Sacred Marriage

Introduction

Well, good evening, everybody. It is six o’clock on Sunday night, and that means it’s time for our Bible class. Uh, it’s been a good day, a good Lord’s day here at South Bumby. Uh, we’ve had a special guest speaker today, and we’ve wore him out, but in a good way. Wilson Adams from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, uh, was with us today, spoke for us three times uh in our assembly. Uh and he has uh graciously uh I started to say volunteered, but he didn’t volunteer, but he agreed to uh do our class with us tonight, uh our six o’clock Sunday night Bible class, and we’re so thankful uh that he has agreed to do that. He has served us well today. Uh if you’re just watching this, if you’re on Facebook Live and just watching this, go to our website Bumby.org, and we’ll have recorded all of those sermons, the video and audio of all of Wilson’s lessons today, and you can go back and watch those, and you will be blessed.

You’ll be benefited by uh going back and taking advantage of those. Uh and we’re again just so thankful for Wilson. Um, I’m going to turn the mic and the screen and everything over to him in just a few moments. Uh but before we do, uh, I’ve asked Brother Gene Schoff if he would to lead us in a word of prayer. And then uh Gene will lead us in prayer. And then Wilson, I’ll just turn it over to you. And Wilson, I will be monitoring the chat here. And so if there’s some comments or questions, I may interrupt you uh to insert those, but other than that, I’m just going to turn it over to you. And so uh Jean, would you lead us in our prayer?

Yes, sir. Shall we pray? Our Heavenly Father, we’re so indeed thankful that we have this opportunity to be able to be able to pause at this time on your day to be able to worship you and study your word. We thank you, Father, for being with us today. We thank you for the rain which you blessed us with. We thank you for the time that we’ve had to sing songs and remember your your son’s death and be able to listen to some great lessons from Brother Adams. We thank you, Father, for sending him to us and for his ability to preach the gospel. And we trust, Father, even tonight as he leads us into this class that all that he has said today and all that he will say tonight will be according to your word.

But Father, help us to take what he has taught us and what he has spoken upon, that we might be able to apply those in our lives, that we might be better Christians, better parents, better servers for you. We ask you to be with him, Father, as he travels back, that you’ll watch over him and provide a safe trip home for him. Father, we ask you to be with us as a congregation that you will watch over us during these difficult times. We do see and we are seeing a light at the end of this tunnel. We are so happy that we can be able to be back, at least in part, be able to attend classes, be able to be back in the building with one another and to worship and to fellowship with each other.

And we’re so thankful for that. But Father, we ask you to continue to watch over those of our number that are sick and that are ill and that are in the hospitals. Continue to be with my brother Jerry, continue to be with Pam and with Don and others, Father, that are suffering at this time. We ask your blessings to guide those that to guide the hands that attend to them, that all might be done so they might be able to restore back, be restored back to their health. Continue, Father, be with our shut-ins and watch over them as well, too. But you’ll you’ll keep them safe. And be with those father of those men who we support, but you’ll guide them as well. And much fruit might might come from their studies wherever they may be.

That as we go forward, that our lives will be the examples that you’d want us to be, and that we’ll bear fruit for your kingdom. Thank you again, Father. We ask that you forgive us of our wrongs. Continue to watch over us and be with us throughout this week, that what we have taken today and what we have learned will make us better Christians for you. Watch over us and guide us. Keep us safe throughout this night. All these we ask through your son. Amen.

Well, good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Uh everything good, Ken. Okay, great. It’s been a good day. I’ve enjoyed being with uh with all of you at South Bumby and appreciate uh Brother Shof’s prayer and appreciate the opportunity. One final lesson, and uh uh we’ll wrap it up at at this time. But uh thanks for joining us wherever you are. One thing I do want to say is this is so wrong because this chair is so too comfortable. So you can just I can just lean back, and if I’m not really, really careful, because I still haven’t had my nap, you know, I can get I can get way too comfortable. But uh thanks for having me and thanks for a good day. It’s when it’s been so encouraging, and I hope I hope I’ve been encouragement to you as well.

Turn in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians chapter 7 and verse 1. 2 Corinthians 7 and verse 1. Let me read it. Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Now, I want you to take that last phrase in verse 1, 2 Corinthians 7 and verse 1. I want you to underline it, at least in your mind. Perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Some translations render that perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.

Because I’m going to come back to it.

1. Symptoms or the Basic Control Module

Greg. Greg goes to his car and he hits the button on the keypad to unlock the doors, and nothing happens. The door locks don’t work. Now, fortunately, he was able to take an old fashioned key and manually get in the car. But when he got in the car, it wouldn’t start. And the gas gauge read empty, although he had just filled it up an hour before. And in fact, he began to notice there’s nothing in my car that works. So he had to call a tow truck and it had to be towed to the dealership. And the mechanic came back with a diagnosis. He said, Greg, you got a bad BCM. It’s the basic control module of the vehicle. It’s kind of like the brain of your car.

If the basic control module goes bad, nothing’s gonna work. Now Greg could have insisted, no, I want you to fix the door locks, and I want you to fix the gas gauge, and I want you to fix all of the things that are wrong with my car. But Greg was smart enough to figure it out that if he fixed the basic control module, everything else was gonna work. Ladies and gentlemen, when it comes to marriage, I wonder sometimes how often we just focus on the symptoms rather than the basic control module. So here comes somebody, and they sit down and they they talk and they say, you know, we’re having marital difficulties, we need to improve communication. Okay, but that’s a symptom. Somebody else comes in and says, Well, we need to get better at handling conflict, conflict resolution.

Okay, but that’s a symptom. Another couple says, Well, we just need to be we need to show more affection for one another, we need to show more appreciation for one another. Okay, but that’s a symptom. Now we can spend all of our times focusing on all the individual symptoms, or we can focus on the basic control module. And the basic control module for a Christian is a spiritual focus, it is a spiritual motivation. It is 2 Corinthians 7 and verse 1. Let us perfect holiness out of reverence for God. I don’t know what you think that means, but I think that means you put God in every aspect of your life. Now, here is my question, and I’m going to keep coming back to this question.

Is marriage included in that? Or is marriage exempt from that? Good question. I think it comes down to this. You’re either going to be a God-centered spouse or you’re going to be a spouse-centered spouse. Now, let me explain how that works. A spouse-centered spouse, for example, acts nice toward her husband as long as he acts nice towards her. A spouse-centered spouse will go out of his way for his wife as long as she remains agreeable and affectionate. But does it ever occur to us that maybe God demands more from us? Let us perfect holiness out of reverence for God. Translate the number one motivating factor in everything we do, including this very brief, very special earthly relationship called marriage. The number one motivating factor is reverence for God.

Because she’s better than everybody else. I’m not called to love my wife because she always makes me happy. I am not called to love my wife because things between us every single day is always wonderfully ooey and gooey. I am called to love my wife out of reverence for God. Period. Second Corinthians 7 and verse 1. Which means every decision that I make, every attitude that I have flows from this singular holy motivation. Is this something that brings honor to God? Is this something that pleases him? So I ask you as we wrap up our studies today, and we focus specifically now on the marriage relationship, especially as we go through the turbulent times in which we’re in. Are we just treating the symptoms? Or are we really getting down to the basic control module?

I have a uh I have a lot of quotes on marriage. And uh I’ll tell you, I’ll give you my favorite quote on marriage. It’s by Socrates. Remember, Socrates? You went to school, you learned about Socrates. Socrates has my all-time number one favorite quote on marriage. It is, by all means get married, said Socrates. If you get a good wife, you’ll be happy. If you get a bad wife, you will become a philosopher. So there you go.

2. Marriage Is Hard: It’s Not About Me

It looks easy. My wife went to a wedding one time. I I didn’t go, I probably had to do something important like mow the art or whatever the case may be, but anyway, she went. I didn’t go. And so she told me later, she said, I’m in, I’m in the line, you know, going through greeting the bride. And she said, I gave her a hug and and uh and said Lisa turned to me, the new bride. She turned to me and she said, Oh, I’m just so glad the hard part is over. And I said to Julie, I said, What did you say? She said, I said, Oh, honey, oh honey, you have no idea. Because marriage is hard. It is hard. How many of you how many of you watch or have watched Hallmark movies?

Hallmark movies. We’ve probably watched more Hallmark movies during the pandemic than in any other time. You maybe even have drugged your husband in there to watch a Hallmark movie. Well, I hate to blow it for you. But I’m gonna blow it for you. The Hallmark movies, these romantic comedy movies are all the same. They have four basic ingredients. Number one, a beautiful couple meets under improbable conditions. Number two, they fall in love. Number three, they fall out of love. Number four, in the last 10 minutes, they fall back in love. They’re all the same. And if oh, and maybe number five, they kiss at the end. They always kiss at the end. And maybe number six, if it’s a if it’s a wintertime hallmark, if it’s a Christmas holiday hallmark, the snow falls at the end.

They kiss and the snow falls. Every single one of them is like that. So there I blew it for you. Okay. Those movies make it look so easy. But you know, and I know, if you’re married, you understand it’s not easy. And why isn’t it easy? Well, I’ll tell you why it is. It isn’t easy. It isn’t easy because romantic kind of love that we usually think of has no elasticity. You can’t stretch romantic kind of love because when you start stretching it, it simply shatters. Because romantic kind of love tends to be self-centered. Romantic kind of love tends to be all about me. What is she doing for me? What is he doing for me? But on the other hand, mature love, holy love, stretches farther than anybody ever thought that it could.

It has to. Because when two sinful, selfish people start living together as one, there’s going to be trouble unless each embrace a higher motivation. What is it? The higher motivation is reverence for God. So think of think with me a minute. You ever think maybe God has a higher purpose for matrimony than two people just living together and occupying the same mailbox and same kitchen table and same bedroom? You think maybe God has a higher purpose than that? You think maybe it’s not your happiness, he has at the forefront of his mind as much as it is your holiness are mutually exclusive. I’m not saying that at all. I’m saying when you look at your relationship through the lens of God’s purpose, you get a whole new perspective.

And that new perspective is, oh, it’s not about me. It’s not about me.

It’s about bringing glory to Him. So here’s the question. What is the real purpose behind this? What is the real purpose behind this intense one on one lifelong relationship called marriage? What is the real purpose? Well, I’ll tell you what I think the real purpose is. I think the real purpose is to draw me closer to the one who brought us together. And I’ll tell you why I think that. I think that because my relationship with my God is going to outlast my relationship with my spouse. My relationship with my spouse is like that. My relationship with God is like that. We forget that. And that’s why working on just the symptoms aren’t going to work for very long. Now, you can try to make your home more peaceful and pleasant, you should do that.

You can look for ways to keep the spark of romance alive, you should do that. You can show respect and courtesy and kindness, and you should do that. You should do all of those things. But if your relationship with God isn’t what it ought to be, then we’re really putting band-aids on a symptom. I think the problem is sometimes we look for something in another human being that ultimately and eternally only God provides. I think that’s why marriage dissatisfaction runs so high. Marriage dissatisfaction runs so high because we demand way too much. My first computer, Ken, this is going to date me. My first computer was a 486. Anybody can anybody remember the old 486 computers? We were going through the Smithsonian in Washington one time, the kids and were going through there, and one of the kids said, Hey Dad, isn’t that your computer right there?

You know you’re getting old when your stuff is in the Smithsonian. Okay. Well, let me tell you about the 486. The 486 was a great computer in its day. It’s not that the computer was bad, but if you try to run today’s programs on an old 486, it’s not going to work. Why? Because you’re asking that computer to do more than it was ever designed to do. And maybe sometimes we come into a marriage asking way too much of this relationship. In other words, if you’re seeking the largest proportion of your life fulfillment from your spouse, then you’re asking too much. Because you were created with an eternal craving, an eternal relationship with God that’s going to outlast this marriage relationship. And your wife isn’t God, and your husband isn’t God, only God can fill that ache in your eternal soul.

3. God Connects His Relationship to People in Terms of Marriage

He’s the only one. Now, when you finally get that in place, when you finally get your basic control module fixed, then and only then will you have a new appreciation for that person with whom you have embarked upon this very special, albeit short, earthly journey called marriage. You ever thought about how many times in scripture God connects his relationship to people in terms of marriage. Do you ever notice that? Isaiah 62 and verse 5. As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so God rejoices over you. Matthew 9 and verse 15. Jesus refers to himself as the bridegroom. Matthew 22, the kingdom of heaven is compared to a wedding banquet. Revelation 19 7, the wedding of the lamb. It talks about the bride has made herself ready.

And in the old testament, when God, when God communicated, talked about the breakdown of spiritual fidelity of Israel, he put it in terms we could understand. He put it in terms of marital infidelity. Passages like Jeremiah 3 and verse 8. I gave Israel her divorce, and I sent her away because of her adulteries. So scripture does that a lot. God’s relationship with people put in terms we can understand. And the one most commonly used is the marital relationship. Now, turning your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 5. Perhaps no place is the sacredness of this relationship seen with greater clarity than in Ephesians, the fifth chapter. And look down beginning in verse 22. Wives, he addresses wives and husbands and how all this works. Wives be subject to your own husbands as to the Lord.

Notice the comparison there. Verse 25, husbands love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. Notice the comparison there. Verse 29, we’ll skip ahead. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but he nourishes it and he cherishes it as Christ does the church. Verse 31 for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great, but I’m speaking with reference to Christ in the church. Nevertheless, each individual among you is to love his own wife, even if as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respect her husband. How can we read passages like that and not have a deeper appreciation for holy matrimony?

4. Our Ambition Is to Be Pleasing to Him

Even in this passage, God compares this union of Christ and his church in terms we can understand to the marital relationship. So, how can I read this and not come away with a higher appreciation for the sacredness of marriage? Now, go to 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 9. 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 9. I want to show you some verses we don’t usually think about when we talk about marriage. But in 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 9, he says, Therefore, we also have as our ambition. What’s my life ambition? What is my life goal? Whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to him. So he says, Your life ambition is to be pleasing to God. So here’s my question Is marriage included in that? Or is marriage exempt from that?

You see, the first purpose of marriage goes beyond sexual expression, goes beyond the bearing of children, goes beyond companionship. Goes beyond what most people think. Most people, a lot of people get married thinking, it’s about my happiness. And so somebody a year later, two years later, five years later comes, well, Frank doesn’t make me happy. Well, news flash. It’s really not about your happiness as much as it is about what is it that makes God happy? You see that in verse 9. My ambition is to be pleasing to God. I think he says the same thing in 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 31. Whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do all of the glory of God. Is marriage included in that? Or would marriage be exempt from that?

5. The Ministry of Reconciliation

Look down in verse uh look at verse 15. 2 Corinthians 5 15. And he died for all so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but live for him. Is marriage exempt from that? Or is marriage included in that? You see, in these verses, God is demanding that I look at my life, that God, that I look at my relationship with my spouse through the lens of his perspective. And God is saying, Listen, your your earthly relationship, your marriage is not just about your happiness and your glory. That’s not what it’s about. It’s about mine, it’s about bringing honor and glory to me. Now, stay here. Well, come on down to verse 18. 2 Corinthians 5 18. Now, all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

Now, going to get technical, I think Paul is talking specifically here about the Great Commission, about the commission Jesus gave the apostles to go into all of the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And that’s the ministry, the ministry he gave them of reconciliation. Well, let me ask you this question. Is not the very work of the gospel, it’s not the very core of the gospel, is not the very work of the church, the ministry of reconciliation to share the good news. What is the good news? That man is reconciled to God through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.

What does this have to do with marriage? Okay. Look at look at the verse again. The ministry of reconciliation. When two people can’t get along and they go get a divorce, what is the what is what’s usually the cause? Well, a lot of times the cause. Isn’t the word irreconcilable differences? Don’t you hear that? Irreconcilable differences. And so I’ve got reconciled versus irreconciled. What’s the point? The point is if our homes are fraught with fighting and animosity and distrust for one another and anger and resentment, you know, the irreconcilable, then suddenly my relationship, my marriage contradicts my message. Because my message as a Christian is one of reconciliation. And if my marriage contradicts my message, then I have sabotaged the goal of my life, which he says back in verse 9 is to live pleasing to God and to share the message of reconciliation to other people.

And so a marriage that is God honoring puts flesh on the picture of reconciliation. A marriage that is God honoring models three things. It models forgiveness, it models selfless love, and it models sacrifice. And those three things are the basics of reconciliation. And those three things are really nothing more than a small taste of what God has done and keeps doing for us. You know, as we as we live together as husbands and wives, and we try to work together and there’s going to be bumps along the way and all of those kinds of things. And so there’s going to be needs for forgiveness and selfless love and sacrifice. So what we’re doing in the home, husband and wife, one for the other, is just a tiny taste of what God has done for us.

What I’m saying is your marriage will either be a stepping stone for the gospel, the ministry of reconciliation, or it will be a stumbling block. How can I tell my kids that God’s promises, that God’s promise of reconciliation, how can I tell my kids that God’s promise of reconciliation is secure when they see that their daddy’s promises don’t mean a thing. Now, there’s an exception in all of this. In Romans 12 and verse 18, Paul said, as far as it depends upon you, be at peace with all men. And one of the hard lessons of life, and you have to learn this lesson. One of the hard lessons of life is there’s only one person you can control, and that’s you.

But not as a first response. But I believe as a last resort when everything else has been tried. Because the first response needs to be reconciliation, because that’s really what our life needs to be about. I heard somebody say one time, I don’t think there’s such a thing as an innocent party. You hear that sometimes.

And that’s true. There is no such thing as a perfect party, but it’s not about perfection, it never is. It’s about glorifying God in my life. What would God want me to do? That’s the question. That is the question that any of us must ask at any given time about every life situation. What is it that God would want me to do? Now, there are times when you have to make hard decisions, especially when spiritual lives hang in the balance, and you have to make some tough decisions in that regard. And I my heart goes out to people and my compassion goes out to people. And Jesus understood that. But my point is we live in a society where marital relationships are just discarded with frightening regularity, where people make promises with no intention to keep them, where spouse bashing is a almost a favorite national pastime.

And here’s some Christians over here. They’re working hard. They’re working hard to maintain a God glorifying marriage relationship. And I’m saying that the people who do that command attention. Because our lives and our relationships and our marriages, I don’t know if you thought about this or not. They are platforms for evangelism. They are platforms to preach the gospel of the ministry of reconciliation to lead others to Christ. Any of you have been married 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, 50 years, 60 years.

I don’t remember where I was. I was somewhere and I was I was talking about marriage, and I was going, I was going through that, and there’s there was a brother that sat in the back, and I’d say 30 years, 40 years, 50 years, 60. He kept raising his hand. I said 70 years he raised his hand. I said 80 years he raised his hand. I said 100 years he raised his hand. I said, I said, brother, you’ve been married a hundred years. He said, no, sir, but it feels like it. Well, let me tell you. Wouldn’t you like to have been in that car on the way home? You know. When you see people who are married 30, 40, 50, 60 years, it’s easy to look at them and say, well, they didn’t have all the problems we had.

6. You Marry God’s Child

They they had it, they had it easier. You know, they they didn’t have to go through a pandemic year like we’ve had to go through. Uh they’ve had they’ve gone through a lot of stuff. I’ll guarantee you, somebody that’s been married that long, they have gone through a lot of stuff. But those people are still married. You know why? Because they are living testimonies to the power of God’s love, to the power of God’s forgiveness, and to the power of reconciliation. Those people are living the gospel. They are living the gospel with their lives through their relationships. One final thing I want to share with you. One thing to think about that maybe sometimes we don’t think about, and that is when we get married. You marry God’s child.

Did you ever think about that? That your spouse is not just your spouse, but that your spouse is God’s daughter, that your spouse is God’s son, that your spouse is God’s child. Let’s develop that. If you want to get on the good side of a parent, I think we all know the way to do that is to be good to their kids. On the other hand, if you want to make a parent really angry, then pick on their child. Be mean to their child, be a bully, and you will fire up righteous indignation in a hurry. Well, it’s the same with God. Zachariah 2 and verse 8. The Bible says in that verse, he who touches you touches the apple of his eye. That’s how God feels about his child.

Now, you married a child of God. So it’s not just about me and my attitude toward this other person out here. It’s about me and my attitude toward God’s daughter. You know, we talk about biblically, we talk about this analogy of God being our father, the fatherhood of God. Jesus said, Pray our Father who art in heaven. Well, extend that analogy a little bit. If God is the father of the woman you married. Then guess what that makes him? Looks to me like it makes him your father in law. Think about that. Think about that analogy. And what that says is when you fail to respect your wife and you demean her, mistreat her, speak condescendingly to her, let me tell you something. You’re going to court trouble with your father in law.

And Peter says that in 1 Peter 3 and verse 7. You are to show honor to her as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered. Your relationship with God, your relationship with God has a lot to do with your relationship with your spouse. You know, God designed your spouse as a one of a kind person. God sent Jesus to die on the cross for your spouse. God has reconciled your spouse to him, and that makes your spouse pretty special. We have four biological kids. We’ve adopted three more, but we have four biological kids. And even the adopted kids, I will tell you, and we’ve only had them uh three or four years, about four years, and and our four our four biological kids are they’re all grown and married.

And I pray that our kids, I pray that our kids will marry someone who will love them as much as I do. But I know my kids, and I know that every one of my children fall short, they fall short of perfection. They have quirks, they have limitations, they’re not perfect. So I pray that as they marry, I pray that their spouse will be understanding. I pray that their spouse will be kind and forgiving. I would cringe to think that they’re gonna marry somebody who’s going to be a cruel to them or abusive or hurt them or mistreat them in any way. Now think about your own relationship. God is fully aware that your husband, that your wife has limitations. God is fully aware that your husband, your wife, has quirks and faults and sins and struggles in different areas.

I get God knows that.

So here’s the deal. He wants you to be as forgiving and patient with their faults as we want our kids’ spouses to be with them. Think about that. So think about how you treated. Think about how you treated your spouse this past week. Is that how you want your son treated by his spouse? Is that how you want your daughter treated by her spouse? These times in which we are in test all of us. They really test us. And especially they test the home and the family because we’re in close quarters and we’re together every day, and the difficulties and the frustrations of life can mount. But we have to we have to back up. We have to get the bigger picture of what’s what’s the basis in all of this.

Conclusion

What is it that God wants from me and my relationship? You see that ring on your hand? You know what that represents? It represents that you didn’t marry just anybody. You married God’s son, you marry God’s daughter, you marry God’s child. And he’s watching every day to see how you treat her, how you treat him. Let me close with a story. Oh, a few years ago, several years ago, um, our youngest Luke, I think Luke was probably about 16, 17 at the time. And uh there was there was something, he’d won some kind of uh award. I don’t remember exactly what it was, but uh it was kind of a special deal. And Julie said, I’m gonna I want to spicy, I want to fix a special supper for everybody, and you know, and and kind of celebrate this.

And and um, so Luke and I went out golfing, and and that afternoon, she said, When you guys get back, uh we’re gonna I’ve got this special dinner planned and we’re gonna do it upright, it’s gonna be great, you know. You’re gonna really love this, and and knew it would. And so, you know, he and I went out and and played golf and did our thing, and then we we came back. Sure enough, she had cooked a wonderful meal and it was great. And so we’re getting done with the meal, wrapping everything up. And she says, I I I’ve made I’ve made I’ve made you all a chocolate pie. And she pointed over on the counter, and there’s this chocolate pie. And I mean, it looked, it looked so good it looked fake.

You ever see one of those pies? The meringue was just perfect. It was perfect. We’re like, oh man, this is this is awesome. This is great. And so she uh she served me a my piece of pie and put it down in front of me, and and she served Luke his piece of pie, put it down in front of him. And you have to understand in our home, my wife’s kind of big on teaching her boys etiquette and all that kind of thing. So she’s taught us that when the host is serving you dessert, you need to just wait, just wait and be patient. Don’t dig in, just wait till she serves herself and sits down. And so, you know, that’s kind of the deal at our house.

And so I’m just sitting there waiting. And I took the tip of my fork and I stuck it in a little bit of that chocolate because I thought, well, that does that doesn’t count. And I took a little bit of my fork and I stuck it in that chocolate and put it in my mouth. And I gotta tell you, that was the worst tasting chocolate pie I have ever had in my life. It was horrible. And I knew immediately what she had done. She didn’t put any sugar in it. It was it, it was it was bad. It was it was badder than bad. It was real bad. And I’m sitting there and I think it my first thought was I need to tell Luke not to eat this pie.

And then I thought, oh no, wait a minute. I’ve got a 16-year-old boy who, when he eats pie, he puts in a big fork full of pie. This is worth the show. And so I sat there, I didn’t say a word. Julie gets her pie and sits down, she said, boys, dig in, dig in. And I looked over there, and Luke took his fork, and I mean, he got the biggest piece of pie and he stuck it in his mouth. And then I just sat back and watched. And his eyes began to water, and he began his mouth began to fill up. And the next thing you know, he exploded pie, chocolate pie. He exploded it went everywhere. Because it was horrible. Well, Julie is horrified.

And so she’s oh, what’s wrong? What’s wrong? And she takes a bite and she goes, Oh no. And she grabs his plate, she grabs my plate and she goes, Oh, I can’t believe I did that. And so she pulls them away. And I said, and I took them back. I said, give me that plate. And I put the plate down in front of him and I put my plate down in front of me. And she said, You’re not eating this. And I turned to Luke and I said, Do what I do. I scraped off that beautiful meringue. And I ate the meringue. And Luke ate the meringue. And I’m gonna tell you, my wife makes the best meringue pie you have ever put in your mouth.

The moral of that story is pretty simple. In a marriage relationship, not every day is gonna be sweet. There’s gonna be hard times. There’s gonna be bitter times. And maybe you’ve gone through some of that in recent times. So not every day is gonna be sweet. But because we’re committed to one another, and we’re committed to one another because we’re committed first to God. And because of that, I’m gonna tell you something. There’s gonna be days in your marriage where you’re just gonna have to eat the meringue. And it’s okay. It’s okay. May God help all of us focus on what is his will, and may we focus on pleasing him in all that we do, everything that we do, and understand that marriage is not exempt from that.

Marriage is included in that. Thank you all for a wonderful day. I have enjoyed it. Ken, I’ll turn it over to you. Anything else we need to add or say or anything? We need to add a thank you to you, uh Wilson. You’ve made it a wonderful day yourself a four great lessons today. Uh so focused us on what’s important uh keeping our faith in the forefront of our lives. And so we certainly appreciate that, Wilson. Uh, we send you our blessings, your godspeed on your way home tomorrow. Uh, and we just look forward to the next time that we get to sit at your feet and study God’s word. So actually, Wilson tomorrow. Actually, tomorrow I am driving to Pensacola. Uh we adopted three teenagers, we dropped it three children and the youngest the youngest child has just not been able to acclimate himself into the home situation and so he’s in a he’s in a group type home near Pensacola in the in the far western panhandle of Florida and uh it’s a 20 acre farm and he loves it there and it’s good for him and he’s safe and the people around him are safe and so and this is the weird thing I I first thought to myself I’m gonna come to Orlando and then on the way home I’m gonna go to Pensacola and then I googled it it is farther from Orlando to Pensacola than it is from my house to Pensacola.

I don’t think people realize how far west Florida really goes. So I’m gonna go to Pensacola tomorrow. I’m gonna hang out with Christopher a little while he wants to play me some basketball he still thinks he can beat me at basketball not gonna happen but I’m gonna go we’re gonna play some ball and then I’m gonna head home on Tuesday and yes I would like uh I’d appreciate your prayers thank you. Well safe travels again thank you very much Wilson thanks everybody for joining us uh we had several joining us online today several in person uh and it’s just been a good and blessed day and so thank everybody for your part in in worshiping God today and glorifying him uh and as we close remember I love every one of you good night everybody thanks so much