WEBVTT 00:00:00.600 --> 00:00:07.060 Father, it was refreshing to hear Ken publicly say he agreed and disagreed with parts of your word. 00:00:07.240 --> 00:00:10.580 And Father, that's the way we are, Father. 00:00:11.939 --> 00:00:17.500 Often we cover it with pious stuff, and often we cover it with very complicated intellectual arguments. 00:00:18.500 --> 00:00:25.240 Father, we confess before you that we often judge your word, that we think we're wiser than your word. 00:00:25.239 --> 00:00:31.419 And Father, we confess before you that there's times that we're embarrassed by your word, that we're ashamed of your word. 00:00:32.780 --> 00:00:39.899 We confess before you that there's times we're greatly puzzled by your word, and maybe even afraid of your word and what it says. 00:00:40.899 --> 00:00:48.560 Father, we ask that you would keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, your Son and our Savior who died upon the cross for us. 00:00:48.560 --> 00:00:57.640 And pour out your Holy Spirit upon us and quieten our hearts and turn our hearts and minds and wills and our very selves towards you. 00:00:58.400 --> 00:01:03.460 Father, deliver us from all fear and hesitation of your word and shame of your word. 00:01:04.120 --> 00:01:08.879 And help us, Father, to humbly enter into it and allow it to form us. 00:01:09.359 --> 00:01:13.120 And this we ask in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen. 00:01:13.900 --> 00:01:14.620 Please be seated. 00:01:14.620 --> 00:01:14.740 Amen. 00:01:18.560 --> 00:01:29.020 For a lot of people in our culture, they think that the way marriage was in the 50s and the 60s is the way the Bible talks about marriage. 00:01:29.799 --> 00:01:37.680 And so for a lot of people in our culture, they think that if they know about what marriage was like in the 50s and the 60s, 00:01:38.040 --> 00:01:44.240 and if they know about marriage then, they know about the Bible, and the marriage in the 50s and the 60s isn't for them. 00:01:44.239 --> 00:01:51.319 It's square. It was repressive of women and of gays and of transgendered. 00:01:51.780 --> 00:01:56.500 And so therefore, we don't really have to pay that much attention to what the Bible says about marriage 00:01:56.500 --> 00:02:00.659 because, once again, it was just like the 50s and 60s in North America. 00:02:00.780 --> 00:02:02.939 We all know about that or think we know about that. 00:02:03.439 --> 00:02:07.459 And therefore, there's a certain degree of cynicism, even amongst Christians often, 00:02:07.959 --> 00:02:12.099 latent cynicism as we hear biblical texts on marriage. 00:02:12.099 --> 00:02:17.099 And, you know, it is true that... 00:02:17.879 --> 00:02:23.439 I've been thinking about this a lot this week because, you know, you see the text that I'm going to preach on. 00:02:23.840 --> 00:02:27.099 And I know I'm really old, but... 00:02:27.680 --> 00:02:32.579 When I grew up in a suburb of Montreal, I grew up in a Jewish neighborhood. 00:02:33.039 --> 00:02:36.419 Everybody in the street was Jewish except our next-door neighbor. 00:02:36.719 --> 00:02:38.879 And, like, the next street was that way and the next street and the next street. 00:02:38.879 --> 00:02:40.359 And there were virtually no Gentiles. 00:02:40.479 --> 00:02:42.780 It was an all-Jewish neighborhood in a suburb of Montreal. 00:02:43.579 --> 00:02:46.579 And my parents and I, we went to this little Baptist church. 00:02:47.639 --> 00:02:55.719 And everybody on my street, every single person on my street, it was their first and only marriage. 00:02:56.000 --> 00:03:00.740 Like, all of my friends, their parents were together. 00:03:00.740 --> 00:03:02.040 And they... 00:03:02.040 --> 00:03:06.020 This wasn't their, like, their second dad or their third dad or their second mom. 00:03:06.159 --> 00:03:07.480 Nobody was living together. 00:03:08.560 --> 00:03:10.820 And that was the street that I lived on. 00:03:10.939 --> 00:03:16.040 And in the church, everybody was married, like, everybody was married or they were too young to marry. 00:03:17.040 --> 00:03:24.920 And, in fact, actually, I was thinking about it a lot this week that the only type of scandal that I was aware of as a kid growing up in the church was that one of the... 00:03:24.919 --> 00:03:29.280 This is a Baptist church, okay, that one of the men secretly smoked cigarettes. 00:03:30.419 --> 00:03:32.299 And this was sort of a shameful thing. 00:03:32.379 --> 00:03:32.639 It wouldn't... 00:03:32.639 --> 00:03:36.959 In Anglican context, I don't know, they probably smoked like chimneys and drank like fish. 00:03:37.419 --> 00:03:38.560 And those wouldn't be scanned. 00:03:38.639 --> 00:03:39.159 I don't know what... 00:03:39.159 --> 00:03:39.959 Some of you... 00:03:39.959 --> 00:03:43.319 You can ask some of the older Anglicans what the equivalent might have been in the 60s. 00:03:43.359 --> 00:03:44.579 Maybe it was that they didn't smoke. 00:03:44.619 --> 00:03:45.000 I don't know. 00:03:45.759 --> 00:03:46.799 In an Anglican church. 00:03:46.800 --> 00:03:48.219 But that was the church I grew up in. 00:03:48.280 --> 00:03:55.800 And I was thinking a lot about that this week is that in that type of social context, with these types of texts, they would have just... 00:03:56.320 --> 00:03:57.760 It would have been just very straightforward. 00:03:57.880 --> 00:04:01.460 In fact, the minister might not have even wanted to talk about the text because it was just so obvious. 00:04:01.980 --> 00:04:03.900 And, of course, he wouldn't have read Proverbs 5. 00:04:04.080 --> 00:04:06.220 But apart from that, it would have been very obvious. 00:04:06.340 --> 00:04:08.360 And it's a very different social context, right? 00:04:08.420 --> 00:04:15.500 As I've been thinking about that a lot this week, it's very common for people, younger people, 00:04:15.500 --> 00:04:17.500 that have multiple... 00:04:18.560 --> 00:04:23.600 You know, they're children of divorce and their parents have lived together and they've had... 00:04:23.600 --> 00:04:25.680 It's just a very, very different social context. 00:04:25.800 --> 00:04:26.399 It really is. 00:04:27.560 --> 00:04:29.980 And so what is the Bible? 00:04:30.060 --> 00:04:30.959 Did the Bible... 00:04:30.959 --> 00:04:31.660 Is the Bible... 00:04:31.660 --> 00:04:35.220 If you know the 50s and the 60s in North America, do you know what the Bible teaches? 00:04:35.519 --> 00:04:36.040 Is that... 00:04:36.040 --> 00:04:36.980 Like, is it equivalent? 00:04:37.980 --> 00:04:39.319 Is the Bible different? 00:04:40.040 --> 00:04:42.860 Is the Bible still wise and sane? 00:04:42.860 --> 00:04:45.280 Or is it something that we should be cynical about? 00:04:46.420 --> 00:04:48.340 Well, let's look at these different texts. 00:04:48.540 --> 00:04:51.639 And as we've been doing week in and week out, as we've been going through the book of Proverbs, 00:04:52.340 --> 00:04:56.920 my big hope at the end of the sermon, apart from the fact that you would know Jesus better, 00:04:57.020 --> 00:04:57.860 is that you'd actually remember... 00:04:58.500 --> 00:05:00.879 Not remember my words, but remember the Proverbs. 00:05:01.020 --> 00:05:02.740 So I'm going to have you read them along with me. 00:05:03.319 --> 00:05:05.819 And we're not going to do them in the order that they're printed in. 00:05:05.840 --> 00:05:08.360 I just printed them in the order that they come in the book of Proverbs. 00:05:08.360 --> 00:05:15.280 If you look in your book or turn in your Bibles to Proverbs 31.10, let's read that together first. 00:05:15.400 --> 00:05:16.960 Proverbs 31.10. 00:05:17.120 --> 00:05:18.400 Read it with me out loud, please. 00:05:19.100 --> 00:05:21.600 An excellent wife who can find. 00:05:22.040 --> 00:05:24.520 She is far more precious than jewels. 00:05:24.860 --> 00:05:27.220 Let's read it again, just so we get into the rhythm of reading. 00:05:27.840 --> 00:05:30.160 An excellent wife who can find. 00:05:30.580 --> 00:05:32.759 She is far more precious than jewels. 00:05:33.139 --> 00:05:36.680 Now, here's the first thing that we have to be careful of when we hear this text, 00:05:36.680 --> 00:05:40.939 is that in our culture, in our time, there's a deep-seated... 00:05:40.939 --> 00:05:45.079 We sort of alternate between a cynicism and sentimentality. 00:05:45.840 --> 00:05:49.819 And so it's very easy for us to, on one hand, take a text like this and say, 00:05:49.860 --> 00:05:52.560 oh yeah, that would be like a Hallmark greeting card that we would... 00:05:52.560 --> 00:05:53.620 You know, you'd go out and you'd buy it. 00:05:53.660 --> 00:05:58.980 Somebody would buy it for their wife on their anniversary and give it to their wife. 00:05:59.019 --> 00:06:01.199 And it's like a very sentimental type of thing. 00:06:01.199 --> 00:06:04.659 And we have to, as we're going to see as we go through the book of Proverbs, 00:06:04.819 --> 00:06:07.139 is the book of Proverbs is very unsent... 00:06:07.139 --> 00:06:08.500 It's not sentimental at all. 00:06:08.560 --> 00:06:11.199 It's not like Canadian sentimentality. 00:06:12.060 --> 00:06:13.639 It's also not at all cynical. 00:06:14.120 --> 00:06:16.620 Because you could well imagine a guy in a bar, okay? 00:06:16.699 --> 00:06:19.919 Two guys in a bar, and they're standing there along the bar, 00:06:20.180 --> 00:06:23.379 and they're having their beer, and one guy says to another, 00:06:23.939 --> 00:06:25.639 yeah, an excellent wife. 00:06:25.779 --> 00:06:26.240 Good grief. 00:06:26.300 --> 00:06:27.779 Who on earth can find an excellent wife? 00:06:27.860 --> 00:06:29.180 They're rarer than rubies. 00:06:29.180 --> 00:06:31.079 They're rarer than precious jewels. 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:34.139 In other words, it's impossible to find a good wife 00:06:34.139 --> 00:06:37.439 and then have some more beer and watch the football game or whatever. 00:06:37.560 --> 00:06:39.319 And it's a cynical type of reading of the text. 00:06:39.480 --> 00:06:45.540 But it doesn't mean that an excellent wife, a noble wife, a virtuous wife, a strong wife... 00:06:45.540 --> 00:06:48.439 And that word excellent, it implies... 00:06:48.439 --> 00:06:51.360 It's actually a military image. 00:06:52.079 --> 00:06:58.800 It implies valor and might and courage and ingenuity and skill. 00:06:58.800 --> 00:07:01.759 And that's what it's saying about the wife. 00:07:02.280 --> 00:07:03.840 It's not talking about trophy wives. 00:07:05.540 --> 00:07:07.280 It's talking about character. 00:07:08.500 --> 00:07:19.360 And what the text is saying is that a great wife is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, 00:07:19.500 --> 00:07:20.400 billions of dollars. 00:07:20.540 --> 00:07:25.860 Like the crown jewels of England versus a good wife, you pick the good wife because it's of greater value. 00:07:25.860 --> 00:07:31.420 Like an economist would just say that that's where the money is and that's what it's trying to communicate to us. 00:07:31.480 --> 00:07:33.040 It's not being sentimental, actually. 00:07:33.120 --> 00:07:37.379 It's trying to say something about a great wife, a good wife. 00:07:37.660 --> 00:07:39.939 And that's how we have to try to hear the text. 00:07:41.180 --> 00:07:43.240 Well, some of you might be saying, well, what about husbands? 00:07:44.020 --> 00:07:45.180 Well, we're going to get to husbands. 00:07:45.180 --> 00:07:50.139 But let's look at another text because there's a key idea here. 00:07:50.199 --> 00:07:57.699 By the way, I've taken all of the texts in the book of Proverbs, all but one of the texts in the book of Proverbs that mention husband and wives. 00:07:57.960 --> 00:07:59.680 So that's what we see before us today. 00:08:00.379 --> 00:08:02.379 So let's look at Proverbs 18.22. 00:08:03.240 --> 00:08:04.120 18.22. 00:08:04.259 --> 00:08:05.160 You want to read it with me? 00:08:05.160 --> 00:08:11.680 He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord. 00:08:11.800 --> 00:08:12.620 Let's say it again. 00:08:13.200 --> 00:08:18.920 He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord. 00:08:19.240 --> 00:08:21.879 Now, this is a very, very interesting text. 00:08:22.220 --> 00:08:27.220 If you notice that he who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord. 00:08:27.220 --> 00:08:30.640 And it's far more obvious in the original language. 00:08:30.800 --> 00:08:34.759 But the implication here is that the young man or the man is to seek. 00:08:35.560 --> 00:08:37.620 And he's to seek and he's to seek and he's to seek. 00:08:37.700 --> 00:08:40.500 Or as we'll see in a moment, the woman is to seek and to seek and to seek. 00:08:40.600 --> 00:08:42.379 It's something that you should seek. 00:08:42.860 --> 00:08:49.940 But at the same time, that when you actually find a great wife, you're actually finding something which is actually a gift from God. 00:08:51.120 --> 00:08:55.180 That God actually is granting you a very, very great gift. 00:08:55.179 --> 00:09:03.259 And in the language here, when we think of good thing, you know, we're so controlled in our culture of thinking of what's the good thing to do or the wrong thing to do. 00:09:03.299 --> 00:09:05.859 And, well, the good thing is whatever causes the least amount of pain. 00:09:06.419 --> 00:09:10.899 And this whole utilitarian way of our culture understanding good and evil, it's very, very thin. 00:09:11.500 --> 00:09:15.239 And sort of an empty and wispy, looks like spider webs. 00:09:15.599 --> 00:09:17.359 It doesn't actually hold up much. 00:09:17.419 --> 00:09:18.659 It doesn't stand anything up. 00:09:18.659 --> 00:09:22.279 Like just like the smallest rock will go through a spider web. 00:09:22.279 --> 00:09:27.980 And so it is that when you have a culture of control with thinking about good and evil in terms of utilitarian terms, it's like a spider web. 00:09:28.059 --> 00:09:29.019 Things just drop through it. 00:09:29.659 --> 00:09:35.620 And this biblical notion of being good is it's a very, very, it's a transcendent type of idea. 00:09:35.720 --> 00:09:36.959 It's a very, very big idea. 00:09:37.600 --> 00:09:39.740 Because ultimately God is good. 00:09:40.179 --> 00:09:44.799 And so to talk about something being good is to say that in some ways it's similar to God. 00:09:44.860 --> 00:09:45.799 It reflects God. 00:09:45.879 --> 00:09:47.220 It emerges out of God. 00:09:47.299 --> 00:09:49.439 It's coherent and consistent with God. 00:09:49.440 --> 00:09:58.520 And in this particular case, the idea of something being good, it also has this idea that it's a proper joy. 00:09:58.880 --> 00:10:00.740 That it's properly beneficial. 00:10:01.000 --> 00:10:02.540 That it's properly life-giving. 00:10:02.840 --> 00:10:04.880 That it's properly pleasing to God. 00:10:05.580 --> 00:10:12.220 It's a little bit like the idea that if you're out for a bike ride, you know, maybe later on, 00:10:12.220 --> 00:10:23.860 and far later on in the day, and it happens to be a beautiful sunset, and you stop on your bikes and you look and say, gosh, that's just so beautiful. 00:10:23.980 --> 00:10:25.519 That's such a great view. 00:10:25.940 --> 00:10:27.000 That's so good. 00:10:27.000 --> 00:10:38.659 If you're to have like a really fine meal, if, you know, you go over to a friend's house and they make this spectacular meal and you take one bite of it and it's, I don't know, just, sorry for vegetarians here, 00:10:38.720 --> 00:10:40.360 but it's like roast beef or something. 00:10:40.440 --> 00:10:43.840 It's just perfectly cooked and it like, you almost don't even need a knife to cut it. 00:10:43.940 --> 00:10:46.440 It's like, it just melts in your mouth. 00:10:46.539 --> 00:10:48.299 You go, oh, that's so good. 00:10:48.299 --> 00:10:58.079 And you get, you see that the biblical idea has all of those types of things, that it's a pleasure, it's a joy, that it's right. 00:10:58.659 --> 00:11:05.699 And that if somebody was to see that sunset and just say, oh, gosh, you know, I've seen better things in, I see better things in the movie. 00:11:05.779 --> 00:11:07.699 I see better things in my Twitter feed. 00:11:08.019 --> 00:11:11.740 You go, gosh, what a, like, this person doesn't know anything. 00:11:11.859 --> 00:11:15.339 I mean, that deserves to be appreciated. 00:11:15.459 --> 00:11:17.799 That deserves to be extolled. 00:11:17.799 --> 00:11:19.819 That deserves to be noticed. 00:11:19.939 --> 00:11:21.959 That deserves to be praised. 00:11:22.120 --> 00:11:24.039 And that's this idea of good here. 00:11:24.639 --> 00:11:25.459 Okay, that's what it says. 00:11:25.500 --> 00:11:28.199 So when it says, can you read it with me again, 1822? 00:11:28.740 --> 00:11:33.839 He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord. 00:11:34.559 --> 00:11:37.579 And the idea of favor here, it's a religious term. 00:11:37.579 --> 00:11:44.319 It's in terms of God's specific blessing, that it's something that's good, it's something that's a blessing, 00:11:44.539 --> 00:11:46.639 and I should seek it, I do seek it. 00:11:46.639 --> 00:11:52.799 And at the same time, when God gives me a good wife, it's actually a blessing that I'm receiving, 00:11:52.879 --> 00:11:55.340 a great good that I'm receiving from God. 00:11:56.460 --> 00:11:59.620 And some of you are saying, well, one moment, George, what about husbands? 00:12:00.220 --> 00:12:01.500 How come it's not mentioning husbands? 00:12:01.679 --> 00:12:03.439 And what about the single people here? 00:12:03.440 --> 00:12:12.480 And what about polygamy and people like same sex and like, how does that all fit in with this? 00:12:12.580 --> 00:12:13.780 Well, we're going to get to that in a moment. 00:12:13.880 --> 00:12:15.820 Let's look at another text. 00:12:15.920 --> 00:12:17.640 Proverbs 19, 13, and 14. 00:12:17.760 --> 00:12:18.680 It's right under the first one. 00:12:19.180 --> 00:12:20.620 Can you read this one with me? 00:12:20.620 --> 00:12:29.399 A foolish son is ruined to his father, and a wife's quarreling is a continual dripping of rain. 00:12:30.039 --> 00:12:35.940 House and wealth are inherited from fathers, but a prudent wife is from the Lord. 00:12:35.940 --> 00:12:47.900 And prudent here implies very, very energetic and wise in skillful living that is healthy. 00:12:48.740 --> 00:12:57.340 If you think living life to its fullest, life to its absolute fullest, and skill in living life to its fullest, 00:12:57.480 --> 00:12:58.620 that's what prudent means. 00:12:59.420 --> 00:13:00.340 That's what it means. 00:13:00.340 --> 00:13:08.600 And so it says a foolish son is ruined to his father, and a wife's quarreling is a continual dripping of rain. 00:13:08.879 --> 00:13:11.000 Drip, drip, drip. 00:13:11.519 --> 00:13:12.379 The roof's going. 00:13:12.820 --> 00:13:13.680 You don't get the drip. 00:13:13.800 --> 00:13:14.600 The floor is going. 00:13:14.720 --> 00:13:15.580 The walls are going. 00:13:16.200 --> 00:13:17.019 There's going to be mold. 00:13:17.139 --> 00:13:18.019 There's going to be rot. 00:13:18.600 --> 00:13:19.700 It's really irritating. 00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:21.320 Drip, drip, drip. 00:13:21.860 --> 00:13:24.000 House and wealth are inherited from fathers. 00:13:25.200 --> 00:13:27.800 In that culture, it would have been inherited from fathers. 00:13:27.799 --> 00:13:29.959 Obviously, in our culture, it's not. 00:13:30.079 --> 00:13:31.959 But in that culture, that's that. 00:13:32.399 --> 00:13:37.199 But a prudent wife, skillful in living life to its best, is from the Lord. 00:13:38.679 --> 00:13:42.939 So now, you can't keep running away from this. 00:13:43.579 --> 00:13:45.079 Like, is the Bible sexist? 00:13:45.699 --> 00:13:47.639 Like, why is it only talking about the wife's quarreling? 00:13:48.519 --> 00:13:50.839 Like, some of you women might be saying, have you met my husband? 00:13:50.840 --> 00:13:55.379 If there's a quarreling problem in our house, it's not me. 00:13:56.560 --> 00:13:58.240 And you might very well be right. 00:13:59.360 --> 00:14:11.000 It might very well be that the husband is the one who's more anger-driven and more picky and more, you know, easily wounded and just harping away at things. 00:14:11.720 --> 00:14:13.120 Like, what's going on here? 00:14:14.120 --> 00:14:15.960 Like, is the Bible sexist? 00:14:15.960 --> 00:14:18.960 Is it sort of the meaning to women? 00:14:20.060 --> 00:14:21.940 Like, how should we read this text? 00:14:22.680 --> 00:14:24.060 How are we going to get anything out of it? 00:14:25.139 --> 00:14:33.700 Well, first of all, the one thing I'd like to try to communicate to you is that the Bible is not sexist. 00:14:34.600 --> 00:14:36.800 It's never opposed to women. 00:14:36.799 --> 00:14:56.000 In fact, at the very, very beginning of the Bible, there is no more powerful statement in philosophy and ideology and religion than the biblical picture that men and women, male and female, were specifically created and designed by God, 00:14:56.079 --> 00:15:04.639 and that they both equally bear the image of God, that they are both individually, as male and female, are good. 00:15:04.639 --> 00:15:14.379 There is no more powerful statement in religion and philosophy than the biblical picture that at the very heart of creation is that God didn't say, 00:15:14.559 --> 00:15:19.980 oh, I'm going to make women, I'm going to make men because they're so much better, and oh, dang, you know, maybe I should make a lesser creature. 00:15:20.120 --> 00:15:21.399 Well, what the heck, I'll make a woman. 00:15:21.740 --> 00:15:23.819 Like, that's not at all the picture of the Bible. 00:15:23.820 --> 00:15:34.980 It's that both are fully created by God or fully sustained by God or intended by God, designed by God, that God creates male and female. 00:15:35.240 --> 00:15:41.040 And after the fall and after sin, the Bible teaches that, 00:15:41.300 --> 00:15:50.620 for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son to the end, that all who believe in him will not perish but have eternal life. 00:15:50.620 --> 00:15:56.120 And the Bible portrays is that when both male and female, men and women, boys and girls, 00:15:56.580 --> 00:16:05.019 that when they had fallen far away and God recognized and realized that human beings couldn't leave themselves to save themselves or help themselves, 00:16:05.440 --> 00:16:13.960 that God sends his very son to be the one that will redeem male and female, men and women, individual men and women. 00:16:14.039 --> 00:16:17.440 It doesn't say that Jesus just died for men or that he died for men first, 00:16:17.440 --> 00:16:22.800 and if there's a little bit of salvation left over, it'll be left for a few women, a few noble, virtuous women. 00:16:23.120 --> 00:16:25.000 No, it doesn't say that at all. 00:16:25.320 --> 00:16:31.820 The very, very heart of the Bible is not only the doctrine of creation, but the doctrine of redemption and of glorification. 00:16:32.320 --> 00:16:36.240 That God, that Jesus loves men and loves women. 00:16:36.340 --> 00:16:37.640 He dies for them equally. 00:16:37.840 --> 00:16:41.960 Both equally need a Savior and both equally are offered a Savior. 00:16:41.960 --> 00:16:50.440 And even in the structure of the book of Proverbs, in Proverbs chapter 8, you get the pinnacle of all creation. 00:16:50.940 --> 00:16:55.220 The very, very pinnacle of creation is pictured. 00:16:55.900 --> 00:17:01.820 In fact, it's so pictured as the pinnacle of creation that in the Arian controversy, 00:17:02.280 --> 00:17:09.539 Proverbs 8 was used as an explanation to try to explain how Jesus wasn't actually a God of God, light of light, very God of very God. 00:17:09.539 --> 00:17:12.700 But he is that Proverbs 8. It's like the pinnacle of creation. 00:17:13.099 --> 00:17:17.240 And how does the book of Proverbs picture the pinnacle of creation? A woman. 00:17:18.379 --> 00:17:21.839 And if you go back and you read all the book of Proverbs from beginning to the end, 00:17:22.119 --> 00:17:27.659 and you'll see that the first nine chapters are a series of like sermon-type exhortation poems. 00:17:28.180 --> 00:17:33.319 And then there's all these random helter-skelter poems that are going in and out, in and out of different themes. 00:17:33.639 --> 00:17:38.559 And you come to the very end, which begins at Proverbs chapter 31, verse 10, which we just read a few moments ago. 00:17:38.559 --> 00:17:44.039 And if you read that very carefully after reading the book of Proverbs, you realize that Proverbs 31, verse 10 to the end, 00:17:44.259 --> 00:17:47.480 all of the themes of the book of Proverbs are carried together. 00:17:47.919 --> 00:17:54.940 That you have the picture of the person, that everything in the book of Proverbs is trying to get what you're going to look like. 00:17:55.399 --> 00:17:56.919 And how does it portray it as a woman? 00:17:58.339 --> 00:18:00.839 The excellent wife, the virtuous, strong wife. 00:18:00.899 --> 00:18:02.700 That's how it's all summarized at the end. 00:18:02.700 --> 00:18:10.220 So at no point in time, anything in the Bible but in the book of Proverbs is anything sexist. 00:18:10.299 --> 00:18:13.100 It's not at all ever meant to put women down. 00:18:14.000 --> 00:18:15.980 And not at all. 00:18:17.580 --> 00:18:18.380 Not at all. 00:18:19.940 --> 00:18:26.680 You see, in fact, what's happening here in the text is that the book of Proverbs is going to be, 00:18:26.680 --> 00:18:32.240 and we're going to see this very much in a moment, because after this we're going to read out loud Proverbs 5 together, 00:18:32.880 --> 00:18:35.779 is that the book of Proverbs is very concrete. 00:18:37.140 --> 00:18:41.980 Like spouse or partner isn't as concrete as husband or wife. 00:18:41.980 --> 00:18:47.960 And I'm not making any comment about, you know, traditional English and modern English, 00:18:47.960 --> 00:18:53.400 but when you use the plural and everything to try to communicate an individual, you're moving. 00:18:53.500 --> 00:18:54.819 It's a type of abstraction. 00:18:55.779 --> 00:18:58.299 And the book of Proverbs is really concrete. 00:18:59.680 --> 00:19:03.799 And so it doesn't, it could have said, you know, to, it could have said that, you know, 00:19:03.860 --> 00:19:07.180 a foolish child is ruined to his parent, 00:19:07.400 --> 00:19:11.039 and a spouse is quarreling as a continual dripping of rain. 00:19:11.039 --> 00:19:13.579 But that's more abstract. 00:19:13.899 --> 00:19:15.399 It's more vague. 00:19:16.039 --> 00:19:20.180 And the book of Proverbs is, it's like a poke in the chest. 00:19:20.819 --> 00:19:21.980 It's very concrete. 00:19:22.279 --> 00:19:23.759 It's the literary form. 00:19:23.859 --> 00:19:26.559 It's a literary form of being very concrete and specific. 00:19:27.259 --> 00:19:30.480 And just as we understand that you can get an abstract idea, 00:19:30.579 --> 00:19:32.159 and then you sort of have to try to apply it, 00:19:32.359 --> 00:19:36.579 the book of Proverbs is saying you take these concrete ideas and you apply it. 00:19:37.720 --> 00:19:39.940 So in all the way through the book of Proverbs, 00:19:39.940 --> 00:19:46.640 except in two texts, it's completely and utterly valid to substitute husband for wife. 00:19:49.080 --> 00:19:52.400 And that's how the book is written, that it's valid. 00:19:52.580 --> 00:19:56.880 You know, the women can just say, oh yeah, like a husband, a noble husband, like as a gift. 00:19:56.880 --> 00:20:00.180 Like, that's how it's designed to be applied in your lives. 00:20:00.580 --> 00:20:05.340 The Proverbs are to be like somebody pointing you in the chest, 00:20:05.920 --> 00:20:09.300 and it's supposed to be like one of those songs that gets stuck in your head, 00:20:09.380 --> 00:20:11.800 you know, a line of a song or a tune that gets stuck in your head. 00:20:11.920 --> 00:20:14.200 And Proverbs is supposed to be something that gets stuck in your head, 00:20:14.220 --> 00:20:15.060 and it's really concrete. 00:20:15.059 --> 00:20:18.259 And then out of that, as you meditate upon it and reflect upon it, 00:20:18.319 --> 00:20:23.200 you try to figure out how to apply it in a whole range of different areas. 00:20:24.519 --> 00:20:30.759 And so for the balance of the imagery, it's always imagery around the wife, by the way. 00:20:30.899 --> 00:20:33.000 It's both the excellent imagery and the bad imagery. 00:20:33.119 --> 00:20:34.359 It's always the wife, never the husband. 00:20:34.480 --> 00:20:35.399 It's very concrete. 00:20:35.659 --> 00:20:38.259 It's part of the literary form, but it's to be applied. 00:20:38.259 --> 00:20:45.920 And so here's the specific thing, though, from these four Proverbs, which we read already. 00:20:46.140 --> 00:20:47.619 Andrew, if you could put the first point up. 00:20:50.200 --> 00:20:52.240 I can't read it, so I'll read it from my notes here. 00:20:52.339 --> 00:20:58.619 A good marriage is a great good and should be pursued ahead of career and wealth. 00:20:59.460 --> 00:21:02.640 This is not advice that you would have got in the 50s and the 60s, 00:21:02.640 --> 00:21:05.519 and it's not advice you get today, but that's what the Bible's teaching. 00:21:05.519 --> 00:21:07.099 I think that's what Proverbs is teaching. 00:21:08.259 --> 00:21:14.920 That a good marriage is a great good and should be pursued ahead of career and wealth. 00:21:16.140 --> 00:21:20.920 For many of the single people here who are younger, it means that you should marry younger. 00:21:22.680 --> 00:21:24.319 Let me give you a bit of an illustration about that. 00:21:24.420 --> 00:21:28.660 Imagine for a second that you're, once again, you're in a coffee shop or a bar. 00:21:29.119 --> 00:21:31.000 You're talking to somebody. 00:21:31.480 --> 00:21:34.599 Maybe it's an older guy, a guy in his 40s or something like that. 00:21:34.599 --> 00:21:37.599 It seems young to me, but an older guy for some people. 00:21:37.599 --> 00:21:39.179 He starts talking. 00:21:39.299 --> 00:21:41.439 He says, gosh, my marriage is in trouble. 00:21:41.539 --> 00:21:42.839 My wife's really mad at me. 00:21:44.519 --> 00:21:46.299 I knew your heart breaks for that person. 00:21:46.399 --> 00:21:47.559 She said, what are you going to do about it? 00:21:48.480 --> 00:21:49.679 Your marriage is in trouble. 00:21:49.799 --> 00:21:51.059 Your wife's really mad at you. 00:21:51.139 --> 00:21:52.179 She's thinking of leaving. 00:21:52.619 --> 00:21:53.579 She's just really irritated. 00:21:53.639 --> 00:21:54.219 What are you going to do about it? 00:21:54.240 --> 00:21:57.359 He said, well, I thought about this, and I've really been thinking about it. 00:21:57.359 --> 00:22:00.500 And I think I need to go back to school and get an MBA. 00:22:01.259 --> 00:22:03.379 And then I'm going to get a job, and I'm going to get a promotion. 00:22:03.479 --> 00:22:06.199 I'm going to get more money, and I'm going to get my mortgage paid off. 00:22:06.359 --> 00:22:09.240 And in about eight or nine years, then I think I'll work on my marriage. 00:22:10.039 --> 00:22:10.559 What would you say? 00:22:10.659 --> 00:22:12.979 You'd go, duh. 00:22:13.419 --> 00:22:15.639 You're not going to have a marriage in eight or nine years, dude. 00:22:15.640 --> 00:22:22.880 You don't deal with trouble in your marriage by going back to school part-time to get an MBA 00:22:22.880 --> 00:22:26.960 so you can get a better job, so you can make more money, so you can pay off your mortgage. 00:22:27.080 --> 00:22:31.360 And after you've got all of those types of things done, then you can finally sort out your marriage. 00:22:31.480 --> 00:22:32.920 You're not going to have a marriage left. 00:22:33.700 --> 00:22:34.580 Isn't that what we would say? 00:22:36.640 --> 00:22:37.720 Why would we say that? 00:22:37.780 --> 00:22:38.860 Because we'd say, you know what? 00:22:39.580 --> 00:22:41.800 Your marriage is worth more than the MBA. 00:22:41.799 --> 00:22:46.940 And your marriage is worth more than getting your mortgage paid off quickly. 00:22:47.759 --> 00:22:50.319 And your marriage matters more than your promotion. 00:22:50.399 --> 00:22:51.180 Isn't that what we say? 00:22:52.200 --> 00:22:56.119 But why then, in a sense, we're saying the exact same thing here as the book of Proverbs. 00:22:56.220 --> 00:23:01.599 But why would we say, you know, listen, you're 21, and you've been dating for two years, 00:23:01.659 --> 00:23:03.159 but you're too young to get married. 00:23:03.759 --> 00:23:07.579 Like, you should go off to graduate school, and then you should get your doctorate, 00:23:07.579 --> 00:23:11.440 and then you should get your job, and then you should get a down payment on your condo 00:23:11.440 --> 00:23:11.920 or your house. 00:23:12.039 --> 00:23:15.320 And after you've sorted all those things out in eight years, nine years or ten years, 00:23:15.720 --> 00:23:17.980 you should look about getting married. 00:23:18.120 --> 00:23:18.299 Why? 00:23:18.680 --> 00:23:22.620 Because, like, all of a sudden, if a person's single, we're saying that actually having 00:23:22.620 --> 00:23:28.960 a degree matters more, that having a job matters more, that having a house matters 00:23:28.960 --> 00:23:30.539 more, that having money matters more. 00:23:30.799 --> 00:23:34.180 Well, why is it that way for single people but not for married people? 00:23:36.360 --> 00:23:40.019 Like, why is it that we think the Bible's confused and we don't recognize that we're 00:23:40.019 --> 00:23:40.660 confused? 00:23:41.339 --> 00:23:44.079 Like, why is it that we don't recognize that we're confused? 00:23:45.859 --> 00:23:46.599 Am I saying we? 00:23:46.799 --> 00:23:49.639 Why is it that I don't recognize so many times when I'm confused? 00:23:49.720 --> 00:23:50.619 And my wife recognizes it. 00:23:50.619 --> 00:23:51.379 That's a whole other topic. 00:23:51.660 --> 00:23:52.519 My kids recognize it. 00:23:52.519 --> 00:23:54.019 But we don't recognize it, right? 00:23:55.480 --> 00:23:59.859 And the Proverbs here is saying it's, and by the way, for single people, this is one of 00:23:59.859 --> 00:24:01.619 the radical things about the text. 00:24:01.619 --> 00:24:08.139 How do, you know, Hollywood movies, how do Hollywood movies like to end? 00:24:08.799 --> 00:24:12.199 Hollywood movies like to end with everybody clapping for the hero. 00:24:12.639 --> 00:24:14.839 And what makes an even better Hollywood movie? 00:24:15.419 --> 00:24:20.179 The hero and the heroine kissing and going off together to applause. 00:24:21.459 --> 00:24:22.959 What solves everything? 00:24:23.079 --> 00:24:24.179 The right relationship. 00:24:24.180 --> 00:24:28.100 You know, with or without, you know, with the sex and all that. 00:24:28.180 --> 00:24:29.200 But what solves everything? 00:24:29.600 --> 00:24:31.660 And that's one of the messages of our culture. 00:24:32.420 --> 00:24:35.700 But the Bible never says that marriage is the greatest good. 00:24:36.720 --> 00:24:40.880 It doesn't say that it's the good that you should pursue before all others. 00:24:41.400 --> 00:24:43.560 But it does say that it's a really great good. 00:24:43.759 --> 00:24:44.680 It's a great good. 00:24:46.519 --> 00:24:47.539 It's a great good. 00:24:47.539 --> 00:24:54.799 But, you know, what the Bible is saying here, like if, you know, Proverbs 31, 10 is right 00:24:54.799 --> 00:25:00.139 and that, you know, a good marriage, the crown jewels of England, the crown jewels of, you 00:25:00.139 --> 00:25:04.259 know, England are like light like this and that's where you have real depth. 00:25:05.599 --> 00:25:09.500 You know, the second, the most important decision you can make in your life is the decision to 00:25:09.500 --> 00:25:12.000 give your life to Jesus, to trust him as your savior and the Lord. 00:25:12.059 --> 00:25:14.059 There is no more important decision than that. 00:25:14.059 --> 00:25:17.960 That relativizes all other decisions. 00:25:18.119 --> 00:25:22.559 But the second most important decision that you can make is who you marry and getting married 00:25:22.559 --> 00:25:24.240 if God calls you to marriage. 00:25:24.359 --> 00:25:26.379 That's the second most important decision you make. 00:25:27.519 --> 00:25:31.919 And I think the Bible is teaching here that it's far better for you to have a low-income 00:25:31.919 --> 00:25:38.720 job and be well-married than to have a high-income job and to be terribly married. 00:25:38.720 --> 00:25:48.400 I think the Bible is saying here that if God calls you into marriage that it's a great good. 00:25:49.519 --> 00:25:54.339 The Bible here, you know, in this text, it's saying, you know, things like, you know, wealth 00:25:54.339 --> 00:25:58.319 and all, that sort of comes from your father and your mother and it's just sort of inherited 00:25:58.319 --> 00:26:00.759 but a great wife, that's from the Lord. 00:26:00.960 --> 00:26:04.420 It's a, you know, rich people have terrible marriages. 00:26:04.420 --> 00:26:07.240 They can have good marriages as well. 00:26:08.019 --> 00:26:12.019 But knowing somebody's bank balance does not tell you anything about the state of their marriage. 00:26:13.220 --> 00:26:17.100 Knowing how big a house a person lives in tells you nothing about the state of their marriage. 00:26:20.220 --> 00:26:25.120 To marriage, to marry well is something that's appropriate to pray for if you're single. 00:26:26.440 --> 00:26:31.259 God doesn't grant all of us to get married and even those of us who are married aren't always 00:26:31.259 --> 00:26:32.440 married for all of our lives. 00:26:32.599 --> 00:26:36.420 We're single for a while and then one will maybe die before the other and we will have 00:26:36.420 --> 00:26:38.839 maybe a short or a long season of singleness. 00:26:41.180 --> 00:26:42.619 But marriage is a great good. 00:26:44.039 --> 00:26:54.700 And dating is to be ordered not towards conquest, not towards sex, not towards dealing with loneliness. 00:26:54.700 --> 00:26:59.860 Dating is not to be ordered towards the prestige of the other person. 00:27:00.120 --> 00:27:03.440 Dating is ordered to figuring out who you will marry. 00:27:05.400 --> 00:27:10.319 And if you're in a dating relationship for a period of time and you realize that you would 00:27:10.319 --> 00:27:12.660 not marry this person, you should stop dating them. 00:27:15.220 --> 00:27:16.700 You should stop dating them. 00:27:17.840 --> 00:27:21.380 You're not doing the other person any good and you're not doing yourself any good. 00:27:21.380 --> 00:27:27.220 I don't know if I'm going to get a whole lot of hostile emails after this, but I think 00:27:27.220 --> 00:27:28.540 that's what Proverbs is teaching. 00:27:29.380 --> 00:27:30.440 I think it's what it's teaching. 00:27:32.940 --> 00:27:41.900 So some of you can say, okay, George, what about same-sex marriage? 00:27:42.220 --> 00:27:43.160 What about polygamy? 00:27:44.860 --> 00:27:47.040 Is this just for straight people? 00:27:47.039 --> 00:27:52.159 Like, you know, I'm going to, you'll get my email about Mary Younger. 00:27:52.539 --> 00:27:56.019 But you know, what else is going, like George, come on, what's going on in this text here? 00:27:56.299 --> 00:27:58.480 Well, just a very quick thing about polygamy. 00:27:58.619 --> 00:28:03.740 One of the very powerful things about the Bible, by the way, is that the Bible never, never, 00:28:03.920 --> 00:28:06.899 ever, ever, ever, ever says that polygamy is a good thing. 00:28:07.680 --> 00:28:12.220 And every Old Testament story that involves polygamy, the marriages are screwed up. 00:28:14.220 --> 00:28:15.599 Every one of them are screwed up. 00:28:15.599 --> 00:28:21.799 And the Bible never portrays polygamy as an ideal, never portrays it as a good thing. 00:28:22.299 --> 00:28:27.139 But what it does is that given that it's been a common thing and still is a common thing 00:28:27.139 --> 00:28:32.099 in many parts of the world, it tries to limit the evil caused by polygamy. 00:28:32.679 --> 00:28:36.059 And in fact, Proverbs is a very powerful series of texts. 00:28:37.240 --> 00:28:41.879 And there's not a single proverb about how a man deals with having several wives. 00:28:41.880 --> 00:28:47.460 The entire image behind the whole book is one of monogamy. 00:28:47.960 --> 00:28:49.180 It's a very powerful thing. 00:28:49.280 --> 00:28:51.240 That's where the ideal is. 00:28:51.400 --> 00:29:00.800 It's to deconstruct the patriarchal and religious establishment that okays polygamy and the economic 00:29:00.800 --> 00:29:01.720 establishments. 00:29:01.720 --> 00:29:07.200 It's that just as in the same way the gospel undermines the structures that support slavery, 00:29:07.799 --> 00:29:10.799 that the Bible completely deconstructs and undermines that. 00:29:11.299 --> 00:29:16.420 The thing which is portrayed is the marriage of one man to one woman. 00:29:16.420 --> 00:29:20.620 That's where the source of blessing in God's favor comes from. 00:29:20.619 --> 00:29:25.639 Well, what about same-sex marriages? 00:29:25.799 --> 00:29:29.539 Well, let's look at Proverbs 5 and I'm going to say something very briefly about that. 00:29:29.699 --> 00:29:30.939 And I'd like you to read it with me. 00:29:31.919 --> 00:29:36.199 If it's a bit hard for you to read, read it with me because, by the way, the first parts 00:29:36.199 --> 00:29:39.500 of it are in the ancient culture are erotic imagery. 00:29:40.899 --> 00:29:46.419 It's all, if you go back and read Proverbs 5 from the beginning, it's one long poem from 00:29:46.420 --> 00:29:48.759 verse 1 to verse 23 all about marriage. 00:29:48.840 --> 00:29:53.620 And the first 14 verses are a series of verses warning you against adultery. 00:29:54.200 --> 00:29:58.259 And it goes very seamlessly from warning against adultery into this text. 00:29:58.400 --> 00:30:01.880 So when we just read it without reading the first 14 verses, it might just sound like it's 00:30:01.880 --> 00:30:05.080 talking about the water project. 00:30:05.259 --> 00:30:13.240 But it's all imagery of rather than being with an adulteress, now it turns its eye to the positive 00:30:13.240 --> 00:30:15.160 understanding of what marriage is. 00:30:15.160 --> 00:30:16.720 And if you could read it out loud with me. 00:30:17.940 --> 00:30:23.200 Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well. 00:30:23.820 --> 00:30:31.019 Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets, let them be for yourself 00:30:31.019 --> 00:30:33.900 alone and not for strangers with you. 00:30:34.600 --> 00:30:41.820 Let your fountain be blessed and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely dear, a graceful 00:30:41.819 --> 00:30:42.139 dough. 00:30:42.139 --> 00:30:45.819 Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight. 00:30:46.419 --> 00:30:49.019 Be intoxicated always in her love. 00:30:49.779 --> 00:30:55.960 Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an 00:30:55.960 --> 00:30:56.659 adulteress? 00:30:56.660 --> 00:31:02.980 For a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he ponders all his paths. 00:31:03.580 --> 00:31:09.120 The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin. 00:31:09.800 --> 00:31:15.620 He dies for lack of discipline, and because of his great falling, he is led astray. 00:31:16.660 --> 00:31:17.960 This is the word of the Lord. 00:31:17.960 --> 00:31:22.059 It's a very, very powerful text. 00:31:22.240 --> 00:31:28.279 Actually, I think along with the, in this week's bulletin, you'll always have something called 00:31:28.279 --> 00:31:31.160 Going Deeper, where I provide extra scripture passages. 00:31:31.500 --> 00:31:39.019 And the Genesis text of Genesis chapter 1 and 2 and 3, and the Ephesians text, and this text, 00:31:39.100 --> 00:31:43.539 and some of Jesus' teaching on marriage are the absolute fundamental building blocks of a 00:31:43.539 --> 00:31:44.799 Christian understanding of marriage. 00:31:45.559 --> 00:31:52.000 And this is one of the texts, Proverbs 5 and Proverbs 31, where you can't put just switch 00:31:52.000 --> 00:31:52.559 men and women. 00:31:52.639 --> 00:31:58.299 It wouldn't make any sense for wives here in terms of if you were to be praying this text 00:31:58.299 --> 00:32:02.940 for your husband, you have God's permission to take this concrete imagery and turn it around 00:32:02.940 --> 00:32:04.180 in imagery for your husband. 00:32:05.379 --> 00:32:11.000 And boy, if there's one thing that men here could do who are married is they should memorize 00:32:11.000 --> 00:32:12.639 this text and pray this text. 00:32:13.539 --> 00:32:22.059 We should memorize this text and pray this text and have it deeply enter into our lives. 00:32:23.480 --> 00:32:30.159 You know, in a pornographic culture, to have a text like this which so deeply undermines 00:32:30.159 --> 00:32:36.539 and rejects pornography and directs a husband towards his wife, this is a very powerful marital 00:32:36.539 --> 00:32:38.599 text to meditate upon. 00:32:39.559 --> 00:32:40.839 It's very powerful. 00:32:40.839 --> 00:32:44.539 It sees, it has this wonderful, powerful image. 00:32:44.759 --> 00:32:50.019 And we in Ottawa don't fully understand the power of water imagery because we have so much 00:32:50.019 --> 00:32:50.819 fresh water. 00:32:50.819 --> 00:32:50.879 water. 00:32:51.879 --> 00:32:54.359 And, but water means life. 00:32:55.599 --> 00:33:01.639 And in an arid culture and in an agrarian culture, water means life. 00:33:01.700 --> 00:33:05.899 In California, they have a bit of an, British Columbia, they have a bit of a sense of how 00:33:05.899 --> 00:33:07.220 water means life. 00:33:07.220 --> 00:33:14.039 And so there's this image that there's life in marriage, that it's life-giving, that it's 00:33:14.039 --> 00:33:16.740 to be this ever-flowing stream. 00:33:16.900 --> 00:33:23.980 It's not just something static that can die and rot, but that there's this image of marriage 00:33:23.980 --> 00:33:27.599 marriage as a continuing, deepening, life-giving journey. 00:33:27.799 --> 00:33:32.819 And that a husband is to understand that he's to turn his heart and his mind and his will 00:33:32.819 --> 00:33:34.660 and his affections towards his wife. 00:33:35.039 --> 00:33:36.180 And it's life-giving. 00:33:36.400 --> 00:33:39.759 And that it's a place of delight and of goodness. 00:33:39.759 --> 00:33:47.700 And that his mind and his heart and his will is not to be captured with pornographic images 00:33:47.700 --> 00:33:51.779 or the images of other women, but it's to be captivated by his wife. 00:33:52.400 --> 00:33:56.879 And whether this imagery works or not, or it's the turn of a jaw, the shape of an eyebrow, 00:33:56.879 --> 00:34:05.059 the feel of hand, like whatever it is, that there's, that the husband and the woman in appropriate 00:34:05.059 --> 00:34:10.779 imagery as well is to actively seek to delight in the other. 00:34:11.840 --> 00:34:16.619 That if, in fact, in our marriage there's no delighting, that all you can think of of the 00:34:16.619 --> 00:34:23.659 other person is of their faults and of their limits, of their inadequacies, of the things 00:34:23.659 --> 00:34:28.320 in them that are irritating, that that's a type of a, as we'll see in a moment, it's a type of a 00:34:28.320 --> 00:34:30.880 rottenness or sickness which has entered into the marriage. 00:34:30.880 --> 00:34:35.579 And maybe the thing from this text is that we are to go from here, those of us who are 00:34:35.579 --> 00:34:42.240 married, who are to call out to God that we would no longer spend our time meditating and 00:34:42.240 --> 00:34:48.740 dwelling upon the inadequacies and the failures and the irritations of our, in my case, my 00:34:48.740 --> 00:34:51.000 wife, in your case, if you're a woman, your husband. 00:34:51.260 --> 00:34:57.940 But that God, not that he makes us blind about the faults of the other person, but that he 00:34:57.940 --> 00:35:03.200 once again help us to be filled with the delight of the other. 00:35:06.579 --> 00:35:07.639 Their, their beauty. 00:35:09.820 --> 00:35:14.559 But that's something the Bible is saying that married men and married women should be praying 00:35:14.559 --> 00:35:16.240 for, to enter into. 00:35:16.239 --> 00:35:19.279 And, and I want to say something else. 00:35:19.279 --> 00:35:23.319 If you could put up the second point, Andrew, and I know this is not, you know, you folks 00:35:23.319 --> 00:35:26.779 have probably all noticed about, I mean, there's a whole school of thought around points on 00:35:26.779 --> 00:35:27.619 Screams for Sermon. 00:35:27.659 --> 00:35:30.159 And most people think it's all like, you know, it should all be an acronym. 00:35:30.319 --> 00:35:34.199 I'll begin with C or B or A or spell a word or something because it'd be easy to memorize. 00:35:34.599 --> 00:35:35.759 And there's nothing wrong with that. 00:35:35.879 --> 00:35:36.639 Occasionally I do it. 00:35:37.039 --> 00:35:40.679 But sometimes I just want to make a big impression on you with a complicated idea. 00:35:40.759 --> 00:35:44.799 You can go to the webpage later and you can write it down if you have time or you can go to 00:35:44.800 --> 00:35:45.780 the webpage later and look it up. 00:35:45.820 --> 00:35:49.340 I just want to try to make, I want to try to capture something that's, that can't be 00:35:49.340 --> 00:35:51.400 put in a slogan that'll fit on a t-shirt. 00:35:52.480 --> 00:35:55.920 Like sometimes, like a lot of things in the Bible, it just, it's make an impression on 00:35:55.920 --> 00:35:59.420 our hearts and it can't be turned into a slogan that goes on our t-shirt. 00:36:00.720 --> 00:36:03.880 And, and there's this unbelievably powerful image. 00:36:03.980 --> 00:36:07.740 These other images that we've already seen from the book of Proverbs and in this, this 00:36:07.740 --> 00:36:12.080 long text here, like at the later on in the text when it's talking about the Ponderola's 00:36:12.079 --> 00:36:16.259 Passage, it's, it's portraying this idea, not that, that marriage is like there's God 00:36:16.259 --> 00:36:19.239 and then there's marriage, but that God is involved in marriage. 00:36:19.239 --> 00:36:24.079 That, that, that it, the implication is, is that, that God is the creator of all things. 00:36:24.139 --> 00:36:28.079 And just as God created male and female, he created male and female with the idea that 00:36:28.079 --> 00:36:29.119 there would be marriage. 00:36:29.259 --> 00:36:34.360 And that, that male and female marriage between a man and a woman is something rooted in the 00:36:34.360 --> 00:36:34.960 created order. 00:36:35.059 --> 00:36:37.659 Something woven and built into the created order. 00:36:37.659 --> 00:36:42.679 And at the same time, because God is involved, because it involved his, his mind, his heart, 00:36:42.779 --> 00:36:48.500 it's his good intention towards his creation, his design and his delight, that there's something 00:36:48.500 --> 00:36:53.079 as well in the union of a man and a woman in, in holy matrimony, that it's also something 00:36:53.079 --> 00:36:57.839 transcendent, that it's something beyond the merely physical, that it, it has its origins, 00:36:57.839 --> 00:37:03.819 not just in, in social convention or, or the will of the flesh or what my technology or techniques 00:37:03.820 --> 00:37:08.500 can do or, or how I can redefine who I am physically in terms of what I want to be. 00:37:08.500 --> 00:37:13.340 And it's not just a product of human will, that it, that it, it comes ultimately from God, 00:37:13.400 --> 00:37:19.220 that it's rooted in the created order and that it has its origin beyond this created order, 00:37:19.320 --> 00:37:21.900 that it has something transcendent about it. 00:37:22.380 --> 00:37:27.940 And that God, as he's designing all of this before the fall, and this is the point, the Bible teaches 00:37:27.940 --> 00:37:37.880 the primal and transcendent unity of delight, a unity of delight and procreation and godliness 00:37:37.880 --> 00:37:45.420 and pleasure and companionship and goodness and holiness in the marriage of one man to 00:37:45.420 --> 00:37:46.059 one woman. 00:37:47.059 --> 00:37:54.539 The Bible teaches the primal and transcendent unity of delight, procreation, godliness, pleasure, 00:37:54.539 --> 00:37:58.759 pleasure, companionship, goodness, and holiness in the marriage of one man to one woman. 00:38:00.980 --> 00:38:11.800 You see, abortion separates godliness and procreation from sex. 00:38:13.039 --> 00:38:20.019 Pornography separates delight from fruitfulness and procreation and sex. 00:38:20.019 --> 00:38:21.380 It's not all pornography. 00:38:22.380 --> 00:38:23.219 Maybe not all. 00:38:23.340 --> 00:38:24.960 I don't watch pornography. 00:38:25.920 --> 00:38:27.119 So, you know what? 00:38:27.280 --> 00:38:29.940 Pornography always exalts barrenness. 00:38:32.300 --> 00:38:36.119 Pornography exalts barrenness as an ideal. 00:38:38.759 --> 00:38:40.119 That's what it exalts. 00:38:41.000 --> 00:38:42.039 Not life. 00:38:43.280 --> 00:38:47.960 Although in our culture, somehow that pursuing of life is separate from procreation, 00:38:47.960 --> 00:38:49.920 which is the actual creation of life. 00:38:50.019 --> 00:38:56.500 And so we want to separate these things out. 00:38:56.599 --> 00:39:00.519 We want to separate pleasure from godliness and pleasure from companionship. 00:39:00.860 --> 00:39:06.639 And we want to separate out holiness and goodness from delight or from procreation. 00:39:06.800 --> 00:39:09.000 And we want to separate all of these things out. 00:39:09.099 --> 00:39:13.460 And we want to separate them out and make them all separate and think that, yeah, yeah, yeah, 00:39:13.460 --> 00:39:18.800 you can have a type of sexual stimulation, sexual knowing, which is pleasurable. 00:39:18.800 --> 00:39:24.380 But you don't have to have pleasure connected with companionship or goodness or holiness or procreation. 00:39:24.380 --> 00:39:26.300 You can just separate all these things out. 00:39:26.300 --> 00:39:29.580 And that to separate all these things out are a good thing. 00:39:30.039 --> 00:39:37.880 And the biblical image is so completely and wildly, radically different from our culture's understanding 00:39:37.880 --> 00:39:40.260 that it's almost even hard to have a conversation about it. 00:39:41.440 --> 00:39:45.900 And even a whole lot of Christian talking about it is actually not even very Christian 00:39:45.900 --> 00:39:51.940 because it accepts that it's a good thing to separate all these things out into bits and pieces. 00:39:51.940 --> 00:39:53.679 And then it just tries to regulate. 00:39:53.940 --> 00:40:01.820 But the Bible teaches, this Proverbs teaches, the Bible as a whole teaches this unity between 00:40:01.820 --> 00:40:04.099 these things, not to be divided. 00:40:05.559 --> 00:40:09.059 And a male and a male will never procreate. 00:40:10.320 --> 00:40:16.400 You can separate out sexual desire and sexual pleasure and all that from other things, just 00:40:16.400 --> 00:40:17.659 as you can with pornography. 00:40:17.659 --> 00:40:21.920 And you want to know I'm going to be very politically incorrect right now. 00:40:22.000 --> 00:40:22.779 I can't remember the guy's name. 00:40:22.819 --> 00:40:25.500 There's been a lot of stuff in the paper about this supposed pickup artist. 00:40:25.559 --> 00:40:29.319 He sounds like a real jerk from the States who's come up to Canada. 00:40:30.079 --> 00:40:34.500 But other than the fact that he's a jerk, isn't he just saying what a lot of men say all the 00:40:34.500 --> 00:40:36.259 time and increasingly women? 00:40:37.440 --> 00:40:39.659 That you just want to be able to have sex with somebody. 00:40:39.779 --> 00:40:43.239 But you're going to be Canadian, be civil, and you want to figure out a way to do it so 00:40:43.239 --> 00:40:45.139 that you don't hurt the person's feelings too much. 00:40:45.139 --> 00:40:48.480 You don't let them down afterwards, and you're sort of discreet and hide the intention. 00:40:49.319 --> 00:40:53.539 But actually, it's a lot of what you just see on TV and what you experience in the culture, 00:40:53.719 --> 00:40:54.019 isn't it? 00:40:54.239 --> 00:41:01.279 Separating that pleasure from companionship and covenant and godliness and being like God. 00:41:04.179 --> 00:41:08.299 So some of you might say, oh, I can see I'm, you know, I prayed that I would preach for 00:41:08.299 --> 00:41:08.719 40 minutes. 00:41:08.819 --> 00:41:09.980 I'm not going to make it today. 00:41:09.980 --> 00:41:11.940 But we need to keep going. 00:41:12.039 --> 00:41:21.679 So some of you are going to say, George, are you just saying that the Bible teaches that 00:41:21.679 --> 00:41:23.800 heterosexual marriages are so great? 00:41:23.960 --> 00:41:26.559 Like, isn't that just what the 50s and 60s held up? 00:41:26.980 --> 00:41:29.599 That marriages are just by nature so great? 00:41:29.679 --> 00:41:32.119 And doesn't that by nature put down single people? 00:41:32.260 --> 00:41:35.119 And doesn't that by nature put, like, is that what you're saying? 00:41:35.119 --> 00:41:41.719 No, the Bible's not cynical and it's not Hallmark, and it's very realistic. 00:41:42.619 --> 00:41:45.159 Let's look at some other Proverbs just very quickly. 00:41:45.839 --> 00:41:49.159 Look at Proverbs 12.4. 00:41:49.779 --> 00:41:50.940 And if you would read it with me. 00:41:51.880 --> 00:41:58.599 An excellent wife is the crown of her husband, but she who brings shame is like rottenness in 00:41:58.599 --> 00:41:59.159 his bones. 00:41:59.559 --> 00:42:02.339 This is the hardest one to do, but let's reverse it, okay? 00:42:02.340 --> 00:42:11.760 An excellent husband is the crown of her wife, but he who brings shame is like rottenness 00:42:11.760 --> 00:42:12.340 in her bones. 00:42:12.400 --> 00:42:13.740 This is the hardest one to reverse. 00:42:13.940 --> 00:42:15.340 You have to write it. 00:42:15.460 --> 00:42:17.820 So you're going to do husband and wife all the way back forward. 00:42:18.579 --> 00:42:20.300 You know, and that's just so true. 00:42:20.640 --> 00:42:26.320 Like, you know, some marriages are so terrible for the other person. 00:42:26.960 --> 00:42:29.260 They are like rottenness in our bones. 00:42:29.260 --> 00:42:35.140 Some marriages, they just empty and hollow us out. 00:42:38.520 --> 00:42:41.480 Let's look at, read together Proverbs 21.9. 00:42:42.940 --> 00:42:49.900 It is better to live in a corner of the housetop than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife. 00:42:50.080 --> 00:42:51.040 Let's reverse it. 00:42:51.039 --> 00:42:58.000 It is better to live in a corner of the housetop than in a house shared with a quarrelsome husband. 00:43:00.500 --> 00:43:03.219 Isn't it quarrelsome? 00:43:04.199 --> 00:43:06.019 Let's read it, 21.19. 00:43:06.860 --> 00:43:12.320 It is better to live in a desert land than with a quarrelsome and fretful woman. 00:43:12.579 --> 00:43:13.440 Let's reverse it. 00:43:13.519 --> 00:43:14.000 Read it again. 00:43:14.000 --> 00:43:19.980 It is better to live in a desert land than with a quarrelsome and fretful man. 00:43:21.000 --> 00:43:21.679 Let's read. 00:43:22.139 --> 00:43:24.500 Well, we're going to read Proverbs 27 in a moment. 00:43:24.619 --> 00:43:25.559 That'll be the last proverb. 00:43:27.099 --> 00:43:30.619 Proverbs doesn't believe that marriage, just because your marriage is going to solve everything, 00:43:31.920 --> 00:43:33.159 doesn't believe that. 00:43:34.119 --> 00:43:36.099 Doesn't believe that all marriages are perfect. 00:43:36.099 --> 00:43:45.179 doesn't believe that it's a magic wand that heals sin and evil and death in our lives. 00:43:45.239 --> 00:43:46.360 The Bible doesn't believe that. 00:43:46.400 --> 00:43:51.559 That sentimentality that comes from Hollywood and our culture and technology is not from the Bible. 00:43:55.960 --> 00:44:00.819 In fact, actually, the Bible acknowledges how hard it is to change the other person. 00:44:01.839 --> 00:44:05.099 Let's read Proverbs 27.15-16 together. 00:44:06.099 --> 00:44:11.079 A continual dripping on a rainy day and a quarrelsome wife are alike. 00:44:11.599 --> 00:44:17.259 To restrain her is to restrain the wind or to grasp oil in one's right hand. 00:44:17.380 --> 00:44:19.000 Now, let's read it again, but reverse it. 00:44:19.579 --> 00:44:24.679 A continual dripping on a rainy day and a quarrelsome husband are alike. 00:44:25.079 --> 00:44:30.599 To restrain him is to restrain the wind or to grasp oil in one's right hand. 00:44:30.599 --> 00:44:37.380 You know, a continual dripping on a rainy day, it's rotting the ceiling, rotting the floors, rotting the walls. 00:44:37.519 --> 00:44:38.119 There's mold. 00:44:38.380 --> 00:44:39.420 The house will be unlivable. 00:44:40.380 --> 00:44:49.000 Quarrelsome means picking fights, majoring in the minors, majoring in things which are bad, not overlooking anything. 00:44:49.000 --> 00:44:51.659 And sometimes, how do you control the other person? 00:44:51.920 --> 00:44:53.440 It's like trying to restrain the wind. 00:44:54.179 --> 00:44:54.900 Can't do it. 00:44:55.699 --> 00:44:56.780 Just make a wind tower. 00:44:57.280 --> 00:44:58.380 Make a wind channel. 00:44:59.519 --> 00:45:01.019 And you try to grasp oil in one's right hand. 00:45:01.039 --> 00:45:02.860 The Bible is not naive about marriage. 00:45:03.760 --> 00:45:05.400 In fact, Andrew, if you could put up the third point. 00:45:06.280 --> 00:45:07.440 Here's what the Bible teaches. 00:45:07.440 --> 00:45:11.599 Sin is powerful and real in every marriage. 00:45:13.679 --> 00:45:16.519 Sin is powerful and real in every marriage. 00:45:16.900 --> 00:45:22.480 And sin is powerful and real in living together and all other post-modern options which are being developed. 00:45:23.820 --> 00:45:25.099 Now, here's several things. 00:45:25.260 --> 00:45:29.300 And I, boy, the first one is that the implication of this text isn't, 00:45:30.159 --> 00:45:31.320 Gosh, George, this is so right. 00:45:31.340 --> 00:45:33.139 I'm going to go home and divorce my wife. 00:45:34.420 --> 00:45:35.519 Or, this is so right. 00:45:35.539 --> 00:45:36.119 I'm going to go home. 00:45:36.159 --> 00:45:37.260 I can't change my husband. 00:45:37.260 --> 00:45:38.420 I'm going to go home and divorce him. 00:45:40.180 --> 00:45:41.840 No, the Bible's not teaching that. 00:45:43.220 --> 00:45:46.220 Now, by the way, this is a whole other topic. 00:45:46.340 --> 00:45:49.060 This is why, you know, one of the things I was so worried about in this sermon is that 00:45:49.060 --> 00:45:50.700 people write thick books about marriage. 00:45:50.840 --> 00:45:54.440 I get 40 minutes, which is now going on past 40 minutes. 00:45:56.080 --> 00:45:59.380 You know, if there is adultery going on in your marriage, 00:45:59.500 --> 00:46:01.120 and if there is abuse going on in your marriage, 00:46:01.200 --> 00:46:03.360 it might very well be that your marriage has to end. 00:46:03.440 --> 00:46:04.900 And I'm not talking about that. 00:46:04.900 --> 00:46:10.840 And it might be that the quarrelsome and dripping is a type of powerful abuse. 00:46:11.059 --> 00:46:13.260 And if you're in a marriage like that right now, 00:46:13.420 --> 00:46:15.860 then you need to talk to somebody, 00:46:15.860 --> 00:46:20.139 and they need some drastic stuff going on. 00:46:20.139 --> 00:46:24.079 But the implication of this text goes in all sorts of ways. 00:46:24.079 --> 00:46:34.819 And the first thing here is that you have to look in that situation in a 360-degree way. 00:46:34.820 --> 00:46:41.640 And you might have to pray for the power to forgive. 00:46:43.160 --> 00:46:46.620 You might have to pray for a greater power to delight in your wife. 00:46:47.500 --> 00:46:52.480 It might be if it's a wife dealing with her husband, she's not respecting her husband. 00:46:53.760 --> 00:46:56.780 Because husbands desire respect more than they desire love. 00:46:56.780 --> 00:46:58.560 That's what the Bible teaches. 00:47:00.500 --> 00:47:04.019 And a lot of it is a person hearing these texts. 00:47:04.140 --> 00:47:06.420 For me reading these texts, it's not, I should not say, 00:47:06.519 --> 00:47:09.480 gosh, I wish Louise could hear all these texts because she needs to hear them. 00:47:10.640 --> 00:47:14.480 But I need to ask myself, what am I doing to provoke my wife? 00:47:15.780 --> 00:47:18.660 What am I doing to weaken my marriage? 00:47:19.300 --> 00:47:20.820 How can I pray for my wife? 00:47:20.820 --> 00:47:26.140 One of the reasons that it's good for single people to hear texts like this 00:47:26.140 --> 00:47:29.980 is because it's not good to have a Hollywood understanding of marriage. 00:47:31.539 --> 00:47:36.600 And it's also something that it can help you to be a powerful force of prayer 00:47:36.600 --> 00:47:39.840 in your married friends' lives or your parents' or whatever. 00:47:41.039 --> 00:47:45.940 And it can be very powerful and helpful for you even praying around your own status 00:47:45.940 --> 00:47:47.780 as to whether God's calling you to be married 00:47:47.780 --> 00:47:51.360 or whether he's calling you to use you to be very fruitful 00:47:51.360 --> 00:47:56.640 and filled with life in singleness as the Bible as a whole teaches. 00:47:58.880 --> 00:48:03.560 But the Bible sets before you, you see, here's the thing about the book of Proverbs and the Bible. 00:48:04.320 --> 00:48:09.280 It makes us aware of the fact that we need grace. 00:48:10.300 --> 00:48:12.420 No marriage survives without grace. 00:48:13.080 --> 00:48:16.160 No marriage survives without grace. 00:48:16.159 --> 00:48:18.920 It doesn't matter if it's a Muslim marriage, an atheist marriage. 00:48:19.460 --> 00:48:21.259 It doesn't survive without grace. 00:48:21.799 --> 00:48:25.199 There's not somebody who's willing to turn the other cheek and willing to forgive 00:48:25.199 --> 00:48:27.659 and willing to pray and willing to go the extra mile. 00:48:27.739 --> 00:48:30.319 If that's not happening in the marriage, that marriage ain't going to last. 00:48:30.940 --> 00:48:34.339 Or it's going to be just rottenness to both people's bones. 00:48:37.079 --> 00:48:39.019 In fact, if you could put up the final point, Andrew. 00:48:39.019 --> 00:48:45.019 Remember, the third point was sin is powerful and real in every marriage. 00:48:45.699 --> 00:48:53.460 And the fourth point is that life needs to be grounded in and shaped by the grace which is stronger than sin and death. 00:48:54.159 --> 00:48:59.920 Life needs to be grounded in and shaped by the grace which is stronger than sin and death. 00:48:59.920 --> 00:49:03.940 We Christians undervalue the teaching of common grace. 00:49:04.900 --> 00:49:06.119 Marriage was God's idea. 00:49:06.340 --> 00:49:08.300 And God gives grace to all sorts of people. 00:49:08.380 --> 00:49:09.559 He gives grace to atheists. 00:49:09.639 --> 00:49:10.760 He gives grace to Christians. 00:49:10.940 --> 00:49:12.280 He gives grace to Muslims. 00:49:12.400 --> 00:49:14.240 He doesn't just give grace to certain people. 00:49:14.900 --> 00:49:16.039 Grace is a common thing. 00:49:16.180 --> 00:49:20.760 There are many people who are just, they have the ability to forgive and to turn the other cheek 00:49:20.760 --> 00:49:23.519 and to go the other mile and to delight in their spouse and their wife. 00:49:23.579 --> 00:49:25.680 And that's also all part of common grace. 00:49:25.679 --> 00:49:25.719 Grace is a common grace. 00:49:26.519 --> 00:49:31.519 And marriage, because sin is real and present in every marriage, every marriage needs grace. 00:49:31.879 --> 00:49:36.799 But we as followers of Jesus understand that the grounding of grace is not just common grace, 00:49:36.879 --> 00:49:38.059 but there's special grace. 00:49:38.980 --> 00:49:44.039 That in fact, in some ways, everything in the book of Proverbs is to make us realize that, 00:49:44.539 --> 00:49:47.839 see, because what ultimately, whether it's recognized or not by a person, 00:49:47.960 --> 00:49:51.579 and when we say that a marriage needs grace, it's saying that it needs God. 00:49:51.659 --> 00:49:53.579 It needs something that only God can give. 00:49:53.579 --> 00:49:58.659 That every one of our marriages, only God can keep that marriage together. 00:49:58.880 --> 00:49:59.519 Only God. 00:50:01.019 --> 00:50:04.159 It's to create in us a realization that we need a Savior. 00:50:05.840 --> 00:50:09.759 And the book, all of these things, both the power of marriage and the unity of marriage, 00:50:09.900 --> 00:50:12.500 it's a picture for how God desires to relate to us. 00:50:12.539 --> 00:50:17.679 And it's also, in a sense, setting the stage for us to realize that we need God to do something 00:50:17.679 --> 00:50:18.819 that only we can do. 00:50:19.139 --> 00:50:21.420 I'm going to close by reading Ephesians 5. 00:50:21.420 --> 00:50:25.400 Ephesians 5, it's not going to be on the screen. 00:50:25.559 --> 00:50:26.780 You're not going to read it out loud with me. 00:50:26.820 --> 00:50:27.460 I'm just going to read it. 00:50:27.579 --> 00:50:30.300 It's Ephesians 5, verses 25 to the end. 00:50:30.300 --> 00:50:35.380 Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 00:50:35.940 --> 00:50:41.039 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 00:50:41.640 --> 00:50:45.960 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle, 00:50:46.480 --> 00:50:49.980 or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. 00:50:49.980 --> 00:50:53.840 In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. 00:50:54.460 --> 00:50:56.519 He who loves his wife loves himself. 00:50:57.280 --> 00:51:00.699 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourished and cherishes it, 00:51:00.960 --> 00:51:04.760 just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. 00:51:05.559 --> 00:51:09.440 Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and whole fast to his wife, 00:51:09.840 --> 00:51:11.639 and the two shall become one flesh. 00:51:11.639 --> 00:51:16.799 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 00:51:17.579 --> 00:51:20.099 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, 00:51:20.559 --> 00:51:23.139 and let the wife see that she respects her husband. 00:51:24.699 --> 00:51:27.879 All of these texts are showing us of our need for grace, 00:51:28.960 --> 00:51:34.960 our need for grace to start to move towards that ancient unity that the Bible is preparing. 00:51:34.960 --> 00:51:38.679 And it shows us our need for not just common grace, 00:51:38.679 --> 00:51:42.659 but that grace that comes from God in the death of his son upon the cross, 00:51:43.059 --> 00:51:47.440 freely and unmeritedly dying for us and sacrificing himself for us, 00:51:47.559 --> 00:51:52.899 so that we could be one with God, and that we could enter into a life with God. 00:51:53.440 --> 00:51:59.679 And that grace is to ground us, and is to shape how our marriages live. 00:51:59.799 --> 00:52:03.059 It's to give us the confidence to call out to God in prayer. 00:52:03.379 --> 00:52:05.679 It's to ground how we understand our marriage. 00:52:05.679 --> 00:52:08.179 It's to shape how we understand and live our marriage. 00:52:08.179 --> 00:52:12.419 We are to be disciples of Jesus gripped by the gospel, who live for his glory. 00:52:13.279 --> 00:52:14.460 Let's stand, please. 00:52:25.000 --> 00:52:25.739 Let's stand. 00:52:25.739 --> 00:52:36.219 Father, we both thank you for marriage, and we thank you for singleness. 00:52:37.159 --> 00:52:40.739 We thank you, Father, that you are... 00:52:40.739 --> 00:52:45.379 Father, we thank you that you are the great good, 00:52:45.479 --> 00:52:49.959 that you are the one that every single human being is fundamentally made for and prepared for. 00:52:49.960 --> 00:52:55.240 Father, we thank you for Jesus, that he loves us and died on the cross and redeemed us, 00:52:55.280 --> 00:52:59.679 so that we could be one with you, that we could be one with you. 00:53:00.780 --> 00:53:05.220 And Father, for those of us who are in the state of singleness right now, 00:53:05.260 --> 00:53:08.480 I ask that you would gently but deeply pour out your Holy Spirit upon them 00:53:08.480 --> 00:53:13.400 and help them to be fruitful and life-giving and God-glorifying in their state of singleness. 00:53:14.760 --> 00:53:17.880 And Father, for those who are present who are single but dating, 00:53:18.159 --> 00:53:22.440 Father, may you help them to understand that all dating is ordered towards marriage, 00:53:23.719 --> 00:53:28.099 and that their dating relationship would be wise and holy, 00:53:28.099 --> 00:53:33.779 and that you would grant them your wisdom and discernment as to whether you're calling them into marriage. 00:53:34.860 --> 00:53:39.579 And Father, for those of us who are in marriages where there is great evil going on, 00:53:39.679 --> 00:53:41.199 the evil of adultery or abuse, 00:53:41.279 --> 00:53:43.480 we ask, Father, that you would turn hearts, 00:53:44.380 --> 00:53:47.159 that the one doing the adultery, the one doing the abuse, 00:53:47.279 --> 00:53:51.739 that he or she would repent, that they would seek help from you, 00:53:52.779 --> 00:53:57.039 and that you would turn their hearts towards their husband or their wife, as the case might be. 00:53:58.099 --> 00:54:01.480 And Father, you know that every marriage here, even the ones that are so-called good, 00:54:01.539 --> 00:54:06.339 that there's elements of a dripping of rain in the marriage, of quarreling, of anger. 00:54:06.599 --> 00:54:09.400 And Father, we ask for those of us in marriages, 00:54:09.400 --> 00:54:14.500 that you might turn the heart of the husband to his wife and the wife to the husband, 00:54:14.599 --> 00:54:17.719 that there would be delight, that there would be grace, 00:54:18.619 --> 00:54:22.420 and that you, Father, that you would be the Lord, that you would be God of the marriage, 00:54:22.519 --> 00:54:25.339 and that Jesus would be the Savior and the Lord of each marriage, 00:54:25.500 --> 00:54:27.099 each one here who is married. 00:54:28.099 --> 00:54:30.960 Father, help us to pray for each other. 00:54:31.699 --> 00:54:33.199 Help us to pray for each other. 00:54:33.880 --> 00:54:37.099 And all this we ask in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. 00:54:37.480 --> 00:54:37.739 Amen.