 Marriage is for the glory of God. Now if you can, with everything that you do, whether you eat, drink, or whatever you do, right, do you alter the glory of God, if you can just run through your filter constantly, would this glorify God? So what I'm doing, would it honor God? Is it something with which God would be well pleased? If you can just get in the habit of cultivating that kind of thought process, then obviously all these aspects to living the married life will be run through that filter, and you'll go a long way toward having a marriage that honors God. The problem is that we forget that. Now we start living back to our own devices, back in self-indulgent ways and fleshly ways and trying to serve ourselves, not considering, not considering our spouse, but not considering God either. And marriage is to be lived for the glory of God. Romans 11-36 says, So all things were created by Him, all things were created for Him, all things are through Him and to Him, including your marriage. It is for the glory of God. Isaiah 43, verse 6 says this, Everything was created for the glory of God. Marriage is created, instituted, ordained by God for the glory of God. Colossians chapter 1, verse 16, And what? For Him, created through Him and for Him, all for the glory of God. Your marriage exists for Him. And to the degree that you don't acknowledge Him in your marriage, it's to the degree that you are self-serving and self-sufficient and self-indulgent and selfish. For in that, for Him communicates that God is supreme and you are not. You are not for yourselves, you're for Him. Your marriage is not for yourself, your marriage is for Him. For communicates that God is supreme and your marriage is not. Just think about that for a moment. Everything was lived for the glory of God, Him being supreme and everything else would take care of itself. Everything else would be God glorifying. God is not the genie in the bottle that you rub to make your marriage tolerable or to get the promotion that you want at work or to have well-behaved children or to get rich or to be content. Your marriage, all marriages, are to be lived for the glory of God. Now for His glory, when we talk about glorifying God, for His glory means the display of His attributes, His perfections, His excellencies, His matchless attributes. When we talk about glorifying God, we're talking about displaying or proclaiming the matchless excellencies and attributes of God. That's what we say. God has no need of any additional glory. He is full of glory in and of Himself. So when you say, I'm going to glorify God, you're not adding to His glory. God is fully glory already. What you're doing is reflecting His glory. You're reflecting His attributes. You're proclaiming His excellencies. And in that we are said to glorify God. Now think about that in terms of the church. Think about that in terms of Christians everywhere. You're like individual little mirrors, all right, that are arranged in a vast array of mirrors that each one reflects light, the radiance, the beauty, the majesty, the truth, the worthiness, the greatness of God. And marriages of God's people are these little mirrors all arrayed in a collective array, each a bright reflection displaying the attributes of our supremely glorious God. Every Christian marriage is a little reflector, is a little mirror, reflecting back light, that altogether are brighter than the sun. But you each one have a light that you're reflecting. It's a, we're to be a flaming torch, if you will, to this lost world who lives in darkness. In that sense marriage is a display of God, a display of His attributes, a display of His perfections, His excellencies. Now allow this to sink deep for a minute into your heart and mind. Your marriage, your relationship with your spouse is to reflect the glory of God, the perfections of God, the attributes of God, the radiance of God. So you need to humble yourself and be convicted by God, where it doesn't, where it is a marred image, where that little mirror is covered over with dirt or big fat thumbprint or a, you know, some way in which you have martyred or scarred it, and be transformed by the spirit of God through the truth of God. Allow your marriage through what we've talked about to be transformed by God through His Word, to be sanctified, again it's to be a living breathing organic display of God's glory. In the same way that one heart this morning serves sort of as an introduction, leading some very practical instruction, allow this to sort of serve as a conclusion to give you another filter through which we view our marriages and how we're to live in our marriages for Christ is to bind everything together, right? And to Rick's point a minute ago, orthodoxy is right doctrine should lead to orthopraxy, right practice. Doctrine should lead to faithful practice, but also should lead to doxology, which is worship. In thinking about our marriages and the glory of God, it should provoke worship. The truth of God should lead to worship, and we need to worship God with and in our marriages. Our marriages should worship and point to Christ. Let me give you 20 ways, 20 ways in which the glory of God, let me give you 40 ways, 45 ways in which the glory of God, we'll see if we get through 20, 20 ways in which the glory of God is to be reflected or displayed in your marriage, all right? 20 ways in which the glory of God is to be reflected or displayed in your marriage. First, the glory of God reflected in His creation. Now think about this for a moment, reflecting the glory of God in His creation in your marriage. And this goes a long way with what Rick was talking about a few moments ago. The Bible says in Romans 119 of fallen man, what may be known of God is manifest in lost people, fallen man, for God has shown it to them. For since creation, since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes, God's attributes are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but they became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened. Marriage was instituted by God, created by God for His glory, and you need to live like it belongs to Him. Your marriage belongs to God, it's for His purposes, it's for His glory. Are you glorifying Him as God in your marriage? In what ways are you failing to glorify God in your marriage, living your marriage for Him? Are you thankful to God, truly thankful, in your marriage for your spouse? You know, it goes back to this idea of thankfulness, but that's a mark of a lost person, they weren't thankful. So you can honestly, can you honestly say right now, thinking of your spouse, God, thank you, thank you for my wife, thank you for my husband, thank you for this institution of marriage, all the blessings that come, forgive me, Lord, for not availing myself of all those blessings, forgive me, Lord, for the sin that I bring into this marriage, but Lord, thank you, thank you that I can live for you, that I can trust in you, that I can depend on you for a godly marriage and be thankful. Consider asking yourself simple questions in your marriage. When you arrive at circumstances, when you come up on those conversations, you know, when you have difficulties or trial, is it glorifying to God? Well, the decision that I make, glorify Him. How I'm responding to my spouse right now, is it glorifying to God? Is our intimate relationship glorifying to God? Is the way that we communicate together, is that glorifying to God? Am I glorifying God in my marriage? Will it bring Him honor? How I'm interacting with my spouse? How we're living together at this point? Is it bringing God honor? And that becomes a qualifier for Christian marriage that God created for His glory. Christian marriage is for God's glory. Number two, the glory of God in His immutability. In His immutability, God does not change. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. God's word does not change because it comes from God. It is the same yesterday, today, and forever. God's design for marriage does not change. As a result, it is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So you glorify God in your marriage by displaying God's immutable plan for marriage. This wicked world is an unstable wave tossed to and fro in the sea, right? Driven by the wind. But with God, there is no variation or shadow of turning. So the world's conceptions of marriage are going to change like the tides. They're changing every five minutes, you know, some one more piece of psycho babble about marriage after another, just turning it out, and it changes all the time. And we've seen it change dramatically, say in the last five, seven, eight years, right? Dramatic changes. However, God's instruction for marriage is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And so despite the world's outrage that a woman would be content to stay home and be a helper to her husband and you know, keep house and display the glory of God in living out her role as a wife in the marriage, a world would be outraged at that thought. Despite that, you let the world do what the world's going to do, and you follow God's plan for marriage. In that, you glorify God and God's immutability in his immutable plan for marriage. You show that in spite of a changing world, God is right. God's ways are right. His plan is right. You follow God's plan, which does not change. Psalm 145, verse 17. The Lord is righteous in all his ways, gracious in all his works, and his works are just as righteous today as they were 2,000 years ago, as they were 4,000 years ago. God is just as gracious 4,000 years ago as he is today. His works do not change. His plan for marriage does not change. So listen, the longer that we go here, the more glaring the difference will be between your marriage and the world's conception of marriage. It's going to become more and more and more foreign, you know, more alien to this world. Next, display the glory of God in your marriage by displaying the glory of God in his sovereignty, in his sovereignty. We glorify God in our marriage by trusting in God's sovereign plans. Think about Abraham in Romans 4, right? Abraham was a picture of faith in God, given in Scripture as a picture of faith. God says to Abraham, listen, you're going to have a son. Abraham's a hundred. Sarah is just ever so slightly beyond child-bearing years, if she was in her 90s, and yet Abraham isn't stumbling around wondering how this is all going to be possible. Abraham just believes God. He believes God, even though what's about to happen is not humanly possible. He trusts God. Verse 20, if you go to Romans 4, verse 20, he did not waver, the Bible says, at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God. As we trust God in his sovereign purposes and his sovereign plans, we give glory to God. So you give glory to God in your marriage by trusting in his sovereignty. Listen, the Lord's in control. I will not waver. I will simply believe. The Lord has said he will provide all of my needs, supply all of my needs according to his riches in Christ Jesus, and so I trust his plan. When the trial comes along or the difficulty comes along, listen, God is sovereign, and I'm going to glorify God in my trusting his sovereign plans. That's how we do that in our marriage. If you say I'm a Christian, that you believe that God's in control, you believe that he's sovereign, that he's going to provide, that he cares for you, then you've got to act like it in your marriage. Stop complaining. Stop worrying. Stop being anxious. Stop being discontent. The Lord knows exactly what you need. He gives you, if you're a Christian, exactly what you need. It is for your good. It's exactly as the Lord intended it. So what are you complaining about? Glorify God in your understanding of God's sovereignty in your circumstances. Trust him. And my God, the Bible says, will supply all my need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. You respond that way in trial. You respond that way in difficulty. You respond that way when you begin one of those conversations. You trust the Lord, okay? Trust the Lord with your spouse. Trust the Lord with your spouse. I've heard Christians say, professing Christians say before, that I don't know that I'm with a, how do I know I'm with the right person? Married couple. How do I know I'm with a, because you're married to them. The Lord is sovereign over your circumstances. The Lord is sovereign over who you're married to. You're married. So who is that person? That's exactly the person that God intended for you to marry. God is sovereign over your circumstances. Well, I don't know if he's right for me. Yes, he is. He's exactly right for you. He's exactly what you need. This, this guy's exact, yes, he's exactly what you need. Maybe you need humbling. Maybe you need patience, right? This is the person that God has put you with sovereignly. And so even, listen, if you're a Christian, even your sin God uses for good, you can make a sinful decision. You can make a decision without praying, without consulting. You can be like Joshua charging off into AI without consulting the Lord, but even that, the Lord is going to turn that. What you meant for evil, God intends for good. He's going to turn that situation around. It's exactly what you're going to need for your sanctification, for your maturity, for your growth. The Lord is sovereign. You need to say that and believe it. Think about your husband, your wife right now. Thank you, Lord. Exactly what I need. You may not fully understand that, but she is exactly what you need. He is exactly what you need. And if you say it, if you believe it, if you believe that God is sovereign, then pray. Pray like you believe it. You often hear an Arminian say, well, if God is sovereign, why pray? We pray because God is sovereign. If God is not in control, then why would we pray? We pray because God is in control. Be thankful that God is in control and pray. You need to thank the Lord for all your circumstances and be grateful for them and trust God in them. Think about it. Praying, praying, knowing that the Lord is sovereign, praying displays the glory of God. His plans are settled. So your prayer doesn't change God's decree, doesn't change God's plans, but God displays his glory in your prayer because then God shows himself, displays himself as a prayer answering God who can be trusted in all your circumstances. He visually displays himself in answering prayer. His great power, his glory, his care, his love, his covenant keeping love, his faithfulness all displayed in answering prayer. So we glorify God displaying his sovereignty in our marriage. Next, the glory of God displayed in his providence and his providence. These two things are very closely related, but in his providence, we glorify God in our marriages and his providence in our marriage by displaying contentment with his providence. The providence is God executing his decrees in everyday life. God executes his decrees in your marriage, in your everyday life, and that's what we call God's providence. And so we display or we glorify God in reflecting our understanding of his providence in our marriage by being content. Now, one of the ways to do this with obeying God, in displaying God's glory through his providence is to be content with the marriage rolls that Rick was getting into a few moments ago. If wives would lovingly submit to their husbands as unto the Lord, no matter what the world says, that's what the Bible says, so wives submit yourselves to the Lord, to your husband as unto the Lord, men are to sacrificially love and lead their wives as Christ does the church. No matter what your flesh wants, men, that's what your responsibility is. Both of those complementary acts of love, complementary acts of sacrifice to lead and then to submit are unsustainable for the glory of God without a settled contentment in the providence of God. Let me say what I mean by that. Wives, sometimes very difficult right to submit to your husband because the direction that he's headed may be a direction that you don't see or don't agree with, but if you have a settled contentment in God's providence, a settled contentment in God's control and God's sovereignty, then in displaying the glory of God in his providence in your marriage, you simply trust God and say, this is the direction we're going because I'm going to, regardless if I understand it or disagree or not in this circumstance, I'm going to submit to the lead of my husband and I'm going to trust God for what happens. I trust God. I trust God's sovereignty is control. I trust him in his providence. This is going to work out. I'm going to trust God here. Trust God alone in your circumstances and for what will happen and in that you glorify God in his providence. Does that make sense? Glorify God in content with what happens because you're going to obey God. We can glorify God. Men, you can glorify God in his providence by sacrificially giving yourself, sacrificially denying yourself for your wife. You need to do this and this is what my wife wants. I see no compelling reason not to provide this for her. I'm going to provide this for her and you just trust God. You trust God. We can glorify God in our marriages when the glory of God is displayed in his wisdom, in his wisdom. God's conception of marriage works in a very pragmatic way and the world's conception of marriage does not. Marriage according to the Bible is extremely counter-cultural, getting more counter-cultural every day as the world moves and shifts. And so do marriage God's way and there's joy, there's bliss, there's intimacy, genuine love, teamwork. Think about those roles again for a minute. The house that runs so well demonstrates God's wisdom as set apart from the wisdom of this ignorant world. Just God's marriage done God's way, glorifies God in stark contrast with the world and what the world's conceptions of marriage are. Think about this world's reasoning when it comes to raising your kids. You don't exercise authority over your kids, your kids will hate authority. If you don't spank your kids, you spare the rod, spoil the child. Listen, you do raising your kids the way the Bible says to do it. Raise your kids in the nurturing atmosphere. Lord, spare the rod, spoil the child. You follow God's program for raising your kids. You can demonstrate a great contrast in a godly home as opposed to a worldly home. Just raise your kids according to God's plan. There's wisdom in it. There's wisdom in it. You can display number six, the glory of God displayed in his power. It's only possible to have a God glorifying marriage because you have been miraculously transformed by God and made a new creation in Christ. You've been born again. It's only possible to sustain a God glorifying marriage because you are empowered by God to live according to his statutes. You submit to the spirit of God, live yielded to the spirit of God in your marriage, and you're able to accomplish these things for the glory of God in your marriage. Number seven, the glory of Christ in his supremacy, the glory of Christ in his supremacy. Psalm 63 verse three says, your steadfast love is better than life. You must find superior satisfaction in God, superior satisfaction in Christ. I read this. Good. The power and impulse to carry through the self-denial and daily, monthly, yearly dying that will be required in loving an imperfect wife and loving an imperfect husband must come from a hope giving, soul sustaining, superior satisfaction in God. I don't think that our love for our wives or theirs for us will glorify God until it flows from a heart that delights in God more than marriage. So love God first. Love Christ supremely. If you have a supreme love for Christ, it's going to impact your marriage, will it not? I don't know how many brand new, you know, baby new, fresh out of the oven Christians that come through the door of our church that live here for a period of time. We could be preaching every week on lapsarianism and their marriages are getting better. Now why is that? Because they have a love for Christ. They want to honor Christ, they want to obey Christ, and it just has far-reaching tentacles into every area of your life. Just love Christ supremely, study his word, live for him, and your marriage is going to get better too. The Lord will see to it. Next number eight, the glory of God and his authority. The glory of God and his authority can be demonstrated in your marriage. Demonstrate submission to God and his word in all things. Make every decision according to what the word of God has to say. Spend time because you are under authority. Spend time together studying his word together. You are people under authority. Order your marriage in every way according to biblical principles. This is what you should be doing today. As you learn a new principle, or as you hear something, maybe you've forgotten, you write it down, you commit to putting it in place. The more of that that you put in place, the more that you live a God-glorifying marriage. There are certain basic foundational principles that husbands and wives should have together. Couples that pray together what? Stay together? So are you praying together? You should pray together. That's something that's very convicting to me and all of us. We need to pray. We need to pray like our marriages depend on it. We need to study the word of God together. We need to learn together. Those biblical principles, you put those in place because we are people under authority and we're to live our marriages the way that God planned for us to live our marriages. Nine, the glory of God in his purity. You're to be pure in your marriage. We've talked about that today. Drink water from your own cistern. Delight in the wife of your youth. You've been bought with a prize therefore glorify God in your body. Number ten, we're to display the glory of God in his holiness in our marriages. We glorify God in our marriages by displaying his holiness. He calls us to holiness. That involves confession. We've talked about that a little bit during the one-flesh sermon. We're to confess sin with one another. It's interesting in Joshua 7. I mentioned that a moment ago. Joshua racing into AI. But you think about Joshua 7. Joshua 7, Joshua confronts Achan for taking the accursed things. There's silver, gold, there's the Babylonian garment under his tent and so he goes to Achan to confront Achan in his same. And you remember the story. It just goes from the tribe down to the family and then down to the family. The whole thing is just getting closer and closer and closer. And in verse 19, Joshua says this to Achan. He says, my son, I beg you, this one he says, give glory to the Lord God of Israel and make confession to him. We give glory to God by making confession of our sin. Confess your sin to one another. He says, and tell me now what you've done. Do not hide it from me. Then what do they do with Achan? They stone him, his family, everything he owns. That was God's judgment. But here you give glory to God by making confession for your sin. Confess sin one another in your marriage. In that you acknowledge that God is righteous. And with Christians, it's not judgment that's hanging over your head, but certainly there's the chastening of the Lord. And you're recognizing, you're acknowledging that the chastening of God is righteous and just. You deserve to be chastened for your sin knowing that he is just. And you're going to accept those circumstances because you know you deserve it that it's right. It's right that the Lord would do it. In that you display the glory of God in his holiness. You're to repent of sin because you are to be holy just as he is holy. Anyone who really sees the tragedy or the horror of their own sin will have difficulty being discontent with circumstances they don't like. They're going to look at everything as, yeah, this is better than I deserve. They're going to look at everything as this is something I, if it's negative, the end of the day, it could all be chalked up to chastening, discipline from Heavenly Father who chastens you to produce the peaceable fruit of righteousness. And so hard to complain, hard to be discontent in those circumstances. When you come to trial, come to difficulty, come to circumstances, you need to chalk that up as chastening, chalk that up to something that you deserve. You're getting better than you deserve. You need to glorify God in that, praise God for it and just be content in your circumstances knowing that God is working all that for your good. And in that you glorify God in his holiness. We are sinful in our marriages. So accept the discipline of God and don't complain. You deserve it, right? Next, number 11, the glory of God displayed in his grace. Be gracious to one another. As we looked at in Colossians chapter 3, I won't repeat that here for time's sake, but we're to display the glory of God in our marriages by acting with one another in grace, in grace. The Lord has acted with you according to grace. Act with your spouse according to grace. Be forgiving, be kind, be tenderhearted, be long suffering, as Colossians 3 there says. Number 12, we're to display the glory of God in his love, sacrificially love as Christ loves the church and gave himself for her. You should love your marriage itself. Hebrews chapter 13, back to that, that let the marriage bed be honorable or let marriage be honorable among all. That word honorable there, meaning precious. Marriage should be precious to you. Institution of marriage should be precious to you. When you speak of it, you know, you're not at work with the rest of the guys talking about marriage as a ball and chain. Your wife is a ball and chain. And I love being married. Praise God for marriage. Praise God for marriage. It's awesome. Thank you, Lord, for my wife. Thank you for, you know, it's right. You glorify God in displaying his grace and in his love, loving marriage itself. Marriage should be precious to you. And listen, again, back to those types of things that should be precious to you. It doesn't matter how you feel about it. If you're thinking to yourself right now, boy, I just, oh, I don't feel that marriage is very precious to me. Repent of that and think in your mind and cultivate reasons for why marriage is precious, whether you feel like it's precious or not. Marriage is honorable among all. Marriage is precious. Marriage is a tremendous blessing whether you see it or not. And so acknowledge agreement with God's word that it is and train yourself, inform your understanding so that you see it that way too. It doesn't matter how you feel about it. It is that way, right? So it is honorable and we're to view it that way. Number 13, the glory of Christ and his obedience. Philippians chapter two says this, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. He goes on to say, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Remember witnessing to a guy, claimed to be a Christian and said that he's just tired and got into conversation about his marriage, just tired of his wife, tired of his life, and was going to divorce. I said, well, you can't do that. Well, what do you mean I can't do that? Of course I can do that. Well, the Bible says you can't do that. Well, we're all sinners, I can do that. You're just brazenly just disregarding clear command of Scripture. No, you can't do that. The Lord says you can't do that. You have no basis on which to divorce. The Lord says you cannot. So if you say, well, I'm going to anyway, then you're just blatant rebellion against God. We're to glorify Christ in our obedience to obey the Lord in all things in our marriage. If God says to do this and just do it, that should settle it. That's the way that we're to live. And it's amazing how many Christians, you know, so-called contemplate divorce or contemplate doing this, that, or the other thing in their marriage when it just brazenly, blatantly, obviously goes against clear commands of Scripture. You just obey God. Just obey the Bible. And that is a big first planted footstep to progress in your marriage to making things work. You just got to have that settled resolve in your mind. The Bible says it. I'm going to do it. And that settles it, you know. Next, we're to reflect the glory of God in his patience, in his patience. Be patient with one another. Long suffering. This all came when we looked at Colossians chapter three. The glory of God in his forgiveness. Forgiving one another even as God in Christ forgave you. Forgiving one another. Glory of God in his forgiveness. Number 16, the glory of Christ in his humility. To humble yourself. It takes a lot of humility to be in a marriage. You have to humble yourself. And I tell you, remember many times in which my failure to humble myself caused shame and a humbling of myself in marriage. You don't humble yourself. You get humiliated. Just humble yourself. That's a constant problem. A constant fight. Our pride that keeps raising its ugly head in our marriage you're to be humble. And you display the glory of Christ in his humility in your marriage by humbling yourself. Goes against the world, right? Against the world's conceptions of marriage because marriage is a place where people bow up and assert their rights. You don't bow up, you humble yourself and you esteem others more highly than yourself. You don't assert your rights. But that's the way the world does it. Number 17, you're to display the glory of Christ in his body, the church. You glorify God in employing the gifts. As a married couple, the Lord has given you gifts to serve the church with, to serve the body with. In 1 Peter chapter four, in verse 11, the Bible says this, if anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies. That in all things, God may be glorified through Jesus Christ to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever amen. Just by using your gifts as a husband and wife, tag team, Priscilla and Aquila in the church serving the body, you glorify God in using the gifts that he's given you. You glorify Christ in his body. Number 18, you display the glory of God in his mission, in his mission. Think about Priscilla and Aquila there. Glorifying Christ in his mission. Second Corinthians chapter four, verse 15 says this, for all things are for your sakes, that grace having spread through the many, what does that mean? The grace of God having spread. It's evangelism. It's a mission of God. That's the glory of God, the grace of God being spread is in the Great Commission. You're preaching the gospel. And it says that grace having spread through the many may cause thanksgiving to a bound to what? Do you remember? To the glory of God. But to the glory of God. You glorify God in sharing the gospel. You can do that as a married couple. You should do that as a married couple. I like Priscilla and Aquila and all of that for the glory of God. You're just bringing more people to him to put in the Holy Eucharist. The choir in heaven is just getting bigger because you're bringing people into the kingdom. That's what you're to do. Glory God, glorify God in his mission. 19, the glory of God in his worship. The glory of God in his worship. In Psalm chapter 50, verse 23, he says, whoever offers me praise glorifies me. As a couple, you worship the Lord. You worship the Lord together. I like the Puritans conception of the home. It is to be a little church with the dad as the pastor. You glorify, you worship, you praise the Lord in your home. You praise the Lord with your marriage by doing all of these things and living in such a way that honors the Lord in your marriage. You praise him. Praise and worship him in your home, in the car, with the kids. So the glory of God in his worship. 20, the glory of God displayed in your unity. The glory of God displayed in your unity. Romans 15, verse 5 says this, may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We're to be unified. We're to be of the same mind. We're to be of the same voice. We're to be in one accord. And being of the same mind, the same voice of one accord, we glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Mark 10, what God has joined together, let no man separate. God has put you together, one mind, one voice. Romans 8, yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I'm persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other created things shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. We are unified. Unified to Christ in our redemption. Unified to one another in marriage where to display that unity. Knowing God and cherishing God and valuing the glory of God above all things including your spouse is the key to living marriage to the glory of God. Oftentimes I hear, we'll talk about this probably a little bit during the Q and A but often I hear that balancing of these things is people have challenges with that that somehow God is for their marriage and for their family, all those things, it really is the reverse. You are for the glory of God, your marriage is for the glory of God, your family is for the glory of God and if we can keep ourselves individually focused on faith in Christ and living wholeheartedly for him with him as supreme then other things fall into place. Seek first the kingdom of God, all these things will be added to you. We need to look at God as supreme and have as our supreme end the glory of God and our marriages will be more in line with glorifying God. Let me conclude with this. This is a poem and it's a poem on marital love I found. This is the very end of it and it's called Love Her More and Love Her Less. I like this. It says, yes, love her. We're talking about his wife, right? Yes, love her. Love her more than life. Oh, love the woman called your wife. Go love her as your earthly best beyond this venture not but lest your love become a fool's facade. Be sure to love her less than God. That's something we consider, right? It is not wise or kind to call an idol by sweet names and fall as in humility before a likeness of your God. Above your best beloved on earth, the God alone who gives her worth, she will know in second place that your great love is also grace and that your high affections now are flowing freely from a vow beneath these promises first made to you by God, nor will they fade for being rooted by the stream of heaven's joy which you esteem and cherish more than breath and life that you may give it to your wife. The greatest gift you give your wife is loving God above her life and thus I bid you now to bless, go love her more by loving less. So you love your wife, love God supremely. You want to have a marriage that honors God then love God supremely above your own desires, your own affections, above your own wishes, your own wants. Love God supremely above your own marriage, above your wife, but everything else, everything else is second. I love that. To God alone who gives her worth, she'll know in second place that your great love is also grace. You have to put the preeminence of Christ as the aim and object and thrust and drive of our marriage and convince if you do that in genuine that you can rescue your marriage from all kinds of problems and difficulties and really comes down to, and you know this to be true, the vast majority of the problems in a marriage are simply selfishness, self-indulgence, self-will, unrestrained gratification of fleshly lusts, your own mind, your own thoughts, your own heart, your own will, your own resolve, your own determination. It's just selfishness, selfishness, selfishness, selfishness and placing God as first and foremost and looking to him, if you're in Christ, your chief aim is to deny yourself, to take her across and follow him. In denying yourself to Christ, you can then deny yourself to your wife and by loving him first you can have a tremendous marriage by loving her second. Does that make sense? All right, let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you Lord for this time to talk about marriage or to just re-center our focus, to take our eyes maybe from the right or from the left and to more center them on Christ, to avoid those ditches of making excuses for our sin or the other ditch of just pounding legalism and unrealistic expectations of our spouse or unrealistic expectations of our marriage and just seeking, Lord, to live for you according to your word, according to your wisdom, not the world's, not our own and in that, God, in seeking you first, having a marriage that honors you. So strengthen us to do it. Anyone who says marriage is not hard work, this isn't married. We realize, Lord, acknowledge that in of ourselves we are incapable of living this ideal, so we need you, God. We're desperately in need of you. We need your spirit now, a convictus of sin, guide us and direct us by your spirit, empower us by your spirit to obey, to humble ourselves, to seek the good of our spouse above our own, to seek the glory of God above that. And Lord, let us have relationships, God, marriages that glorify you. I pray, God, that this would be a time where we can put down those things, one, just to have the time to think through it as such a blessing, just to sort of stop for a moment and to contemplate or to think on you, think on your word and then to think on our marriage in light of that, time to stop and to contemplate and to think on those things where we need to repent, think on those things where we need to change. And I pray, God, that starting now that we would do just that, there would be things that we would commit even now to doing. And then by the time this small conference comes around next year, Lord, we would, by your grace, see progress in our marriage for your glory. So help us, we want to not simply be hearers or we want to be doers of your word. So strengthen us to that end. And again, all for your glory, God, all for displaying your perfections. You are our glorious, matchless God. And we thank you, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen.