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Sunday Sermon | The Gospel of Mark: And Two Became One · Sermons | FBC Boerne

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: All right, good morning, church family.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_01: If you are a guest with us, uh let me welcome you and introduce myself.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: My name is Jason Smith.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: I have the awesome privilege of being the pastor here of First Baptist Bernie, and we are excited that you are here uh visiting us today.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: Church family, turn with me in your Bibles to Mark chapter 10.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: Mark chapter 10, as we continue our walk through our sermon series in the Gospel of Mark.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, today is going to be a delicate subject because Jesus addresses the issue of divorce and marriage.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so we're gonna tackle it head on exactly with uh Christ's words.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: Let me remind you how this passage fits in with the gospel of Mark.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: Recall, there's a center point at the gospel where uh Peter and basically the disciples, they deny the need for the cross.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: What do we need a crucified Savior for?
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: And in the first half of the gospel, Mark has been exposing just kind of cultural, religious problems that are going on.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: He's but but the disciples, they're the good ones.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: And then they declare, hey, we don't need a crucified Messiah.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: And what we're gonna see on the back side of that declaration, we saw it last week with uh continual exposing of pride within the disciples.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: And here this morning, we're gonna see within uh the most important and also most difficult relationship in your life, the marriage union, we're gonna see the way that that gets addressed.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: All right, so hold your spots in Mark chapter 10, beginning in verse one.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: Now you also need to know marriage counseling has come a long way, okay?
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: A long way since medieval times.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: Did you know in medieval Germany, certain disputes between husbands and wives could be settled by a duel.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: This is a real thing, okay?
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: An actual fight, potentially to the death.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: Now, the husband, to make things fair, the husband stood in a pit with one hand tied behind his back, and he was given a club.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: Limited mobility, right?
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: And the wife had full range of motion above and a sack full of rocks with which to whack him with.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_01: Now, who came up with this idea?
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: I will tell you sometimes as a marriage counselor, I wish I had this tool in my back pocket.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: If you two cannot sort this out, I will declare a duel.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: All right, all joking aside, marriage can be difficult.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: Listen, even the godliest marriages, okay, experience serious disagreements.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: But what happens when the problems seem impossible to resolve?
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's where we are in Mark chapter 10, because the Pharisees asked Jesus, when is divorce permissible?
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: But rather than starting with where marriage ends, Jesus is gonna go all the way back to its origin and why God created it in the first place.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: Listen, as I read Mark chapter 10, beginning in verse 1.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: Hold your spot.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna read a portion, but we're gonna continue through this passage.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: Getting up, he went from there to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan, and crowds gathered around him again, and according to his custom, he once more began to teach them.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: Now some Pharisees came up to Jesus, testing him, and began to question him whether it was lawful for a man to divorce a wife.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: And he answered and said to them, What did Moses command you?
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: And they said, Well, Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: But Jesus said to them, Because of your hardness of heart, he wrote you this commandment.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: Will you pray with me?
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: Heavenly Father, as we come to your word, Father, I pray this morning that your Spirit would not only teach us, but that you would convict us.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: King Jesus, we say to you, we trust you.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: You loved us enough to die for us at our worst.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: And you love us with a love that will not let go.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: You forgive us of our sin and our depravity, and you call us forward to more.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: And so, because we trust you, King Jesus, your church says to you, teach us.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: Lay our hearts bare before you because we want what you want.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: And we trust that you want life for us.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: And if you convict us and if you call us forward, you are doing it for our good.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: Because you love us.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: And we want to follow you.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' name we pray.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: As Jesus draws closer to Jerusalem, the Pharisees are plotting his destruction.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: Remember also John the Baptist.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: He died after confronting Herod's unlawful marriage.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: So there Jesus is, he's again teaching a crowd, and the Pharisees want to test him with a very hot cultural debate.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: This is a loaded question.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: Matthew here adds some clarity.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: Can a man divorce his wife for any old reason?
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus asked, What did Moses command you?
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: They said, Well, Moses allowed it.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: He allowed a certificate of divorce.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: Now they're referring to Deuteronomy chapter 21, verses 24, sorry, verses 1 through 4.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: Now that section is actually a command about remarriage.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: It is not a list of all the permissible reasons for divorce.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: But in it, it says that if a man finds some indecency with his wife, that he may divorce her.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: Now, what does that mean?
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: Some indecency.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: Now, some teachers required that that meant serious sexual misconduct, while others interpreted it much more broadly, even for petty reasons.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: There's a famous example that's written in some uh Mishnah notes.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: An example of when a wife burned dinner, that her husband had serious grounds for divorce.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: Now I know half of the husbands just elbowed their wife.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: And we laugh about the absurdity, but stop and think about what has happened to their view of marriage.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: Instead of asking, how can I love and remain faithful to her?
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: They're asking, What is the least justification I need in order to leave?
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: So Jesus confronts the heart of the question.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: Verse five, Jesus said to them, Because of your hardness of heart, he wrote to you this commandment.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: You see, God never intended for marriage to end this way.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: Divorce was a concession of a fallen world.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: Because of your hardness of heart, sin tears apart what God made to be beautiful.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: Now let me be clear.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus is not suggesting that every divorced person is equally guilty.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes one spouse suffers terribly because of the sins of the other.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: But the point is that what God permits because of human sinfulness is not what God intended in creation.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: See, the Pharisees, they want to stand along the edge of the cliff and say, Jesus, where's the line?
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: When can I get divorced?
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: But Jesus says, listen, you can't see the beauty of marriage if you're looking for the terms to get out.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: So he takes them back to creation.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: Verses six through eight.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother, and the two shall become one flesh.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: So they're no longer two, but one flesh.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus takes them before sin entered the world, before divorce was a concession.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_01: You see, remember, Jesus has come to restore that which is broken.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: And he calls his people to life, back to what God calls good.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: And so in Genesis chapters one and two, we discover that marriage originated in the heart of God.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: That it was his idea that God created humanity, male and female, and he designed marriage as a beautiful union.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: That a man and a woman leave their original family and they come and they form a new unit, joined together.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: And listen, they are no longer two but one flesh.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: Think about that.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: Two people with different personalities, different backgrounds, different strengths and weaknesses, and God joins them together into something entirely new.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: One flesh.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: Not simply two people sharing a house and splitting the bills.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: A new union, a shared life.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: Physically, relationally, spiritually.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: Their lives are joined together.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: See, church, that's why marriage is so much more than a contract.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: Because contracts can be dissolved whenever the terms are no longer favorable.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: But marriage is a covenant, a sacred union intended for lifelong faithfulness.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: And then Jesus makes the most pressing statement of all.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, I know couples make vows and they exchange rings and they stand before friends and family.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: But Jesus says, you know, something greater is actually happening there.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: God Himself is joining them together.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: And that's why Jesus takes marriage so seriously.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: Because what God has joined together is not something that we have unlimited authority to tear apart.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: See, the Pharisees want to know, what authority does the husband have?
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: When can he dissolve this?
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_01: And Jesus wants them to know do you know what God has already done?
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_01: Now, church, there's something even more beautiful that I want us to see.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: Do you remember when the apostle Paul writes in Ephesians chapter 5?
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: He actually refers to this same verse in Genesis 2.24.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: He looks back at this same passage, that the two shall become one flesh.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: And then incredibly, Paul writes, he says, This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: In other words, catch this: God designed marriage in order to point to something greater than itself, namely the love that Jesus Christ has for the church.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: Listen, a love that loves first and pursues.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_01: A love that remains faithful even when the church is not.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_01: A love that doesn't simply ask, what am I getting out of this relationship?
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: But a love that is sacrificial.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: That's why Paul says, husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: Don't for a second think I'm not talking about real life.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about real life, right?
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: When your spouse wakes up sick and has nasty breath and is and is tired and always grumpy and even burns the dinner.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: Talking about real life here.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: As Jesus loves the church.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: Guys, do you see how beautiful God's intention for marriage is?
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: That marriage is not ultimately about finding someone that makes you happy.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's actually about entering into a covenant in which you learn to love each other with faithful, sacrificial love of Christ.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: And that changes everything about how we approach marriage.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: Because when we begin to see marriage this way, that God is the one that designed it.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: That God Himself joins us together, you begin to understand why Jesus takes breaking it so seriously.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: Because divorce is not merely a termination of a contract, it's tearing apart what God intends to display his sacrificial love.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: And so when the disciples get Jesus alone, they need more clarification.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: We get that often with the disciples.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: They're like, Jesus, what are you talking about?
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: This is too harsh.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: You can't be that harsh.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: Listen to what happens next.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: Verse 10.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: In the house, the disciples began questioning him about this again.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: And he said to them, Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_01: And if she herself divorces her husband and marries another man, she is committing adultery.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus' words are unmistakably serious.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: You see, a husband cannot simply erase the covenant of marriage.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: Not even a legal certificate of divorce can automatically undo what God has joined together.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: That's why Jesus says, listen, the divorce can happen according to the state.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_01: That doesn't make it morally right before God Himself.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_01: Because a marriage may be legally dissolved without the divorce being morally justified before God.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: Now, church, I know that these are difficult words.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: Some of you have been betrayed and abandoned.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: Some of you have endured terrible things.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: Others of you have deep regrets over your own choices.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: So I want us to hear Jesus carefully.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus is not saying that every divorce is equally sinful or that every divorced person is equally responsible.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, if we look at the rest of the New Testament, we find that there are circumstances in which divorce is permitted.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: Matthew 19, Jesus specifically says, under the case of sexual immorality as an exception.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_01: And in 1 Corinthians chapter 7, we're told that if an unbelieving spouse abandons the marriage, that the believer is free.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_01: And yes, theologians and pastors wrestle with the application of these exemptions.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: But let me be very clear.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_01: The Bible does not require someone to remain in danger or submit to abuse in order to be faithful to the marriage covenant.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: If you are being abused, seek help, get safe.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_01: It is not a violation of faithfulness to the marriage covenant.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: That said, church, okay, we must not allow the exceptions to obscure the overwhelming clarity of what Jesus teaches.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, there are exceptions.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_01: I give those caveats, but we cannot say that the word is not all so clear.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_01: Marriage is not a disposable relationship, it is a sacred union, all right, formed by God.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: And we don't get to treat what God has joined together as something that we can simply walk away from whenever marriage becomes difficult.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: That's what Jesus wants his disciples to understand, and he wants us to understand.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I know what you're thinking.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: Pastor, that sounds great, no.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_01: But you don't know.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: You don't know where my marriage is right now.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_01: We can't communicate.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_01: The romance is gone.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: He's always stressed and irritable.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: I'm never enough for her.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_01: I can't win.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_01: And guys, I understand marriage can be very difficult, but we cannot allow the difficulties of the relationship to make us lose sight of the beauty that God created and has given you.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_01: And so if marriage is precious, then is it not worth something investing?
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: In.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_01: So let me encourage us with three things this morning.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_01: Number one, prioritize your marriage.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: Guys, we have to fight the natural drift of life.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_01: Listen, we're all busy.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: Pulled a hundred different directions, right?
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_01: From building careers to chasing children to fixing up the house to serving at the church.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_01: And you may be sitting here this morning thinking, listen, we're fine.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: We don't fight.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: We've gotten into our routine and we're not on the verge of divorce.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: But somewhere along the way you stopped pursuing one another.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_01: And now you're little more than friendly roommates who give each other the leftovers at the very end of the day.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_01: There's a fascinating study by a marriage researcher named John Gotham.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: He studied newlywed couples.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_01: And what he studied, he focused on what he called bids of connection.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_01: Those are those little moments throughout the day when your spouse is just trying to seek out your attention.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_01: And it may look like she says, hey, come here, look at this.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_01: Or can I tell you something that happened to me today?
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_01: Or just that moment where they reach for your hand.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_01: And the question is, is in those moments when your spouse does just those little things, the question is, is do you turn towards them or do you turn away from them?
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_01: That's what he studied.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_01: And his research found that those newlyweds that were married six years later, at those instances, though they responded favorably 86% of the time.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_01: But six years later, the couples that were divorced, only 33% of the time.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_01: Now think about that.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_01: Because it wasn't just big romantic gestures.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_01: It was the thousands of little moments when one spouse reached towards the other.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_01: And the other responded.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_01: You see, church, great marriages aren't built merely through grand gestures.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: They're built through thousands of small acts of love.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_01: So put the phone down.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_01: Listen to one another.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: Make time for one another.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_01: Cultivate a friendship.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_01: And don't wait until your marriage is in trouble to make it a priority.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: Number two, fight for your marriage.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_01: Marriages have seasons.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_01: And there are seasons where things work easily, right?
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_01: You just you just fit like a glove and it's full of joy, and praise God for those.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_01: And then other seasons are difficult.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_01: They are exhausting.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_01: There's trials.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_01: You have your own personal trials where God is stretching you and you're irritable and she's irritable and back and forth.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: And that may be you this morning.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_01: Listen, don't assume that this has to be the final chapter.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_01: This is the final, right?
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_01: Fight for your marriage and seek help.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_01: We have a marriage ministry at the church because we want strong marriages.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_01: We just had a weekend retreat for married couples, and those come around periodically, and they're all through the San Antonio area.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_01: And we have marriage mentor couples, okay, uh, that will walk alongside you, and and you guys can have real conversations about what you're going through.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_01: And we do marriage counseling as a church.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_01: We want resources.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm begging you, seek help, okay?
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_01: And don't wait years to address, right, what needs to be dealt with today?
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_01: Invite wise, godly counsel into your life and be willing to listen and be humble enough to change.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_01: And then think about this.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_01: What if God wants to use the very difficulties that your marriage has right now to make you more like Jesus?
• 27:02
  unknown: Right?
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_01: What if your spouse isn't simply someone that God has given you for love, but someone that he's using in order to teach you how to love and how to look like him.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_01: Number three, bring the gospel into your marriage.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, guys, we are gospel-centered people.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_01: And when the Pharisees came to Jesus and they're like, give me the line, give me the least that I can do in order, right?
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_01: And Jesus is like, no, no, no, no, no.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_01: Let's let's go back.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_01: And what does Jesus do?
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_01: He exposes the difficulty in every marriage, and that is hard-heartedness.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_01: Because every marriage is to sinners in need of grace.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_01: Now listen to Ephesians 4, 31 through 32.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_01: Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_01: You want to know the good news?
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_01: If the gospel teaches us anything about marriage, it teaches us that we don't have to pretend that we're perfect.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: And we shouldn't expect perfection from our spouse.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_01: Therefore, we can confess sins and shortcomings to one another, and we can forgive each other.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_01: So some of you need to stop justifying your harshness because your words are tearing down the very person that God is calling you to love.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_01: And some of you need to stop placing all the burdens of life on your spouse.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_01: Because they're tired and they're drowning, and you are called to serve them.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_01: And some of you need to go home today and say three words that you've been unwilling to say, and that is, I was wrong.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_01: Not I'm sorry that you got upset, or I'm sorry, but you simply I was wrong.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_01: Will you forgive me?
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_01: And some of you need to stop keeping score.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_01: And you need to look your spouse in the eye and you need to say, I forgive you.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna keep holding that over your head anymore.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_01: Because Jesus Christ has forgiven me.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna forgive you.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_01: And as we close, here's what we remember.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_01: None of us can do this properly.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_01: None of us.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_01: Every one of us deal with the hardness of heart.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_01: Guys, that's why Jesus is moving towards the cross.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_01: Because of the hardness of our heart.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_01: So you don't need a better, I mean, you need a better marriage.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_01: You need to work on your marriage, but more than that, you're not gonna get there through, all right, I guess I'm just gonna try harder.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: You need a savior.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_01: You need a savior, and you need to understand, okay?
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_01: That when Jesus came to save us, remember back to Ephesians 5?
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_01: How Paul says marriage is a picture of Jesus pursuing his bride.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_01: And what kind of bride did he pursue?
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, look at the disciples, they're a mess, aren't they?
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_01: And look at us.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_01: He meets us in our sin, in our shortcomings.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_01: While we were his enemies, the scripture says.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_01: And he died for us.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_01: Not because we were perfect, rather, his love is what changes us.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_01: His love is what allows us to look at marriage differently and say, all right, Jesus, I need your help.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_01: But I want to walk different, I want to look different.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_01: I want to pursue my spouse with your love, a sacrificial love.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_01: So here, whether you're here this morning and you're married, single, divorced, or widowed, the reality is the greatest love in the history of the world was displayed in the Son of God who came and pursued you and loves you, and he died for you while you were his enemy.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_01: You'll never get any greater than that.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_01: And those of us that are married, we're called to picture that in our homes.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_01: And we need God's help.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_01: Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_01: King Jesus, we do submit to you.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_01: Your word is true, and you call us to view marriage completely different from the way the world teaches us.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_01: And Father, I know all across this room that you are dealing with hearts, hearts that are full of scars, some of it from our own hard-heartedness, some of it because we've been sinned against.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.