Pardon? Yes, without his approval. So, but Paul found out about it. So he had two sons. And he said, boys, I want you to get your guns. I want you to go up there across that bridge. You go over and tell Clarence he's not to be coming over here and courting your sister. You got that? They said, yeah, Paul, we'll take care of it. So they got their guns. Headed out. About 15 minutes later, they were back. And Paul said, what are you boys doing back so quick? You haven't had time to go over and see Clarence. They said, Paul. We got up there at that bridge. It says Clarence is 11 foot and six inches. We're not messing with that guy. You know, we laugh about that. My oldest daughter, we were going over in the mountains of West Virginia to camp out for, well, not camp out. We go into the lodges and all that stuff. But anyway, they stopped in Clarksburg. There was a motel there. And they pulled in there for some reason. I forget what they were doing. And she called me. We were in different vehicles. She called me. She said, Dad, you're not going to believe this. You know where you drive through and they have a clearance for how high you can go, how high a vehicle? She says, it literally says, clearance. I said, you've got to be kidding me. Some of you will get that tomorrow. But anyway. It's not clearance, it's clearance, okay? Okay, well let's look at Genesis chapter two. We're gonna go all the way back where it all started. This is gonna be a little bit different approach to marriage, but I think it's worthy of going back and see where did this start? Whose idea was it? Where did marriage begin? What was its purpose? What was God's plan in all of this? So let's go back and see if we can ascertain that tonight, okay? Let's look at verse 18 through 25 of Genesis chapter two, verse 18. And the Lord God said, it is not good that a man should be alone. I will make him and help meet for him. And out of the ground, the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them. And whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. So I would submit to you, Adam was a very intelligent being, would you not surmise? Very smart. He named every one of those animals, okay? God let him do it, and he had the mind to do it. And so, in verse 20, and Adam gave name, Saul, cattle, and the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field. But, for Adam, there was not found and help meet for him. Now I'm gonna deal with that in just a few minutes, but I want you to let that sink in. Adam is doing this, but he notices something about the creatures. What did he notice? There were pairs. They were male and they were female. And it hits him. He's all alone. He was at a time when there was only one human being. It was Adam. So let's go on. In verse 21, and the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept. And he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked. the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. They might be startling, but there was no consciousness of their nakedness. This was natural. They were innocent. There was no sin in the picture yet, okay? So they were created that way and God made it that way for a time which would change as we see later in Genesis chapter three. But tonight I want to preach a message on God's primary purpose for marriage as well as the family. Father, would you bless tonight your word as we look at this very important and sometimes even a sensitive subject. But Lord, help us to understand where marriage came from, what its purpose was, and what your intent and design for it was, that we might be understanding about marriage. and realize the importance of it, uniqueness of it, but what it exemplifies as well. And we'll thank you in Jesus' name, amen. It's very interesting that God started with just a man. He created Adam from the dust of the earth, from the ground. He made this body, and then he did something very uniquely that he did not do with the other creatures, animals, birds, fish, and all alike. It says he breathed into Adam's nostrils what? The breath of life. That life you and I have in us tonight is from God. Amen? It's from God. We're different. We're not animals, people. We are not animals. We are homo sapiens. We are human beings created in the image of almighty God. We are not, and let me reiterate that, we are not animals. And God's people said, we're not. We didn't come from animals. Some of you may remember a song by, what was his name, Hal Webb and Theron Babcock. I'm no kin to the monkey. The monkey's no kin to me. I don't know about your ancestors, but mine didn't swing from a tree. This monkey business has got to go, because it just isn't true. It's a disgrace to the human race, and it's a disgrace to the monkey, too. You know, God did not descend us from monkeys or apes. Although sometimes you wonder as you look at some people, maybe, but there's no connection, amen? There is no connection whatsoever. So let's go on here. We're not told how long Adam was alone. God doesn't give us a timeframe here. But he created Adam after he created the animals, and he topped creation with someone who was very special. And as the scriptures progress, We watch what God did with Adam and how he did it. And we learn, I believe, that God's intention was for Adam to have someone all along, a mate. But he didn't start with the two. Now, when we look at Genesis 1, we're gonna look at it in a few minutes. It seems like they were both created at the same time. They weren't, and we know that from scripture. So as we consider the creation of man, we need to determine what it was that God was doing in the man's life and showing him the need that he had. You know what, folks? Before need can be met, you have to know it's a need, amen? When you come to realize there's a need in your life, Okay, now we're ready for that need to be met. But there has to be a need first of all. So I want to encourage you tonight. God met that need for Adam. And if you have a need here tonight, let me tell you something. God Almighty can take care of it. God can meet it. It doesn't matter what that need is. God is concerned about it. Amen. And God can and will do something about it if we'll pray and trust him to do it. And pray with expectation, not doing this, I hope he does it. No. Whatsoever things you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive, as long as it's not contrary to the will of God, okay? So, You might ask, well, what was that need in Adam's life? And we'll get to that in just a few moments, but let's look back at Genesis 1 first of all. Let's go back and let's look at the account that God gives us in the beginning of Genesis as Moses is recording this from the mouth of God. He tells us what he did in chapters 1, verse 26 through verse 28. It says, and God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So if you have trouble with creeps, creeps that creep around, just remember God made them. How many of you love spiders? Millipedes. You know what a millipede is? We are saturated with them in Fairmont. They go into the basement of the pastor's parsonage and they die. They're a long creature, brown, and they got all kinds of legs. I don't think they have a million, but they're called millipedes. They have a lot of legs on them. But God made them. A leech. How many of you are familiar with a leech? How many ever had a leech on you? Back in West Virginia, they're in the creeks. If you want to wade in the creek, you might come out with something sticking to your leg or your foot, and he's going to suck the blood out of you is what he's going to do. He's a blood sucker. They call them leeches. He's leeching off of humans or whatever animal gets into the water. Well, God made them. Sometimes I wonder why. How many of you like fleas? No like fleas. How many of you like mosquitoes? Don't like mosquitoes. Flies? Somebody likes flies. Anybody, no flea lovers? You ever wonder, what was their purpose? But God made them. You know, I am so fascinated to get out in the woods and out in the fields and so many different creatures. Some of them are very minute, minuscule. In fact, at Fairmont, I went out where the trailer's at, there's a fence along the river there, and I was just leaning on the fence, the top rail, watching for fish in the river. And one day I went out and there must have been a hundred suckers out there. Anybody know what a sucker is? Well, it's a fish that sucks. It looks like a vacuum on his mouth. It points down. He goes along the bottom and picking up food. He's a scavenger. He feeds off the bottom. And they were mating in that river right by the church. Well, I came back in, never thought anything about it. And I went home, and I noticed something on my arm. And I thought it was a little scab. So I was home for two or three days. Finally, I asked my wife. I said, honey, could you look? What is this? So she got a pair of tweezers and pulled it off. And she laid it down on the nightstand under the light. It started crawling. I thought, what in the world? It was a minute tick, a deer tick. Do you know they carry Lyme's disease? She pulled that thing off me and I thought, man, alive, I had no idea, right? I had that off of there three days ago. So he was having a ball, you know? Then she sent it down to the natural resource to check it out and make sure it didn't have Lyme. We never heard from him, so I guess it didn't have Lyme. I trust, because that's been three years ago, and I haven't been diagnosed with Lyme, so I don't want to be. You? But all these creatures, God created them. But these animals come through in front of Adam and he names every last one of them. So what we have in Genesis 1 is a general account of creation, of the creation of man and woman. May I remind you, he said male and what's the other one? Our president has had to come out and reaffirm the fact there are two sexes, there are two genders. It has never changed, it's not gonna change. Man can pervert all he wants to, and he can try to change it if he wants to, but you cannot change what you are, amen? You are what God created you to be, and we are to accept that. But what young people are doing and even adults are doing, they're dissatisfied not with just themselves, they're dissatisfied with God, their creator, and accusing him. I should have been this and not this. Well, sorry, fella, but that's the way it is. You are what you are. You are what God created you to be. So we have male and we have female, but notice we were created in God's image, it says. That sets us apart. We're special. We are created in the image of God. Now note the language as God is talking here. Let us make man in our image after our likeness. Well, who in the world is he talking to? Well, if you go back to Genesis, the name Elohim is not a singular word, it's a plural word. The singular of Elohim is El, God but Elohim is plural so what are we talking about? Well I think Paul will shed some light on that for us. How many of you have heard the word Trinity? that God is a trinity. Well, look at what Paul said. You don't need to turn, let me read it to you. Acts 17 29, Mars Hill. He said, for as much as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that God, the Godhead is likened to gold or silver or stone graven by art and man's device. He called it him the Godhead. Then we look in Colossians 1, verse 19, for in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead. And then in chapter 2, verse 9, for it pleased the Father that in him, in Jesus, should all fullness dwell. There is one God, but he is three distinct persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You can debate this all you want. But there's no debate. Jesus made the claim that he was Jehovah, Yahweh. I am that I am. And Jesus said, I am. I and the Father are one. The Holy Spirit is God. When Peter confronted Ananias, Ananias, you've not lied to man, you have lied to God, you've lied to the Holy Spirit, you've lied to God. Why? Because the Holy Spirit is God. Jesus is God and the Father is God. You'll see him a few times together like at the baptism of Jesus. You'll see him up on the mount. of transfiguration, you'll see him on the Mount of Temptation. They are three in one. And so he's saying, let us, the Godhead, make man in our image. Now that's not a physical image, obviously, folks. They were talking and communicating about creating man. The image would be, obviously, intelligence, will, God has a will, man is created with a will. Moral nature, the moral attributes of God, we have those moral attributes. Personality, the ability to reason, the moral attributes such as love, joy, peace, compassion, emotions, humor. It involves the mental and spiritual faculties that man shares with his creator. We are in his image. And one of the likenesses of man with God is the ability to communicate, to talk to one another with understanding and comprehension. Well, sometimes you wonder about that, but anyway, we have that ability, right? But we need to learn how to communicate with understanding and with comprehension. Now let's go to the Genesis 2 account because in Genesis 1 it seems as though God created both of those people at the same time. As he said, let us create man, male and female. Verse 27, so God created man in his own image and the image of God created him, male and female created him. This is a general account. Now what he's going to do in chapter 2 is going to give you the specifics of that creation. So we go there, chapter 2 and verse 7. chapter two and verse seven. And the Lord God formed a man out of the dust of the ground, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. Now it's interesting, then he tells you he created the man, and then he tells you he created a place for man to live. Anybody know what that place was? The Garden of Eden. Do you know where it was? It wasn't in Israel. If you read the account, there's four rivers involved. It probably was over where old ancient Babylon is located. Today, does anybody know what the ancient city of Babylon is today? Baghdad. Did you know in Baghdad there is an independent, fundamental Baptist church? How many of you knew that? Did you know in Baghdad, as well as up north where old, what was the Syrian capital up there? Nineveh and then down the southern part of Iraq. There are three Christian radio television stations in Iraq. How many of you knew that? Pastor George Soros, not George Soros. No, it is George Soros, not George Soros. If you know the difference. George Soros got a burden. He worked with radio when he was a pastor. He resigned from the pastor, and he's been putting up radio stations in towers around the world, and they are in Baghdad. In fact, there's a young man by the name of Michael Ghirami, who is a Iranian, who left Iran and went to Australia and went to college there. But while he was in college, he got into a Baptist church. Now at first he was very skeptical, but God won his heart and he got saved. His burden was to reach Iran with the gospel. He can't go back into Iran, they'd kill him. He was a Muslim, but he understood that Islam was wrong and he got saved. He's now, I met him in, when I was an interim over in Illinois, there in Springfield, I met him at a church in another town, him and George Zaras. And they were going around promoting, so George Zaras was looking for someone to preach in the Farsi language, which is what they speak in Iran. And God brought those two men together in America. So I went to hear him, so we had him in our church at Grace Baptist there, not in Dayton, but in Springfield. And then I suggested to Mark Gilmore at Falls, I said, Mark, you need to get this guy up there. I said, you gotta hear this and the ministry they've got. So he did. Long story short, he's now based out of Falls Baptist Church. He went to seminary there, but he's got his own, not an office, a suite where he records messages. They are put on that radio station in southern Iran on television, and it's broadcast into Iran all the time. And the Iranians can do nothing about it. and many have gotten saved. He's been able to disciple people over FaceTime or Zoom or whatever and work with these folks who have gotten saved, but they know the danger because they could be put to death. for converting from Islam. But what a story. But that's where, in that area, obviously, this was located when God created it. So he created a place for Adam to live. And he said to Adam, you're to dress the garden and keep it. So dress is not the idea of putting on dress. It's the idea of work the garden. Work. And secondly, guard it. Observe it. take heed to it. But he gave him a command, didn't he? That command was not given to Eve. That command was given directly from God to who? Adam. What was the command? Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day thou eatest of thereof, thou shalt surely die. I wonder if Adam knew what that meant, die. I wonder what that is. Death. Well, he found out what it meant, because you remember the temptation. And I marveled at this. By the way, where did Eve get her information from? Pardon? Adam. Adam. God didn't talk to Eve, he talked to Adam. So Eve was not innocent in this because she replies, but she adds two, doesn't she? The serpent says, hath God said, oh yeah. We're not to eat of that tree. We're not even to touch it. So where'd that come from? Isn't it interesting how we embellish stories? You tell somebody something, and they tell somebody else, and they tell somebody else, and they tell somebody else. It finally gets back to you and say, where in the world did you hear that at? Well, they said, you said it. I didn't say that. Here's what I said. How many have been there? I'm sure you have. You know, how things get around. Says, we're not to eat it. We're not even to touch it. Well, God didn't say anything about touching. He said, you're not to eat of that tree in the midst of the garden, because you do, and you surely, you will die, okay? But he says in verse 18, chapter two, verse 18, he makes this statement about Adam. And the Lord said, it is not good that man should be what? Alone. And now he interjects the animals, and the garden, and then the animals. Adam gives names to all the animals before he creates the woman. Why is God doing this? Adam's all alone. God puts all these animals to parade in front of him, and Adam's given the responsibility to name all these animals. But in the process of naming them, what happens to Adam? He comes to a realization of something, right? I'm alone. I don't have a mate. But I notice, as these creatures are going by, there's two. Isn't it interesting? The female is usually prettier than the male, until you go to the birds. I ain't figured this one out. The male cardinal is a beautiful red bird, and you look at the female and say, man, what happened to her? And she's not very pretty. It's nice, but not very pretty. But the male cardinal, he's, man, he's all dressed up. But normally, when it comes to humanity, it's the reverse, right? The man is not pretty. He's what? He's handsome. The woman, she is not handsome. She is what? She's pretty. She's beautiful. Wouldn't you like to have been there when God presented Eve to Adam? Notice it's not good that man should be alone. So after he sees all the animals, then God does something. He said, I'm gonna create him a helpmeet, a helpmeet. That word helpmeet, help means to assist or to support. Meet means to be fit or suited for. He said, I'm gonna make somebody for him that will be suited for him and will be a support of him. So now we have the creation of the woman, verse 21 to 22. And here we see the Lord causes a deep sleep to come on Adam. As he slept, God took a rib out of his side. So if you notice, men, there's one rib missing out of us. You'll find it in your wife, amen? He took a rib out. He closed it back up. He took that rib and created a female body around that rib. And then he brought that female to Adam. Wouldn't you like to have been there? You know why he called her woman? He saw her and he went, whoa, man, woo. She's beautiful. Well, God's good, isn't he? God is good. So he calls her woman because she was taken out of man. So she's called woman. Adam's response, this is bone of my moans, this is flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she's taken out of man. Adam obviously was overwhelmed by what God had done for him and brought this mate to him. and she was well made, she was obviously beautiful, and Adam was overwhelmed by what he said. Now God gives a directive, and here it is. Therefore, shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh. Chapter two, verse 24. When this was brought up by the Pharisees to Jesus in Matthew 19, he refers back to God's original plan. And the plan was one man and one woman in marriage for life. And Jesus adds to that when he says, what God has joined together, let not man put it asunder. Okay. So God's will is that marriage is for life till one dies or they both die together. So let's move on. So the plans we saw this morning was you leave, you cleave, and you what? You weave. They shall be one flesh. And when a couple does this and stays together for years, like look at Jim and Thelma. They even begin to look familiar to each other, don't they? You say, really? Yes, I see a resemblance. They both have gray hair. But you begin to think alike. You begin to understand each other. Now, I'm not going to ask him if that's true, because I don't want to get in trouble. But oftentimes, the older they are and the longer they've been together, they begin, they can think what somebody's thinking ahead of time. This is what you're thinking. You say, how'd you know that? Because I know you. You get to know each other. You get to start thinking alike. And sometimes you even start looking alike. It's uncanny sometimes. You look at the husband and wife and say, man, that's amazing. But they shall be one flesh. Not two anymore, but one. And so Jesus said, what God has put together, let not man put asunder. You know, God hates divorce. But let me say this, it happens, doesn't it? My counsel to folks who've come to our church, if that's the case, I said, look, God forgives, amen? And if you have remarried, all right, make this from what it ought to be. Right? You're out of that one, but you're in this one. Make it what God wants it to be. If you don't remarry, then Paul said, look, you can give yourself to the Lord Jesus. You can give yourself to God. My sister, my second sister, both of them were divorced. One remarried. The other one said, I'm not remarrying. She'd had enough of the husband she had. She said, God is my husband. Amen. She's on to another one. Well, that's their choice. Some men decide to be, what do you call them when they don't marry? A eunuch, a eunuch, they forsake their, they don't wanna marry, or they don't wanna remarry. Well, that's up to the individual, but it's also up to God's leading and direction in their life. But I wanna say this about marriage. Go to 1 Corinthians 11, I want you to see this. Because I want to put men in their place, okay? Including myself. Men need to be put in their place when it comes to them and the woman. Those of you who are not married yet better listen up to this because look what Paul has to say. I want you to look at 1 Corinthians 11 verse 8 to 12. For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man. For this cause ought the woman to have power over her head because of the angels. The word power is the idea of authority. Okay, nevertheless, neither is the man without the woman, neither is the woman without the man in the Lord. For as the woman is of the man, okay fellas, you ready? Even so is the man also by the woman. Right? How'd you get here? You weren't hatched. You were born through who? Your mother. So man doesn't get too high and mighty. He is very dependent on the woman. If he wants to have children, it's through his wife, his woman. So man, woman is of the man, but man is by the woman. That's how reproduction continues. That's how the human race continues. That's how God designed it to continue. So what does that tell us about this relationship? Folks, marriage is a codependency. You're dependent on each other. If you're operating independent, you're operating wrong. Men, you need your wife. You need her counsel, you need her input, and you need to listen sometimes. Because women have something men don't have. Call it intuition or whatever you want to call it. But God has given women some intuition, something. So the man gets a big idea, and he shares it with his wife, and I think, well, I'll do this, and I'm gonna... She said, well, let me ask you a question. What about this? What do you mean, what about this? Well, yeah, you need to think about this. Well, I don't want to think about it, I already made up my mind. You need to, and some men just say, woman, mind your own business, I got this figured out, I got it, okay, we'll be fine. And then he comes back, and what does he wish? I wish I'd have listened to my wife. It didn't go the way I thought it was gonna go. It turned out to be a disaster. And wife, don't you dare look him in the face and say, I told you so, you just listen to me. Because that's the last thing he wants to hear. He already knows that. Amen? And he's coming back with his tail between his legs. You know? And maybe the next time he'll listen. Hopefully. He'll listen the next time. God gave her to you fellas. to counsel with, to share with, to get ideas from, to get input from, right? So don't demean the helpmeet God has given you. She is a helpmeet, a support to help you succeed in what God has for you, but you help her succeed in what God has for her. There's a codependency in marriage. It's not an independent operation. It is a codependent. operation. We need each other. Amen? So you men swallow your pride and accept what God's given you. He's given you what he wants you to have. So take advantage of it. So, I want to look last of all at God's creative purpose in marriage. So let me ask you a question. What was God's primary reason for giving Adam It's not good for man to be alone. There was a great need in his life. God wanted him to come to the recognition, the realization of his need. That's why he paraded the animals in front of him. Yes, to name them, but to show him he needed some body. Are you getting this? God's primary purpose in marriage was not children. It was companionship. Now let me just touch on this. Every couple doesn't have children, right? Who gives children? God does. Sometimes he withholds for a reason. Let's take Brother Jim Van Gelder. How many of you know him? He and Rhonda got married back in 1984. I remember that well because we were the first war they had after they got married, two weeks later after they got married. His first war was in Glenford, Ohio at Maranatha Bible Church. And we met Jim and Rhonda for the first time. And we're close friends and have been all these years. But what was it? Fourteen years? Before they finally had a daughter and then bang, bang, bang. They had three, like, real close. But for some reason, God withheld from them, but then God blessed them. The primary relationship in the home, folks, is not the parent-child relationship. Now why do I bring that up? Because oftentimes when the children come along, we focus on the children. It's all about the children. I'm here to tell you it's not all about the children. because one day those children will exit your home and you will go back to where you started from. Are you with me? Where did you start? Just you and her or you and him. And so when the children are gone, it shouldn't be looking at one another and say, by the way, what was your name? What are you doing here in this house? We laugh. Sometimes we grow apart. Do you know there's four steps in a relationship and marriage? There are, if you want to write them down. Number one is romance. The beginning. Romance. Oh, that's exciting time, as I said last night. That's the excitement, amen? Oh, this is wonderful. Then we get married, and we move in together, and now we're spending a whole lot more time together, but very intimate time together. Very personal time together. And the second R is reality hits home. And you ladies begin to see the chinks in his armor. That man that you wanted so desperately, now sometimes you want to choke him. You begin to see him for what he really is. And vice versa, ladies. As one guy said, my wife, man, when I was dating her, she was so pretty, she was so nice, I could have eaten her. He said, I got married to her and I wish I had of. Didn't turn out the way they thought it was gonna turn out. And we laugh at that, but reality sets in, folks. You begin to realize what marriage is all about. And that's about the time some bail ship. They jump ship. But now is when the work starts. Gentlemen, you're gonna have to learn what God meant when he said, husband, love your wife. And wife, you're gonna learn what God meant when he said, wives, submit to your husband. We're gonna get down to the nitty gritty where the rubber meets the road. Either we're gonna do this or we're not, amen? But if we're gonna be obedient to God, if we're gonna make a marriage what God designed it to be, it's not done automatically. It means two people giving themselves to what God has designed for them in marriage, give themselves to it, be faithful, be committed through the good times and the bad, and there will be both. And sometimes your commitment will really be tested. I think back at things that has happened to our marriage. We've been married two weeks. I'll probably share it with you. I'll share it again. We've been married two weeks to almost the exact time. In two weeks. I guess I did a foolish thing. Should have known better. But I was trying to celebrate the 4th of July. And my father-in-law and I were putting up hay. I was a mess. Sweaty, hay seed. I was, you know, looked like a orphan. But I said to my father-in-law, I said, Dad, that he had one more load to get down to neighbors. And I said, why don't you go down and I will start the grill and we'll grill out and celebrate the fourth. Amen? So he leaves and I get the grill out, I get the charcoal out, and I'm looking all around. I can't find the lighter fluid. Well, you just don't run into town over there. That takes about an hour, 45 minutes to time to go in the back. So I thought, well, I'll just use gasoline. Yes, sir. Smart move, amen? Well, let me tell you something. I was not ignorant of what gasoline does. So I was being very, very, very careful with it, okay. So I would not just pour gasoline, I would take some and put it on, and I would stand back and take one of those kitchen matches, light it on my jeans and pitch it in, and whoop. But it would burn out quickly. So I did it, I can't remember exactly how many times, but the last time I looked and I noticed white edges on the charcoal, and I thought, And I better be careful with this. But gotta get this charcoal going. Dad's gonna be coming. We need to get it going so we can cook. Well, the charcoal, the meat didn't get cooked, I got cooked. The last time I was leaning back like this, I was pouring it on and all of a sudden she blew. And to this day, I don't know exactly what happened. I can show you, I'm not going to, I can show you where I got burned. And the only thing I can think is I jumped back and the gasoline must have pulled it back. And the fire follows the gasoline. It really follows the fumes. The next thing I know, I was on fire. I was trying to get my shirt off. One of the reasons I was concerned, right there in that pocket, I had three cherry bombs right here in this pocket. The gasoline, I was burnt from here, all around my chest, and this arm. It burned around that pocket. And two thoughts I had, this can't be happening. Well, it was. But the second thought was this, and I know God was in this. I had been saved. Wasn't really living for the Lord. I hadn't been discipled. But I thought, hit the ground and roll. And man, I hit that ground. I rolled down through a yard on a plane. I rolled through a three-foot hedge down over a road bank. I don't know how I got through that hedge. But I hit that road on my feet. And I grabbed that shirt and I ripped it off and I threw it down. And the rest was history, but I suffered for six weeks with that. And being doctored and not put in a hospital for some reason. I had a pocket full, right here, of cherry bomb. You know what a cherry bomb is? You don't want one to go off in your pocket, believe me. Some of them were duds. The guy said, Robert, when you get them, some of these are duds. Well, those three weren't. They all three went off after I got the shirt off and threw it down. And they went off. I put my wife through a difficult time. For six weeks, I had to stay home while she went out and worked. I had a brand new job. And the boss wanted to see me. And I had to agonizingly drive all the way from Fairmont to Morgantown just so he could look at me and ask, why aren't you in the hospital? I said, I don't know. But I couldn't work. So six weeks. Well, that's a time of testing. I mean, we know we've been married two weeks, folks. Can you imagine a young bride having to deal with this and her husband? So there's bad times and there's good times. But those bad times will really test your commitment to your marriage, and if you're taking it seriously or not. So God's primary purpose was companionship. And remember, it is not good that a man should be alone, God said, chapter two, verse 18. He needs someone that will come alongside him, assist him, help him, work with him, someone who will fill and meet the need that he had in his life. And we have to recognize the need first, and then let God meet the need. You may be here and not married yet and thinking about marriage. Let me tell you, you better wait on God. You can jump ahead of God and regret it. Wait on the Lord. If your mate has died or if there's been a separation, wait on the Lord. You pray and ask God for direction and guidance. If there's a remarriage to take place, who and when and how and so on. And God can take care of that need for you. but he gave him a companion for life, a comrade, an intimate friend, one employed to live with and serve with, someone to fellowship with, confide in, spend time with, to develop an intimate relationship with mentally, emotionally, socially, and physically, to enjoy one another. As we talked about relationships, Relationship is built by talking as well as all the other things that go with it. Talking. Learn how to just sit down and talk. Some couples do not talk. They don't communicate. And God wants you to learn to communicate. The second or the third phase in this We need to recognize that and ask a question, what's going on here? What's happened to us? And what needs to take place is a rekindling. You know why a fire goes out? Because it's not fed. I burned, we burned wood for 18 years. That fire just didn't keep itself. If you want the fire to burn, you gotta feed the fire, amen? But you know, you parallel that with the Lord Jesus Christ and salvation, the romance period, when you first get saved and meet Jesus, what an experience, what a blessing, what a joy. But then reality sets in, living the Christian life. And then sadly, oftentimes regression sets in. We don't love him like we used to. We don't serve him like we used to. We're not on fire for the Lord like we used to. We don't witness like we used to. We don't read our Bible. We don't pray like we used to. We've kind of lost that desire. And what we need is a rekindling. We call it what? Revival. There's a parallel between the two. My friend, what God wants us to do is keep the fire burning. Keep that excitement, keep that enjoyment. Rejoice with the wife of thy youth, God says. And make that marriage, as we learned this morning, what God designed it to be. It is a portrait, it is a picture of the relationship of our Savior with his church. And that marriage relationship is to show this lost world what Jesus Christ is like. Men, you stand in his place, and women, you stand in the place of the church. And our relationship and our marriage is to display that to a lost world who needs Christ desperately. My friend, do we really understand what marriage is all about? It's not just about two people getting married and living together. It's about two people who know the Lord Jesus Christ, who understand what their roles and responsibilities are, and what their marriage is to display to this world, who take it seriously and are committed to it, so God gets the glory out of it, and we get the good. Amen. Father, thank you for marriage. Thank you for the book that tells us all about it. God, help us to realize the importance, the significance of it, and God, help us as we're in it