A Marriage That Will Not Fail

Introduction

Several years ago. The Saturday evening post published an article entitled The Seven Years or Ages of the Married Cold. It was designed to describe the husband’s reaction to his wife during their first seven years of marriage. And it went something like this. The very first year, sugar dumpling. I’m really worried about my baby girl. You’ve got a bad sniffle, and there’s no telling about these things with all this strep throat that’s going around. I’m putting you in the hospital this afternoon for a general checkup and a good rest. I know the food’s lousy, but I’ll be bringing your meals from Rossini’s.

Have you got a can of soup? The fourth year, now look, dear, be sensible. After you fed the kids and washed the dishes and finished the floor, you’d better lie down. The fifth year, simply, why don’t you take a couple of aspirin? The sixth year, I wish you’d just gargled something instead of sitting around all evening barking like a seal. And finally, the seventh year, for Pete’s sake, stop sneezing. Are you trying to give me pneumonia? No doubt you’ve heard of the person who said, Well, we, you know, we had love at first sight. And some wise person said, love at first sight. What’s so phenomenal about that? It’s when people look at each other year after year and stay in love. That’s what’s phenomenal. Why is it when we all marry with the idea that we want to live happily ever after?

And yet the high rate of divorce proves that that doesn’t happen for maybe many people. In fact, even some who may not divorce are not that happy, and they just stay together. Indeed, does God not want us to be happy in our marriage? Indeed, God planned for marriage. In fact, in the Word of God from the Genesis account of Genesis chapter 2, the scripture clearly indicates that the reason that God made woman was because he saw that it was not good for man to be alone. And therefore he made for him an help comparable to him. What is good for man? What will bring man happiness? And not only does the Genesis 2 account describe that as the purpose in which God instituted marriage, but also that account tells us that God intended for marriage to be for life.

In fact, in verse 24, the scripture there where the Lord said therefore that even man shall leave mother and father and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become as one flesh. Jesus quoted that same verse hundreds of years later, recorded in Matthew chapter 19. And therefore, Jesus indeed was describing that God intended marriage to be for life. In fact, in verse 9 of Matthew 19, he also added the fact that whosoever would put away his wife, except for the cause of fornication and marry another, committeth adultery. And who who marries one who is put away also commits adultery. And adultery is therefore condemned by God. Surely, with this kind of beginning about marriage, and even our Lord Jesus Christ condoning marriage, surely God, who intended marriage to be for happiness, has given us a pattern by which marriages can be for life and can be happy while together.

1. Seek First the Kingdom of God

How is it possible for us to build strong homes and mature homes that indeed grow in their love even for one another? Someone says, Preacher, how is that possible? Well, actually, I want to talk with you this morning about how it is possible that we can indeed have a marriage and a marriage that will not fail. And I want to start with a passage that you may think is rather simple as an answer. It is rather simple in one sense. It’s a passage that many of us have memorized. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. It’s a verse in the Sermon on the Mount, in which Jesus has just earlier been talking about even the material blessings and things of his life that would be granted, but if we seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

There needs to be a relationship with God. In fact, the reason that this is so important is that when you have two people who are really saying, I want to seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and that’s first in my life. When there are problems, and there will be problems along the way, then what will happen is that one or the other, and certainly we hope both would say, Well, what is God’s answer to this? And when divorce occurs, it really says that maybe one or the other didn’t turn to the Lord and didn’t seek the pattern and pathway of God’s will. Indeed, there will be a straightening out and repentance if the person loves the Lord and wants to serve the Lord and realizes that he or she is the one who is at fault in the relationship.

I do not mean to indicate that all marriages are just perfect if you’re a Christian and that indeed it’ll be all right. Christians have problems too. In fact, I’ve told several people, and I will say indeed, those who may come and we have a little counseling before marriage, I will tell them, expect problems. I’m not like the preacher who told the young man before he married, marriage is the end of all your problems. After about a few months had passed, the young man came back to the preacher and said, Preacher, I thought you said marriage was the end of all my problems. He said, I did, and it is. I just did not tell you which end. The fact is there would be problems. We have two human beings who have to just to one another.

There will be some problems along the line. When I was a young preacher, say even 50 years ago, I used to tell young people, marry a Christian. I learned over the years don’t say it that way anymore. Because not everybody who’s been baptized or dipped in water has really committed to put the kingdom of God first in their life. It’s quite obvious with some people that the kingdom of God is not first, even though they claim to be a Christian. But when you find people who truly love the Lord with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, and that’s uppermost in their mind, and they’re seeking what is God’s will in the matter, then you’ll find the basis for which there can be a happy and fulfilled relationship in marriage, as God intended it to be.

I tell you, one of the problems today with divorce is that when there are problems, there are many who seek counsel from the wrong source. The very first Psalm in Psalm 1, you recall, it starts with this Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungly. The word ungodly does not mean necessarily that it is a person who is immoral or wicked. It simply says the ungodly are people who do not have a relationship with God. And if you find a counselor, that’s what you go to, and he has not a relationship with God, how can it be an expert on how to have a happy marriage? In fact, there’s some so-called experts in the field of marriage counseling who have written books that said we do not know the origin of the home.

2. Love Is the Bond of a Happy Marriage

Well, I’ll tell you, if a person does not know the origin or the authority of the home, then he certainly is not an expert on marriage. And the same applies to people who seek counseling even just from their friends or from their neighbors. Why not go to the Word of God to see what God has to say about marriage? Indeed, when we talk about that, then we might ought to say, well, okay, what’s the basis for a happy marriage? And the answer really is love. Love, indeed, is the necessary bond for a marriage. In Colossians chapter 3 and in verse 14, the scripture says that above all these things put on love is the bond of perfection, of a maturity, of completeness, of fulfilledness. Somebody said, wait a minute.

That’s kind of an oversimplification, isn’t it? You know, we we understand love. Well, love is we started with love, but sometimes we fall out of love, don’t we? What do you mean by love is the basis of a happy marriage? Well, the person comes up to the preacher and says, you know, preacher, you we fell out of love, and in fact, uh, you just don’t know how she treats me. You want me to love her? She’s mean. Oh. Like an enemy? Yes, she’s like an enemy. Well, when are you going to repent? Because the Bible, what did Jesus say? Love your enemies. What that really says is we need to learn what love is. There’s a definition for love, and maybe sometimes we we have overlooked the meaning of love from a biblical perspective.

Indeed, we just sang a song. Where love is in the home, there’s happiness. You remember the verses? Where love is in the home, there’s joy. There’s harmony. There’s bliss. Where love is in the home, contentment reigns. Where love is in the home, there’s peace. But what kind of love is this that we can say, here is the means of fulfillment in a marriage relationship. Actually, in the New Testament, there are two words mainly used to define love and translated love. There’s the word teleo, which carries the concept of love that has that tender feeling and that emotion. Then there’s the word agapao, which involves action and commitment. Really, solid marriages have both. But I’m afraid to say that there are many people who get married at first because they have sort of what we may describe as the cloud nine feeling, you know, that feeling in the stomach, that kind of love that has that electrifying emotion, that chemistry that sends pulsating charges, and you just can’t wait to be with one another.

But the seven ages of the married coal that we started with shows how indeed that feeling can soon pass after some months or years. Unfortunately, there’s some couple today, and that probably one of the reasons for the high rate of divorce, even in our country, is that some think that’s all there is about love, long as we have that kind of cloud nine feeling, and then after maybe a few months or years and that feeling is no longer there. Well, we’ve just fallen out of love, is that and maybe the best thing to do is let’s just get a divorce. And what may be true of some is that that fleshly lust is no longer there, and though therefore they think they’ve fallen out of love.

But indeed, the Bible speaks about love that is more fulfilling than just that electrical pulsating feeling, that emotional chemistry. You know what the Bible really says? The Bible teaches us that love can be learned. The kind of love that marriages are to be based on can be taught. In Titus chapter 2 and in verse 14, the aged women are to teach. And in fact, in verse 5, they are to teach, or this new King James version says, admonish the young women to do what? To love their husbands, to love their children. There’s something that can be taught. In fact, in Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 25, husbands, love your wives as commanded, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. What do you mean love can be learned or can be taught?

Interestingly, even to this day, there are some countries in the Eastern countries where where the parents choose to mate that their son or daughter shall be married to. And they can learn to love one another. You see, when you’re talking about that kind of love, you’re describing even the kind of love that God has for us. The Bible speaks about God’s love. It is the kind of love maybe we should say described even in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. If you have your Bibles, I’d like for you to turn and read with me. In 1 Corinthians chapter 13, these characteristics of love. In verses 4 through 7, love suffers long and is kind. Love does not envy. Love does not parade itself, is not puffed up. Love does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth.

Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. When you read about these characteristics of love, remember this passage at 1 Corinthians 13 is not specifically talking about marriage. In fact, it’s written to a congregation that that’s on the threshold of trouble with jealousy over who has the greatest gift. In chapter 12, the apostle has just described spiritual gifts, how that they’re all from the self-same spirit. And yet they’re different gifts. And a congregation at that time may be qu uh may be squabbling over who has the greatest gift. Is it speaking in tongues? Is that more important than prophesying? Or maybe healing the sick. Is that more important than speaking in tongues? Which is the greatest gift? And after describing the various gifts, miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit upon those believers in that period of time where the New Testament was being revealed and to be written.

In a time where believers needed to have inspiration directly. It was at that time that the apostle, in the midst of discussing spiritual gifts, says, here’s what real love is like. And as you read through this, you understand God so loved us, and it wasn’t because he just felt like we deserved to be saved. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. God so loved the world, as Romans 5 and verse 8 says, this demonstrates his love that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. You don’t talk about love. Let’s see it from the point of view of, as demonstrated by Jesus Christ and of His Father. What is real love? What kind of love that will keep a congregation united together?

And not only a congregation at peace and prospering and growing because God is love, and those who serve the Lord are people who love not only God, but one another. What kind of love is that? Well, 1 Corinthians 13 describes it for us. And this is why I say it is that kind of love that homes are built upon. And let me say, first of all, if you have your text open, look at the first three verses of his text. When he says in 1 Corinthians 13 and verse 1, though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clinging symbol. Though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains but have not love, I am nothing.

3. Love Is in Control of Passions

Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned but have not love, it profits me nothing. What is he saying in this passage? Even if I give my body to be burned, we may give all our possessions to feed the poor, but if we lack love, it is of no value. It is nothing. This is therefore the biblical perspective of real love. And I will say to you, if you’re in the audience and maybe you’re not married or whatever, the lesson is still of great value because all of us need to learn this kind of love. What’s involved with it? Well, as we look at this, I would say, first of all, there’s the kind of love that is in control of passions.

You may notice that as we read through this text, I’m not going to give the words in the same order that we’ve just read, but simply describe what are they saying. And the first is that love is in control of our passions. Love suffers long. What that indicates is that it’s slow to lose patience. It endures long. It is not easily provoked, it’s not easily angered. Often before marriage, we cannot see any fault in the other. But after marriage, that’s about all we can see. Indeed, there are some who have gotten married, and before long they start picking at every little weakness, every mistake, and they build on it and they magnify it. We all have warts, and so it’s easy to find some fault if that’s what you’re looking for.

In fact, we understand the wisdom and we kind of laugh at it sometime, where the wise man in Proverbs chapter 21 and verse 19 said, It’s better to dwell in the wilderness than with a contentious and angry woman. We understand what that means. But on the other hand, couples that end up squabbling to the point that indeed they finally end in seeking out a counselor and maybe a divorce itself. I’ve seen some couples who are that way that I thought there are thousands of people who would gladly swap. To find a husband that doesn’t drink and doesn’t gamble and doesn’t run around, and you’re wanting to get rid of him, or you’re wanting to get rid of her. Stop and think about what did you first fall in love?

4. Love Is Kind and Has No Spirit of Jealousy

What made you fall in love? And why did you marry to start with? Love that is lasting will be in control of passions. But also love demonstrates acts of kindness. For in verse 4, love is kind. Interestingly, the Greek word that is translated kind there comes from a family of words that mean useful or needful. True love is going to seek what is best for his or her mate. That which is useful or needful. And what that says that really one who is in married ought to avoid any kind of sense of retaliation. An argument. How’d it start? Sometimes an argument just starts with words. She called him a bad name, and he responds with something worse, and soon the air is turning blue, and ugly words and question motives.

And it proceeds from there until there’s such a bitterness in the home. Some years ago I heard about the advice of a lawyer, and I’ve repeated it, some of you, and I think it’s great advice. Is this woman went to the lawyer and said, I want to get a divorce, and I want you to help me. I want to hurt him. I don’t want just a divorce. I want him to feel it when we get this divorce.

I want you to spoil him. Prepare his most favored meals. When he comes home from work, you know, have his favorite chair and his uh his uh shoes there ready or slippers ready or whatever, and you know, just she said, wait a minute. Didn’t you understand? I said, I want him to hurt. You’re telling me to spoil him? Yes, yes. He said, You see, if you’re spoiling real good for about a month, you come back and then we’ll file for that divorce. And then he’ll feel it. He’ll know what he’s missing. Oh, she said, that sounds like good advice. I think I’ll try that. So a month passes. She doesn’t come in. Two months pass. Maybe in the third month he happens to see her, you know, uh uh as he passes in the street.

He says, Hey, isn’t it about time to come back in? She said, No, no, no. She said, I’ve changed my mind. Said, I did what you said. And you know what? He’s become the nicest fellow back to me. He’s trying to spoil me. It works back the other way, you know. What you do to one responds back to the other. Indeed, kindness. Seek what is useful, what is needful to the other. Frankly, love has no spirit of jealousy or uh uh to divide. In fact, in verse 4, does not envy. Jealousy is indeed a threat to any kind of marriage in the home. Leonard Bernstein, a famous orchestra conductor, was once asked, what was the most difficult instrument to play in the orchestra? He replied, second fiddle.

Everybody wants to be first chair. Who wants to be second chair? And you think that that’s an effect of marriage also, a relationship? How true. Even an athlete has to, that sits on the bench, has to understand that he’s important to the team, doesn’t he? And so it is even in marriage. While we are as one, and we work together as one flesh, yet sometimes maybe one or the other has more attention from someone else. Maybe she’s a wonderful singer. And he might, over a period of time, resent the fact that she gets constantly praised for that. Or on the other hand, maybe he has some talent or ability as a leader, or maybe even in his work, and he gets constantly praised for that. And before knowing if you know it, sometimes the relationship is destroyed because there’s a sense of jealousy or of envy.

Indeed, it’s sad. That Ephesians chapter 5 is sometimes regarded as though it were written for the male chauvinists. You know, verse 22, Ephesians 5. Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. Now I tell you, I’ve known some male chauvinists who don’t know any other Bible passage, and they don’t know where that’s found, but they know the Bible sometimes says, wives, you’re to submit to your husbands, like I’m the authority, and you’ve got to obey whatever I say. You know that verse really isn’t at all for the male chauvinists. In fact, it goes right back to the very passage that I started with today from Matthew chapter 6 and verse 33. When you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, what will be the attitude?

You know what the verse that precedes Ephesians 5 22? You know what the verse says? Just preceding wives, submit to your husbands? In verse 21, it says, submitting to one another in the fear of God. What does that mean? Submitting one to the other? You mean the husband who’s supposed to be the head of the family, he’s described as the head, and yet he submits to her as she submits to him. I believe that’s what the context is saying. In fact, as you read in verse 25, husbands love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave his body for it. A husband will not kill for his wife, but he should be willing to die for her. And the reason you would say, even looking down in verse 28, husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies.

He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it just as the Lord does the church. What does that say? This husband is he the Lord and ruler of the family, and he just lives selfishly? No, not at all. But rather he cares for. Yes, he has to be given a God the given responsibility as a leader, as a head, but he’s going to consider making decisions based upon what her needs are. He’s submitting to her as well as she submitting to him, and the two work together. Indeed, there’s the kind of relationship that there’s not that spirit of jealousy at all. And there’s not a spirit of envy at all. But rather, there is the spirit that we’ll seek what is best for each other.

5. Love Does Not Seek Its Own or Act Shamefully

And finally, there may be a tough decision to make in some cases. And the decision really rests upon the one who is the leader. But he hadn’t made that decision selfishly. In fact, the very next passage that we’ll look at from verse 4, love does not parade itself. It is not self-centered. This is the flip side of envy, so to speak, an envious person is one who wishes that he had what somebody else has and that he wants it removed from the other person. A boastful person likes to brag about what he has and tries to make others wish they had it too. But one who truly loves indeed does not parade itself. In fact, it is not puffed up.

In fact, does not seek its own. What does that mean from verse 4? That here’s an individual in marriage who is seeking the welfare of the other. Not self first. Someone has said, and truly, that individual who says, only what’s in it for me, kind of attitude, is the kind of person who really has a problem in the marriage. Indeed, probably materialism sometimes enters in with this kind of an attitude of what’s in it for me. Materialism starts off maybe with the kind of the person who says, Well, you know, I work and this is my paycheck. And if I want to buy me a new boat or a motorcycle, it’s mine because I earned it. Well, the husband has that kind of an attitude. Indeed, he’s selfishly approaching life and his marriage.

On the other hand, sometimes even he will say, now, if you want something, you need to get to his wife, you need to go get a job too. And whatever you earn, that’s your money, and this is my money. And instead of being one family or one body together, they become building walls that really cause division between the two. Indeed, sometimes a husband who does not provide all that a wife wants. She may go and find another man who she thinks will provide, and that causes divorce. Or also he may say to you, go get your job, and when he sends her out at home, they’re bitter toward one another. But on the job, you know, they’re so pleasant. And to each people they’re working with, and they fulfill whatever the needs are.

Pretty soon, she finds herself being attracted to somebody else who’s not bitter with her. When she comes home, they’re bitter, but on the job, they’re friendly. You know that how that can happen. Pretty soon, maybe there’s a divorce and a an adulterous marriage that rewinds up. And what it all started with was materialism. The attitude of me first and what I want, instead of a spirit that says, I will not seek my own, but I’ll seek what is best for all. Frankly, love. Love indeed does not act in a shameful manner. It does not behave rudely. The Bible states it. This Greek word is from the same root that describes indecent behavior. It is the kind of a disposition that a husband or a wife will dress appropriately, will act appropriately, will be careful about the kind of books they read, the movies they watch, the kind of attitude that is reflected in their own life.

Theirs is the kind of life that says, Look, we’re going to try to be upright. If the Lord were walking in our side by our side, I’d be happy to dress this way or to act this way or to talk this way. You know, the first four words of the works of the flesh described in Galatians, where the Bible speaks about the kind of conduct that those who practice such shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Galatians 5 and verse 19. The first four words are the works of the flesh are what? Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness. They have to do with sexual immorality, and such as not to be found in a home. It will destroy that trust. I’ve sometimes looked at why it is it that God has given only one cause for divorce and remarriage, that of fornication in Matthew 19 and verse 9.

6. Love Is Forgiving and Overcomes All Obstacles

I’ll tell you what, there are other things that can lead to a bitterness in the home and destroys a home, but this is the only one in which the Bible says that if a man puts away his wife except for this and marries another, commits adultery. I’ll tell you, fornication breaks trust. When there’s a relationship that is not between the two that were joined by God, and that kind of relationship is broken by fornication. Indeed, it breaks trust. And a family that is going to be strong in the Lord needs to have trust. So love will not act in a shameful manner. Indeed, love is forgiving. Love thinks no evil. Love does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. Love is the kind of attitude that doesn’t keep record of wrongs.

You know, you don’t walk around with a little book, black book, and every time you know, maybe my mate has done something that I didn’t like, and I keep a record of that. And maybe we’ve at one point in the past tried to work out that problem. But the next month or two, there’s some kind of a problem, and it comes back up again and repeated over and over again. Such should not be among mates. There’s an attitude that we are of one flesh. And if we are one flesh, then we’re not going to rejoice or be happy to hear about gossip or things that are bad about the other. I’m disturbed sometimes when I hear couples maybe young in their marriage and maybe they’re with some other friends.

And sure enough, one or the other kind of points out, well, you know, the offenses are things of the other party that are negative. Boy, she can’t cook. Or, man, he never picks up his clothes off the floor. Or, you know, well, okay, maybe that really happens. But instead of trying to point out the faults of the other in the presence of somebody else to embarrass them, think about are you the protector? Are you not one person? Are you not really saying something about yourself? Are you really trying to lead to a cause that actually leads to divorce? Why not work and say the things that are positive? Can you think of something good about the other rather than bad about the other when you’re in the company of other people?

And love truly is forgiving. What are we saying in all of this? There’s an attitude of love, finally, as the scripture would say, love overcomes all obstacles. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. What that says is that there’s a sense of love that it’s going to be a strong relationship. We protect another. We guard for one another. We lift up one another. We try to encourage one another. Why’d you fall in love to start with? When you’re having problems, stop and think about what basis did you even marry? I would say to you, guard against conditional love. Did you just marry because, well, she was so pretty? Or he drove the flashiest car. Or his father, her father is very rich.

Is that the basis on which you’re married? What if the father goes bankrupt? Would you still love her or him? What if she has a car wreck and she’s disfigured bodily? She’s not pretty anymore. Is that the time to quit? Or do you still love? On what basis is love? That flashy automobile, maybe it gets in a wreck. Avoid conditional love. Indeed, apply the characteristics of true love. The love that we’ve been talking about from 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Love that is in control of passions. Love that demonstrates acts of kindness. Love that has no spirit of jealousy to divide, that is not self-centered, that will not act in a shameful manner, that is forgiving, and that overcomes all obstacles. That’s the kind of love that the Lord teaches us to have, even within a congregation, and certainly within a marriage.

Conclusion

Before we close, I want to leave one more passage with you particularly. And I would say to couples, if I had no other verse to give you, I say right here is an important attitude. It’s found in Matthew 7 and in verse 12. Therefore, whatever you will that men do to you, do also to others. For this is the law and the prophets. What’s he saying by that? We’ve sometimes heard that as the golden rule, and certainly if you want to have be a good neighbor socially, you’ll treat others like you want to be treated. If you want to be successful in business, treat others like you want to be treated. It’s a rule also in marriage.

But not of your mate, of yourself. Think about what your mate’s been trying to tell you is wrong. And write it down and stop thinking about what her or what he did. What about yourself? And think of it this way. What if roles were reversed? What if you husbands were a woman and you’re married? Would you really want to be married to a man who acts like you’re acting? Or on the other hand, you women, what if you were the husband? Would you really want to be married to a woman acting like you are acting? I think when we stop and put together passages like the Lord’s advice or statement in Matthew 7 12, we’ll act differently in our home. We’ll act with kindness and consideration.

We’ll act in such a way that indeed the marriage will be a happy and a lasting marriage. Indeed, a marriage that will not fail. It’s built on the solid foundation of God’s Word. You remember how Jesus concluded the Sermon on the Mount? In Matthew chapter 7, he used a very simple parable, an illustration. The difference between a house or a home that will fall versus one that will stand. He says, Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain descended, the floods came, the winds blew and beat on that house, and it did not fall, for it was founded on a rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.

The rain descended, the floods came, the winds blew and beat on that house, and it fell, and great was its fall. I don’t think Jesus was talking there about marriage specifically, but it is a principle that applies even to the home as we would be talking, that whether or not we build our house on the words of God will determine really the happiness that we have not only in marriage, but in life itself, and certainly in the day yet to come after death. We close this morning by offering an invitation. Perhaps there are those even in this audience who are not ready to meet the Lord in judgment. Are you ready to turn to his word and follow his will? Would you come to the Lord in obedience, believing Jesus to be the Son of God, repenting of your sins, confessing your faith in him, and even being baptized this day?

You’re subject to that invitation. As we conclude this service today, then we want you to think about obeying the Lord. Come while together we stand while we sing.