance.

Wait a minute, what? Yes, our spouse represents our

inheritance in this life. She's our inheritance in this

thing that we even call work. Therefore, as a result, if you

had somebody right now today that was standing at the

declaration of an estate after someone has died and they're

divvying up, if you will, land or monies or possessions of

inheritances. And I know some people are

frivolous. They could care less, but most

people, they're going to see whatever it is that they

received as something very treasured because it's an

inheritance that has been given into them.

Amen. Solomon says, inspired by the

Holy Ghost. Your spouse is that treasure in

this life. Oh, yeah.

Amen. Treasure.

So here's here's the thing that don't need to happen.

I know I've only been married for a few years and we're going

on, what, 28 this year? Only 28, Mom and dad.

This year's going to be how many years?

60 years crazy in the day's world, Craig, crazy.

Marriage doesn't need to start terrific and then become

tolerable. Not that it's going to be

perfect. I don't know, a perfect

marriage. I know we do our weddings with

like made in heaven and all that stuff.

Let me tell you, it's made in heaven with the fear of hell.

There are UPS, there are downs, there is good and there is bad.

I know it won't be perfect, but can we extract any joy from it?

Can we extract any joy? Can Can other people tell?

Other people tell by the tone that we use that she's my wife.

Can other people tell by by the way that she looks at me or I

look at her across the room in a crowd, that they are my spouse,

or how I protect them, or how I cherish them, or how just a

simple smile comes up on my face when she or he enters the room?

Could that tell? Hey, man, Isaac never had that.

Listen to me, Isaac never look again.

Isaac never had to tell them that Rebecca was his wife

because he couldn't help but sport with her even when he

tried to hide it. Amen.

Look at the Bible here. Here's another unmistakable

relationship with Jacob and Rachel.

The Bible says in Genesis chapter 29 and verse #20 and

Genesis 29 · chapter mention

Jacob served. Folks, this is a different

culture and different age. Jacob served seven years for

Rachel and look at this next phrase and they seemed unto him

but a few days for the love. Let's get down here with doctor

love for the love he had to her seven years to get her hand only

to find out on that seven whenever he got her in the

marriage took place. The Bible says in the morning it

wasn't Rachel, it was Leah, the elder sister.

And the Bible says he loved Rachel, but it was Leah.

And so seven years, he says it's just been a few days.

I love her. Fair to lookable.

And as a result of all this now trickery of it being Leah,

Jacob's love for Rachel is so evident that not only did he

serve seven years, but Laban told him you're going to have to

serve an additional seven years in order to get Rachel's hand in

marriage. And Jacob admitted, hey, you

beguiled me. Yes, but we never read that,

that he refused the offer. We never read they refused the

offer or it was unfair to work 7 more years to get the 1 he loved

And you want, you want to talk about an unmistakable

relationship? It wasn't like 714.

Forget it. That's where I drove the line,

asking too much. Come on.

Because do we have imaginary lines in our relationship when

it's like, Nope, that's too much too far.

I'm not willing to serve her or him to that degree.

Well, God help me, Jesus. There are a few stories in

scripture that ever focus on Isaac.

As you read through the Bible, man heavy on Abraham, heavy on

Jacob, but there's not a lot said about Isaac.

And so we lean in whenever we receive some knowledge

concerning Isaac. Isaac is the son of his parents

old age, right? Abraham and Sarah, he was born

to them whenever they were owed an old love.

Isaac is the product of an old love.

Amen. And the Bible tells us that when

Rebecca was brought to Isaac by Abraham's servant, it was one of

the longest chapters in the Bible, in the book of Genesis of

Abraham's servant finding a wife for Isaac.

That whenever Abraham's servant brings Rebecca to Isaac, the

Bible basically tells us that Isaac loved her.

All right, and he also loved her.

We understand that Rebecca was barren during those first parts

of their marriage for 20 years, or I say 20 years.

For 20 years, Rebecca was barren, could not have an

offspring. Yet during those 20 years of

barrenness, what is Isaac doing? He is loving his wife.

He's attending to and serving his wife for those 20 years

nonetheless. And look what happens.

This is Genesis 24 verse 67. All right.

Genesis 24:67

This is the long chapter in Genesis 24 about getting a wife

for for Isaac. This is when Sarah, or rather

when Rebecca's brought and Isaac brought her, Speaking of Rebecca

into his mother Sarah's tent and took Rebecca and she became his

wife and he loved her and Isaac was comforted after his mother's

death. Now this is interesting.

Number one, you got to understand this.

It's not like Isaac and Rebecca had this courting season or

dating season. This is a different time.

She was brought introduced to him.

He took her as his wife and loved her.

In the in the ancient Near Eastern cultures, for a man to

show public expressions of romantic affection and and love

it it was rare is considered private in their culture unmanly

to openly display that. As a matter of fact, the Bible

rarely tells us whenever a man loved his wife rarely does.

But here it says in this verse it tells us plainly that Isaac

loved Rachel or Rebecca. And so that phrase carries some

weight for you and I, because it's the very same thing that

we'll see, that Abimelech evidently saw whenever he spied

out into their life from a distance, some type of

endearment, the one between the other.

And here's the fact Isaac loved Rebecca before he really knew

her in the way that our modern culture, he didn't pick her.

Abraham's servant picked her under God's direction and

brought her back again. No long courtship, no emotional

build up. The Bible says Isaac took

Rebecca and she became his wife and he loved her.

Follow me here real quick. For Isaac it wasn't love and

then commitment. For Isaac, it was commitment and

then love. It was commitment and then love.

Someone say Amen. And as a result of that,

according to the Scripture, the Bible tells us that Isaac was

comforted. He has recently lost his mother,

Sarah. She has died in Genesis 23.

Her tent has remained unoccupied as a result of this.

It's a visible sign of of a loss and an absence in the family.

Her tent is vacant. And so I'm sure whenever Rebecca

shows up and Isaac pulls her into his, that vacant tent, that

unoccupied space, that there is a myriad of emotions that's

dredged up inside of Isaac when he's standing in his deceased

mother's tent and next to him is this Rebecca that is standing

there. But the Bible describes that the

love and Rebecca had went so much so beyond the realm of

romantic love that the love that they had, he, it was his wife.

She was and he loved her. The Bible continues to tell us

in that verse that it brought healing.

Hear me today, it brought healing.

Look at it, Isaac. The Bible says he loved her.

She he brought her in. She became his wife.

He loved her. In Genesis 2467, Isaac was

comforted after his mother's death.

This love that they had between them was more than just a

romantic love. It was a love that helped Isaac

heal. Rebecca entered a space that

Isaac brought her into. He brought her into that tent.

He brought her into that space. It was a space of loss.

It was a space of grief. It was a space, if you will, of

feeling now this abandonment in this void.

He brought his wife into that space and he was comforted.

Folks, let me tell you today, some of the joy of the portion

of the inheritance in this life is that God has given you

someone in your marriage that when you've suffered loss, when

there is heartache, when there is despair, there is something

in that love that goes beyond emotion and romantic love.

There's a healing agent, that is.

I believe it's a tremendous picture shown there in the 67th

verse of what marriage life should be.

It's where two people enter a commitment and they choose to

love each other with a love that has healing qualities to heal

what's inside of the other person.

And no matter what you face, you can enter to that thing and you

can have comfort, you can have healing.

Because even in all the loss, even in all the grief, even in

all the uncertainty, our spouse remains our portion in this

life. So for job loss, you still have

a portion in this life. Going through some turbulent

times you still have a portion in this life health

deteriorating. You still have a portion in this

life. He or her is unmistakably yours

or should be in his extensive study on marriage psychologist.

You may have heard of his name Doctor John Gottman.

I've I've heard podcast concerning.

I've read things concerning my daughter's had him in stuff

along the lines of him in college.

We've discussed it back and forth.

But Doctor John Gottman found that what sets healthy, lasting

marriages apart isn't grand gestures or compatibility

quizzes or things like that, but it's visible patterns of

connection. He has what's called a spath

coding system. And in this Gottman highlights

facial expressions, touch tone, eye contact signals that

indicate some type of emotional closeness.

He'll be monitoring. He has a love lab and that's A

and going down to the love lab. He has a love lab.

He'll has married couples come and he'll have them talk along

the subject that there might be a little bit of tension with

them in their relationship. And he'll monitor the, the, the

palms, the the how wet they are. If sweaty they are, he'll, he'll

monitor heartbeat. He'll monitor even has their

chairs with a jiggle meter on it, how much they move in their

chair as they're talking about these different things.

And so he's developed this love lab and he could watch couples

and interact and predict this is documented and predict with over

90% accuracy which ones would last just by observing how they

treat treat one another in small yet visible ways.

He'll take 15 minutes of a conversation and that each

segment at each second, he'll judge by the spat code at each

second where they are AT, and then from the cumulative of all

that he has come to be 90% accurate.

The study revealed that a lack of small, visible acts of

affection like smiling, touching and meaningful conversation

predicts a relationship decline with near scientific precision.

What are you saying? I'm saying Isaac didn't need a

love lab. He brought her into the tent and

later Abimelech didn't need a divine dream because he just saw

something and he knew. Or the Terry?

What about us? What do people see when they see

our marriage and they tell whether it has life still or

not, or that Joy's already left their home?

You can stand with me today and I'll hasten to a close.

Folks. Let me tell you this, and I say

this often, and the local church family probably get tired of

hearing it, but marriage is under attack because marriage is

the very model that God pointed to in Scripture to be

illustrative of Christ in his church.

And it's under attack on all kinds of levels, particularly in

the modern day world about even what marriage means.

Is it between a man and a wife or is it, you understand what

I'm saying? It's on attack on all types of

levels because it's the very model that he used before Christ

in his church, that if you can tamper with the model, people

will have a misunderstanding about what that relationship

it's supposed to be like. And so it's under attack.

And so with that, this morning, we live in a world today.

And listen, I'm your friend today, OK?

I'm your friend. We live in a world today where

there's all types of couples that are sharing beds, but they

don't share any burdens. They share calendars, what's

going on in their life and their kids life, but they don't share

their hearts names but no tenderness rings on the finger

but no romance vows that they did on a particular date and

might have a picture hanging in their house, but no visible

affection just now. Ceremony with no connection.

And if the world is watching, and let me pause and tell you it

is, I hope that they see more than just two people surviving

under the same roof. So Sheila wanted to see signs of

joy, signs of laughter, signs of a comfort with each other in the

same space. I want them to see healing.

I want to be able to. I want to be able to look

through the window of our lives and for them to be able to

declare without any reservation of the surety.

She is thy wife of a surety. He is your husband because of

what they said, what they try to paint on their social media

front, but because of what they were showing when no they knew

no one was looking or observing. You hear me?

I'd be real plain today, but walking the dog in public when

it's in shambles in private doesn't change what's in

private. Brother Mason, you can come

unmistakably, if we can just bow our heads here today, close our

eyes unmistakably, unmistakably yours.

Brother McGee, this just really didn't apply today.

I'm I'm single. I've never been married.

Well, pre adventure, you're married someday.

There's your application. Well, brother McGee, this

doesn't really apply to me today.

I'm single and I have been in a marriage and it didn't work out.

Well, it applies if you ever seem to look at and want to go

in another direction of having another marriage.

If you're married today, it applies to you.

If you're a young person and it seems maybe far off, it applies

to you, applies to us all. Applies to us all.

God has given us something in the covenant of marriage, the

leave and the cleave that he spoke of in Genesis.

Is there anything, is there any joy that can be extracted there

to anything that can be observed there?

Sir, ma'am, I believe, I believe that that man that you call your

husband or that that woman that you call your wife, I believe, I

believe they're worth loving. I believe they're worth

investing in. I believe they're worth serving,

as Jacob said, seven years, 14. Yes, they're worth that because

Solomon says this is our portion in this life and work.

But when you crawl in bed beside that individual at night, you're

crawling in bed behind, next to your inheritance in this life

that when you hold that hand, you're holding your portion in

this life that before you become ugly with your words.

And we have times that we're idiots.

But when you, you become ugly with your words and, and, and

you're just very begrudging and you're very with contempt and

all these things. Remember what you're holding

there, you're holding, you're holding your treasure in this

life and work, the one that's to be unmistakably yours.

I give my wife a hard time all the time.

She's got good genes. I got bad genes when it comes to

health, right? So I'm already on medication,

have been for years because of health and she doesn't, she's

not on a single thing. Dirty dog got the gene pool.

So I tell her, I said, you know that only thing that means is

I'm going to die before you do, which statistically men

typically do. She's like, don't say that, but

standing here today, however far removed that is, I want that one

that's the the portion of my life to be the one that's there

whenever I take my last breath. The one that we created

children, the one that I created children with.

I've walked through a few things in this 28 years of marriage.

And you know what I found healing in a tent that was

spelling loss and grief and despair.

But because she was there, God had sanctioned that you on

healing there shouldn't have by all under by under all other

circumstances I should not have, but it did because it's the

power of our treasure. It's the power of our portion in

this life. If you're standing next to your

spouse today, I'd ask you just to grasp their hand this

morning. And if they're not, you know

where they are. They, I know some are traveling

and so on and so forth, but you just grasp that hand.

And if your spouse isn't here today, I want you to raise your

hand toward the Lord. And I want you to ask God to

help you in this life to appreciate the treasure, to

appreciate the portion that He has given to us in this life.

I'd like my wife to join me right now.

Appreciate the portion, appreciate the treasure.

Hallelujah. It wouldn't even hurt to just

speak some words over each other in prayer right now.

Father, I come to you, God, I have, I have felt the witness of

your spirit here today. And you know far better than I,

God, why you have directed me to this road this morning.

But this is the road that we have walked.

I pray, O God, today I pray, O God, today God, I want Lord.

If someone would spy in Lord, have a window into my life, God

that unmistakably Lord, they could tell.

Unmistakably God, they could deduce God that she's my wife

and that I'm her husband. I I pray, O God today, help me,

O Lord, to live joyfully God with that white all my years.

But this is my portion in my work, Lord Jesus in my work it's

my portion God my inheritance. I pray, O God today, Lord, you

able to wrap Lord your arms about Lord the people and the

relationships in this building. God, those, Lord, maybe that

have just freshly exited relationship ships, those God

that may be considering new relationships, I pray, O God,

those where it might be many years removed, God, those that

have went, Lord, through divorces, God, those, Lord

Jesus, God, they're still dealing with hurt and pain.

Lord God from former relationships, I pray, O God,

today be the balm of Gilead in this place, Lord over families,

be the balm of Gilead, Lord, Be a healing agent.

Lord in this place, God for husbands and wives.

God, there's been words of animosity where there's been

words of hatred, where there's been words of misunderstanding.

I pray God come down. Lord, let there be alignment

that would take place when within the home.

Alignment, Lord, emotional alignment, romantic alignment.

God that would take place within the home and family.

Help them get back in touch with Lord what they were once Lord

impressed by. Lord in that under the other

individual God, that spark, that once Lord tired God on them.

Let it not tired, let it not vain, let it not wither.

There'll be hard times, there'll be difficult times, we won't

always get it right, But Lord that there always be something

we can extract some joy from God, that we can extract from

joy from God, that we would be unmistakably each other's God.

God, I pray against, Lord, the hand of the adversary, they

would want to mix and muddle. Lord, the model, Lord Jesus of

marriage, God would want to tear it down, disintegrate it, Lord,

dilute it. I pray God to degree God, that

brings confusion to the model of Christ in his church.

I pray today, hedges of protection.

I pray today, hedges of protection around every home,

every family. Oh, God, Brother Mason, if you

have a song on your heart right now, we can sing it.

Amen. I want to be mindful of the Lord

in this place again, I know we all enter this building with

maybe with a myriad of histories and, and different feelings that

arise whenever someone will begin to talk about these type

of things. But they need to be talked

about. They're in the Bible.

We need to talk about them.