Spirit-Filled Marriages

Now to our time of congregational prayer. If you will go ahead and take a seat. We dedicate a portion of our service every Sunday morning just to prayer. We believe that prayer ultimately is what moves the moves the heart of the one who moves the entire universe. So we want to continue to bring our needs and our desires to Him, asking that He would help us. So this morning, as we continue to approach Vacation Bible School, we continue to pray for Vacation Bible School. This morning in particular, we are praying that the kids would feel and enjoy a sense of community across their week as they get to spend five days together in class doing crafts and doing all the things. So we’re praying for kids to have community with one another and ultimately praying for lifelong friendships to be formed. So, if you will, please grab a neighbor and pray for the kids during VBS that they would have community and deep friendships be formed that week. And I’ll put a bow on it here in a moment. Thank you guys. Y’all take it away.

Father, thank You, Lord. Thank You for Vacation Bible School. God, thank You for the decades of faithful leadership that other leaders have already given us with that. Father, thinking about Miss Denise and Caroline and Miss Donna. God, thank You for what they’ve established here and all the work and the prayers and the thoughts and the conversations they put into it. Lord, thank You also for Christa kind of taking that baton and going with it. Lord, I I pray You’d give her a lot of success. Lord, I’m praying specifically that You would help the kids that come in for VBS to have a sense of community with one another. Lord, that they they just become tight together as they’re learning about You, as they sing songs about You, as they enjoy recreation, God, as they do some crafts, have some snacks, and all the other stuff. Lord, I just I pray that You would bond them together and You would create some lasting friendships. Lord, I thank You for the the the kids that don’t have a church home yet that are signed up to come to VBS. God, I beg that You would help them to make some friendships with some Sauldam kids. And Lord, that they would want to stick here. And it wouldn’t just be Monday through Friday, but it would lead to Sundays and Wednesdays on into the future. Please, Lord, I pray that that week of VBS would be life and soul transforming for those kids. Please, Father, I pray the same thing for us right now. God, as we look at Your Word, as as I open it up and just do the very best that I can to say this is what God has said, I pray that You would get a hold of us and that You would change lives and souls. Lord, for the person in the room right now that doesn’t know You yet, I beg that You would just in Your own graceful, sovereign, beautiful way, God, You would come up beside them and You would just put Your arm around them and and and help them to see they don’t have to run anymore. They don’t have to strive anymore. They don’t have to hide anymore. They can be fully known by You and also fully loved by You. Lord, I pray specifically as I’m going to preach about marriage this morning that the marriages of our church would be strengthened and challenged. I pray for the singles of our church, Lord, that they would have a higher view of marriage. And that they would see, God, that while marriage to a person is incredible, it is not the ultimate thing in life. And Lord, whether we are single or married, whether we are adults or kids, I pray that we would walk out of here living for the sake of the kingdom. Please, it’s in Your great name that I pray. Amen. Amen.

Well, if you do have your copy of God’s Word with you this morning, and I really hope that you do, you go ahead and get it out and open it up to Ephesians chapter 5. If you are still learning the map of your Bible, you just crack your Bible in half right in the middle and then turn right. Eventually you’ll hit Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And then you pass that and you start getting to some funny sounding letters. Ephesians is going to be in the middle of that set right there. Ephesians chapter 5 is where we’re going to be. I I want To kind of set the stage for what we’re going to talk about, though, because something came up in the passage last week that Pastor Al taught, which will continue to play forward for the next few weeks. Last week, Pastor Al preached on a message where this core idea is be filled with the Holy Spirit. And then the author of Ephesians, after saying that, gives us a couple different arenas or a couple different life situations in which He wants us to be Holy Spirit-filled types of people. This morning, he’s going to talk about how to be a Holy Spirit-filled marriage. And then next week, it’s going to be Spirit-filled families. And then the following week, it’ll be Spirit-filled work. And then the next week, it’ll be Spirit-filled spiritual warfare, which is not something you could say three times fast. Try it later if you want.

So this morning, as we are unpacking this, I really just want to help us to see that Paul is helping us understand that before we get to the heart of what a Spirit-filled marriage looks like, we need to understand in Christ nothing is off limits for a follower of Jesus Christ. There is no nook or cranny of your heart or of your life that is off limits to the influence of God. Chapters one through three of this book of Ephesians talk about what it means to be saved by Jesus. If He is your Lord and your Savior, how does that happen? Chapter one talks about these incredible promises of God having chosen us before time, and then He fully adopts us in Jesus. He redeems us through the blood of Christ. He brings us into His family. We are fully saved in Jesus. And for the person that is fully saved, they’re expected to undergo sanctification. Sanctification is just this theological $20 word that means becoming like God. Chapters one through three, it’s all about being saved. Chapters four through six, it’s about being sanctified.

Here’s the beauty of the gospel: is that God accepts us as we are. The challenge of the gospel is that He does not leave us how He finds us. We are like renovation projects that God is undergoing that He pays the full price for and takes the responsibility of onto Himself. And God is in a marathon of making us look like His Son Jesus. There’s nothing that’s off limits to God. For the one that calls on God as Savior, that means how we speak to and about others. He’s already talked about that. How we relate to other people. We are learning about that. How we use our money and our time, how we structure our church and the standards we hold ourselves to, nothing is off limits to God. Which means if you want to follow Jesus Christ, then the Spirit of Christ has the full right and responsibility to touch, mess with, upend, challenge, change, destroy, remove, and transform everything, especially your relationships, marriage included.

There’s an incredible story of a gentleman out in Texas that is proof of this. His name is Jack Eckles. Jack Eckles was a pastor for decades. He had married his sweetheart and begun an incredible ministry. Over the course of his life, he would earn multiple doctorate degrees and was still pastoring on into when we would typically reserve for retirement. In 2015, his wife Jerry is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Now, Jack is an incredible husband, but recognizes that she needs some particular care that at that time he didn’t think he could offer. So, Jerry moves into an assisted living home where Jack would go and visit with her every day for hours. He would take care of her. He would help feed her. He would read to her. This was in addition to all the other stuff he was doing. He was still preaching. He was still writing. He was still publishing things, and then in March of 2020, he gets up one day and he goes to visit his wife Jerry, and the nursing home turns him away. They said, “Hey man, sorry, we know you love your wife. You’ve been coming here for five years, but you are not allowed to enter the premises anymore.” What had happened? If you’re obviously aware, in March of 2020, COVID had happened. And regardless of any of your particular beliefs about it, what we know is that it changed society, and he was no longer able to access his wife of decades. So Jack Eckles makes a decision, goes home, packs a suitcase, grabs some books, grabs his computer, checks himself into the assisted living facility where he would write out the rest of their marriage right there by your side. Jack Eckles, this story of faithful love is so captivating. It was published in the Wall Street Journal and carried for some time. The way our news cycle works, probably just a couple days. But it’s an incredible example of a man that recognizes that in Christ, man, nothing’s off limits, especially his marriage. She would pass away in the nursing home, him having visited her every day, feeding her, bathing, dressing, caring for her, him still writing and delivering sermons, him still doing some things. And now he has also gone to be home with the Lord. Their marriage is beautiful. What an incredible display, right? What an incredible image of faithfulness. As even as I’m sharing this story, I see you guys responding the right way with joy and admiration. This story is beautiful because it is not just the testament of a good man or of a marathon marriage. It’s a—this story is beautiful because it’s a sign of something deeper.

There’s one real point that I want to make this morning. And we’ll say a few things from this passage, but there’s one real point, and it’s this: that marriage points to the gospel. Marriage points to the gospel. Jack and Jerry Eckles, their marriage pointed to the gospel. In your own ways, your own marriages, if you are married, can point to the gospel. Indeed, they should. And this morning, I hope that we all, whether you are married or single, take something away and recognize that marriage has a higher calling than anything this world could ever give it. But it’s also not the ultimate calling you could ever have.

So, if you will look at your Bibles with me, this is Ephesians chapter 5, verses 22 through 33. Remember, we’re talking about spirit-filled marriage. Paul starts: “Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord, because the h—the husband, sorry, is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of the body. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives are to submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word. He did this to present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and blameless. In the same way, husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hates his own flesh, but provides and cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, since we are members of His body. For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. Now, this mystery is profound, but I am talking about Christ and the church. To sum up, each one of you is to love his wife as himself, and the wife is to respect her husband.”

Man, a familiar passage for some of us. Even as I was reading it, I had memories flow through my mind of the Levit over in the old church, the capitos over in the old church, getting to officiate some of the young marriages and our congregation and marriages back at the old spot up in Colombia. Man, this is a passage that has been so familiar for so many of us. And what I’m hoping this morning is just to show it in just kind of a new sort of light for you.

Marriage points to the gospel. Marriage is like a sign. You know, whenever you’re riding into Charleston or if you’re riding down to Hilton Head or something like that, you start seeing the signs for the destination you’re trying to go to. Now, a sign can be encouraging. It means, hey, your trip is almost done. Your sign can be exciting because it helps you get an idea of what you can enjoy once you get there. But the sign is not the destination. No one coming into Charleston from out of town stops at like mile marker 205 up on I-26 thinking they’ve arrived in Charleston, right? Maybe unless they’re staying up at the Baptist College over there. No. Whenever you are going somewhere, a sign can be exciting. It could be helpful, but it is not the destination. And this morning, what the Apostle Paul is saying is marriage is a sign. It’s a sign of a good, great thing, but it is not the destination. The sign is great, but it’s not the greatest. So for Married people in the room, I want you to recognize this. Just because you are married does not mean you’ve reached the destination. You have not arrived at everything God wants for you. And I think you know this too because as good as marriage is, I’m 10 years in. I love being married. I wouldn’t have it any other way. But as good as marriage is, doesn’t your spouse disappoint you sometimes? I got a [inaudible] louder than I was anticipating. And it was from a male voice. That was odd. Don’t you disappoint your spouse? There we go. Thanks, Rick. Don’t you have fights with your spouse? Or at least disagreements. Man, at the… Thanks, Rick. At the very least, marriage could be awesome and y’all can have no conflict whatsoever. But like Jack and Jerry Eckles, things just kind of happen sometimes, or just the natural way of things, your spouse passes away. Marriage is awesome, but it’s not ultimate.

You see, grasping this truth, I believe, will help the married folks in this room go the distance. Grasping the fact that marriage is great, but it is not the ultimate thing in your life, will help you actually enjoy your marriage more as you see it in the correct light. And for the single people in the room, just because you are not married doesn’t mean that you’re broken, incomplete, worthless, or just waiting until the best thing comes along. Our gentleman right here that we are reading from, the Apostle Paul, never married from what we can tell. Our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ never married. If being married was core to being human, then Jesus would be broken, and none of us would say that Jesus was incomplete or broken. Jesus was fully human and fully satisfied and never once got to ever introduce His wife to anybody.

But a day is coming when Christ, who is our Savior, will see His bride. And that day will come in Revelation when this world is finished and we as a church go home to Jesus, where He will behold us and He will say, “That is my bride. The men and the women and the children that I have come to earth to save and redeem and claim for myself, that’s my bride.” But when He was on earth, Jesus did not have a spouse. Getting married, please, getting married will not satisfy the deepest yearnings that your soul has for meaning, joy, or companionship. Only God does that. Only God satisfies the deepest parts of our hearts. Knowing this, if you are single, can help you be picky in a really healthy way, and it can also help you wait in a joyful way until the day might come that you get married. I heard it said recently that some people are called to marriage, but everyone at some point is called to singleness. There is a way you could be single and it glorifies the Lord. There’s a way you can be married and it glorifies the Lord.

But let’s focus again on marriage right here. I said earlier that marriage is a sign of the gospel. It points to the gospel. I want you to look back at the passage that we are reading this morning. You may have caught it. The name Jesus Christ comes up, I think, 10 times. Jesus is also referred to at least five other times. Marriage, man, it’s got a man and it’s got a woman, but it’s not about the people. What marriage is about is the gospel. It’s about Jesus saving a people for Himself. He, Paul, explicitly says that wives play the role of the church. Look at verse 23: “The husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of the body. Now, as the church submits to Christ, so also wives are to submit to their husbands.” We’re gonna get to that word “submit” here in a moment. You just kind of table that one for a second. But recognize for right now that wives and husbands play a distinct kind of a dance in marriage, one that points to a deeper reality than them. The way wives respect and treat their husbands ought to look like how a church in its purity and repentance would follow Jesus Christ. And the way husbands lead and love their wives ought to look like how Christ leads and loves the church. Husbands play this role of Christ while wives play this role of church. In this way, your living marriage is like a physical, flesh-and-blood metaphor of the deeper reality. You see, Paul doesn’t say that, man. Salvation is kind…

of like getting married. That’s not what He says. What He says is Christ is a husband to His people and the church, the people are a bride to their Savior. Oh, here’s how you can understand it. It’s like marriage. It’s the other way around. Your marriage is the shadow of the truer, deeper thing, which is a relationship between God and the church.

I’ll say it again. Marriage is incredible, but it is not ultimate. Marriage is incredible, but it is not ultimate. I want you to know what’s truly ultimate. What’s truly ultimate is that there is a loving God who has done everything necessary to have a perfect relationship with you. A God who set this world into motion. A God who designed it good and whole and perfect and beautifully. A God who doesn’t change. A God who’s never ever done wrong and never ever will. A God that has unending faithful love for us. And that God designed people in His own image so that they can enjoy a relationship of harmony with Him.

Those very first people were Adam and Eve. And we don’t know how long they lived in that great union with each other and with God. But at some point, we know the testimony of scripture is that they, Adam and Eve, chose to go against God’s way. Even though God’s track record was perfection and it was faithfulness and it was love and it was kindness, Adam and Eve still chose against that and they broke the one rule that He had given them.

So, what does God do? God’s a faithful husband. So God, instead of immediately eradicating Adam and Eve and starting a new, and instead of letting Adam and Eve live forever in that situation, God puts them out of the garden. And He says, “Hey, I’m coming for you though, not in the bad boys, bad boys way, but in a hey, I’m going to redeem you and save you sort of a way.”

And God sends a Savior named Jesus Christ. Jesus comes on the scene. He is God in the flesh. He is God the Son living amongst us. Tempted and tried as we were in every single way, yet never falling into sin, never disobeying the Lord, always remaining faithful to God and to God’s word. And what Jesus does is He lives a perfect life in our place, one that we were supposed to live but can’t because of our sin. And Jesus doesn’t just live a perfect life. He also dies a sacrificial death for us on the cross, a death for our sin, taking our punishment and God’s wrath that we deserve.

And Jesus after living that perfect life and after taking our sin on the cross and the penalty of it, Jesus dies. But He doesn’t stay dead. He conquers death and sin and He makes a way of victory and redemption and salvation for us so that we frail as we are limited as we are may be reunited with our God. That is what Jesus has done for us. That is what is ultimate. So that we go through this life having enjoyed salvation from God and are undergoing sanctification in God becoming more like the Son of God. One day we will be home with God. And that’s better than anything this world could ever offer. And that is better than marriage.

Because here’s the deal. The calling of marriage is not one that will last for your entire eternity. Now God’s designs that it will last your lifetime. But Jesus Himself said that when we get to heaven, when we get home with God, there is not marriage there. We’ll be so satisfied in our singleness and our in our relationship with God that we will not need the companionship of another person.

That is what God offers you. Now, if you don’t know God the way I just described Him as a satisfying companion for your heart who has done everything necessary to save you, that God would love to enter that type of relationship with you today. Please don’t let this opportunity pass you by to enjoy peace with God through the salvation of Jesus. Please, man. Give your heart to Him. Admit that you’re a sinner that needs to be saved. Believe that Jesus is the Son of God who has died for you. And confess your need for Him and confess your sins before Him and confess Him as Lord and go and enter into a relationship that is eternal. Being a son or daughter of God, our marriages ought to point to that. Your marriage ought to point to that dynamic. Human marriage points to a supernatural reality, which means it is fitting that there is a distinctly Christian way to do marriage. There’s a distinctly Christian way to do marriage. If you are a notetaker, you’re going to fill in a couple gaps here over the next few moments. Ephesians 5:22 through 33 explicitly describes marriage, hear me, as one man and one woman. It is wild that I’ve got to rearticulate this, right? It’s so clear though. While western culture has drifted so far from any sort of biblical norm regarding marriage and sexuality, we here at Sauldam Baptist Church will continue to hold the conviction that marriage is a covenant relationship of intimacy between one man and one woman meant for life till death do us part.

Now man, I know sin gets in the way of things. Sin is like the gunk of your tire wheels that just grinds and makes things start falling apart and messing up. But here’s the deal. Human marriage is meant to point to inseparable bonds between Christ and the church. Which means our marriages, we got to build those things for the long haul. They need to point to that inseparable bond between God and His people. One man, one woman for life.

Now to live in that type of relationship, the wife and the husband each have a unique action, a unique deposit into the marriage relationship. Paul’s already said it for us. Verse 22, wives submit to their husbands. Man, submit is a weird word, right? Submit, I think today is loaded with all sorts of connotation. It makes us think about being weak or being passive. Submitting to somebody else. I mean, it goes against our nature for strength and autonomy and independence. But it is the word that under the Holy Spirit’s inspiration Paul puts here. He says, “Wives, submit to your husbands.” To submit means to voluntarily place yourself under someone else. Submission has no difference in quality, but a difference in responsibility. There is no quality difference between men and women. There is no broken issue. There is no incompleteness in women that would require them to be led by a greater gender. That’s not what we’re talking about. What we’re talking about is strength under control. Wives submit to their husbands because God calls the husbands responsible for the home.

Wives submit. Remember though in verse 21, look at verse 21. Just scan a little bit higher in the passage. Paul has already said submitting to one another in the fear of Christ. So in a marriage, wives submit to their husbands. But in the church, we are all called to submit to each other. There are times when I, as the pastor, defer to others in this room. We are all called to submit to one another. Submission is this military term that was used to describe how soldiers would follow their superiors, their commanding officers. There is nothing weak about a soldier. There is nothing qualitatively broken about a soldier submitting to his commanding officer. So wives, in submission, your calling is to follow your husband’s lead. Not because you are less than, but because the responsibility for your family is on his shoulders, not yours. Someone’s got to bear the responsibility. And God has called men to bear that responsibility.

So here’s what this means practically. Wives, when you come to any sort of decision moment in your home, which is like every moment of every day, what I’ve come to learn with three kids, man, bring your talents, your expertise, your wisdom, your knowledge, your skills, and bring your hunch to the table. Be honest about what you think you should do and then ask your husband to make a decision and pray that God would give you the strength to follow. Man, being submissive, the way the world defines it, is not what the Bible calls for. What the Bible calls for is for you to take your strength and put it under control, not for you to be walked over. And wives in the room, please do not submit to a husband that wants to lead you into sin. May you get a free pass on that one. Your husband wants you to help cheat on taxes. No, you’re not doing that. Your husband wants you to start indulging in what you know is wrong. That’s not what we’re talking about. What we’re talking about is life decisions and good things. Follow your husbands in that.

Husbands though, you earn your wife’s submission through your action. Verse 25 says, “Husbands, love your wives.” Man, if submission means all the wrong hard things about being lesser than or man, just being walked over, love on the other side, man.

Love can mean anything. I can love anybody I want to the way I want to. You can’t tell me I’m wrong. You can’t tell me that I can’t love a tree and whatever that is. Like, you can love anything. The Bible’s also not saying that. This word for love, it’s based off of God’s love. You may have heard it said that the New Testament has multiple different words for love. Agape is the type of love that God has for us. Husbands are called to agape their wives. And what is the greatest expression of God’s love you can imagine? It might just be Jesus dying on the cross for you. The greatest expression of God’s love would be God planning a way to redeem His people out of their sin and making them whole again.

To love your wife is not to say like, “I love this shirt or I love pizza.” To love your wife is to sacrifice yourself. It’s to be devoted to. It’s to have doing affection on. Man, in the Bible, love is sacrificial. The greatest expression of love was Jesus’s own sacrificial death for us on the cross. Which means for me to love my wife means I’ve got to sacrifice for her. I’ve got to place her needs and her desires above mine. Literally, I submit my desires under her for me to properly love her. I put her good over my good. I go down so that she can get what she wants. Love is sacrificial. It is not getting my own way but it is prioritizing the good of my wife.

Love’s not just sacrificial though; love should be sanctifying. Verse 27, I mean verse 25-27. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and He gave Himself for her to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word. Get this. He did this to present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but holy and blameless. The way I love my wife ought to help her grow to look more like Jesus. Husbands, the way you love your wife ought to help her look more like Jesus. Single men in the room, are you ready to help a woman look more like Jesus through your love? Are you ready to sacrifice your desires for someone else’s well-being and desires?

Here’s what that looks like practically for the men of the room that are husbands. Initiate a time of prayer at night with your wife or with your family. Man, be the one that says, “Hey, let’s pray together.” For sure. Help get the kids dressed for church and don’t just be standing at the door clicking the button. Lead conversations about what your wives and your kids are learning in their devotional times. Be a spiritual thermostat, man. Be the one that controls the spiritual temperature of your home. That’s what Paul is calling for in marriage. Wives are called to follow. Men are called to die. That’s how this is.

If there’s any husband in the room that feels like your wife just won’t listen, don’t laugh too loud. Your wife just won’t take your advice, that just won’t follow. How about lead in dying first? Give it some sacrifice first. Let them see that they could trust your character and then let’s figure out if it’s really a wife issue or if it’s a sacrifice issue. I told you I’m only 10 years in. I feel like I’ve learned a few things with marriage. I know Pastor Al has learned some things with marriage. If there’s any folks in the room, you’re married, man, things aren’t like maybe you just want a tune-up. Me or Al, we would love to talk with you. We would love to spend some time and just sit down and say, “Hey, like let’s just do kind of a well check.” We go to doctors for well checks. We take our cars to the shop for a well check. You could bring your marriage and let’s just do a well check. Let’s just ask some questions. Let’s just talk about it. If you want that, man, just fill that connect card out, put it in the offering plate.

I’m particularly certified in something called Prepare and Enrich. It’s the premarital counseling that I’ve done with a few of our couples. It’s also an enrichment thing. It’s none of it’s subjective according to my take on your marriage. It’s all objective according to how you report about your marriage. Man, if that’s something you want to do, let’s do it. Or if you’re not married yet, it looks like you might be getting married, man. Let’s sit down. Let’s do some premarital counseling to help you get out the gate fast together. I would love to do that. Al would love to do that, man.

As I start to wrap this thing up, I want to use a different metaphor to help us understand what marriage is supposed to be in the gospel. You see, it’s not just the relationship between Christ and the church, but think about it this way. In every marriage, there’s supposed to be a leader and a follower. The leader is showing the way to go. The follower is harnessing her strength and her beauty under his direction.

It’s like a dance. Men in the room, you may not think that you’re very good at dancing. You may deny your wife every time she wants to, but if you’re married, that means you’re a dancer. And your wife wants a leader. She wants someone that’s going to show you the way to go. She wants someone that’s going to take her hand and initiate the moves.

A leader who does not skillfully show the way creates confusion. And a follower who doesn’t come under the timing and the direction will look arrogant. And together, two people out of sync aren’t dancing. They’re just kind of moving beside each other.

God’s intention for marriage is that it would be a dance that would bring glory to the gospel. So for husbands, I want to ask you this week, how can you love your wife the way Christ has loved you? For wives, how can you submit to your husband like how the church follows Jesus? And for the singles, are you living for the ultimate thing, the gospel, or are you just waiting for the incredible thing, marriage?

Let’s pray.

Father, thank You. God, thank You for marriage. I love marriage. I love being married to Becca. I love the companionship that we have. I love how much fun it is. God, I I love how this type of relationship has forced me to look more like You. Not through any fault of Becca’s, honestly, through my own arrogance and ridiculousness, but God, I’ve also come to see that marriage is a poor substitute for salvation. Becca could never save me. That that’s what You are, Jesus. You are my Savior. You are my Lord.

So God, please for those in the room who are married, please help us to not look at our spouse as our Savior. God, no person deserves that kind of weight, but help us to treat our spouse the way the Bible just called us to treat them. And for the singles in the room, God, I pray that You would help them to live for the sake of the gospel, not just for the sake of getting married one day.

Please God, for all of us, whether I am married in this life or not, I am part of Your bride, Jesus, that You have purchased with Your own blood. Help me to do my part in helping Your bride be a holy and blameless bride to You. God, we love You. We just want to love You more. It’s in Your great name we pray. Amen.