Marriage

Well, it's good to see everyone tonight, as always. You guys always look so good on Wednesday nights, by the way. Tonight, we're talking about marriage.

! No, I'm too young. Yeah, someone said that. Now, last I checked, no one in here was married. Last I checked. Something could have happened since Sunday.

So, why talk about this topic in youth ministry? Why talk about it in Elevate? You're like, I'm in sixth grade, bruh. Not going to get married anytime soon. At least we all hope not.

So, what's in it for you? Why should you, as a middle schooler or high schooler, want to think about marriage from a biblical perspective? What's in it for you?

Well, first of all, it's in the Bible. So, we want to have an accurate understanding of it. We want to view it from God's perspective. But practically and personally, why should you study this topic? Well, many of you, I assume, want to get married someday. How many of you want to get married someday?

Okay. Yeah, most of you. Most of you. Many of you have started dating. I'm not going to ask who yet. So, why should we study this topic? Well, the goal of dating is marriage. The reason you date is to find a spouse.

And so, if you want to be successful in dating, you need to know what you're aiming for. If you want to be successful in that, you need to know what the target is.

And so, if you know what a good marriage looks like, if you view marriage from the Bible's perspective, then you'll choose someone to date that you could have a good marriage with someday.

Now, that doesn't mean that everyone you date, you have to marry. However, anyone you date should be a type of person that you could see yourself marrying.

And so, the goal of dating is marriage. And so, if we know what marriage looks like, if you as a student know what marriage looks like, you can date successfully and in a godly way.

But in a broader perspective, kind of zooming back out, not so much why should you study marriage, but taking a step further back, why do you desire to get married?

Why does anyone have this desire? Why do most of you have this desire? Why is this something that even young kids often think about? My daughter's four and she always pretends like she's getting married.

Not to anyone in particular, or else I'll beat them up. Yeah, four-year-old. But she's thinking about that day.

She's thinking about getting married. Why is marriage the theme of like every single Disney movie ever made? Like any Disney movie, like they end at the altar, it ends happily ever after.

So many Disney movies. The guy gets the girl, high school musical, spoiler alert. Don't test me on my knowledge of Disney, okay? Don't test me. But why is marriage so prevalent?

Where does this desire come from? Why is it so engaging to us to think about? Well, you could write this down as like a thesis statement or a theme statement for tonight.

I would say that marriage is why God created the world. That's a big statement. Hopefully we'll be able to unpack that tonight from the Bible.

Marriage is why God created the world. And so we need to have a right understanding of this topic. And maybe some of you have never seen a good marriage before.

Perhaps the only examples you have are hostile and hateful and ungodly. So tonight, let's take a look from the Bible at what God's plan for marriage is.

And everyone who wants to get married wants to have a good marriage, right? Like if you asked Americans, if you just polled them and said, would you like to have a good marriage?

I think everyone would say yes. Now, if you asked the same group of people, would you be willing to submit to what the Bible says about marriage? I think most of them would say no.

So everyone wants to have a good marriage, but very few people want to consider what the Bible says. Now, they want the results of following the Bible. They want the good marriage, but they don't necessarily want to obey the Bible.

Now, trying to have a good marriage without submitting to the Bible is an ultimately futile task. It's like Ponce de Leon trying to find the fountain of youth.

Ain't going to happen. It's like Beethoven trying to hear his music. Not possible. It's like Helen Keller trying to do a puzzle. It just won't happen. Some of you want to cancel me for that one, but it's true.

It's true. So if you want a happy and joy-filled and godly marriage, you must seek to follow what the Bible says.

And the reason for that is because God has our best interest in mind. God wants us to be faithful to him, and he wants us to be filled with joy. You might say, okay, why do I need to think about having a godly marriage?

I'm not close to that. Well, it starts today, even. Like we looked at last week. Not your marriage, but your preparation for it. Let me be clear. We're not marrying anyone tonight.

But marriage, a godly marriage, consists of a godly man and a godly woman pursuing Christ together. And so if you want a good marriage, but you're not a godly man or a godly woman, you will not achieve that end result.

And so you need to prepare for marriage today by thinking about it well and by living in line with what the Bible says because marriage is why God created the world. Now, you might think that's a massive overstatement.

You might think like, okay, he's just trying to get attention. Like that's super exaggerated. But let's think about it. Genesis 1 gives us this super high overview, this big view of God creating the entire universe.

And then Genesis 2 talks about a man and a woman getting married together. Why this transition from something so big and important and massive scale to something so just everyday?

Is marriage out of place here in Genesis? Is marriage something that Moses is just getting distracted by from the bigger and more important story?

Or do we just not value marriage highly enough? We'll find that the Bible places more meaning into marriage than we typically do.

And marriage is very easy to overlook or to take for granted because it seems very just unspectacular. Just very everyday. But what we see in the Bible is not just a random collection of religious teaching or a random collection of commands or facts, but it's a comprehensive, overarching story.

And what is that story about? It's a story about redemption. A story about salvation. And as we get into the Bible, the details of that are this redemption is God creating a bride for his son.

It is God creating and redeeming a wife out of sin for his son. And so what we have as we consider marriage is not just a meaningless social construct, not just something that men made up.

What we have in marriage is a picture, a small picture of what God is accomplishing in the universe. A small picture of the storyline of all of Scripture, what God is going to accomplish in this world.

And so it's very fitting for Moses to go from something so broad and overarching to zoom the camera into something so personal and everyday like marriage. And so with that, let's open to Genesis chapter 2.

We covered Genesis 2 last week. And so I just want to touch on a few verses at the end of Genesis 2 and use Genesis 2 as a springboard to take us on a journey through the rest of the Bible tonight.

So we'll be ready to turn to your Bibles tonight as we consider marriage from all of Scripture. And so if you remember last week, Adam was alone in the garden initially on day 6, and God caused all the animals to pass by him, and he gave names to all the animals, but he didn't find a helper that was compatible with him.

So God causes Adam to fall asleep. And in verse 22, so God causes Adam to fall asleep, takes a rib from his side. Verse 22, And so I mentioned last week how God is walking Eve down the aisle here to Adam.

He's presenting Adam this bride that he has created. And so what this teaches us is that marriage is not a human invention. It's a divine creation.

Marriage is not something that we came up with. Marriage is something that God made, that God gave to us as a gift and a privilege. And Adam's response in verse 23 is, This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.

She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. And so Adam responds by saying, This is someone that I'm compatible with. This is someone that I can live life with.

This is someone who can help me subdue the earth and represent God's image across the broad plane of the earth. And verse 24 gives us a definition of marriage.

Moses kind of pauses the movie and says, Here's what we need to take away from this. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

So what is marriage? We need a definition of marriage before we can even begin to understand it. Well, I think Genesis 2.24 gives us a very good and simple description of what marriage is.

It's a man leaving behind his family to join himself to his wife to make their own family. And this relationship will last for all of their lives together.

And if we were going to define this in not using just a Bible verse, I think one man has defined it very well. And he says, Marriage is one mortal life fully shared between one man and one woman.

One mortal life fully shared between one man and one woman. And so God's intention here is for this new family, this first family to stick together and to be one flesh for life until death parts them.

And if this is what marriage is, if this is what God wants marriage to be, why do so many end horribly?

Why do so many marriages fail to hit the mark? Marriage has fallen on tough times in our country.

What is the problem? Some people say marriage itself is the problem. Some say, let's just get rid of marriage. Let's just do away with it.

It's causing so many issues. But what we learn from Genesis is that marriage is a very good gift from God. So marriage is not the problem, but sin is the problem.

You can be a faithful spouse and your husband or wife throws their life away and leaves and abandons you and your family because of sin in his or her heart.

And so marriage itself is not the problem. It's a good gift from God, but sin in marriages is the problem and in spouses is the problem. And we see in Genesis 3, we'll look at this in more detail over the coming weeks, but Adam and Eve eat from the tree that God told them not to eat from.

And he says, in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die. And Eve is deceived and Adam rebels and they eat from this tree.

And in that just short, maybe five minutes, their lives would never be the same. Their marriage together, which began with such perfection and innocence and purity, would never be the same.

And truly no marriage has ever been the same again because of sin entering the world and causing so many problems.

Now Genesis 2 actually gets quoted several more times throughout the Bible. And I want to look at those quotes tonight to help us get a perspective on God's view of marriage.

Now that sin has entered the world, is marriage something we should just throw away? Is marriage something we should redefine? It doesn't seem to be working super well. So should we tweak it a little bit? Should we change it?

And as we track with these quotations throughout the Bible, we'll see that the New Testament actually sticks very closely with God's design in the beginning.

So on that note, turn with me to Matthew chapter 19. And we see from the mouth of Jesus himself, his view on marriage.

So is that one guy who's smarter than me defined it? Marriage is one mortal life fully shared between one man and one woman, as Genesis 2.24 teaches and his marriage was originally set up.

And that pattern, that example, is clearly and forcefully reaffirmed in the New Testament.

And I just want to read Matthew chapter 19, verses three through six for us. It says, And Pharisees came up to him, that's Jesus, and tested him by asking.

So their question wasn't sincere. They were trying to trap him in his words. Their question is, is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause? And this was a trap set because there were differing views among the Pharisees as to whether they could divorce their wife for various reasons.

Verse four, he answered, Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female? And said, Therefore, quote from Genesis 2.24, A man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

So they're no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate. And so Jesus is speaking to a specific question about divorce here, but the way he quotes Genesis 2 and the way he answers this question shows us that what happened in the garden when God created marriage in Genesis 2 is intended to be the pattern for marriage for all time.

It's intended to be God's standard for marriage for the rest of life here on earth. But Jesus does a couple of very interesting things here when he quotes this verse.

Let me, let's kind of zoom in here and look at this. So in verse four, he obviously says that God created them male and female from the beginning that's very Genesis 1 and verse 5.

It says, therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. Now Jesus is quoting Genesis 2.24, but it's not exactly the same as we just read in Genesis 2.24 in our Bibles.

There's one word that's different. In Genesis 2.24, Moses says, they shall become one flesh. Jesus says, the two shall become one flesh.

And so Jesus is reaffirming that marriage is between one man and one woman. And so you're not intended, as some of the Pharisees wanted, you're not intended to be married to a girl and be like, eh, I'm gonna swap her out.

Like, let's, I'm gonna get another wife. Jesus is saying, God created one man and one woman and the two of them become one flesh. And this isn't something that's just, you know, you change out the parts and it just keeps moving on without issues.

Jesus is saying, this was intended originally to be between one man and one woman. And something interesting he says is that God, the one who made them from the beginning, said. Well, if you read Genesis 2.24, God's not the one directly speaking, it's Moses.

And so Jesus is saying, whatever the Bible says is what God says. Whenever the Bible speaks, it's God who's the one speaking. And he says, the two of them shall become one flesh.

So the two of them come together in marriage and they become one flesh. But look at who it is that does this joining together. Verse six. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.

And so Jesus is saying that God is the one in marriage joining them together. God is the one bringing couples together. Now this doesn't mean that you can just sit back and be like, God's gonna bring me a spouse.

Like I'm just gonna sit back and do nothing, talk to no one, not be friendly, and God's just gonna bring a girl my way. God's just gonna send a guy to me. That sounds super spiritual, right?

You're like, God joins them together so I'm just gonna sit back and wait and do nothing. That sounds spiritual but it's not. Okay, so God is sovereign, God's the one doing the joining, but we still have responsibility to find a spouse.

Also, don't just expect to know they're the one when you see them. Okay, so this isn't gonna work out like Disney where you're just like, oh my goodness, he is the one.

Or like, man, she's gotta be the one for me. Some people can get so mystical of thinking like, oh, we went on a date but there just wasn't like a spark or anything. Yeah, don't expect that.

That's not biblical. It's not a biblical way to assess them. So Lacey and I actually met, we're obviously married now, we met in third grade. And we did not date in third grade though.

I was like four foot nothing and almost weighed 50 pounds, didn't hit 50 until I was in fifth grade. Broke 100 when I was in ninth grade though, specimen.

And so I was like four foot nothing. Lacey was like six foot tall in third grade and weighed. And so she's not looking at me like, I've gotta marry this guy.

I want my guys, my sons to have twig arms when they're in third grade too. And so there's no like instant knowledge of like, oh man.

So you might already know your spouse. Not to freak you out. You might already know them though. So anyway, it takes time. So don't just expect to be like, oh, I'm gonna receive like a vision from heaven that they're the one.

That's not biblical. Okay? So don't just sit back and wait and be like, the Lord, if the Lord wants me to be married, he'll just bring me a wife. And also don't think that you're gonna have some mystical vision of when you meet your spouse or whatever.

And he says, let not man separate. In Jesus' mind, marriage is intended to be a lifelong relationship.

And so based on what Jesus says here, it's to be lifelong. So until death parts them, it's to be heterosexual between a man and a woman. It's to be monogamous. There's just two of them, not multiple wives, not multiple husbands.

And again, Jesus is answering a question about divorce here. And as we look at this, he's saying that a man should leave his family and be joined to his wife.

And so husbands should value their wives even over their own parents. Husbands should place a higher priority on their wives than they do even over their parents.

And now when we think about it, we would never want a child to be separated from their parents. And this even applies for you. You guys are students. I don't call you kids or children because you're young adults, but you still live under your parents' roof.

And so if you come to me and you say, my mom and dad want me to do my homework and tell me to take out the trash. I don't really want to. What do you think?

I'm going to say, obey your parents. Okay, so we don't want you to be divided from them. We don't want you to be separated from them. Now, if your parents ever say, hey, don't go to church or stop reading the Bible, we can have a different conversation.

But we don't want children to be separated or divided from their parents. And I think that's universally true. And if that's the case, we should even more not want a husband to be separated from his wife.

Because God is saying, and Jesus is saying, and Moses is saying, that a man will leave his parents in order to be attached to his wife. And so if this kind of unbreakable relationship in most of the world between a son and his parents is able to break away to cause marriage, then we should even more not desire for a man to be separated from his wife.

And so Jesus says, what God has joined together, let not man separate. And again, Jesus is answering a question about divorce. Now why is that significant?

Because we know that Jesus' answer is talking about our world today with sin in it. He's not talking about just what worked for Adam and Eve.

He's not just talking about marriage as it was intended to be. He's talking about marriage right now in this world that's filled with sin, in this world that's marked with sin.

He's talking about our own day. He's showing, even though this verse, Genesis 2.24, happened before sin was in the world, this is still God's intended pattern for marriage even today.

And when Jesus wants to show what marriage should be, he goes back to Genesis. And we should do the same thing. If we want to know what God's intention is for marriage, we need to go back to Genesis.

And in our culture today, it's incredibly hostile toward marriage. Our world has completely lost its mind with divorce and gay marriage and all kinds of other things, and they will actually attack us for holding this view.

They will actually attack you if you say, I think marriage should only be between a man and a woman. They will hate you for that. So how should we respond to these opinions?

How should we respond to this hatred? I was listening to the Joe Rogan podcast, which I wouldn't generally recommend, so I probably just shouldn't have said that. But anyway, he was talking about gay marriage to this guy.

And Joe Rogan said, if two people love each other, they should be able to get married. Whether it's a guy and a guy or a girl and a girl, if anyone loves each other, they should be able to get married.

And it seems reasonable, it seems rational, it seems kind on the surface. You're just sitting back like, yeah, I don't want to just go around fighting people all day. So it seems reasonable.

But if we change the emotion and we change the action, we'll see how dumb this argument actually is. So Joe Rogan says, if two people love each other, they should be able to get married.

So let's change the emotion and let's change the action. If two people hate each other, they should be able to get murdered. Doesn't work, right?

That was way darker than I intended it to be, but whatever. So if we change the emotion and change the action, we clearly see that that line of thinking doesn't work. Because feelings, how you feel, does not make something right.

God is the one who determines right and wrong. God is the one who determines truth from error. And so just because you feel a certain way doesn't mean you can act on those feelings.

You can't just let it go. I can't hold it back anymore. Let it go. Man, Kagan was just making fun of me the other week about how often I reference Frozen. I just did it again. Dang it. Okay. But anyway, God is the one who defines truth.

God defines what's right and wrong. And so I know you guys encountered this argument a lot through school or maybe through your family or friend groups. So when we think about homosexuality, why is it wrong?

How should we defend the biblical view when someone's trying to say that it's right or people need to be free to do whatever they want? Well, we need to look at God's design.

How did God design marriage? He created male and female. He created Adam and Eve. He didn't create Adam and Steve. He created what He intended marriage to be.

He created in the beginning male and female. So we need to look at God's design for marriage. We also need to look at God's purpose for marriage. What is God's purpose? He tells them in Genesis 1.28 to be fruitful and multiply.

And homosexuality doesn't accomplish that. And so when we think about homosexuality, it does not fit with the nature of marriage between a man and a woman. It does not fulfill the purpose of marriage to multiply and to be fruitful.

And so it doesn't fit either category of what Genesis 1 describes marriage to be. And so now why should we even talk about this? Why should we defend this?

Because anything that is out of step with this pattern, any twisting of this pattern is a satanic perversion of it.

Anything that goes against how God designed marriage in the beginning is a satanic perversion of what God created. And when you think about Satan, he doesn't create anything.

He can't create anything. All he does is steal and destroy. All he does is twist and pervert. He can only destroy and steal.

And so when we think about these things and these types of sins, they are attacks on the gospel, attacks on the storyline of scripture. Because they go against God's pattern.

And God takes this kind of sin, homosexuality, very seriously. You can read about that in Genesis 19. He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for it. And another quotation of Genesis 2 is in 1 Corinthians 6.

You don't have to turn there, but in 1 Corinthians 6, Paul quotes this text and shows us that this doesn't just honor godly sexuality, it also condemns ungodly sexuality.

And so it honors intimacy in the context of marriage and it shames or condemns sexuality outside of marriage. And so Genesis 2.24 not only upholds what's right, but it condemns anything outside of it.

Now, earlier I said that this is an attack on the gospel. And again, you might think, like, okay, that's pretty far. Like, why say that so strongly? Well, turn with me to Ephesians chapter 5.

Ephesians 5 is a familiar passage in talking about marriage and the roles of men and women in marriage.

And what Paul shows us in this passage is that God created marriage not ultimately for Adam and Eve, not ultimately for us, but to show the relationship between Christ and His church.

To show the relationship between Christ and His church. So I want to just read Ephesians 5, starting in verse 22 to get this text before us. Verse 22. Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord.

For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, His body, and is Himself its Savior. Now, as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

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 because we are members of His body.

Here comes Genesis 2, 24. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife. And the two, that's Jesus' version of this, the two shall become one flesh.

This mystery is profound and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

Now, as we read this passage, Paul goes back and forth between Christ and the church and husbands and wives and it's kind of tricky sometimes to figure out which one he's talking about because he's weaving these two things together.

But what he's showing us is that the purpose of marriage from the beginning has been to point to Jesus and His church. And Jesus and the church aren't the metaphor here.

So he's not saying, hey, you guys need to be together, you need to be married, just kind of like how Jesus is with the church. No, what he's saying is Jesus and the church are the reality.

That is the true marriage and our earthly marriages are reflections of that. They're small pictures of that ultimate reality. That's what marriage is pointing towards.

Marriage is why the world was created. This marriage between the Son of God and God's people. And when we think about how and where God created the woman from in Genesis 2, he took the woman from Adam's side.

He took the rib and turned it into a woman that came from Adam's side. And one guy named Matthew Henry had this to say, kind of reflecting theologically about that.

The woman was not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected by him, and near his heart to be beloved by him.

And so we think about this intimacy of even where God created Eve from. And during that event, Adam is overcome by a deep sleep and from his side comes the bride that God created.

And when we think about Jesus, God calls Jesus the second Adam or the last Adam. He is the representative of mankind. And when we look at John 19, we see Jesus not standing near the tree of life, but hanging from a tree of death.

And as he sleeps, the deep sleep of death, his side is opened up and blood flows out. And it's from this blood being shed that his bride was cleansed, that his bride was created and birthed.

It's from Jesus' side that the church was born. It's from the blood that he shed for sin that the church, his bride, was created. So why does marriage show up in Genesis 2 in the context of God creating the universe?

Because marriage ultimately is why God created the world, this marriage between God's son and God's people. Now, I've never seen the creation of a universe before.

That would be an impressive sight. But I've seen a lot of marriages. And it's this common, everyday picture that shows us why the world was created.

It was created for Christ and his church. Colossians 1 says this world was created through Christ and for Christ. And so marriage, according to Paul, from the beginning is intended to display and proclaim the mystery of the gospel.

So why is it that people get married? Why is it that we have this desire within us to be married? And ultimately, it's because it points to the reality that Jesus loves his bride.

Jesus loves his church. And Christians have the privilege of making the mystery of the gospel visible through their fulfilling of their roles in marriage.

And so according to the Bible, marriage is a picture of the gospel. Marriage demonstrates the love that Jesus has for his church. And when you see a godly marriage, it makes you long for heaven.

It makes you love Christ. It makes you want to be close to God. This is the Bible's teaching on marriage. And so why else do you think Satan has gone after it so ruthlessly?

Why else do you think Satan has waged so many attacks against marriage? Because it's such a clear picture of the gospel, of the relationship between Christ and his people. And lastly, let's go to the book of Revelation where we see the end of all things.

Go first to Revelation 19. And in Revelation 19, Jesus is about to return from heaven.

Jesus is about to come and conquer his enemies. And we get this picture of a feast. It's not just any feast. It's a wedding banquet.

And it's not just any wedding. It's the marriage supper celebrating the Lamb being united with his people. In Revelation 19, verse 6, Then I heard what seems to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, Hallelujah, for the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns.

Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory. Why? For the marriage of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready.

It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure, for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, Write this, Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

And he said to me, these are the true words of God. Flip over to Revelation 21 now. In Revelation 21, verse 1, John says, Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth.

So God recreates all things. And so when we think about the beginning and the end of the Bible, what do we see? Genesis 1, God creates the heavens and the earth. Genesis 2, God creates marriage.

Here at the end of creation, at the end of the story, we see the marriage of Christ and his people and then we see the new creation, the heavens and the earth. These are the bookends of Scripture.

Scripture from beginning to end is ultimately pointing to this reality of God dwelling with his people through his Son. And we see that in Revelation 21, starting in verse 1.

He says, I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will be with them as their God.

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away.

And he who is seated on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new. And in verse 9, one of the seven angels says to John, Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.

Marriage is why God created the world. So as we think about this are a few takeaways for us. Number one, Hebrews 13, 4 says, Let marriage be held in honor among all and let the marriage bed remain undefiled.

And so God commands us as Christians to honor marriage, to uphold marriage. Not just married Christians, but all Christians are to honor and protect marriage because it clearly points to the gospel.

So we need to protect marriage. And how do you do that? How do you protect a marriage? You don't have a marriage? How do you protect and preserve marriage? Well, a couple of ways.

One, obey your parents. That will help their marriage go smoothly. Obey them. They'll be happy together forever. And then also be helpful. If you see something that needs to be done, don't make them ask you to do it.

Just help their life go well. Be obedient, be happy, and your parents will have a wonderful marriage, I hope. Number two, preparation for marriage begins today.

I know I already said this, but your preparation for marriage starts today. So be pure in thoughts and be godly in your actions. Be pure in your thinking and godly in your actions.

And then thirdly, make sure Christ is your highest pursuit and not marriage. Make sure Christ is your highest pursuit and not marriage.

It is good to desire to be married. Marriage is a good thing. It is a gift from God. It's part of God's very good creation in the beginning. So it's good to desire marriage, but don't make it your God.

Don't think that once you get to marriage, then you're done. You've accomplished it. Marriage isn't an end to it in itself. Marriage is two people striving together for godliness in their family.

And so desiring marriage is good, but don't let it be out of proportion. Don't be impatient with your life today just trying to get to that day. Be godly. Strive for godliness.

And if the Lord provides you a spouse, together you'll pursue Christ. So make sure he is priority number one even in your life today. Father, we thank you for this time together.

I pray that our worship together through singing and through the word has been beneficial and helpful and leads us to your son, Jesus Christ. Help us to remember that this world is about the marriage of you to your people.

You will dwell with us, Lord, and we will be your people. faithful. So I pray for students here who believe that and are Christians that they would continue to strive for godliness.

I pray for those here who are unbelievers that you would open their heart and see the storyline of scripture that begins in Genesis and culminates in Revelation is about your glory.

And marriages here and now point towards that glory and tell the gospel to the world. So I pray that we would worship you for the mercy you've shown us through your son, Jesus Christ.

And it's in his name we pray. Amen.