Well, if you have your bottles with you turn to first John chapter 4 We're not going to read that right away, but you might want to go ahead and stick your finger there or something in the place They're part of your bulletin By the way, there is a sermon outlining your bulletin that you can follow along But we're in week two of a sermon series called myth busters and again if you weren't here last week When we started it off some of you may or may not be familiar with the TV show on a discovery channel called myth busters But it's one of my favorites just because I guess I'm a guy you know, you know, Lexton Know the ins and outs of things and be able to prove or disprove things. I don't know. Maybe you ladies love it as much as Us men do, but anyway, let me let me read a few by the way Facts and you tell me whether or not there are actually factional fictional ones actually came from their web page there And these are all have to do with something that like animals or insects honey bees Honey bees communicate with one another by dancing raise your hand if you think that's true Raise your hand if you think that's false Raise your hand if you have no clue. All right. Thank you The answer is true bees can describe the distance direction quality and quantity of food source with a complex Waggle dance that they perform and they return to the hive a circular dance indicates that the food is within 35 yards Well, I figure eight pattern indicates that it's farther away So some of you just thought that Daniel Mason was the only one that communicated with dance But it's not just Daniel. It's even honey bees as well too. Now secondly, here's one that might strike a little closer to home Of those of us living in Florida True or false a cockroach can survive for several days without its head raise your hand if you think that's true Raise your hand if you hope that's false Raise a hand of you. I want to go to the store and buy some insecticide on the way home The correct answer is actually it's true Roaches do not need their heads to breathe Oxygen is absorbed through spiracles the insect version of gills on their body and they can survive for a month without food A headless cockroach will live for about a week until it dies of thirst Just let that kind of ponder for a second there Number three spider silk the silk of a spider is as strong as the kevlar used and bulletproof vest Raise your hand if you think that's true. Raise your hand if you think that's false Don't know anybody. Okay. The answer is actually correct spider silk has long Fascinated scientists with its remarkable strength and elasticity It is stronger than steel and can stretch up to 50% of its original length a Strip this is pretty amazing a strand of spider silk the width of a pencil could stop a Boeing 747 airplane in flight It's amazing the world that guys created in the world that's around us here But I want to propose to you that there are some even there's some examples here we can learn that there there are some similarities here Even in marriage to these three myths. I've even talked about you know marriage is a lot like a dance And if you haven't experienced marriage or maybe you're a single hoping to get married and maybe you're just a kid thinking well Maybe one day a will maybe one day a won't but I know if you're married if you think about it It's an awful lot like a dance Working with a partner, you know feeling like you feel out of control sometimes different things You're wondering about the cockroach one now aren't you This is a big part of my theme if even this morning is that you know a cockroach can as we learn can survive You know headless for days There are many marriages that are merely surviving that there's a sense of life But death is imminent and if the death hasn't already happened it's on its way or they're people that have just He may be even worse resolved that this is simply as good as it's going to get and they go on with life Well spider silk is stronger most of us don't even think about that than kevlar and a bulletproof vest But something so small something unexpected something we wouldn't normally think is In the similar way with marriage There is there is something else too that we often overlook there's something else that we failed to realize that it is stronger Than the things that we think are so obvious and we're going to look at that today and the answer is God's truth God's understanding of marriage as we look at that deeper here Well the myth of this week was that we were looking at is love enough To make a marriage work Is love enough to make a marriage work well to do that we need to look at this a little bit more closely And I want what I thought would be appropriate is let's look at the common marriage vow I'm at let me just first show of hands. How many of you are married or have been married Raise your hand. Okay. That's the vast majority you have you have taken a vow similar to this in fact I went on the on the internet and I just found what is the most common Val that's shared by the most people yours might have been a little bit different But I bet it was something similar to this and let me just read this Common marriage vows I take you what if your name was to be my spouse White for husband to have and to hold from this day forward For better or for worse For richer for poor and sickness and in health To love and to cherish from this day forward until death do us part raise your hand if that was pretty similar to your marriage vows Okay, just about about the same number of hands pretty similar Um, don't flip the slide yet now. I'm gonna go back here if you look back there though with this did you see the fine print though Okay, you see the little uh number one there pointing to the fine print Because in common marriage vows and what I've discovered is I just talked to people and have friends and done marriage counseling And what I've discovered in my own marriage life my tendencies Is that there is a fine print? Let's read that next slide please So long as I contribute I continue. I'm sorry to have feelings of affection towards you So long as I don't have stronger feelings of affection towards someone else So long as the advantages of being married to you outweigh the disadvantages of being married to you So long as you continue to faithfully meet me 50 50 on marriage family and household responsibilities And so long as you contribute adequately and do not become a barrier to my pursuit of individual happiness and security in this life Now nobody would want to repeat that. I don't think In their actual marriage vows on their wedding day But I know of so many people that think this is just understood Of course, this is the fine print of course nobody in their wedding days really thinking they're gonna have to exercise the fine print right Then you are wishful. You are hopeful You're thinking this is the person that's gonna be the answer to to all your dreams perhaps and answered all your questions But the reality is as we know the fine print exist And we're prepared to use it if we need to although we hope we don't have to But as the years come along the fine print maybe gets read a few times It gets even considered more and more and we know statistically that about half marriages will actually end up Exercising The fine print on their marriage vows Well, the advantages of being married Certainly continue to move us in that direction But let me give you this let me just say this as point number one on our outline With the understanding of the kind of love we just talked about with those marriage vows With that understanding number one love is not enough Love is not enough if it's like the common marriage vow type of love that we are bringing and looking for I've already mentioned the most common most widely known marriage stat that one half of roughly of all marriages in a divorce Most of you are aware of that but maybe you weren't as aware that 44% of couples under 35 years old Half cohabitated together I'm prepared to only 24% of those in their parents age In other words people more and more are deciding let's try this thing out or let's not even worry about the marriage vows At least maybe they're getting honest enough to say look I'm not really committed Maybe it's a hint maybe it's indication of what's going on Maybe you didn't know that 1.3 million children are born out of wedlock each year in the US About 33% of all births and we're just talking about those that are born not those that might have been aborted Seeing people move move away from that and and and move away from the marriage vows and in commitment altogether You know what the top five reasons are four divorce with marriages in here. I give them an order number one What do you think? Money exactly finances number two is infidelity Number three poor communication Number four change of priorities Number five lack of commitment to marriage Whatever that might look like So marriage Certainly is is in great jeopardy today here the vows of marriage The fortunately maybe the fine prince not so fine any more to people are realizing how just sketchy this whole thing whole thing is of marriage vows is called But you know what god says though god says in Matthew 19 he says this What met god has joined together Let no man separate God puts a high picture on marriage god elevates marriage Ephesians 5 says tells us this that the earthly marriage between a man and a woman is compared and it's supposed to be a picture or reflection Of god's relationship with his people Now you can be going to understand what he's why he's so infantic about people not Not devaluing marriage, but lifting it up why divorce is something that Old Testament says god hates But god is concerned because it is a picture in fact is the closest picture of his relationship with this people that he has for us to see here on earth Luke 20 says this Jesus was speaking and he reminds people and this might be a news flash to some of you He says because he was trying to get stumped by some of the religious leaders who were trying to say oh what about a guy who's married seven different women and All seven die and who's gonna be his wife in heaven and you know they're trying to get Jesus to get caught in this trap And Jesus kind of blows her mind says well, you know to be truthful there really is no marriage in heaven There is no giving or taking of husband and wife And that kind of shatters most of your favorite movies out there Or fantasy island as I used to watch as a kid growing up when they would be the ultimate thing Was when you died to find your long lost love You know are to be together forever in paradise But you know actually that's true But we forget we have missed who the long lost love is We've missed the one wedding That is exist in heaven and it's the reason why I believe that god says know it there's no more need For the picture of it through these marriage vows between human beings because there's only one wedding We're gonna be celebrating and that's because god calls us his church his bride And we are his lost love that he's brought home and he is our lost love That many have forgotten about many have never even thought about And I've sat before in sermons in the past God doesn't make the top five of things that people look forward to most about heaven Just as a picture of a reminder that we are totally missing What god so much wants to have an intimate relationship with us Now don't get me wrong. I think we will see Loved ones of ours spouses of ours Who are Christians who trust in Jesus Christ. I think we will see them in heaven But god is saying there's gonna be one marriage picture in heaven and it's between us and him Revelation 21 in fact the second to last chapter in the book of the Bible And revelations are real popular both these days with all that's going around in the world Here's what it says it says this Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven the first earth that passed away And there was no longer any see I saw the holy city The new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from god prepared as a bride Beautifully dressed for her husband And I heard a voice from the throne saying now the dwelling of god is with men and he will live with them They will be his people and god himself would be with them and he will be their god He will wipe away every tear from their eyes There will be no more death nor mourning or crying or pain for the old order of things has passed away There is the wedding ceremony That we were created to design for it and that god's people are coming home to God's bringing his bride and it's you and it's me If our faith and trust is in Jesus Christ and him alone Well number one love is not enough, but if we understand That it is god's love that is really the picture of marriage that really is the foundation for marriage and this is merely reflection of a true Although not the invisible in some ways, but a true love relationship a true marriage relationship The number two is correct as well love is enough Number one love is not enough if it's like the love that surrounds the common marriage vows But if it's like God's vows with us Number two love is enough if it's that kind of love Well, let's let's look for comparison and contrast looks. Let's look at God's Marriage vows here's house his would be a little bit different He says I take you church To be my bride Although you have the heart of an adulterer My heart will be faithful although you are prone towards self righteousness I will give you true righteousness I will although you are sick and poor I will heal you and make you an heir Although you deny me I will never forsake you And there's no go back next life Go back There's no superscript. There's no footnote. There's no fine print. There's just the period Because that's it That is God's promise and marriage vow to us no fine print Now you can switch sides if earthly marriage Is to reflect God's marriage with his people Then love is enough and if it is his love the kind The kind that brings life You know God's love is an amazing love And it's a love that's not just one that warms our heart and makes us feel kind of warm and fuzzy But it's one that brings life number three love is life Love is not enough number one if it's the world's kind of love number two love is enough If it's God's love and number three God's love real love is life Now I want to read first John four So hopefully you've got your finger already there in the Bible first John four versus seven through twelve Dear friends Let us love one another or love comes from God Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God Whoever does not love does not know God because God is love This is how God showed his love among us He sent his one and only son into the world that we might live through him This is love not that we love God but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins Dear friends since God so loved us we also ought to love one another No one has ever seen God but if we love one another God lives in us and his love is made complete in us
Love that there was talks about in verse nine This is how God showed his love among us. He sent his one and only son to the world that we might live Through him If you are knowing and if you are experiencing God's love You are experiencing a part or a sense or an experience of life That is unlike what you could experience apart from God It is not like the model of the earthly common marriage vows that are so Self-centered and so making sure that you're getting what you need these are self-sacrificial These are serving one another These are putting somebody else's needs above your own these are finding your greatest joy In someone else's greatest joy It's a revolutionary view under under their love is life letter a life and death First step here life and death and I don't want to share you a little bit about what this means a little bit about my story My marriage story and it's not really pretty completely. I'll have to be honest with you Yeah, I was asked recently in the last year so to put some my thoughts Actually with a counselor that I've been Lauren. I've been meeting with and so I decided to do that And what I really begin to really realize as I've been working through things. We've been married going on 16 years 16 years six children. You know, we've got you know It feels like longer than 16 years with six children Great children, but we have we have been on the journey together And the reason why I had this whole section called life and death is because God's been bringing me through a renewal stage of this and this might be something for those of you that aren't married You might just give you thought to think about or think about your own marriage relationship with God But for those of us that are married. I just want to challenge you to think is your marriage an example of life Or is there really more an example of death So these are some of my thoughts I put down and many that are quite personal, but I trust that I can share those with you this morning This section of this paper I was writing I entitled life and death and I never intended necessarily to share this with many people So but I will do that now I wrote this about a year ago. So what is it like to be living in death It was a lot of work There was a tremendous amount of energy and effort needed I felt like as a Christian not to mention being a pastor that I had always appeared to be alive no matter how dead I actually felt I'm not talking about eternal heavenly security that had that had been settled years earlier I'm talking about living in the new life that the gospel promises to impart to me I'm talking about living as a truly new creature in Christ where the oldest passed away in regards to my marriage My problem was not experiencing much Nunes or or or certain or certainly I'm sorry my problem was not experiencing much Nunes Or certainly the fullness that Jesus seemed to speak about and so that we could experience Although my struggle began long before marriage God used marriage to bring it to the surface in a way that I could not hide At least not for my wife Laura As she grew to know me deeply and intimately with each passing year As she became an unfortunate observer and participant in my life of death Death is all two contagious I've discovered the death manifested this death manifest itself with her so strongly I think because I needed her approval so much More devastating than the attacks from thousands of strangers is the exposing of the one who knows you the best No one knew me better than Laura The longer we lived together the more my struggle with death was exposed To make matters worse there was a terrible degree of self-deception along the way I really thought I was alive in the new nature I thought God had over promised and under delivered the new life that I was to experience on earth I figured that only after heaven would I experience the power of the Holy Spirit like what I had read about in the transformation of the life of the apostle Paul But hey, later is better than never I thought I should just be content with something to look forward to it seemed Since exposure was my greatest fear of Laura became my greatest idol By idol I mean the main thing that I needed for joy for satisfaction and to feel well alive With her approval in favor. I could be alive. I thought Rather than finding life for myself. I made her my life It was convenient. It was easy to fool others in myself It was selfish It was deadly This manifested itself by me constantly being bent into Laura I had to know if she was upset most of the time Not because I cared about her but because I couldn't be alive if she was upset at me I was always the object in the main focus. It was really always about my needs not hers most of the time But strangely it looks like just the opposite I gave the appearance of tuning into her needs and desires but really only long enough to make sure that I kept her meeting mine To make things worse I fooled her for a while too, I think She struggled to know what was wrong with her so much of the time and I played along in self-deception I was walking dead and squeezing her for life so tightly that she could hardly breathe herself and find the life that she needed After all these years of marriage the exposure finally reached the critical stage Through the circumstances around the adoption of a little girl from Guatemala To make a long story short we had felt a growing leading to adopt over several years After 14 months of working in the process and many supernatural provisions from God along the way We finally arrived in Guatemala ready to take her home She had the heart she had a needed heart surgery that we that had to have happened The exchange between the foster mother and our two-year-old child I'm could not have been more traumatic though Both our new daughter and our first night in hotel were emotional wrecks We thought to ourselves what was the mistake Laura struggled with most of the emotional anxiety and the floods of doubts I tried to remain the strong one and sure her that we would just stay the course After making back to Orlando and starting adjustment We found out four weeks later that we were expecting number six The weeks amongst the head were some of the darkest for both of us But particularly for Laura you see self-disception is a remarkable tool and self-preservation And a tool that I could use well While Laura dealt with the reality of the anxiety of the hand that God was dealing with us I plowed ahead pretending nothing was really wrong That a little gritting of the teeth and a white knuckling couldn't handle My approach not only solidified my deadly track but also pushed to squelch my life This does squelch any life that Laura had in her Fortunately, she's a passionate woman with too much life to contain So with the new pregnancy the new adoption a job transition underway as a church planner participating in a parent-run school and having all the pressures of life with a large family and in the ministry I basically defrauded her and made her my God by continuing to treat her like a prostitute for my life deprived soul Where we were able to masquerade in the past and even have Surface-level reconciliation these challenges pushed us past our ability to outwit Outplay or outlast Where survival had always seen possible and now seemed to be a quickly fading vapor in the desert of our hearts Although Laura had resisted over the decade plus years of marriage in the past Our new found crisis of life pushed her to the breaking point and she struggled for life in spite of me She cried out for help and did what was worse than not listen She cried out for help and I did what was worse than not listening I listened shared and sat idle in my rescue promises What I couldn't see at the time was any real goal that was my personal pleasure and contentment not anyone else's I had to find a way to keep her happy or there was no chance of my happiness She was she was my illegal substance that I would use to abuse to get my temporary high after draining her empty She cried out and I sympathetically milked her for my needs and acceptance of approval to make her feel hurt and understood I acted like the strong one with the plan and in the determination to leave But I was totally too self-absorbed to really engage her heart and know her burden as a husband should Now I've got to stop because it's just but you got the picture I think That's life in death And it wasn't that I wasn't a believer I'm a pastor through all this I sincerely have a faith in God But perhaps you are like me who is in need of a great renewal season I'm not sure if it's your marriage maybe it's something else But that's what living in death looks like
And the impact they can have on the people that they love the most around you can be devastating
Well, let me talk about the really good news for a second Jesus gave his life for our death The scriptures we just read said that we might live through him It says that he came as an atoning sacrifice Toning there you could also redefine that word and praise it like this He came to satisfy and to quench God's anger and God's wrath
I mean can can you believe a guy like that would do that to his wife Can you imagine how God the father must feel about his beloved children when they're treated that way Now now Laura was up here. She would tell you she has her own struggles and her own issues I'm just sharing mine and you have your own or whatever But getting a picture of how we are so unholy and unrighteous before a holy God lets you know how much of a need there is For an atoning process for God to come and he had to come and he had to deal with sin And this tells us that God is love and he sent his son as a toning sacrifice to quench The wrath of God that he had against sin And that's what Jesus Christ did. He came and he hung on across To pay my penalty So that all the righteous as the he deserves could be given to me And all the wrath that my sin deserved will be placed on him And through his resurrection as I trust and identify with his death in my place It leads us to this other stage Let her be all called death and life Scripture says he calls us to identify with Christ having died in our place And that we are to die to this old nature The kind of nature I was describing here writing here the kind of nature that sucks people dry around you And can even do it in a way that looks very spiritual
That you can die to that and you can become alive By dying to that daily and the resurrection power of Jesus Christ The fact that he rose again from the dead three days later is proof that there's power over sin That the guilt of my sin has been dealt with And he can bring freshness and newness of life Well over my 30th 2005 last year I had a real dark night of the soul weakened And I began to come to grips and realize that I needed Jesus Christ in a fresh way Well, I invited him into my life years earlier because I knew that I needed I needed help I knew I couldn't deal with my sin problem But I came to grips and saw my sin in a way that I had never seen it before this past year I saw it for the abyss that it is That it wasn't just some kind of sweet sin that was kind of like yeah You know just kind of Okay, I don't love God of all my own heart, but I'm not that bad This was seeing Man, I'm a abuser Anybody around me to get to what I need
And I will prostitute any person or anything around me to serve the needs that I have That was the kind of center I was And I needed a Jesus that seemed a whole lot bigger And the good news folks that he's big He is a big Jesus And he came and began to move and has continued to move me in the process towards life
I call it death and life because it is again a daily process of dying to yourself Here I wrote again further about that story I said there are no moving sidewalks towards life. I began to discover Oh, there are some but they are constantly moving swiftly towards death However, with the breakthrough of my awareness of a greater death of sin came a greater need for deep mercy and grace from God That initial weekend I was talking about awareness I realized I needed much bigger Jesus than I had needed prior to that It was comforting to find out that he was that big and I suspect even bigger Laura seemed to feel relieved knowing that it had not been all her fault Is that they get in the road of repentance She was very supportive of me in my journey. She was empathetic and seemed concerned about how hard it I was taking this new awareness I was able to begin repenting for long deep patterns of sin in my life It was grievous. It was grievous, but it was also freeing For the first time I understood a new depth of her perspective and again to apologize and ask forgiveness It opened up a heart a part of her heart that had been almost sealed inside a coffin of hopelessness I remember a few weeks later around Christmas some significant fruit happened There was a renewed intimacy with one another there was a softening of my heart She had accused me very accurately in the past of lost passion Of a loss of passion in my life for her and the family I had usually defended myself with a grocery list of excuses and defensive facts However, I understood now that she was right Death had squeezed out my passion in most areas of my life This is one of the first real challenges that I saw the spirit bring I felt a renewed passion for God my wife and my kids Taking some extra time off around Christmas helped too as we had more time together Christmas you see in recent years had been a stressful time And there was there were expectations of quality time with the family and a Christmas gift for Laura That was to be a token of my passion and love for her It had become a burden to find the right gift and I had totally missed the missed the gift That I was celebrating This year was different though. I simply focused on the blessing she was and enjoyed her Really enjoying her Ironically, we didn't end up giving each other a Christmas gift at all At least not one that was wrapped up under the tree It was one of our best Christmas celebrations ever Over the next few months I noticed some real changes, but not in the way that I expected We were fighting more However, we were fighting differently We were not allowing struggles and hurts to get swept under the rug immediately But taking them on more head on head and more quickly There was a refreshingly more honest interaction that although it wasn't necessarily pleasant Truth comes in all shapes and sizes, you know Always it was powerful to move us towards intimacy and freedom much more quickly than denial I was amazed at how much messier but alive I felt I felt New Zeal to fight for things that were important to me like my wife and my kids We were learning to fight better and healthier only alive people can do that. I'm discovering Death can tolerate almost anything
My story could go on but my story is not the point The point is we all have a story But the point is that God has a story too that He invites us to come and be a part of Death will tolerate almost anything Are you tolerating your marriage this morning? Are you taught if you're not married or you tolerating in some other relationship some other kind of way Are you really alive? Are you really experiencing the fruit of the spirit that God talks about this love joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness? Faithfulness, gentleness and self-control? Is that really there? Or just in some pseudo form? It's a really life You see my death Is a daily decision I have to make and life only comes as I as I continue to die to the selfish person That I was and become alive to the new person that I am second Corinthians five tells us that we are new creatures in Christ That the old is passed away and the newest come Well, let me ask you is the old passing away Or as the old has been repackaged to look a little bit nicer and a little bit more alive
Ask your spouse if you're honest enough and you really want an honest answer if he or she is willing to be honest Ask your neighbors if you wonder if they think that you are an example of the fruit of the Holy Spirit Ask your co-workers ask your fellow classmates Do they see a difference in your life? Do they smell Jesus? Do they smell heaven when you're around? Are they really smell death? They smell religion they smell self-righteousness Jesus had to die that we might have life We have to die with them that we might have life with him Let's look at his marriage vows one last time Jesus says I take you church to be my bride Although you have the heart of an adulterer Meaning that you will find your affection and almost anything Rather than look for it in God Your job human relationships your success
And you will deny God just like me Even though you have the heart of an adulterer, God says my heart will be faithful although you are prone to self-righteousness And I was a master at it and I still am so those of you that know me and love me better hold me accountable There's a big difference that between living like I was living And trusting the righteous of Jesus Christ the only he is righteous He says I will give you a true righteousness although you are sick and poor I will heal you and make you an heir And some of you feel the sickness strong here this morning and you know you need healing and you need something You need a power and some of you feel empty And the last thing you feel like is a child of God and heir but he says you are in Christ He says I will heal you and make you an heir although you deny me I will never forsake you As God's invitation for us you see the myth is that earthly love is not enough for a marriage
But it's plausible if you understand that love and only the love that comes from God it is enough And to be reminded that love is life And if you're not alive this morning don't tolerate it Don't think it's just the way it's supposed to be Don't stay where you're at If we're not your church home get involved in your church home. If you don't have a church home. We'd love to be your church home If you're not experiencing community with other people if you're not getting involved in a small group and we offer many When we want to offer more as we have need Get involved getting engaged get around other people who are sharing who are sharing the journey with you Who might be a little ahead of you in some places that can encourage you Who you might build encourage people that are a little bit behind you and their journey Life is too hard. We have to stick together. We have to work together on this Anyway, there's an engagement Jesus in his son Like a whopping engagement ring. He says we marry me And you have a choice and for some of you here tonight on that journey You have never received an embrace his engagement. That's a yeah I'll be yours And for some of you here you've walked away from it like I had for a season who's just learning what it means to come back And you need to remind be reminded it is wedding commitment to you I'm not sure you're at here this morning But don't sit back and do nothing respond to God respond as Holy Spirit. Let's pray Gotta thank you that you do love us and you do care for us Gotta think of it you have invited us to be yourself to be yours you have in Asked us God In a sense to marry you to respond to your invitation an invitation of life and invitation to be a god to us An invitation to pay the penalty for our sin and invitation to be The one that delivers us from death and brings real life And real intimacy and real fruit of the spirit that is smells like heaven and smells like Jesus Christ So God for those that you're working here and I trust you're working in each of our hearts You will you reveal yourself to us will you bring us to the point of repentance and responses morning For those that are here that Know that they have not truly embraced your love for them At least not the kind of love we're talking about God maybe give them the courage this morning say God all right. I want it I see my need for you I confess my sin and my self-righteousness and I cling to the only one who is righteous Jesus And I trust in your forgiveness for me on the cross And I trust in the power of your resurrection to be my guarantee That you have a new life for me that your Holy Spirit will grant to me Take my life and for those of us that we're maybe like me in the past a couple years realizing that we've wandered away From our first love. God be you bring us back home God be let us be attuned or to our emotions and attuned to what's going on around us rather than then to deny them and to respond to them and say Breathe newness in life and in our marriages we do it in our parenting we do it in our places of employment We do in our schools God wherever the spheres of life that we're working and operating and we bring newness of life God we pray that you would strengthen marriages But they would be founded upon the one true love the one true marriage And for those that are pondering and looking to get married God would you leave them and would you direct them To find just the person that you call them to marry and we'll let that foundation be on Christ and him alone So God thank you that we can continue to come and we can look forward to em wedding feast with you and heaven one day That you have worked and you've accomplished That you're inviting us to that we will partake in we long and look for that day and we pray this in Christ name amen