Transcript

Good morning. My name's Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. I have been sick all week, so I'll try not to make gross noises into the microphone. And I'm on some medicine, so either this will be—I'll run out of energy or something, and we'll wrap it up quickly, or this will at some point become incoherent and rambly more so than normal. So we'll just see what happens.

There are some things that are culturally kind of hard to hear. There's some—and not even because of microphones, just like culturally hard to hear. There's some things that just kind of don't mesh well with the larger culture that we have. It's a little bit like every single culture that you're in has its own rhythm, has its own way to process things, has its own way to think about things. This is why we have some of the funny situations we have when someone comes in from another culture and kind of does something that's embarrassing or kind of out of place. I remember one time my brothers and I got to go to Romania on a mission trip, and I got up to—actually, I got to preach, and I was up there, and I looked, and there was an aisle down the middle of the church, and there was a seating section over here and a seating section over here.

And as I got up there, I realized that all the males in the church were on this side of the church, and all the females were on this side of the church except for my two brothers who just sat with all the ladies. And I guess they were like, hey, nice, let's get over here and talk. All those guys are confused. They just didn't know. They went and sat down. And there's just kind of some of that kind of stuff where every culture has its own things they do and own ways to think about things, and there's certain things.

It's almost like every culture is kind of playing double dutch. You know the game that little girls will play and they have two— I can't— Unleash your kingdom's power Reaching the near and far No force of hell can stop Your beauty-changing hearts You made us for much more than this Awake in the kingdom See in us Fill us with the strength and love of Christ We are your church We are the home Oh, my God Oh, my God Oh, my God Oh, my God Build your kingdom Here Let the darkness Show your mind Behind Heal our streets And the lines

Steady our church On fire Witness nation Change the atmosphere Dun allikke Dude Things you got ь Back We dream Build your kingdom here Let the darkness fear Show your mighty hand Heal our streets and land Set your church on fire Win this nation back Change the atmosphere Build your kingdom here We pray What do you call it Give your dragging Hopehésitez These songs are set out Future

How firm a foundation, you saints of the Lord It is laid for your faith in His excellent word What more can He say than to you He has said To you who for refuge to Jesus have pled Feet and I, I am with you, oh be not dismayed For I am your God and will still give you aid I'll strengthen you, help you and cause you to stand Upheld by my righteous omnipotent When through the deep waters I call you to go The rivers of sorrow shall not overflow For I will be with you, your troubles to bless And sanctify to you your deepest distress I will be with you, your troubles to bless And sanctify to you, your troubles to bless And sanctify to you, your troubles to bless And sanctify to you, your troubles to bless But, like, it's like we can't get in the way of that We just, over and over, we're just primed up for And so here's what happens I don't believe that we've oversold marriage If you're single, you might have felt like People are not okay with you being single That you have to be married You might have really felt like that in the church

We're going to get to that in a second We're going to talk to your married friends I'm glad they're here But you might have felt like You have to be married to be okay But the problem is We have an oversold marriage The reason you're being pushed to be married Specifically by your Christian friends Is because they have oversold romance And romantic love The reason I can tell you We have an oversold marriage Is because if you look at ourselves culturally We have high divorce rates That's not an oversell of marriage That's an oversell of romance We have a high rates of people living together Without being married That's not an oversell of marriage That's an oversell of romance We have taken romance And we have put it out of place Now, God and the Bible are pro-love

God is love But that love is well beyond romantic love It's much more deep Much more beautiful And the Bible is very much Highlights and lifts up marriage But it's not just a romantic love in marriage But it's a more beautiful covenant That goes beyond romance And we have elevated romance And so when we start talking about singleness I think we need to understand that Because some of the things the Bible is going to say to us Sound out of rhythm The Bible storms into our double Dutch game And just knocks everything over And says, y'all were doing it wrong And it makes the Bible seem annoying Because we were in the middle of swinging our little ropes here And we had a good thing going, you guys But the truth is The Bible is correcting us And it doesn't view things the way we do So as we talk about singleness today

We're going to hear some things That sound crazy But are actually because the Bible Believes differently than us That we have placed romance out of position My son, I have a son He's three years old And he got to be a ring bearer In a wedding And this is him Prepped Prior to getting to go ring bear Now he actually Didn't get to touch the ring Which is great They were like, you're the ring bearer Can you carry this Bible down there? Because they were just like We don't want you to be in charge of anything Which I thought was a great idea Because he was two Now, I'm a pastor I've gotten to perform weddings Which is

It's stressful To perform a wedding I usually When I get up here I have some notes And then I just kind of talk And I get fussed out all the time Because I said something That wasn't super helpful And sometimes I say things That are kind of dumb Or whatever But mostly I just embarrassed myself Like a couple weeks ago When I said It was hard to look at your wife's face Or whatever Like that was just It was misspoken It was an embarrassing thing for me But at weddings People film those things And remember them forever So what I do

Is I write out Every word that I'm going to say And I just try to read it Because even when I'm doing that I mean hypothetically At your brother's wedding You try to say two words at one time And you say a cuss word And it just And people don't forget But As stressful as that is This was way worse No, no, no Go back, go back, go back Go back This was way worse I was the handler For a two-year-old Who had a job to do And two-year-olds Don't do jobs super well You guys I would rather

Be watching a dog That had to carry the ring down Because at the end of the day You can just be like It was a dog Dogs are idiots But you can't say that About your two-year-old People get offended And they act like You should have had a better Job So we had been practicing And all he had to do Was carry his little Bible down And you know We're excited It's right before He's ready He's practiced multiple times He knows what he's supposed to do He gets ready We get up there And they say Okay, it's time for him to go

And right as I say Alright, go I let him go The wedding's going I mean, they've already done All the prelude And Canon and D And other wedding songs That kind of stuff Right as I let him go The lady says Wait The father of the groom Hasn't been seated yet Now The father of the groom Has one Job at a wedding And it is Go sit down I don't know What this cat was doing But he did not do His one Job But now

He can't go sit down If we start this thing So my son was like The first thing That was like Got the ball rolling And so it couldn't Happen out of order And so This picture The man in the suit Is the guy Who did not do his job That is my son Look at Look at the Look at the Focus in his eyes He's He's never been More prepared To do anything In his life And do you see

What I'm talking about Being stressful You see my face there That's what I looked like All day That wasn't even Alright, so here's What I did Now I've been known To handle situations Poorly Specifically when it comes To like physically Having to do something And so what I did A split second After this My son was laid out On his back Because I tackled him That's all that I did I grabbed his arm And he was taking a step And I just slammed him

To the ground So they were like Don't go yet I wonder how that looked For the wedding lady Who was like in charge She was like Don't let him go And I just grabbed him To the ground You're going nowhere son So he starts screaming Fair enough You got tackled And so I picked him up I sat him down And he was like I want to go He was trying to articulate That he like wanted to go And I was like Get it together You're going to get To carry the Bible

You can't go right now You can't be crying Lock it up Let's go And I spun around I was like go And he quit crying And did it I was so proud of him Now here's the thing Let's say That he wasn't able To lock it up Which would have been reasonable I was like go And then as soon as he went I tackled him And so that was startling And he did hit his head A little bit If he wasn't able To like get it together And go And if I just like

Had to pick him up And just like Like okay The ring bear is done Like he He received an injury At the beginning Of his duties What I couldn't do Is walk into The middle Like say Oh I'm sorry I'm sorry Ring bear went down I guess there's no Shining moment In this wedding anymore I guess there's really No point Can we Can we postpone it Do this on another day Can we just wrap it up

Do we just want to Y'all just want to call it You're dismissed Like I couldn't Do any of those things Because I would have Completely been confused About the role The position That we had in the wedding Like if when they went To cut the cake later I went and stuck him In the middle So he could smoosh Cake on their face I would be really annoying If I gave a toast At the end Like hey I want to give a toast I'm the father Of the child That was it

Like it's out of place And what we have done With the idea Of romance Is we've taken Something that's good And it gets to be a part And when it plays It's part It's really nice When it doesn't Get tackled And just gets to Walk down Like it's a really Cool part But that's it It's not the main thing It's not the goal Of the universe It's not why God designed everything And we can't let it Get out of place

And some of us Want to cancel everything Just can't Just cancel everything Because the romance part Hasn't done What we wanted from it It hasn't worked out The way we wanted it to And so the Bible Steps in and corrects And says it's out of place Let's walk through And see How we can understand this And approach this A little better So we're talking To singles About singleness today We've been studying Through the book of Ephesians So grab your Bibles And go to 1 Corinthians 7

We're going to get To Ephesians today But Ephesians doesn't Say anything directly To single people 1 Corinthians 7 does The reason why The Bible doesn't Talk to single people A whole whole lot Directly Is because The Bible talks To single people All the time In all the general Calls that it gives To Christians And to life And how to think About things It's applied to everybody And then every once In a while

It pauses And specifically says Hey married people And it gives them Specific instructions For some of the things They're going to have to face Everything applies To single people And then every once In a while It just says Hey if you're married Think about this If you have kids Think about this And then what happens Culturally Because we've Over elevated Romance We have a lot Of marriage problems And we also have

A lot of marriage Like it's the goal It's the magic It's the pot of gold At the end of the rainbow Stuff Because we really Are just hyping romance And so Christian churches In the U.S. Talk a lot about marriage And they have a lot Of marriage series And they have a lot Of single series That are like Trying to talk you Into how you can get married And so it gets talked about Not a lot Singleness and the way The Bible approaches It doesn't get talked About a lot

And if you're single In the church It can sometimes feel like You are half a person Until you get to be married And that is not Biblically accurate So let's go to 1 Corinthians 7 We're going to pick up In verse 32 Excuse me I want you to be free From anxieties To Paul's writing To the church He just kind of Got done saying Like you don't have To get married He's going to spell This out a little more I want you to be free From anxieties

The unmarried man Is anxious About the things Of the Lord How to please The Lord But the married man Is anxious About worldly things How to please His wife And his interests Are divided And the unmarried Or betrothed woman Is anxious About the things Of the Lord How to be holy In body and spirit But the married man Is anxious About Married woman

Is anxious About worldly things How to please Her husband I say this For your own benefit Not to lay Any restraint Upon you But to promote Good order And to secure Your undivided Devotion To the Lord So what Paul says Is I don't want you To be overly anxious You're going to have Some anxiety You're going to have Some stress And here he doesn't mean Like just the

Over anxious Worried about everything With no real reason No real cause But he's talking about Like a good healthy Anxiety Good healthy stress level Of this matters So I care about it It's a concern Is more what he's Addressing here And so what he says Is I don't want you To have too much of that So I would just Encourage you To not get married If you're not married Don't get married And his point is You get to give Undivided attention

To the Lord And what he says Here is really true He says the married man His interests are divided The married woman Her interests are divided They're not just worried About how to please the Lord They're worried about How to please their wife Or their husband And that's real I'm a pastor I get phone calls Or texts late at night And people will say Hey can you get over here This is going on Can this happen And I immediately Am like yes I need to do that And also

I have a wife And I have two kids And I got to help Transition this out And I got to talk to her And we got to work this out Like every time When we're hanging out With our community group And people want to talk After they got questions And stuff There's a little bit of like Yes I want to talk to you Yes I want to be able To walk this through with you But also I can't make my wife Put our kids to sleep Every night Because that's difficult Specifically for her Because she's nicer than I am So it's like

There's this There's this Real tension And what he's saying Is single people You don't You wouldn't have that Your anxiety would simply be How do I please The Lord Meaning that If somebody called you And said Hey can you come Can you be at this Can you be a part of this Can you serve here You just think Does it please the Lord Yeah Like there's a real amount of If you get married How much time should you spend Just alone with you and your spouse

If you have children How much time should you spend With your children How much should you spend With your children And just you How much time should you spend Family time How much time should you spend Alone with each of your Individual children That's a real thing To be a healthy father To be a healthy mother To be a healthy husband To be a healthy wife And to walk that out And so what Paul's saying is If you do that Just realize You have divided your attention Not to say that marriage is bad Later he says You can get married

He just says I don't want that for you What I want is for you To just focus on Jesus So I will say this For single people And I don't know How you are single today I don't know If you're single Through death I don't know If you're single Through divorce I don't know If you're single now And you feel like This is a season I'm going to date Or I am dating I'm going to get married I don't know If you're single now And you're saying

No I think this is life for me I think life for me Is singleness But I want to ask If you are currently single What's your anxiety level Over pleasing the Lord Because Paul's assuming That that's present The same that the people Here's what happens We've been taught Kind of in our culture That if you're married You've got to worry a lot About what your spouse thinks And what they like And if you're single You just get to do What you want Not if you're a Christian Christian single people Don't just do what they want They try to figure out

What the Lord wants Try to figure out What pleases Him What is He like What does He want With your life What should your day Look like as you follow Him We have this kind of idea Culturally That when you're single It's a little bit of like I can grow up later I can get it together later You know my budget Only affects me My time only affects me If I mess something up If I'm junky If I'm messy If I'm undisciplined That only affects me And later If I get a wife

If I get a husband Then I'll kind of have to Fix all this And the problem is All of that doesn't Just affect you It affects Jesus And His mission And your life In His church Among His people And are you anxious over What it looks like For you to follow Him And to please Him So I don't It doesn't matter What zone of singleness You're in Do you spend time Do you spend time with Him Do you read Do you pray Do you know Him

Like I've been married For nine years There's things I should just know About my wife Things she likes Doesn't like Things she enjoys Doesn't enjoy Things that are And there's a little bit Of like How long have you Been walking with Jesus Do you know His word Do you know the things That He says please Him Do you know the things That He says He enjoys That He looks for in us That He wants from us Do you know specifically What He wants from you He says that I might

That you might secure Your undivided A devotion To the Lord We have to Don't hear this I think so often We hear it this way Think of all the stuff You can do for Jesus If you're single You can do so much stuff For Jesus Like I'm married I gotta do stuff For my wife But you can do stuff For Jesus The Bible says Think of all the stuff You get to do with Jesus And He says He never Leaves us or forsakes us That you aren't His

Workers that just Punch the clock for Him And get to turn in Like here's what I've accomplished But you actually get to Walk with Him in life When Paul Walked with Jesus Jesus would show up And talk to Him Paul would pray Paul didn't feel this It was a companionship They walked together We have to step up Our belief In the presence of Christ And the fellowship Of the Holy Spirit That singleness Displays the sufficiency Of Christ In a way that Marriage never can

That marriage is Supposed to Display the gospel But there's a part Of singleness That displays The sufficiency Of Christ The fullness That He offers for us In a way that Marriage never can There was a A missionary Named John G. Patton This was a A while back And I think In the 1800s Sometimes And he and his wife Went to the New Hebrides Islands

And soon after Getting there She got sick She gave birth And then she got sick And so she passed away And then the baby Passed away Because there was no way To feed the baby And buried both of them And on the island They were on Was a It was a very savage island There were a lot of cannibals And so he actually Spent many nights Sleeping on their graves So the cannibals Wouldn't dig them up And eat them And then he was there By himself

For a long time Just trying to reach Them with the gospel And there's this story Of he was being chased By some cannibals Who wanted to kill And eat him And a guy That he knew That he was He was a little spotty The guy was a little spotty He wasn't quite sure If the guy was on his team Or not Told him hide in this tree And he was like I don't know if I can Trust this guy But I don't have Like a better option So he hid in the tree And he was like

Maybe he's just Going to bring people To the tree Maybe I can trust him This is a quote From his autobiography But he says Being entirely At the mercy Of such doubtful And vacillating friends I, though perplexed Felt it best to obey I climbed into the tree And was left there Alone in the bush That's how British people say The woods The hours I spent there Live all before me As if it were But of yesterday I heard the frequent

Discharging of muskets And the yells Of the savages Yet I sat there Among the branches As safe As in the arms Of Jesus Never in all my sorrows Did my Lord Draw nearer to me Speak more soothingly In my soul Than when the moonlight Flickered Among those chestnut leaves And the night air Played on my Throbbing brow As I told all my heart To Jesus Alone Yet not alone If it be to glorify

My God I will not grudge To spend Many nights Alone in such a tree To feel again My Savior's Spiritual presence To enjoy His consoling Fellowship If thus thrown Back upon your own soul Alone All alone In the midnight In the bush In the very embrace Of death itself Have you a friend That will not fail you Then One of the things That he kind of continues

And this is one of the Major points in his life Is that he felt So close To Christ So fulfilled By Christ So connected With Christ And what I want us To see And understand Is that when Paul Says things like Don't get married Just get Jesus Just worry about him He doesn't think He's making a bad Exchange for you He doesn't think That Jesus Is a consolation prize That many people

Who deal with Struggle with Being single Or thinking about Lifelong singleness I've had someone Say to me That the fear Isn't that I'm lonely Now It's that I'll be Lonely in the future Someone else said It's not so much That I really want To have sex Or something It's that I want companionship I want someone Who knows me And that I know And that I can Just walk through

Life with And the biblical Truth is That Jesus Is that And I know This answer Just sounds churchy Hey single people You get Jesus But it's It's so Real That we can't Miss that I want to Keep moving In this text 36 If anyone Thinks that he Is not behaving Properly Toward his

Betrothed If his passions Are strong And it has to be Let him do As he wishes Let them marry It is no sin Okay so A lot of times The people ask Does the bible Give like helpful Information for like Dating And how to think About dating And the question Becomes are you Are you in a Are you in an Arranged marriage Do you have A betrothed

Anybody The bible has Some coaching For you Nobody's betrothed Okay it doesn't Say a lot About dating Culturally The bible Doesn't address Dating the way That we date It doesn't Have this There's not A huge Single population That was Free From their Families That there Wasn't dating

The way that We have Where people Lived on their Own and Dated on their Own And men And women Would go Live by Themselves That didn't Really happen So there is Some coaching Here that we Have to pull Out principle Wise From this What paul Says here Is it's

Okay to Get married If you've Never been Married You can Get married He actually Says If his Passions are Strong And it Has to Be Let him Do as He wishes Let them Marry He says If he Doesn't Think he's

Behaving Properly Towards his Betrothed If you're Overcome With a Desire If you Really Want to Be Married That's Okay It's Okay to Want to Be Married He says It's not A sin To get

Married Specifically I want To say That I Think That Some of The things That biblically Apply to Singleness And Dating So there Are Some People Who Are In Singleness Have Already

Been Married Are Divorced We're Going to Talk More Specifically About That Next Week In General The bible's Approach To that We're Doing Q&A Next Week We're

Going to Spend Our Time Doing That Or At At At At A really Large Portion Of Our Time Doing That But the Bible's Approach To Marriage

And Divorce Is Basically If you Are Married You Should Not Get Divorced It Gives A Few Little Bit Of Okay Kind Of In This

Area In This Area Let's Think About This We'll Talk More Nuance About That But the General Answer Is If You're Married Don't Get Divorced

And If You Are Divorced Don't Get Remarried That's The Bible's General Answer It's The Basic Approach And If You're In One Of Those

Zones If You're Married The Bible Is Going To Step In And Just Kind Of Say You Shouldn't Get A Divorce And If You're

Unmarried Because Of The Divorce The Bible Pretty Much Steps In And You You Shouldn't Get Remarried Now Again There's A few Places Where There's

There's Some Allowances Ish And We're Going to Talk Through That More Specifically Next But If You're In If You're A Christian You Date In

Order To Be Married That We Elevate Marriage Over Romance That If You Are Dating And You Try To Think How Should I Think

About Dating Well The Bible Says First Of You Shouldn't Marry A Non-believer So You Shouldn't Date Non-believers Advantage Dating Isn't A Good Idea

And You Should Treat Everyone Who's A Believer Like A Brother Or Sister So That Makes Dating Weird But Think About It Maybe More

Like How Would You Want Someone To Date Your Sister I Don't Have A Sister But I Think I Can Answer That Question I

Would Like For Him To Ask Her Out To Show Some Pursuit And Be Willing To Be Shot Down I Think That's Actually Masculine

You Guys I Think There's Something Masculine About Asking Waiting For Her To Ask You Out And Doing Some Of This Stuff So That

She Has To Risk It So That She Has To Be Rejected Like Some Of That Stuff Is Like Step Your Game Up Let's

Go I Like For Him To Pursue Her A little Bit I'd Like For To Take Her To Nice I'd Like For Him To To

Keep His Hands To Himself How Would You Want Someone To Date Your Brother How Would You Want To Treat Him Like There's Some

Of That That Goes Along With Understanding How Do We Act Towards People In These Situations So If Really The Point There Just To

See This Is That He Says If You Really Want To Get Married You Can It's Not A Sin But Then He Says This

But Whoever Is Verse 37 Whoever Is Firmly Established In His Heart Being Under No Necessity But Having His Desire Under Control And Has

Determined This In His Heart To Keep Her As His Betrothed He Will Do Well So What He Says Is If You Can Control

Yourself If You're Not Burning With Desire If You're In A Situation Where It's Like No I Actually Don't Have To Get Married I

I Been Kind Of Sold On This But I He Says You Do Well Then He Finishes With This So Then He Who Marries

His Betrothed Does Well And He Who Refrains From Marriage Will Do Even Better Y'all See That Y'all Say Even Better Wow We Don't

Do This Often Say Even Better Okay Married People In The Room Let's Talk For A Second Do We Act Like That Verse Is

In The Bible No We Do Not Do You Know How Obnoxious That Is For Our Single Friends And Do You Know How Unbiblical

That Is Here's What Married People You Gotta Stop We Gotta Stop Acting Like If You're Not Married You've Totally Missed Out On Life

We Wouldn't Say Those Words Necessarily But We Do Portray That Idea Oh You're You Are Incomplete You Need You Need Someone Else To

Come In And Make You A Whole Person Y'all Know Where That Idea Came From It Came From Plato In His Symposium He Wrote

A Story About How People Used To Be Four Like There Was Two People Stuck Together They Had Four Arms Two Heads Four Legs

And Then The Gods Got Mad At And Chopped Them In Half And So Everybody Had To Go Around On Earth Feeling Terrible Until

They Found Their Soul Mate You Were Looking For Your Other Half That's Nonsense You're You're Okay You Want to Know What Your Problem Is

You Want to Know Why You're Feeling Complete Sin You're Broken You need A savior Not a Soulmate And Then You're Complete And You Can Marry Another Sinner

Who Also Needs A Savior Or You Can Just Be Someone Who Gets The Savior And You're Fine Married People They Do Even Better

So Stop It Because We Don't Seem Like Christians We Seem Like We Can Double Dutch Fine With American Culture But We Got To

Get On Rhythm With Christ Which Is Hey If You Just Get Jesus You're Going To Be Good Now If Your Single Friend Comes

To You And Says Hey I Really Want To Date Someone I Think What You Need To Ask Him Is Are You Burning With

Desire And If They Say No My Desire Is Under Control Say Well Then Keep It Under Control You'll Do Fine Now You're Married

They Say My Desire Is Out Of Control Then You Say Well Hey I Can Help You Out All Right He Will Do Even

Better Paul Keeps Going I Want To I Didn't Put That We Were Going To Read This But We're Going To 39 A Wife

Is Bound To Her Husband As Long As He Lives But If Her Husband Dies She Is Free To Be Married To Whom She

Wishes Only In The Lord Meaning She Can Marry Whomever If He's A Christian Yet In My Judgment She Is Happier If She Remains

As She Is And I Think That I Too Have The Spirit Of God So What He Says Is She's Actually Happier If She'll

Just Stay Unmarried Now Who In Our Culture Can Say That Without It Sounding Gross And Here's What I Mean Someone Looks At You

And Goes Oh You're Unmarried Stay Unmarried That's The Way To Be Happy Like It Comes Across Weird To Us It's Like Ah Especially

If They're Married If They're Like Oh Please Just Stay Unmarried It's Like Come On Man Like Don't Say That When Paul Says It

Though It's Not Coming From A Place Of Bitter It's Coming From A Place Of Him Knowing What's Better That's What It Is He's

Not Bitter He's Not Upset It's Not Like He He's Saying I'm Telling You You Can Actually Be Happier Freer Walk In More Joy

If You Just Focus On Jesus And He Means It Now How Does Paul Mean That Because It Sounds A Little Bit Crazy To

Us When The Bible Steps In And Tells Someone Who's Been Divorced You Should Not Get Remarried Do You Know How Offensive That Sounds

To Us How Harmful That Sounds It Sounds Like What Just Be Single Forever Don't Marry Someone Of The Same Gender Just Be Single

It Sounds Like All We Have Really Said Is Hey We Want You To Have A Terrible Lonely And Sad Life That's The Way

We Hear It Because We've Been Oversold On Romance Is The Only Way To Fulfillment Romance Is The Only Way To Real Love Romance

Is The Only Way To Companionship Romance Is The Only Way To Be Known And Cherished And Cared For Romance We've Oversold It So

That It's Hard For The Church Even To Say Things The Bible Says With Any Amount Of Credibility Because We're Walking In The Same

Vain With The Rest Of The Culture On What We Believe About Romance But When Paul Says It He Means How How How Can

He Say That Well I Think It's Been In Our Ephesians Passage That We Have Read Over And Over Again So Turn Back To

Ephesians 5 We've Read This For The Past Four Five Weeks And I Think When Paul Says You Don't Have To Get Married I

Think We Can Actually Look At The Section On Marriage And See Why He Says That With Such Credibility Why He Can Look You

In The Face And Not Blink And Say I Think You Should Spend Your Time Worrying About What Jesus Wants And That Will Be

Good And You'll Be Complete So Here's What We've Read Over And Over Again It's Going To Be On The Screen I'm Going To

Read Through It Fairly Quickly Ephesians 5 I Think This Is The Last Time We'll Read This Together As A Church You Guys So

You Should Be Excited We've Read It A lot Okay I Was Super Confused I'm Looking At Galatians I'm Going To Get It Together Here

We Go I Was Like I Don't Know What This Is 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 Was So That He He 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 Bodies He Who Loves His Wife Loves Himself For No One Ever Hated His Own Flesh But Nourishes And Cherishes It If You're

Single You Hear Wives It's It's Easy For That To Happen And Some Of That Is Because The Church Has Oversold This So Much

We've We've Overhyped This So Much I've Been In Sermons Y'all No I'm Going To Talk About I Wasn't In I Saw It On

The Internet I've Interneted Sermons Y'all There We Go Where The Point Of The Sermon Was This Where So Many Sermons Are Hey Are

You Single Would You Like To Hear About The Promised Land That Is Marriage Would You Like To Hear About The Goal Of Life

That Is Marriage I Was In A Sermon That Was God Took The Text That Said God Gives Good Gifts And Then Said God

Only Gives Good Gifts So If You're Not A Good Gift How Would God Give You To Someone Else And The Point Of The

Sermon Was You Should Become A Good Gift And Then You Can Get Married One Of The Points In The Sermon Was You Should

Exercise But What They Set It Up As Was Here's This Weird Like An Actual Promise The Bible Says About God Giving Good Gifts

Let Me Apply It To A Weird text And Let Me Say That If You Do Everything Good If You Work Really Hard At

The End Of It You Can Have Future Perfect Spouse Let Me Tell You Something That Is Not The Gospel That Is Not The

Good News Of The Bible That Also Sets You Up For A Really Messed Up Marriage Because Your Spouse Is Going To Way Worse

Than Jesus And Make A Terrible Savior Here's The Gospel You You Are A Sinner Who Is Broken You Need A Savior And The Promised Land Is

Life With Christ In Eternity That's The Gospel And So I Did On Like A General Regular Basis But What I Did Was I

Took This Passage And I Just Put All The Stuff That Was Talking About Specific Instructions To Husbands And Wives And I Want Us

To See What Paul Hangs It All On Church And So Here Is The Text The Reality Of The Text See Everything Else Is

Just Hanging On This But He Says Christ Is The Head Of The Church His Body And Is Himself Its Savior The Church Submits

To Christ In Everything Christ Loved The Church And Gave Himself Up For Her If You Are A Christian You Belong To The Church

If You Place Your Faith In Christ This Christ Loved The Church And Gave Himself Up For Her That He Might Sanctify Her Having

Cleansed Her By The Washing Of The 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 Christ Loves The Church As His Own Body Christ Does

Not Hate The Church But Nourishes And Cherishes It Because We Are Members Of His Body What He Said Was Christ So Loved The

Church That He Gave Himself Up For Her That He Sacrificed Everything That He Could Have Her That All All The Beautiful Love Stories

We Have Told Are Just A Hint A Whiff Of What Christ Has Done For The Church Everything We've Ever Loved About A Hero

Riding Into Rescue Is Just A Small Dirty Mirror Pointing At What Christ Has Done For The Church He Says He Nourishes That Means

That Christ Takes Us And He Cares So Much About Us That He Provides Everything We Need And He Takes Everything You Could Ever

Want Everything That You Feel Like You're Lacking Everything That You Feel Like Is Out Of Place And He Just Fills You Up And

Then He Cherishes I Think There's So Much Of Us That Longs To Be Cherished I'm A Grown Man And I Don't Use That

Word A Lot I Want My Wife To Cherish Me I Want Her To House I Want Her To Laugh And Think I Love

That He's Funny But The Truth Is She Doesn't Cherish Me Like Christ Does She Never Will See My Wife And My Marriage It's

Good It Gets To Be A Picture Of The Gospel Gets To Point To It But When We Step Into Eternity She's My Sister

I'm The Bride Of Christ I'm Cherished In a Way That He Desires And Longs For And Knows Intimately Everything Knows All Of My Sin

And Still Died For It That He Loves Us Beyond Compare That He Nourishes And Cherishes It Because We're Members Of His Body Therefore

A Man Shall Leave His Father And Mother And Hold Fast To His Wife And The Two Shall Become One Flesh This Mystery Is

Profound And I'm Saying That It Refers To Christ And The Church We Said This On Our First Week But Marriage Points To The

Gospel So So So So So So Paul Without Blinking Can Look And Say If You Just Get Jesus You Do Better French Not

It Dubai your spouse or you maybe never have a spouse but that person would only have ever been a small arrow pointing to Christ if they did what they were supposed to correctly there's going to be a day when it says that new Jerusalem comes out of heaven adorned like a bride for her husband and that Christ is going to welcome the church and he's going to look at us and be so overwhelmed by love and then we're going to have a wedding feast where he welcomes us to him in a cherishing nourishing love like we've never known and that if you are single you can walk with Jesus your whole life and be full and complete and loved beyond your peers and beyond the people around you it does take work does take some effort to walk with Jesus and to rest in him and to pray and to wrestle this out but it's real the band's going to come back up here the king of the universe if you belong to the church if you belong to Christ the king of the universe loved you pursued you desired you saw your sin and in spite of it died for it to claim you

So that he might love and nourish and cherish you for all eternity and if you are not a Christian you can repent of your sin and it'll mean that the king of the universe loved you saw you pursued you and cherished you claimed you as his own and died for your sin but if we belong to Jesus we haven't missed out on anything we actually get what's better let's pray God we ask that you would help us grow in knowing your love in resting in it and in walking in communion connection with you we might feel you we love you and we praise you in Jesus name amen thank you