Good morning, guys. Ooh, glad I got some glasses here. Watch it, Cam. All right, well, good morning, everybody. Mom and quit talking, we'll pray. Here we go. Good morning. Let's pray for our Sunday school lesson. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, I come to you today, Lord, just thank you once again for this opportunity to be in your house, to open your word, Lord, and to look at what your word says about marriage and life and ways we should live, Lord. And I ask you, Lord, that hearts and minds will be open and we'll be obedient to your word, Lord. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. So first thing we've been going over last few weeks we've been talking about marriage and family and stuff like that and and I made up a little worksheet it's called God's design for the family because we know God designed the family he ordained the family he created the family and it's on the back back table if y'all want it there's also the 30-day marriage devotional if y'all want it Just some things that, you know, can help you. Because, you know, people say, well, you know, I'm not married. You know, why am I listening to a marriage Sunday school? Well, because God designed it, number one. And the things that we learn and just what he says about a marriage and a family. Remember, if you're a Christian, you're a bride of Christ. So it's still relevant to you whether you're married or not. and whether you're gonna be married one day. These are great things to learn before marriage, because if I would have known all this before I got married, it would have made life so much easier, you know. So let's start off, let's go to Jeremiah. And today we're gonna talk about what weakens and what strengthens a marriage. What weaken and what strengthens a marriage. Let's go to Jeremiah chapter 8, and we'll start in verse 8. Jeremiah chapter 8. And, uh, verses eight through 10 in the Bible says, how do you say we are wise and the law of the Lord is with us, us low. Certainly in vain made he it. The pen of the scribes is in vain. The wise men are ashamed. They are dismayed and taken. Lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord." And that's very important. They have rejected the word of the Lord, and what wisdom is in them? Therefore, here comes with the therefore, guys. It's like a cause and effect, right? FROM THE PROPHET EVEN UNTO THE PRIEST, EVERY ONE DEALETH FALSELY." WELL, WHAT DO WE SEE HERE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT? WE SAW THAT JUDAH'S WISE MEN, RIGHT? THESE WISE MEN, THEY KNOW GOD AND THEY'RE SUPPOSEDLY WISE, BUT WHAT DID THEY DO? THEY LEFT THEIR BASIC COMMITMENT TO THE WORD OF GOD. THEY LEFT IT. AND WHEN THEY LEFT THAT BASIC COMMITMENT TO THE WORD OF THE LORD, THEN CAME THEREFORE. Okay, and these were supposedly wise men, right? These were the leaders, right? But, and you look at our world today, okay? What happens today when Christian men and Christian women and Christian people step away from the word of the Lord? Well, we get a therefore, don't we? Well, let's look at some results of that. Well, we're talking about marriage, divorce, divorce. If you get a divorce, guess what, man? Your wife's gonna be given to another man now. Just like here, what does that say? Therefore, the first thing he said, I'll give your wives unto other men. I'll give your fields away, give your homes away. What does a divorce do? It separates a couple, right? The husband goes off, he can find another woman, and the wife can go off, find another man. Somebody ends up with a house, and it's usually the wife, right? You know, and everything you've worked for gets separated and split, right? That's a therefore. And why did that divorce happen? Because people stepped away from the Word of God. Therefore, okay, so in the u.s. Look at this in 2024 The divorce rate was 40 to 50 percent for first-time marriages 67 percent for second marriages and 70 percent for third marriages. So it's not getting better. Is it? No, it's getting worse. Those are bad odds That's like three strikes. You're out right doesn't say about fourth marriages. Maybe they learn by then, right? So on average, get this, a marriage that ends in divorce only lasts eight years. Financial impact of divorce, that's a huge thing in this world, right? The average basic no contest divorce costs 7,000 to 15,000. And most people that are divorced report that they never recover financially. That's that therefore. That's that therefore right there in our world, right? So individuals, here's some more stats, with college degrees are 30% less likely to divorce than those with just high school diplomas. This is only because they are more minded towards financial security and appearance, not about God, okay? IT'S NOT ABOUT GOD. THAT'S ABOUT JUST THEIR APPEARANCE, RIGHT? THOSE WHO REGULARLY ATTEND CHURCH, RIGHT, THEY ARE 14 PERCENT LESS LIKELY TO DIVORCE THAN THOSE COMPARED TO WHO NOT. Only 14%? What does that tell you about Christians? Tells you that we're following the world more than we are following God, isn't it? We're only 14% apart? No. It should be like an astronomical figure, but it's not. Because we have taken on, as Christians, we've taken on worldly views. of divorce. And even in Christians today, if you polled Christians, I guarantee you, over a majority would be okay with divorce. But the Bible teaches against it, right? Couples, here we go. Think about this. People, couples that live together. People say they like to do that so they can try it out. You know, well, couples who live together before marriage are 39% more likely to divorce than those who don't live together before marriage. And who doesn't live together before marriage? Christians, right? Typically Christians. So living together doesn't make your marriage any better, right? It makes it worse. God intends for marriage to be a strong and enduring, right? His word gives us both warnings and wisdom for keeping our marriage healthy and honoring him. And that's how you keep it healthy, by honoring him, okay? That's the key. And what do you think are some common reasons that marriages fail today? Well, I looked it up. 75% they report a lack of commitment to each other. And what did that lack of commitment spawn from? Well, it said infidelity, arguing, and poor communication. Those are the number one, or those are the three reasons that they find that lack of commitment. And the first thing that happens when you get to that stage in your marriage where there's lack of commitment is isolation. You isolate yourselves from each other. And that means you're headed down that road to divorce, right? Well, God's word is really clear, right? And it addresses what damages marriages, and it also addresses what protects and strengthens a marriage, and that's what we're gonna look at today. So we're still in Jeremiah. Let's look at that verse 9 again. It says, If you reject the word of the Lord, you have no wisdom in you. You're just not very smart. There's other words, but not very smart would be a good one, right? The number one reason for failed marriages is rejecting God's word. Point blank. That's it. That's the number one reason. You rejected God's word. The Bible clearly states anyone who rejects the word of God has no wisdom in them, right? So without wisdom, how can your marriage survive? It can't. It can't, okay? Marriages built without the foundation of God's word will crumble every time. They may stay together, but their marriage is going to crumble. And it's going to become unbearable. It's become miserable. And you're going to find people that are sleeping in different bedrooms, right? Maybe even different homes, but their marriage is going to crumble because they do not follow the word of God. And let's look at Psalms 127, excuse me, Psalms 127 and verse one. Psalms 127 verse 1, the Bible says, except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. What is it talking about? Keep, right? Keep the house, keep the city. It's talking about guards it. So if God is not in your home, guarding your home and part of your home and part of your marriage, it will fail. point blank. Any marriage not built on the Word of God with the Lord in that marriage, right? The building of that marriage is in vain and it will fail. That's a marriage built under the sun. We're learning about that, right? Under the sun. So if your marriage does not start off based on the Word of God and doesn't stay close to the Word of God and you're both following God, that marriage is in vain. Even if you stay together and you don't divorce, it's still in vain. Because you're gonna turn out children that don't know God, and don't follow God. Okay? Let's go back to old Jeremiah. Let's look at verse 10. Jeremiah verse 10. I mean chapter 8 again. Verse 10. Jeremiah 8 and verse 10. Look at this. This is that therefore, right? So we see that the guys are, you know, they've rejected the Word of the Lord in the verse before, and here we come. Okay, covetousness. That's just being worldly. That's worldliness. What is covetousness? Well, it means that you have an excessive desire for things that belong to others, or you have an excessive desire for material possessions. That's worldliness, right? That's exactly what it is. Covenants will destroy a marriage. No marriage can survive, right? If there's greed or if there's materialism and a discontented heart, because that leads to arguments, that leads to distrust, that leads to broken focus on God. So man, if you're a husband, you are told by God to provide for your home, but he does not say work 40 hours a day You know, and come home and go to sleep and get back up and go work again and work again and work again and work again so you can make money and pile it into the bank and buy you a boat and buy you a gun and buy you all this stuff, right? He doesn't say that. He says work to provide for your family's needs, okay? Now, if God blesses you and you get a great job and you make good money and you're not working to kill yourself because you're in debt and you're drowning, okay? That's where you're losing your family. You're losing your marriage because now you're not spending time with your wife. You're not spending time with your kids. That's covetousness. You're falling apart, okay? And that will lead to arguments with your wife. That will lead to her not trusting you. That will lead to broken focus on God because you don't even have time to pray and read your Bible because you're too busy trying to get that dollar, right? Well, let's look at Luke 12. Luke 12. Luke 12. In verse 15, the Bible says, and he said unto them, and who was this? This was Jesus Christ talking. Take heed and beware of covetousness, for a man's life consisteth not in abundance of things which he possesseth. Wow. We're talking about a marriage, right? A marriage cannot survive if it's built on material wealth alone. Because material wealth is of this world. It's not of God, right? And we all know you could have all the money in the world. You know, like when Bill Gates dies, ain't none of that money going with him wherever he's going. None of it. All the Lamborghinis or whatever he's got, they stay right here. Okay? So a marriage cannot survive if it's built on this worldliness, right? It must be built on what kind of wealth, right? Should your marriage be built on worldly wealth? No. Where's your wealth supposed to be built? We already know this, in heaven. You put up your wealth in heaven. And if you're married, you and your wife put up that wealth together, okay? That's the only way your marriage will survive, right? And let's look at this, Matthew 19, eight. This is a verse people like to throw around a lot. Matthew 19, eight. Bible says, And he said unto them, Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you to put away your wives, but from the beginning it was not so." What's Jesus telling us? Well, He's saying right there, these guys, you know they wanted to put away their wives. Why? Because they just got tired of them, or she wasn't doing what He wanted her to do. All this stuff we're talking about, their covetousness, and their marriages spreading apart. So, because of the hardness of their hearts, God, it says He suffered them, it means He permitted them. Okay? To give a little, you write on there, I divorce you and hand it to your wife and walk away. That's because you have a hard heart and you're not listening to God. And if you divorce, you have a hard heart and you're not listening to God. Point blank, right? And because of the hardness of their hearts, it destroys marriages. If you have a hard heart in your marriage, you will destroy that marriage. And a hard heart, why is that? Why do you have a hard heart? Well, a hard heart only comes as a result of your refusal. to submit and to obey the Word of God. Point blank. If you're just hard-headed enough that you will not bow down and submit to the Word of the Lord, you have a hard heart. And that's the number one cause for divorce. A hard heart. Right? Because you're too worried about yourself. And this world is so about I. Everything's I. It's about me, me, me, me, me. What can I get? You know? Even to the detriment of your children and your wife. Or the children and your husband. It goes both ways in marriage, right? So unwillingness to forgive will cause a hard heart and destroy a marriage. Unwillingness to listen, unwillingness to grow, all of those causes separation between spouses, and that separation will lead to divorce if you both don't get back in line with Christ. Okay? And think about it. In your own lives, just think about people you've known. Have you ever seen someone with a hard heart? I have. And no matter the amount of Bible that you pour on them, or bring them to church, or tell them about God, or even if you could just take the verses out of the Bible and chunk at them, you know, like little darts. Their heart is so hard, it just, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And what do they do? They just keep going their way. You know? I think about an analogy I heard years ago, but it's about people that are walking on this path, and it's going right towards a cliff, and they're not looking ahead, and you're there trying to stop them. And they just walk off. Because they won't listen to you. Hard, hard hearts. And those hard hearts won't listen to the Word of God, right? And think about how completely a hard heart closes off in communication in a marriage. When you find a hard heart in marriage, when it shuts down and it gets hard, communication's gone between them people. And guess what else? If that hard heart is shut down and there's no communication between spouses, there's no communication between that person and God anymore. That's a bad place to be, okay. It's called isolation. Now you've isolated yourself from your spouse. You find you isolate yourself from the world. You isolate yourself from God, okay. Isolation is a form of abuse, okay. You can look it up. What do they do in prisons to punish prisoners? Put them in isolation. What do they do in times of war with prisoners of war? Put them in isolation. And they say that, you can look this up too, they say three days in isolation, people start having hallucinations. God designed us to be together. We're social people, not isolations, okay? Same thing, you isolate yourself from your spouse, you're causing damage to that marriage. You isolate yourself from God, you're causing a lot of damage, right? Because you just got your own little mind to think about, and it's already messed up, right? Think about this in marriage, okay? And let's look at Matthew 19, 9. Look at this verse. And it says, excuse me. And I say unto you, whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery. And whosoever marrieth her which is put away, doth commit adultery. A lot of people say, Christians, well, oh, right there, right there. There's my card. There's my get out of jail free card. I can get out of this marriage now. Remember? Hardness of the heart. It's allowed that. Jesus didn't allow that. This verse is not God giving permission for divorce. And there's no godly reason for divorce. I want you to hear this. There's no godly reason for divorce, okay? This is explaining how infidelity will damage and destroy a marriage from the inside out, right? And this includes physical and emotional adultery, right? Okay? But it's not, you know, talk about fornication. Fornication, you know, immediately we think about, oh, sex outside of marriage. Fornication is also sex before marriage. Guess what else fornication is? Every form of homosexuality. Okay? Guess what else is included in there if you look it up? Bestiality. Think about that one, okay? Those are all forms of fornication because it's sex that's outside of the way that God designed sex to be. Sex God designed for a man and woman in the bonds of marriage that he created, that he put together, not any other ones, right? So, it... And those things can happen, and the only reason that marriage would fall apart is because those people that find themselves in that fornication, that husband and that wife, regardless of who's doing the fornication, or maybe they're both doing fornication, if they do not come back together under God and get it right with God and get it right with each other, that marriage will fail. Okay? And how does that happen? Forgiveness. Forgiveness. You have to get forgiveness from God first, and then forgiveness from your spouse. And then you move forward. Another way you can move forward from that is if both of you truly start following God. Because then you insulate yourself from that fornication. Because if you're walking with God, I guarantee you, you're not going to be prone to fornication. It's just not going to happen. If you're walking with God, it doesn't mean you're not going to be tempted. Because Satan's out there a tempter every day, right? But if you're walking with God, you have the strength to say no. Remember back in the 80s, they started the thing, just say no to drugs? Well, it's actually that simple. Just say no. But the only way you can be strong enough to say no is not because of our strength, it's because of the strength that God gives us. And you have to be with God, walking with God, to have that strength. And there's the failure of the Christian, you know? Let's look at Matthew chapter 5, verse 28. Matthew 5, verse 28. The Bible says, Men, listen closely to this verse. That means a man's glance, if it's not checked by the Holy Spirit and the holy restraint within you, which you can only have if you're walking with God, that leads to an impure thought. And if you dwell on those impure thoughts long enough, that'll lead to the act. Okay? Christian men need to strive for a pure heart. And I would say Christian women, too, because in today's world, it goes both ways. It's out there, right? Christian men need to strive for that pure heart because lust is in the heart. We know that, right? And it can damage trust and intimacy within your marriage. And the only way to fix that is both of you to follow God together. If a husband and wife are not following God together, there will always be some distrust there. There will always be some little thoughts and little ideas, right? And this understanding, right? Godly wisdom is to walk with God. We've talked about that. Godly wisdom is walking with God. And let's look at that. Proverbs 6, verse 32. Proverbs 6, verse 32. Bible says, But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding. He that doeth it destroyeth his own soul. That's pretty deep, right? He lacketh understanding and it says he destroys her own soul. Well, understanding, what are we talking about? Worldly understanding? No. We're talking about godly wisdom. And the only way to get that godly wisdom, to have that understanding that this verse says you lack, the only way to get that wisdom is to walk with God. A walk with God means you come to church, you read your Bible, you pray, not just on Sunday, not just on Wednesday, every day. A walk with God is every day. Can you imagine your life not walking except on Sunday? That means you lay in bed six days a week. You would die. You have to walk daily. I remember there were cats walking for his exercise. And man, he makes me jealous because I'm like, man, I haven't walked anywhere except for my car to my office. It's terrible. But if you don't walk with God daily, you will get weak. Okay? And it says, destroy your own soul. Well, we can't destroy our soul because God's in charge of that. But what this does mean, that it means that you harm a person physically, emotionally, and spiritually. That's destroying your own soul, right? Because you do that to everybody around you. You do that to everybody that you know. You do that to God. You hurt him deeply when you do this. And you're hurting the relationships. When you do this and you don't have godly wisdom and you fall into adultery, you are hurting your relationship with God, you're hurting your relationship with others, but guess what else you do? You hurt yourself because that guilt is there now. And that guilt will eat you unless you get forgiven of it by God. It will eat you alive, okay? It will eat you alive for failing God. How many of you, don't raise your hands, but how many of you get up in the morning and you're in such a hurry, you forget to pray and you get out the door and then not, probably on the way, before you even get out of your driveway, you're already feeling guilt? That's the spirit of God telling you, hey, you're not walking with me already. You know, what is your, what pops into your mind the minute your eyes pop open? You know, is it, I don't know, sometimes it's me, I wake up and I go, oh, that case, I gotta get to work and work on it again. No, what should pop into my mind is, dear God, thank you for letting me wake up. Now let me read my Bible and pray a little bit. But we don't. We fail. And that, if you have that guilt, that's a good guilt. That's a good guilt because that means the Holy Spirit's within you, right? If you could do that and just easy peasy blow on through the day, I wonder about your salvation, okay? If you can't go, I'll put it to you this way, if you can go through your day and you don't feel bad about not praying and not reading your Bible, you might want to check your salvation. What does that comedian used to say, here's your sign? There's your sign, right? Let's talk about what can strengthen a marriage, okay? We've talked about the things that are detrimental and destroy a marriage, right? Let's talk about what strengthens a marriage. Let's look at Ephesians chapter five, verse 25. Y'all knew I was going to go to Ephesians, right? That's an amazing chapter. Ephesians five, verse 25, the Bible says, if I can get on the right page, Ephesians 5 verse 25 says, Husbands, he's calling us out guys, right there, he starts with us. Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. We're not going to go too deep into that verse because the next few weeks we're going to get deep into that verse, okay. But this, the number one thing that strengthens a marriage is godly love. Not human love, not lust, godly love. And it tells right there, husbands, love your wives even as Christ loved the church. Do you think Christ loved the church kind of a lot? Oh yeah. He died for it, didn't he? Christ was so unselfish, he was so sacrificial, he was so committed to the love of people that he died on a cross. So, husbands, your love should be so unselfish, so sacrificial, so committed to the love of your wife, that that's the core of a strong marriage. And you can only get that, husbands, through God. You can't get that love anywhere else. Guarantee you can't get that love anywhere else. If you do, your marriage is going to fail. Okay? You know, if you find this girl and you're, man, I love her because, you know, maybe I play video games 12 hours a day and she plays video games 12 hours a day. That's perfect. Nope. All you're going to find is you're both going to have easy chairs, you're going to have a refrigerator between you, and you're going to play video games and get fat and lazy, and then you're going to get divorced. Okay? Let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter 13. And let's start in verse four, okay? And what I'm gonna read you, I want you to listen to the verses. This is the biblical picture of real love, right here. Starts off, charity, which means love. Charity suffereth long and is kind. Does your love suffer, but yet you're still kind? Charity suffereth long and is kind. Charity envieth not. Charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemingly. Seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Verse 8, look at this. Charity never faileth. Okay, so if you're a Christian and you're in a marriage, does your love meet all those parameters? Does your love meet all the parameters? Do you fail at some of that? Because that's biblical love right there. That's Christ's love for you. Do you have that love in your marriage for your spouse? Do you, can you do those? You know? Or do you get, and we've heard this before, people say, well, I used to love them. You know, or I love them, but I'm not in love with them. Well, that's both contrary to what this says right here. says, love never faileth. No matter what happens, love never faileth. That's a good thing, right? Because no matter how bad a sinner we were, Christ's love never failed. Because if we had a point to where a threshold, Terukka would sin enough that God would go, I used to love them, but I don't anymore. Where would we be? What if Christ said, I'm not in love with him anymore. How many times have we heard that in a marriage? I'm not in love with him anymore. What if Christ said that? Oh, yeah, your attorney just went down the toilet, didn't it? Bad deal. But Christ says, charity never faileth. Okay, that's the biblical picture of love. Ephesians 5 still, let's go back there. Ephesians 5. And we're going to come back to 1 Corinthians, so keep your hand there. Ephesians 5, 22-24, look at this. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, Like those therefores, huh? Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Okay? Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church. Wives, submit yourself as Christ is the head of the church and the Savior of the body. Do you do that? Okay, well let's look at 1 Corinthians chapter 11. This one goes right along with it. 1 Corinthians chapter 11. Verse 3, the Bible says, but I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ. That's the first part of the marriage. The head of every man must be Christ. And the head of every woman is the man. And the head of Christ is God. This is kind of the secret to really a strong marriage. It's submission and order. Submit to God, follow God. Husband. Wives, submit to a husband. But you don't submit to your husband until you submit to God. Because if you submit to God, then you will submit to your husband. If you find a wife that will not submit to her husband in everything, maybe 90% of the time, but there's a 10% she's just rebellious, guess what? That means she's not in submission to God. Same thing with a husband. A husband, you know, he's 90% there for his wife, but he has his 10% on the side? He's not in submission to God first. Okay? You will fail. It's not when, it's not if, it's yes, you will fail, right? That is the secret to a strong marriage, is submission and order, submission and order. A biblical submission and order, right? Marriage is not a power struggle, but it's a perfect structure designed and ordained by God. It's perfect because God is perfect. And this is the order right here, Christ, husband, wife, children. Anywhere that gets out of order, You know, if the husband puts the wife before God, eh. If the wife puts the children before the husband, eh. Do y'all see the problem? When it gets out of order, it falls apart, you know? Just like Brother Larry, you know, he sells tires. You know, if he comes in there with a truck and they need four tires and he gives them three, failure. I've chased cars that only have three wheels. It's fun. The key to true 100% submission, guys, that's the key. 100% submission to God, 100% submission to the husband, and the leadership is from the husband to the wife, but the leadership is also from Christ to the husband, Christ to the wife. That's where we have to be, 100%. Not just 99%, right? Submission and leadership both require two things. They require humility, because you gotta humble yourself, right? And they require grace. Humility and grace from Christ, humility and grace from the husband, humility and grace to the wife, right? Let's look at Proverbs 31. Don't cringe, women. Proverbs 31 is, you know, if they had a pageant for the perfect woman, this is Proverbs 31 would be it. Proverbs 31 verse 11. You ready? It says, the heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil. No need of spoil. What is that basically saying? Trust. Trust. Trust is foundational, right? The heart of a husband doth safely trust in her. Trust comes through what? Obedience and submission to God and His Word. It comes through obedience and submission to God in His Word for marriage. For your marriage to be at that place where the husband can safely trust in his wife, obedience and submission to God for his plan to marriage. This trust brings peace and freedom that is needed, right, for you to grow together THE BIBLE TALKS ABOUT THAT. YOU GROW TOGETHER AS ONE FLESH WHEN YOU'RE MARRIED, RIGHT? TRUST IS BUILT THROUGH HONESTY, CONSISTENCY, AND INTEGRITY. AND WE TALKED ABOUT INTEGRITY LAST WEEK, RIGHT? LET'S LOOK AT 1 CORINTHIANS CHAPTER 7. 1 CORINTHIANS CHAPTER 7. LOOK AT VERSE 3. The Bible says, let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence, and likewise also the wife unto the husband. Okay, benevolence, affection, right? A marriage is strengthened with benevolence. This is affection, this is intimacy, this is, which is required for a strong, lasting marriage, okay? And the only way you can have affection and intimacy within a marriage is if you're walking with God. Because otherwise, it's not going to work. You're not going to, I can't stand being around her, you know? And when he pulls into the driveway, the wife's going, argh, if you wasn't home. You think there's going to be any affection or intimacy there? No. because both of them are not following God. And that physical affection and emotional closeness to God are designed by God, right? Neglecting intimacy, neglecting affection can lead to temptation and distance within the marriage. So yes, that's very important, okay? Let's look at 1 Peter 3. 1 Peter 3 and verse 7. 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 7 the Bible says likewise ye husbands here guys we're on the line again likewise ye husbands dwell with them according to knowledge giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel and as being heirs together of the grace of life that your prayers be not hindered and we're going to get deep into that verse in the next few weeks okay but right there that's protecting your wife right Protecting your wife, taking care of her, loving her, and dwelling with her. That means when she's in a bad mood and you come in and she throws that frying pan at you, you still got to love her. Be not bitter against her. You still got to dwell with her. If you can dodge the frying pan and get over and put your arms around her, do it. As long as she's not wielding knives, right? Maybe take a few stabs, I don't know. But it's telling them that you dwell with them according to the knowledge and honor of your wife, right? And let's look at Ephesians 5.33. This one goes right along with this verse. Sorry, guys, you have to be on the block today. Ephesians 5.33. Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife, even as himself. And the wife, seething, she reverence her husband. Love your wife even as yourself. So you can't put yourself above her. You know, you can't, well, you know, always thinking about what you're going to do. Like, man, you know what? I've got the night off. I'm going to play 12 hours of video games. And knowing that she hates every second of that. And then what are you going to do, honey? Let's play video games together. You lost your mind, right? You know, like I like to ride motorcycles. Claudia's ridden with me about three times. Last time she said never again. Never again, you know? So, you know, I shouldn't force her to get on there. Unless I want to hear her scream and choke me from behind, right? But a strong godly marriage is built with honor and reverence. Honor and reverence, Christ. Husbands, you must honor your wives as joint heirs of the grace that Christ gave you. Christ gave you that grace, you give your wife that grace. She's having a bad day, you've got to give her grace. You've got to love her anyway. Be not bitter against her. Wives, guess what? You may not like him. You may be ready to throw that frying pan at him, but it says, reverence your husbands. That means respect them. Respect their leadership. Respect where they're at. Respect what they do for you. They bring home that paycheck so you don't have to go to work. You can stay home and raise your kids. So if somebody else doesn't raise your kids and put bad ideas in their head, right? That's why our kids are all messed up. Some daycare worker raised them that we have no idea who they are or what they are. And in today's world, there's a lot of them that want to touch your kids. Do you really want to send them off to daycare? No. So, getting all this in mind, what are the results of a godly marriage? This is easy. Let's go to Genesis in the very beginning, 218. You going there, Cam? 218, the Bible says, and the Lord said, it is not good that a man should be alone. I will make him a help meet for him. Husbands and wives, what is he talking about? Husbands and wives working together in their God given roles, their God assigned roles. That's how you have a great marriage. That's how you have a strong, stable marriage. The husband is doing exactly what God told him to do. The wife is doing exactly what God told her to do. They don't cross paths. That's why we have the world that is so messed up now. We have men trying to be women and women trying to be men. They are crossing roles and it's causing destruction. And Satan is doing his best to destroy marriage. Right? Genesis 2.24, look at this one. Of course I closed it. I should have stayed in that chapter. 224 says, Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh. We talked about that earlier, one flesh. A marriage is where both husband and wife obey God and they find such a strong bond that they become one. Guess what? One is unable to be separated no matter what trouble, no matter what tribulation comes along. If you are one in the flesh with God you cannot be separated. Nothing can happen in that marriage that will separate you. Nothing except death. But you're still married, even at death, right? Proverbs 12, 4, look at this one. Proverbs 12, 4. In the next few weeks, we're going to go into much deeper on all this. Proverbs 12, verse 4, the Bible says, A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband. But she that maketh ashamed is as rottenness in his bones. Okay, so the wife will become a crown to her husband. That's the result of a godly marriage. She will become a crown to her husband, not an enemy. That's a godly marriage, right? Proverbs 19.14, 19.14, the Bible says, House and riches are in the inheritance of fathers, and a prudent wife is from the Lord. Right? A godly wife is a gift to the husband from the Lord. Okay? So husbands and wives, consider these couple questions. Which of these traits can you work on in your marriage this week? Okay? Also, are there any weakening behaviors or attitudes that the Lord may be convicting you about now that we've been talking about this? Think about these things, right? So, one more thing. How to guarantee a successful marriage? This is how you get the written guarantee. It's 100%. It's a lifetime guarantee. Better than O'Reilly's, right? Number one, pray together. Pray together. What is the saying, pray together, stay together? So true. Read God's word together. You need to do it alone for your own personal stuff, but you have to read together. You need to be intentional in your kindness and your communication. What does that mean? That means even when you don't want to, you're still kind, you're loving, you're affectionate, whatever, and you speak to your spouse properly. even when you don't feel it, okay? And you actively strive to fulfill the biblical roles that have been assigned to you by God. Actively means you are striving for it. It's not natural, right? So husbands, love your wives, be not bitter against them. Is that natural? No. When she is on your last nerve, you do not want to be anything but bitter, right? Wives, when he's on your last nerve, you really don't want to submit to him, do you? But we need to be intentional to those. So those are your four keys. Pray together, read God's Word together, be intentional in kindness and communication, actively strive to fulfill your biblically assigned roles, guys. If you can do that, you will have an amazing marriage. And out of that amazing marriage, you'll have amazing kids that will go out and evangelize this world for Christ. And what's the goal? Less people go to hell, more people go to heaven. Pretty simple. That's what our goal is. Spread the gospel. You can't do it if your home is in turmoil. OK, let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, I come to you today. I hope these words are true and, Lord, understandable, and, Lord, I hope we got something out of it, Lord. And I ask you just to be with us, Lord, the rest of this day, Lord, as we hear more preaching and more God's Word to fill our hearts and our minds to prepare us to go out into battle in this world, Lord. And I just thank you for allowing us to be here. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Also, don't forget, there's things on the back table if you want them about marriage and family.