Marriage and Divorce - Impossible to Possible - Matthew S5E8

All right, man, hey, let's give a hand for that. How amazing is that today? Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Love that. I want to invite you to open up your Bibles today to the book of Matthew, chapter 19, verse 3. Matthew chapter 19, verse 3. We'll get there in just a minute. My name is Matt. It's an honor to be here today. About a year ago, I got a calendar invite from Pastor Joby to preach on July the 19th, and so I do what I always do. I opened up the Bible and looked at the scripture to see what it is that he wanted me to preach on, and the first thing I did was sigh deeply because I realized that Pastor Joby had asked me to preach on what, in my opinion, is the single, solitary, most difficult subject to preach on in the gospel of Matthew, and that is the subject of divorce. But then I laughed because it hit me that if I were the lead pastor, I would have done the exact same thing that he did. My wife asked me, hey, babe, when do you want to go on vacation? I asked, when are we and Matthew on the subject of divorce? July 19th. Make the backup guy do it. That's exactly what I do. Why? It's an emotionally heavy, difficult subject. A lot of folks in the room have gone through divorce. There's folks considering right now going through a divorce, and even more of us, in some shape, form, or fashion, have been impacted by divorce, and so I want you to understand something.

It's a painful subject, and I want you to know that I get that, and we're going to approach it today very pastorally. On the other hand, it's also an intellectually difficult subject. Church, I've been doing this a minute, and I'm just telling you, if you study this subject deeply and you really look at the Word of God and uncover every rock, you're going to realize something, that the subject of divorce, when you can get divorced, under what circumstances you can divorce, it's not near as clear-cut as some people make it out to be. Now, Pastor Joby and I, we talk about this at length in the Deepen podcast. We uncover a lot of those rocks. We talk about a lot of those subjects, and we go deeper, but I just want you to understand today that as I go through this, there are a lot of really good theologians that are a lot smarter than me and a lot smarter than you that completely disagree on this subject, so why am I telling you this? One, just I want to beg you today to give me grace as we walk through this together. Hang with me to the end. You're going to learn something, and I hope you've already learned it, but if you haven't, you're going to learn something, that God loves you today more than your wildest imagination, and that your greatest failure in your life does not define you. That's what we're going to see today, but here's what we're going to do. Here's what we're going to focus on. We're going to spend the majority of our time talking about two things. Number one, we're going to look at God's view of marriage. If there's anything you walk out of here today, I want you, above everything else, whether you're single, whether you're married, whether you're divorced, whatever, I want you walking out of here today with a higher view of marriage than you ever have before, because one of the things you're going to realize is that God's view of marriage is infinitely higher than our wildest imagination, and then in light of God's view of marriage, we're going to look at his view of divorce, because those two things, how God views marriage and how God views divorce, those things are not debatable in the scripture. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter what the word of God says.

I know beyond a shadow of a doubt, when it comes to 1122, when it comes to this church, we stand on the inerrant, infallible word of Almighty God, and so it doesn't matter what the Lord says to us today, we're going to apply our lives based on what he says. Amen? All right, let's jump in. Matthew chapter 19, verse 3. The Pharisees walk up to Jesus, and they ask him a question on the subject of divorce. We find out that they're testing him, and I'll tell you why in just a second, but let's read this. Matthew 19, verse 3. The Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause? Disciples come up to Jesus, and they ask him a question, Jesus. Is it okay for us to divorce our wives for any reason? Scripture said they were testing him. It hit me, I didn't know why they were testing him, so I looked it up and here's what I found out in my study, is that there was a huge debate at the time between the two top rabbinical schools of the Jewish culture there. There's like two main guys, two main rabbis, two main teachers. The first one was the Hillel rabbinical school and here was the Hillel rabbinical school of thought that you could divorce your wife for any reason whatsoever. She burned dinner, got in a bad argument, she wasn't meeting your needs, she roots for Alabama, it doesn't matter, you can kick her to the curb. That was what old Rabbi Hillel thought. Then there was the Shemaiah rabbinical school of thought

and they took what is a far more biblical view, which is that the only reason that you can divorce your wife was because of like sexual immorality, like gross abandonment, that sort of thing. And so here it is, check it out. So when they asked Jesus, is it lawful to divorce your wife for any cause, they're doing two things. Number one, listen, they wanna know what side he's on and number two, they're really wanting to get to the bottom of what is the minimum requirement for me to end a marriage. What's the minimum requirement for me to end a marriage? And instead of answering their question directly, Jesus takes them back to Genesis chapter one and two and he has a Bible study with them on God's intended design and purpose of marriage. And so that's what we're gonna do. We're gonna look at God's design and his purpose of marriage and again, what he showed them and what we're about to see is that God's view of marriage is infinitely higher than we can possibly imagine. Read verse three again. Pharisees came to him, testing him, asking is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause? And then watch what Jesus says in verse four and I love this, this is awesome. I love it when Jesus does this. He answered, have you not read?

In other words, do you guys not read the Bible? It's a legitimate question. Why are you asking me if a guy can get divorced from his wife for any reason? Because I don't know if you, you need to, have you read the Bible? He says, have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female? And then he said to them, therefore man should leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. Now there's a couple of really important things that God just said, or rather Jesus just said about, who is God, about marriage that we need to remember and we need to know. Number one, here's the kind of the first thing that Jesus said about God's view of marriage is that he is reminding the Pharisees that God is the inventor of marriage. It's actually very important that we remember that. That God invented marriage. So important that we remember. Hey y'all, man did not invent marriage. Man didn't think marriage up. It was not man's idea to get married. I mean, seriously, Adam wasn't walking around, you know, one day and like, man, Eve, she's pretty cool. So here's what I'll do. I'm gonna create and then enter into a legal,

moral and spiritual lifelong binding, unbreakable covenant with her and God and let's call it marriage. He didn't come up with that. He didn't come up with it all. It was God who invented marriage. Now here's the other thing Jesus said, and this is even maybe more important. Is it because God is the inventor of marriage, we learn that God designed marriage. God's the designer of marriage. He's the architect of marriage. He came up with the blueprint for marriage. Matthew 19, four. Jesus answered, have you not read? He who created them, he's the inventor. He who created them from the beginning and here's how he designed it. He made them male and female in verse five and said, watch this, here's the design. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife. Everybody chuckle the word, hold fast. Fast. This is the first thing that Jesus talks about on God's intended design of marriage. He said the first thing you understand about the way God designed marriage is that there is a physical, there's a physical binding that occurs

when you stand at the altar. There's like a physical bonding. That word hold fast right there. In the original language in Hebrew, it means to cement together. Cement. It's literally the strongest language that exists in that language about binding something together in a permanent way. I recently found this out. There's a bunch of Navy folks that live in this town and I love it. And one of the Navy folks that is in the Navy came and told me this after the service, like Pastor Matt, that word hold fast is a naval term. That when the storms are coming, when you're on a boat back in the day and the storms are coming and it's getting nasty and you're in fear for your life that you're about to get thrown overboard or cast overboard, you grab hold of something and it doesn't matter how much the wind blows, how much the rain comes, you hold fast and you never let go. That's what Jesus just said. God designed marriage. Man leaves his father and mother and he holds fast no matter what to his wife. Now listen, I'm just telling you what Jesus says, amen? Hold fast.

Saying God designed this thing in such a way that a man leaves his father and mother and cements together in an unbreakable way. That's why we say our vows. I've done 500, 600 weddings in my day. They stand there, you talk about them for a while, tell the girl how pretty she is and how lucky the guy is to be there with her and then you look at him and have him face each other and hold hands and I'm like, all right, repeat after me. Do you, you look at the guy, I'm like, do you knucklehead take her to be your wedded wife to have and to hold? In this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, forsaking all others, keeping yourself only for her as long as you both shall live. You say, I do, okay? That's a commitment to physically cementing to one another but then Jesus drops a bomb on them and reminds them that God's design for marriage was not just to be some sort of physical binding together. Listen carefully, listen carefully. But at the moment that you walk down the aisle and you stand at the altar, that there is a spiritual and a supernatural binding that is occurring at that moment. And if you don't hear anything I say today, you need to hear this. Look at verse five.

And Jesus said, therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife. Watch what he says. And the two shall become one. Now listen, I'm not great at math. As a matter of fact, I stink at math. I remember the day that the cheese like slid off the math cracker. It was in the fifth grade. Long division, I've struggled ever since. But here's the thing, here's what I do know. One plus one equals two, amen. God, he's like, here's what's gonna happen. One plus one is gonna equal one. So how does one plus one equal one? The only explanation is that God takes two people and he transforms you into something brand new. He takes the two of you and he binds you together where you're no longer two, but Jesus said you become one. That word become right there, here's what it means. It means something that's created from scratch. It means something that comes into being that did not exist before. He said at the moment of your marriage, you come together, you say your vows, you come together, you say your vows, and then God does something supernatural. He joins the two of you together into something brand new.

I was looking for an illustration to try to get our brains around that because we've heard that our whole lives, but I wanted to give you a visual illustration. And so I found this. By the way, up there in the top right, that's where the Steelers play football. This is the two rivers on the left and the right. I had to look it up, and I'm gonna slaughter the words. Please forgive me if you're from this area, but it's like the Monongahela, I think. Is that not it? Did I get it? I studied over the weekend, all right. To the left, Monongahela, it's on the left. Now, on the right is the Allegheny River. And what happens is, right there at the stadium, the two become one river. And you can see it, that from there until it ends, wherever it ends, it's a new river. Now, what they didn't do is call that new river where the two became one, they didn't call it the Monongahela-Allegheny River. It's got a new name. It's called the Ohio River. That's exactly what happens at your marriage, is that you come together, you say your vows, you exchange rings, and then God, not you, God takes the two of you, and he forms you into something brand new.

It is a supernatural joining together church. Listen, and it is God, the one, it is God, he's the one who joins you. Watch this, check it out. Matthew 19, six. Jesus says, so. They are no longer two, but one flesh. Watch what he says. Therefore, as a result of the fact that you cemented to your wife, and now that God has taken you and turned you into two, he says, therefore, watch this, what God has joined together. Church, who joins you together? That's so important. What Jesus tells us about the design of marriage is that the pastor did not join the two of you together, that the justice of the peace or the guy in the Elvis suit, he didn't join you together. Maybe more importantly, to remember, the two of you did not join the two of you together. What Jesus said is that when you come together at the altar, it is God that turns you into a brand new creation. And then, watch what he says next, because he's finally going to answer their question. Can a man divorce his wife for any cause? Matthew 19, six. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together,

let not man separate. He answered their question. That's the answer to the question. Jesus, can a man divorce his wife for any cause? Takes him back to Genesis, reminds the design of marriage, man shall leave his father and mother cleave to his wife, the two shall become one flesh, therefore, what God joined together, man does not break apart. And guess what, man, the disciples were stunned when he said that. They grew up their whole lives, probably, I don't know, it doesn't say, half of them were hanging, they were kind of in the Hillel school, kind of hoping that they could divorce their wife for any reason. Some of them were in the Shammai school, a little more conservative, but then Jesus answers the Pharisee's question, but it's like, what God joined together, you don't break apart. And they were stunned. Their mouths dropped open, and one of them, I can't remember off the top of my head, one of them looks at Jesus, probably Peter, one of them looks at Jesus, and he said, well, if that's the case, that what God joined together, we can't break apart,

if that's the case, it's better not to get married. And you would think that Jesus would be going, oh, no, don't take it that far. You would think Jesus would say, no, no, for real, marriage is very difficult, it's gonna be hard, but it's really important, and so go out there and try to get married, and just realize it's a big deal to God. That's not what he says. When the disciples said, man, if that's the case, that God views marriage in that big of a way, it's better not to get married, and Jesus goes, you're right. Our view of marriage, church, is way too small. Jesus had an infinitely high view of marriage, and you begin to understand why when you begin to understand God's intended purpose for marriage. When you understand why, like what's the purpose of why God created marriage, then it starts making all the sense in the world why Jesus would say when God joins together, you don't break apart. Because, church, what is the purpose? There's several purposes of marriage, but what's the primary purpose? The primary purpose of marriage. We're about to find out here in Ephesians 5. Fast forward to the New Testament. We find out that God has this really massive, big, infinitely high purpose of marriage. In the Old Testament, we discover that one of the reasons God invented marriage, because he didn't want Adam to be alone, and that is a huge purpose of marriage, so that we're not alone. We know that God created marriage. One of the primary purposes of marriage was that man and woman would populate the earth with the bearers of God's image, but again, fast forward to the New Testament, Ephesians 5, and Paul drops a theological nuclear bomb on us when he reveals God's intended primary

purpose for marriage. Let's read it. If y'all remember, he talks about wives submit to your husbands as the church submits to Christ. He says, husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church, and then he takes them back to Genesis in the beginning, reminds them of what God said about how he designed marriage. Look at verse 31. Paul said, therefore, he quotes Genesis, therefore a man shall leave his father and mother, hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh, and then he says something crazy in verse 32. He says, this mystery is profound. Why does he say this mystery? Why does he call marriage a mystery? Anytime you see the word mystery in the Bible, check it out, it means something that has previously been hidden, but is now being revealed, and so he, Paul literally says, hey, when God said, cleave to your wife, the two shall become one flesh, Paul says, at the end of the day, that was a mystery. The purpose of marriage has always been a mystery. It's about to be revealed, and in verse 32, watch what it says. Paul says, the mystery is profound. I was saying, I am saying that it, marriage, refers to Christ and the church. There it is. Why does God have such an infinitely huge view of marriage? Why did Jesus say, what God joined together, you don't break it apart, here's why, because what the Holy Spirit-inspired word of God just told us is that the primary and ultimate reason God created marriage was for the two of you, when you get married, in that moment, you become a physical representation to the world of Jesus Christ, relationship to his bride, the church. Did you know that? That the number one reason God created marriage was not for your happiness.

Even though, if you walk in God's plan, you will experience happiness. Scripture is saying that the number one reason God created marriage is not for your companionship, even though you will experience companionship, but what the Holy Spirit-inspired, infallible word of God just said is that the number one reason, and it's profound, that God designed marriage the way he did, which is for a man and a woman to cement themselves together in a lifelong, never-ending, one-flesh union that you never break apart is because your marriage is a living, breathing picture of Jesus Christ cementing, binding, unbreakable, never-ending, eternity-long love and devotion for his bride, the church, that can never, ever, ever be broken. Let me put it this way. Your picture is meant to be a sermon, and the sermon's thesis is not you, it's Jesus. And as a matter of fact, your marriage and my marriage, it's meant to be a physical display of one of the greatest promises God ever gave you and me. Y'all ready for it? Our marriage, according to the word of God, is a display to the world of one of the greatest promises God ever gave us. You ready for it? Here it is. It's in Romans 8, 35. Don't turn there, just watch. Paul asks an important question. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? He's asking a really important question. Can you and I be separated from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, stress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, or sort? And then in verse 38, let's go. He says, for I am sure of something. Here's what he says I'm sure of. That neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor debt, nor anything else in all of creation will

be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. That's good news, y'all. Men and women of God, that is what your marriage is a picture of. Listen, God did not invent marriage to give you and your spouse a way to demonstrate your love for one another. God primarily invented marriage to give you and your spouse a way to demonstrate the gospel to the world. And as a result, I promise you, you will love one another because Jesus loves us. I only have a little light moment here. How much time I got? All right, I'm going to tell you a real quick funny story. Getting a little serious here. But it's always funny. I've done, again, so many marriages, and one of the things I love to do, I always mess with the groom because they're fun to mess with. And you know how the pastor and the groomsman kind of come out first, and they'll be in the back on the side door, and they're always messing around back there or whatever. And I always grab the groom and say, come here, because we're about to go out, man. It's like 30 seconds. We're about to go out, and I look at him, and I say, hey, man, you're about to walk out those doors, and you're about to say I do, change vows and rings, say I do. And then in that moment, you're going to walk out the door, and for the rest of your life, your job is to love that woman like Christ loved the church, and the two of you are going to become a living, breathing picture of Christ's unbreakable, never-ending love for His bride, the church. Are you afraid? And he always goes, no, no, I got this, man. Let's go. You know, he's all fired up. And I always chuckle because I think I've told you this before.

I remember the scene from Star Wars where Luke Skywalker is about to go fight Darth Vader, and he doesn't know he's his dad yet. He just knows he's got to go fight him. He's about to be in the fight of his life. And Yoda shakes his stick at him and goes, are you afraid? And Luke's like, no, man, I'm ready. Let's go. And Yoda goes, you will be. He's like, when it hits you, what you're about to go do, when you're standing there face to face with Darth Vader and that red lightsaber, you're going to be afraid. And I look at that kid, and I'm like, you're going to be. Like, you're going to go out there, and it's going to hit you. You don't know what you're doing, but you've got to stay in there and fight for that thing, and you can. No, I don't do that. I do yell at him, but I don't do that. I'm just like, help him, Jesus. And we go through the marriage. Church you're calling from the moment you walk down the aisle and say I do until the moment that you lay your spouse into the arms of Jesus. It's displayed to the world the never-ending, unbreakable love of Christ for his bride, the church. And so let me ask you a question. In light of how God designed and created marriage and the purpose of marriage, how do you think God views divorce? Now listen, this is going to get intense for a second, not because of what I say, but because of what God says. Hang with me. Okay, hang with me. In light of what marriage represents, how do you think God views divorce?

Well, he tells us in Malachi 2, 13. Listen. This is the Lord. speaking through Malachi and says this. And he's speaking, by the way, oh goodness, he's speaking to the men of God. He's speaking to the men of Israel, God's men. He says, this is another thing you do. You cover the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and sighing because he no longer gives attention to the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. And he's like, hey, listen, man, you're trying to bring these offerings to God, but he's not even paying attention to them. Verse 14, so you say, for what reason? And God says, because the Lord has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your marriage companion and your wife by covenant. But not one has done so who has a remnant of the Spirit. I'm like, oh, God just said, he goes, in other words, you don't treat the wife of your youth and the wife of your covenant with God treacherously if you have the Spirit of God. But not one has done so as a remnant of the Spirit. And why the one? He was seeking a godly offspring. Be careful then about your spirit.

You see that none of you deals treacherously. And here it is, verse 16, God says, for I hate divorce, says the Lord, the God of Israel. How you feel about it, God? He says, I hate it. It's fascinating to me that God does not say, you know, I've got a problem with divorce. He doesn't say, I advise against divorce. He doesn't say, divorce is really bad and there are definitely better options for it. God says, I hate it. And you look up the word hate and you realize something, that the only time God ever says he hates something is when it's his sworn enemy. And so literally, the Lord, not me, but the Lord just said that divorce is my enemy. Church, why would God say that he hates divorce and divorce is his enemy? Listen carefully. Because when a man and a woman walk down an aisle and they say their vows, and God joins them together and God joins them together and the two become one flesh and they become a living, breathing picture of God's never-ending, unbreakable love for his bride, the church, when the couple breaks that bond and they end that covenant, that also sends a message to the world. What message does that send?

Divorce sends a message to the world that God's covenant love for us can be broken. And what have we learned? So God's covenant love for us cannot be broken. Divorce sends a message to the world that God loves you until things get really difficult and hard and then you break it up. But we just learned that God will never leave us and he will never forsake us and nothing can ever separate us from his love. And so when we break apart the picture of his love, he said that right there, that's my enemy. We'll land the plane here, we just have a few more minutes and we're gonna apply this. Now listen carefully. Here's the thing, hang with me, listen. Divorce folks, if you're in here, I want you to hear something very, very clearly. Many of you, divorce was not your fault. You were abused, you were abandoned, you were hurt, you were hurt, you were abandoned, there's a lot of reasons we get into that stuff in the podcast but you were in many ways realistically a victim of divorce and there are many of us here that you played a big role in it. Here's what I want you to hear today because you've heard me on how God views divorce. Here's what I want you to hear. Is that even though God hates divorce,

divorce is not the unforgivable sin in Scripture. It's not. The Scripture is crystal clear that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Listen, hear that. We're gonna apply this in a second but he's like neither height nor depth nor angels nor demons nor any other thing in all of the world and that, last time I checked, includes divorce, can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. A few weeks ago, I taught on the calling of Matthew and we learned that before Jesus called him to himself, it says he saw him, which I taught you means that Jesus knew everything about his life before he called him. Jesus knew everything you would ever do and he still. called you to himself anyway. Listen, so what's your job? What's your calling? If you've been divorced, maybe you're remarried, whatever it is, here's what you do. You do not walk out of here in shame. You walk out of here knowing that you are a beloved child of God and you spend the rest of your life living out God's intended design and purpose for marriage. That's what you do.

Non-married people. Woo, y'all better, I don't got much time. Y'all gotta put your seatbelt on, you ready? Non-married people, y'all listen. Listen, y'all. Number one job is that you make sure you hold God's view of marriage. That's number one job. Number two job is you do not get married until you find somebody that holds God's view of marriage. You don't do it. You don't do it. No matter what. Single women, let me talk to you. I don't care what that dude looks like. I don't care if he looks like a 26-year-old Brad Pitt. Got biceps like Pastor Joby Martin. Works for a venture capital firm, drives a Lamborghini. If that man does not love Jesus, you do not marry him. Be the biggest mistake you ever make in your life. You do not follow a man that is not going to lead you to the person of Christ Jesus. Men, listen, I'm gonna say something that some of y'all are gonna get mad at me at, but I just want you to know, I didn't come up with the quote. It's Tommy Nelson. He was a pastor of Denton Bible back in the day when Pastor Joby and I were young guys. Did my glasses fall off the thing here? They're on the floor.

I don't see them, I think I could, there we go. I think I got it memorized from here on out. Tommy Nelson, so if you get mad at this quote, you can email him, I think he's still alive. He said this, he said, young men, he said, you never marry a girl that doesn't love Jesus. He said, if you marry a girl that does not love Jesus, it's like marrying a little piece of hell right here on earth. Can I just tell y'all that outside of my salvation, I would say outside of my salvation, the single greatest gift God has ever given me is bringing me a woman that loves Jesus more than she loves me. And I would not have it any other way because there are some times where I was not easy to love and she stuck with me because she loved that man named Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Married folks in the room that are struggling considering divorce, can I just remind you of something? That if you're not believers, if you are not been given the gift of salvation and become a child of God, that's your step. That's how real life change happens.

That's where you have access to the power to change is when God makes you a brand new creation in Christ Jesus, has your sins forgiven. But if you're Christians, can I just tell you something? I wanna remind you of something today if you're Christians and your marriage is struggling. If both of you are believers and both of you have the Holy Spirit, you are never without hope. You're never without hope if both of you have the Holy Spirit. You know why? I'm a living proof, I've seen it. Y'all, I've told you this several times. There was a season, Jennifer and I were not doing well. We were not okay. And we stuck it out and we fought for our marriage and we fought for one another at first because Jesus called us to and we knew what marriage represented. And that got us through. Long enough, something crazy happened. God started being true to his word. That our God is able to do exceedingly and abundantly more all than we can ask or think according to the power at work in us. And the Holy Spirit started changing me and I started looking more like Christ and the Holy Spirit started changing her and she started looking more like Christ

and you wake up one day several years later and can I just tell you that we are more in love and there is more peace and joy and hope than we have ever experienced in our lives. Listen, you need to know this. Listen, you never give up. There is a, listen, there's a beauty on the other side of the storm that you can only experience by holding fast through the storm. a whole fast, final group, real fast. Matt, what if my spouse won't quit cheating on me? Listen, Jesus addresses that. There's some evidence that you're free from the bond, but I would say this, that's not where you camp out. You camp out on God's view of marriage and then let that inform that first. I would tell you what I would do in that situation and I would have pursued my wife no matter what. Now listen, I know there's situations you need to get out, so I want you to hear that. We deal with abuse, all that, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about a serial adulterer. I personally would pursue her and I'd keep pursuing her until she got remarried. Why? Because of the book of Hosea, the book of Hosea. The book of Hosea is a story in the Old Testament of God coming to a man named Hosea and saying, Hosea, see that prostitute over there?

I want you to go marry her. He's like, what? Yeah, go marry the prostitute. Okay, God. He marries her and then something crazy happens. She leaves him. Cheats on him. God says, Hosea, go after her. Okay, God, he goes after her. And it's this series of where she keeps running, she keeps cheating and God keeps saying, Hosea, go after her, love her, win her heart back. And you ask yourself the question, why in the world is the book of Hosea in the Bible? And it's a really simple answer to the question because Hosea represents someone. Hosea represents Jesus. And guess who the prostitute represents? Me. And you. I cannot tell you how many times I have cheated on Jesus. I cannot tell you how many times I've run away. And y'all, He'd never let me go. Hallelujah. Yes, he would. Always. Always. Always. Yes, he would. Let's go out those doors today and let's display that.

Let's pray. Father, I thank you for your word. I'm so undone by this truth. One, that you would come after me and pursue me despite how often I've run away and cheated and turned my back on you. Thank you, Jesus. Two, I thank you for saving my marriage. And three, Lord, if there is anyone in this room, Father, that is thinking about walking away, I pray that they would turn their eyes to the cross. And they would see a bloody savior that says, I love you this much and I'll never let you go. Father, I pray for this church and the marriages in the church, the future marriages in this church, that we would live out every single day of our lives, that we would be a beautiful picture to this world out those doors of your love for us. And I ask that today in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Church, let's stand together. Here's how we're gonna respond today. Number one is if you're a married couple here and God has healed you and you've seen the reality of this truth, I want you to worship your face off right now. I want you and your husband and your wife to like worship the Lord together and just cry out the top of your lungs,

like, God, you are good. You're a good, good father. You are good to me. Single folks, folks that are single, you're not married yet, odds are, many of you, most of you will. Man, I think an amazing thing to do as just a symbol of surrender, to come down here, get on your knees, and I want you to pray for your future spouse. Pray that God would write his name on their heart right now. There's anybody here that's, man, you've either walked away or you're thinking about walking away and you heard today how God views it. Man, maybe you need to come forward and you need to just bow the knee to Jesus and say, Jesus, I don't know how to do this. This hurts so bad, but I want to present the world your love, give me the strength. If you're in a place where your marriage is struggling, men, you grab hold of that woman's arm and you, don't grab hold of her arm, hold her hand and then walk her down. And y'all pray together, and I just think the Lord thinks that's really beautiful. Father, we love you. I pray that you would be honored and glorified today in who we are and what we do. And as we sing to you, I pray there'd be a sweet sound

in your ears, and I ask that in Jesus' name, amen, amen.