We're continuing in a series of messages entitled Passion, Purity, and Marital Fidelity. Today we're going to look at the wedding between King Solomon and this Shulamite farm girl from the tribe of Dan who he marries. So the message is entitled, A Wedding Designed by God. Today, marriage is under attack. and has been since the very beginning. To have two sinners live together in holy matrimony and peace is a daunting task. And I can testify today that not only is a happy marriage possible, but a happy marriage is promised by God if you will follow Him. So the choice is up to you this morning. Will you have a marriage designed by God? or will you have a marriage designed by you? When I consider designing something so precious, let's take it out of the realm of marriage and let's try to design a human being. Can you design a human being? Is it possible? I think the difference between us trying to design a marriage and us following God's design for marriage is kind of the difference between seeing a little baby born or seeing Dr. Frankenstein try to put a person together. They both seem to have life, but one is preferred over the other. Wouldn't you agree? Listen, God has designed marriage. And today we're going to look at a marriage ceremony with all the elements that symbolize a strong foundation for marriage. And if you build your marriage on this foundation, it will last for a lifetime. And if you don't, it will be destroyed. I remember my wedding vows. Do you mind if I repeat them to you today? I said to my wife on, better get this right, May 24th, 1997, I said, I, Matthew, take you, Jill, to be my lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love, honor, protect, and cherish, abandoning all others and dedicating myself wholly to you till death do we part. I guard those marriage vows every day of my life. I endeavor to fulfill those marriage vows. And when that day came, I not only vowed to Jill to do these things, I made a covenant with God Almighty to do this. And so any kind of cavalier attitude towards these vows is not ultimately an offense towards my wife, it is an offense towards God. And more than even this temporary time that we have on this earth, this vapor that we have with our wife or husband, if you're married here this morning, marriage exemplifies and typifies Jesus' love for his bride. Will Jesus ever leave us, saints of God? Will He ever forsake us? And that is why divorce should never be in your vocabulary. Because Jesus never says that He will divorce His bride. He says, I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. And we're going to find that if we follow the steps of God in marriage, even in the marriage ceremony that we're going to look at, that we are going to have a marriage of love that lasts for a lifetime. I often say that when I'm 80 or 90 or 105 years old, I want to be dancing with my wife. I want to grow old with her. I want to grow old together, and I hope that that is your desire. Well, let's come to the Word of God this morning, and out of reverence for His Word, we don't always do this, but let's stand together as we read this precious passage of Scripture. We're going to read in the Song of Solomon, chapter 3, verses 5 through 11. We're reading from the English Standard Version of the Scriptures. I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or does of the field, that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases. And now here is the wedding ceremony. What is that coming up from the wilderness like columns of smoke perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all the fragrant powders of a merchant? Behold, it is the litter, or the royal chair, of Solomon. Around it are sixty mighty men, some of the mighty men of Israel, all of them wearing swords and expert in war, each with his sword at his thigh against terror by night. King Solomon made himself a carriage from the wood of Lebanon. He made its posts of silver, its back of gold, its seat of purple, its interior was inlaid with love by the daughters of Jerusalem. Go out, O daughters of Zion, and look upon King Solomon with the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding, on the day of the gladness of his heart. Let us pray. Holy Father, you who have designed marriage, you who design for men and women to come together as one flesh, to leave father and mother and to cleave to one another, you who are the designer of love and life, we come before you with our whole hearts, begging you for the sanctity of marriage to be preserved in our congregation, that every married man and married woman here today would recommit their vows to one another. Lord God, we come before you as weak, miserable human beings, but with great expectations, because we believe that the grace of God is enough for us to have a loving marriage, to have a long marriage. Till death do we part, oh Father. And we ask you as we look at this marriage and consider our marriage vows as a congregation, I pray for the single people here today that each one would preserve themselves in godly purity and in holiness, because at any moment you may call upon them to be married. You may bring someone into their life, and so I ask that they would preserve that most precious gift that you have given to them, their purity, their body, and their soul. Help them to preserve themselves. I pray for these single people as well, that they would pray for their married brothers and sisters. that marriages would be so strong in this congregation. I pray for married people here today. God, that you would have mercy upon us, and especially for the married men here, that you would give us the character to stand up and to love our bride, to protect our bride, and if need be, which will come from time to time, to actually lay ourselves down to be a sacrifice for her. Lord, help us to protect our marriages and to esteem our bride. We ask God for this church that we would be known as a church with strong, godly families. And Lord, though we are so far from that goal, Lord, please give us the grace to grow towards that each day and encourage us by your word. By this very passage of scripture, we ask in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. So the wedding ceremony is upon us in the Song of Solomon, and it is a ceremony with covenant vows between a man and a woman, but not only between them, but between that man and woman and their God. They come together that day to be one flesh. Emotionally, socially, physically, and spiritually. This is not just a physical endeavor where we're procreating. It's not just a social endeavor where we're making friends. It's not just an emotional endeavor where this person is our soulmate and fulfills our needs. But it is a spiritual endeavor where two people are one before Christ and their purposes come together they share the same name. You ladies who want to hyphenate your name, I'm sorry, but you need to take your husband's name and lose your identity in him. And you should want on your gravestone that man's last name so that when you're gone from this earth, people would know that you were a married woman. Marriage is a covenant between a man and a woman and before God. And I've listed several things that are involved in that marriage covenant together. And I want us to consider these things as we look at Song of Solomon chapter three, beginning with verse five. First of all, the marriage ceremony symbolizes the couple's fidelity to one another. Notice this farm girl's desire after she has a dream about being married while she's engaged, She has the temptation to allow her love to be stirred, and she says very wisely and carefully in verse number five, I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the does of the field that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases. Do you know what that's all about? You know what fidelity and purity, you know how it's attainable? through receiving the grace of God in order to control yourself. Can I tell each one of you here that you can control overwhelming physical desires? You can, by the grace of God. And as I mentioned in weeks past, these physical desires reserved for marriage, are like a fire in a fireplace. And when that fire is under control, it's a blessed thing that brings warmth and light to the house. But if you take that fire out of the fireplace, you put it in your living room, you may have warmth and light for a little while, but then you're going to have, along with that, destruction. And I want to encourage everyone here that you are going to need to have a life of self-control if you're going to serve Jesus Christ. Whether you're single or married, you're going to have to control your physical desires. Men, even when you're married, you have to still have self-control, because your wife is not perfect, and neither are you. And you're going to have to show her deference with these physical desires. And yet, a godly marriage is known for faithfulness one to another. When I got married, I said that I would abandon all others for my wife. Do you know what, I don't have any lady friends. I don't have one lady friend. I may counsel women, but I always have a woman with me when I counsel. But I don't have anyone that I share my heart with that is a female outside of my wife. I may have had lots of friends that were ladies before I was married, casual acquaintances, and some friends possibly, when I got married, whatever female friendships I had were abandoned. for one lady. I love my wife. I want to grow my friendship with her. You know, one of the goals in my marriage at this point in my life is a very simple goal. You're going to find it maybe a little bit silly. One of my goals for my marriage is to laugh with my wife regularly. Men, you want to have a happy marriage? Laugh with your wife. You know you've got a happy marriage when you can laugh with her. And you'll have that trust when you know that you're faithful one to another. And so, single people, before you come together in marriage, you must control yourself. You must preserve yourself. You must not awaken or stir up love until love pleases, as it says in verse five. In other words, until that marriage covenant is made between you and that person that God has put into your life, before God and witnesses and a vow is made, till death do you part, you may not stir those desires up. Now every time you have a physical temptation in that area, you have a choice to make. You can lean on it, you can encourage it. After that first glance, you can either turn it off or have a second look. and start thinking in that direction. And every single one of us has that choice to make. What I'm saying is, love is not to be awakened until after the marriage vows. It is for that marriage day that the couple has preserved themselves. And what you need to do as a single person is preserve yourself for marriage, if God would have you to be married. and if not, to be single for the sake of the kingdom of God until you die. And married people, you need to preserve your thoughts and your body for the one that God has given to you, and her alone, or ladies, and him alone. That's it. Not even in your imagination are you allowed to stray. You are to be faithful in heart and in action. Because if you're not faithful in your heart, it will not be very long until you stray with your actions. God forbid if that ever happens, it will not only destroy you, it will be like a grenade that goes off in a platoon. It will destroy those around you that you care about. and it will also bring malrepute on the body of Christ. You see, God said in the very beginning of the Bible, in Genesis chapter two, about this fidelity that we're to have in marriage, that a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife and they shall become one flesh. That's the wedding day. Hebrews says that a marriage is to be held in honor among all. This is Hebrews 13.4. Let the marriage bed be undefiled for God will judge the sexually immoral and the adulterous. The King James says the whoremonger sexually immoral. And so we are to keep ourselves pure. The Bible says in Proverbs 5.15, drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well. To not keep yourself pure is to spiritually drink water from a broken polluted cistern, and it may bring you pleasure for a moment, but it will destroy your life. You say, well, I'm going to marry this girl. Why can't I drink from her cistern? Because she's not yours until you vow before God. and God says she's yours, and when God joins together, let not man separate. If you fornicate before you're married, you are building your marriage on a cracked foundation, because you have violated your spouse-to-be's trust. And I'm specifically talking to men. Listen, if you're single here and you're looking towards marriage and that person starts turning up the heat, you've got to be like Joseph and flee. You've got to take the advice of Paul to Timothy and flee youthful lusts and run as far away from that because what you're doing is you are preserving a faithful foundation for marriage. You want to build on something strong, not on something weak. And so fidelity is that first aspect of our vows before God. We abandon all others for that one special person that God has led us to. But look at verse six. The wedding ceremony also has not only an aspect of fidelity to it, but also of devotion to God. You've got to build. on your devotion to God. Look at verse 6. Now the wedding day has come and we see Solomon in a procession from, it says, the wilderness here. It's referring to the pasture lands in the valleys just on the outskirts of Jerusalem. And so it says, what is that coming up from the wilderness? Don't think of desert, think of green pasture lands where all the sheep are and the shepherds. Well, what is this coming up from the wilderness like columns of smoke? And of course, this is symbolic of the Holy Spirit's leading of the children of Israel in the wilderness through a pillar of cloud by day and a column of fire by night. It says, what is that coming up from the wilderness like columns of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense and all the fragrant powders of a merchant or of a trader from all the exotic lands? Several things that we see here. First, we see that Solomon is a shepherd king. He's coming up from the wilderness. Now, normally, a king is not a shepherd. A shepherd is very much on the low rung of society. But Solomon is a humble king. He's a shepherd king and he seeks his bride among the shepherdesses. He comes up from the wilderness because Jerusalem is on a hill. And so he's coming up from the pasture lands and you see him, we're going to see in verse seven, he's being brought on a carriage, on a royal kingly seat by servants. And it's as if it's the pillar of God in the wilderness. In other words, this marriage is led by the Spirit of God. He's received the leading of that pillar of cloud by day. And Solomon comes with the leading and the blessing of God to this marriage day. He's devoted to God. And this woman that he's going to marry is also devoted to God. This is a marriage where both are devoted to God. And that is what we all ought to strive for. When you look to that wedding day, you want to make sure that the person that you are binding your life to loves Jesus Christ. Because let me tell you, you don't have it in you to love her, and she doesn't have it in her to love you as you ought to love each other apart from the grace of God. So you had better make sure that you are both led by the Spirit of God like the children of Israel in the wilderness, like a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. Who's leading you into this marriage? Is it God, or is it just because she's pretty, or because he's handsome, or all of these superficial things? Well, all those superficial things, over time, will all vanish away, won't they? But if one is led by the Lord, that will never vanish away. And that's what you lean on in marriage. So we see Solomon as the shepherd king. Who also is our shepherd king saints? Who is the shepherd king of the church? The Lord is my shepherd and he is the king of kings and the Lord of lords and he as a king humbles himself and goes to the outskirts of Jerusalem down into the valleys and humbles himself and becomes a man and seeks a bride for himself. Oh, the humility of Christ. We see it here in this chapter that Jesus Christ would become sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. He comes for a bride, but that bride, when He finds her, is violated by the world, is unfit to be a bride, is in the poverty of sin and wickedness, And Jesus Christ lays down his life and cleanses that bride through her very heart and her very conscience so that she has confidence before the holy God of heaven. So that she knows that there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Yes, this is the shepherd king. And this is what we need to remember as we enter into marriage on that wedding day, that our life as married people should reflect the love that Jesus Christ has for his bride and the submission that the bride has for Jesus Christ. So you need to found your relationship on devotion to God. In a recent survey, they concluded that 80% of relationships in which couples were living together without marital vows, in other words, they were shacking up together, 80% of those relationships end in separation. 60% of those married by a judge, a justice of the peace, are divorced, 60% get divorced. 40% of those who are married in a church eventually divorce. But those who are believers in Christ and read their Bibles regularly divorce at a rate of one out of 1,050, one out of 1,000 couples that have their marriage founded on devotion to the Lord. and in divorce. It's virtually unheard of. So we see a marriage needs to be founded on fidelity and purity. And it needs to be founded on devotion to God. A marriage needs to be founded on the sacredness of marriage. In other words, this is something that happens once in a lifetime, not twice, not three or four times. It happens once and so there is a great extravagance that we see in this marriage ceremony. Look at verse six. Solomon comes up from the wilderness like columns of smoke, and it says, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense with all the fragrant powders of a merchant." The goods of these traders, merchants from far away lands, Solomon spends money to get the very best of the best for his wedding day. and they brought the very best perfumes from across the world. Solomon spares no expense for his wedding. And you see that the scripture shows that this marriage day is so sacred and so special. It is a one time event never to be repeated. And it shows the permanence of marriage. If marriage is permanent, then this day ought to be extravagant, because it points to that time when the trumpet sounds and we are together with Christ at the marriage supper of the Lamb, and nothing will be spared on that day. We will be heirs of God and co-heirs with Jesus Christ. The Lord has said in Romans 8.32, he who spared not his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things there's no expense spared upon you in Christ God gave all to you and on this day We are to be ready to give all. Now, our all is much less than God's all, right? So it doesn't mean you should go into debt for your wedding. Your all might be two mites of a widow. That may be all that you have, but you should be as extravagant as you possibly can. Not irresponsible, hear me, but extravagant because your bride is worth it, man. Wedding ceremony also symbolizes the man's protection of his bride. Look at verse seven. Behold, it is the litter. That is a technical term for the kingly couch on which the servants carry the royal leader of the country. That kingly couch of Solomon, around it are 60 mighty men, some of the mighty men of Israel. And so here we find an elite military group for the groomsmen of Solomon. These are the Green Berets or the Navy Seals or forgive me other branches of the service that I don't know all your elite groups, but these are the special operations unit for Solomon. And it says that all of them are wearing swords and expert in war, each with his sword at his thigh, against terror by night." In other words, Solomon is fully ready and engaged to protect his Shulamite bride. This farm girl, who he is going to make a queen, she will have all the protection of the greatest queen on earth. I want you to turn over to Ephesians chapter 5, and I want you to see what we are covenanting to do on our wedding day. What are we doing when we say that we will promise to protect our wife, to nurture her and to protect her? Well, this comes right from Ephesians chapter five. Let's begin with verse 25. Husbands, Love your wives. As Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it just as Christ does the church. The word cherish means to warm with body heat. It has the idea of not leaving the body vulnerable. A man is to protect his wife. What does he mean by nourishing and cherishing the body? Well, when your body is vulnerable, you cherish it. When it's vulnerable to the cold, you put on clothing. When it's vulnerable to illness, you cherish it with medicine. When you hit your thumb with a hammer, you carefully protect and shelter it from any further harm. You make sure no one and nothing can cause more injury. Men, we are to protect our wives. How do we protect them? Protecting our wives begins when we wake up in the morning. Even our attitude towards our wife needs to be one of love and security, men, because when you leave the house angry, you are not protecting your wife. You are leaving her vulnerable. We talked about self-control earlier. This means that you are always to control yourself so that your home is always an environment of love and safety and security. She should never doubt that you are fully committed to her. Does that mean you never disagree on anything? You may disagree on a whole lot, but you disagree in a Christian, in a godly, in a self-controlled way. You don't leave your marriage vulnerable. You also can protect your wife by caring for her needs. And I'm not just talking about bringing home the bacon. You need to bring home the bacon. But you also need to care for what she cares for and listen to your wife. The Bible says in 1 Peter 3, 7, that men are to dwell with their wives in what kind of a way? In an understanding way, according to knowledge. That means a way that you protect your wife's heart is that you allow her to confide in you some of the deepest struggles or joys or whatever in her heart. Do you have that kind of security in your home, men? If not, you're putting a little crack into your marriage vows. And you be careful, you ask God for grace, that you might be a man who can open up to his wife and not get defensive when she shares her heart with you. Because it's easy sometimes when she might share something, we might take it personally, right? and get upset. We've got to always have open arms for our wife. That's all about protection. It also means protecting your home by protecting yourself from temptation. Are you protecting yourself in the internet world? In the television world, even the billboard ads that go down the street, are you protecting your heart even when she's not with you? Do you really have the fear of God in your heart and life? In other words, are you practicing the presence of God? as you go about your day and you might see something that is tempting and is your response, I hate that and I'm never going to sin against God by His grace. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going there. Do you practice the presence of God? All of this is protecting your marriage. It's giving a place of security for your wife because she needs to know that you are utterly and completely devoted to her. You need to protect her. Another thing that we see here in the vows of the wedding and in this wedding ceremony is the man's provision for his bride that is alluded to in verses 9 and 10 of Song of Solomon chapter 3. King Solomon made himself a carriage from the wood of Lebanon. He made its posts of silver, its back of gold, its seat of purple, its interior was inlaid with love by the daughters of Jerusalem. And so we see that this carriage is inlaid with love by the women of the court. But it wasn't just made by the women of the court. Who made this carriage? It was made by King Solomon. Now do kings normally do this kind of work? Are they carpenters? Are they craftsmen? Certainly not. But King Solomon thought it important to show that he himself was responsible for providing for his bride. And let me say, men, we are responsible for providing the bread and butter for our home. Your wife is not responsible. One of the things that amazes me are men in the ministry and their wives work day and night so that they can stay in the ministry. I say resign from the ministry if that's the way it's gonna be. all men who have to make their wives go to work, it utterly violates the scripture. Whose responsibility is it to bring the provision of the home? Is it the man or the woman? It's the man, that's obvious. But in this day and age, it seems like you have to have a two income family in order to live. And that's a lie of the devil. And whenever you give up your wife to work, you are giving up something precious for that family, because she's not going to be able to do what she needs to do if she's out working 40 hours a week, if there's children in the home. I'm not saying there's never a place for a woman to help and be industrious, certainly Proverbs 31 teaches us that. But why is divorce so prevalent in our society? It's because women don't need men anymore. And even the most secular studies reveal this. If you go to a sociology study, one of which I was listening to the other day, One of the conclusions of the sociologists concerning marriage is that women don't need the income of a man anymore. And what I am saying, men, is that you need to provide for your wife in such a way that she never has to work. Perhaps there comes a time when she wants to, if she can balance the responsibilities of home and glorify God and fulfill her biblical responsibilities according to the scriptures, but there ought never be a time when your wife has to work. You say, well, she has to work because we need to have our three-car garage and our two Maseratis and our vacation to Rome every summer. I'm exaggerating. But isn't that how we live sometimes? And what I'm telling you is you need to choose your vacation or your wife. You need to choose one or the other because you're sacrificing one for the other. Your wife should never be put in a place where she feels so stressed financially that she feels she has to go outside of the home and work. The bills should be paid. and it is the man's responsibility to do this. You say, well, that's radical, Pastor Black. That means I have to totally restructure my life. Yeah, don't restructure it according to my opinion. Restructure it according to the word of God that lives and abides forever. Solomon, though he was a king, wanted to make this carriage all by himself with a little bit of help from the daughters of Jerusalem, but he wanted to put the main work into it. And notice that the seat was made of purple. Purple cloth in the day of Solomon was made from a pigment that was so rare. It was from the Murex shellfish, which was even rarer than gold and silver. It was more costly than the most precious of metals. And so Solomon provides for his wife. The wedding ceremony not only symbolizes the provision that a man has for his wife and is willing to pledge himself to, it also symbolizes the permission and the blessing of the parents. Look at verse 11 again in Song of Solomon chapter 3. Go out O daughters of Zion and look upon King Solomon with the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding on the day of the gladness of his heart. Solomon's mother crowned him with the wedding crown that a groom wore in those days, usually a laurel crown of leaves or a thin gold crown around his head. It wasn't his kingly crown, which he would wear when he would rule Israel. It was a symbolic crown of the approval that he was marrying a woman that his mother valued and would love to have as a daughter. And it was also a sign to the general public that this man would be leaving his parents' home and be making a home of his own with a new person, with his bride. And for centuries upon centuries this crown has been given at the wedding. These days it is given to the woman. She has a crown on her head. that veils her face. And often the veil, at least in times past, there would be a crown of flowers upon the veil that would show the approval of the parents. It's important. that we have the green light from godly people around us before we get married. Now, your parents may not be believers, but you need to respect their wishes. And you also need to respect the wishes of godly counselors and authorities in your life. And normally, when there is a wedding that has been designed by God, and the person is coming together for the right reasons for this person to be married, Godly authorities in that person's life give the green light. If godly authorities in your life are saying, don't go there, don't get married to this person, then you need to heed their advice. And I can't say that enough. How many young people have gone down this track of engagement, and their parents have said, don't go there, and their godly counselors have said, stop, and they stopped. and they waited and God blessed them with someone else. And the blessing that came as a result from obeying God was unimaginable. They couldn't have known how wonderfully blessed they would be by waiting to get married when all of the godly authorities in their life were saying, yes, this is the right one. But I also know others who have disobeyed the authorities in their life and got married to a person that they should not, as far as all practical reasons are concerned, should not have gotten married to. And today they are reaping the fruit of their own rebellion and bad decision-making. Now let me speak to you who may feel like you're in a marriage that you shouldn't have gotten into. Listen, once you're married, you are married until you die. And what God has joined together, let not man separate. And so God is in the business of redeeming even marriages begun on wrong principles and wrong foundations. So if you're in a marriage like that, what you need to do is give yourself to be the very best spouse that you can be before God and ask God to redeem your marriage. But for those of you preparing for marriage, you need to listen to the authorities in your life. I'm not going to go into 1 Corinthians 7, but there is a study that you need to do in that chapter of scripture that has a very detailed explanation of the father giving permission for his virgin daughter to be married. You need to receive the permission of the father, men, if you're a single man looking to get married. You need to receive the permission of the father according to 1 Corinthians 7. It is the prerogative of the father to give his virgin daughter to a man. Finally, let me just say that the wedding ceremony symbolizes the great preparation for joy that God gives a couple who diligently give their marriage to Him. The last part of verse 11, it says, how his mother crowned Solomon with that crown on the day of his wedding, on the day of the gladness of heart. Listen, though that wedding day is just a moment in time, maybe the whole ceremony is half an hour, 45 minutes. What it symbolizes is a foundation that will last until your dying breath. And if you follow the scriptures and design your marriage according to God's design and his principles, then you will have a marriage that lasts. Now let me, in closing, speak to all of us here because none of us has a perfect marriage. It doesn't exist. So one response you could be tempted to have this morning is, woe is me, this is so perfect, I don't have anything close to this, so I'm just gonna close my Bible and grieve. I mean, we're all tempted to do that, right? I don't want you to do that. God has met you here today, right where you are, wherever you are in your marriage. And some of you have a strong marriage. Some of you, the marriage is, you see the cracks in it. There may be some here, it's cracked. It's on the verge of failing right now. Wherever you are, I want you to know that God's grace is sufficient for you. I want you to say this with me. God's grace is sufficient for me. Say that. God's grace is sufficient for me. Do you believe that? He's brought you right where you are, and you feel so helpless, like you don't know what to do, because he wants you to lean on him. And you may be here married, you may be here as a single person saying, what is all this marriage stuff about? That has nothing to do with me. I'm a single person, I'm happy to be single, I'm serving God. Great for you. Number one, pray for us married people. Number two, don't think that God won't give you a marriage because he just might. And number three, remember that all of us are Christ's bride together to be married to Jesus Christ. And what you do in your personal life affects the whole body. So whether you're married or whether you're single, stay close to God, keep yourself pure, and grow more and more in love with Jesus Christ every day, because at any moment, the trumpet's gonna sound, and we're gonna be seated at the marriage supper of the Lamb, finally and fully united with our groom, Jesus Christ.