What Would Jesus Do? Part 12: Marriage & Divorce

Matthew chapter 19 and we're going to be get read begin reading in verse three down through well, we'll start through verse nine, okay? Three through nine. The Pharisees also came unto him tempting him and saying unto him, is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? And he answered and said unto them, have you not read? That he which made them at the beginning made them male and female and said, for this call, shall a man leave, father and mother, shall cleave to his wife and they twain shall be one flesh.

Wherefore, they are no more twain but one flesh. What therefore, God hath joined together, let no man put asunder. They say unto him, why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement and to put her away? He saith unto them, Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you, word suffered means allowed, permitted you to put away your wives. But from the beginning, it was not so.

And I say unto you, whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication and shall marry another, committeth adultery, and whoso marrieth her, which is put away, doth commit adultery. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for this day, for your word, for your instruction on a very important matter in the lives of many of us. Important matter in our society. Important matter in your plan.

Lord, thank you for marriage. Thank you Lord for the home. Thank you Lord for the beautiful institution that you created. Lord, We pray that you would direct us as we look at it this morning from your perspective and Lord that we would honor you and all that we do and the decisions that we make that we would look to you for direction. Guidance, help, and forgiveness, Lord.

We thank you for the mercy, love, of our God, for your direction and instruction that we refine in your word today. May you be truly exalted in our lives and in our homes. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen. There's a lot of confusion today in our society even among religious people and even among many who would call and profess the name of Christ.

Many much confusion on something that is extremely vital, extremely vital to our lives, to our children, to our society, and that is the family. The family unit of society is often called the building block of civilization and it is under tremendous attack today on every corner. Humanity is taken upon itself to redefine the home as something other than what God created it and ordained it to be. We must get back as God's children. We must get back to God's instruction and God's definition of the institution that he ordained, the institution of the home and of marriage.

Hold your place in Matthew 19 and turn back if you would to Genesis chapter two. Genesis chapter two. So, question is, who invented marriage? I looked up in Wikipedia yesterday. The all authoritative, never wrong source on the internet, that's sarcasm by the way.

Marriage and I tried to find on there what they thought the origin of marriage was. Well, they just completely ignored the origin of marriage on the site. They talked about Christian marriage and Hindu marriage and Muslim marriage and anyway, all these different types of marriage and common law marriage and so forth and so on. And and then, you know, address some of the more current issues on same sex marriage and all that stuff. I think one of the reasons that they don't address the origin of marriage is because really, you can't go back to a point in time in history of man where you say, oh, this was the first marriage or this is where marriage started historically.

It just seems that marriage has really kind of always been around in some form or or fashion. There have always been marriages. There's always been been families and that's because the home and marriage was not the invention of man. It was an institution created by God. Look, if you would in Genesis chapter two verse 18.

And the Lord God said, it is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helpmate, a completer for him. Look, if you would in verse 21 and the Lord God calls a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept and he took one of his ribs and he closed up the flesh instead or around there thereof and the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman and brought her under the man and Adam said, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore, shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh.

When did God institute marriage? Before creation was finished. Day number what? What day is this? We're still on day number six.

When day number seven arrived, God ceased from all his labors because creation was done. It was finished. This is still day number six which God created man and woman and instituted marriage as expressed here by Adam himself when when Eve brought when God brought Eve to him. This Jesus will refer to in just a few minutes from Matthew chapter 19. Pointing us in reference to marriage to the authority of the one who created it and that authority is who?

That authority is God. It is not the state. It is not religion. It is not a church. It is not a nation.

It's not a government. It is God himself who ordained marriage. Point number one this morning is this, God created Adam and Eve and put them together one man and one woman. Not one man and many women, not one man and one man or one woman and one woman but one man and one woman. That was the precedent that Jesus established, that God established all the way back in the Garden Of Eden.

Has that precedent always been followed? No, it hasn't. In Old Testament times, it was common for men of power and prestige and money to have more than one wife. In a matter of fact, there are still those around the world that have many wives but in creation in the Genesis account, God didn't create Adam and Eve and so, you know, just one man and one woman. Obviously, there is a lot of issues today in our society with same sex marriage that is clearly not as God intended and by the way, that isn't a new problem.

That problem's been around. You can trace it all the way back to the early days of the Old Testament. That's why God made laws in Israel forbidding it. So, this is an issue that's been around for a long time as well. Who do we look to?

We look to the one who created it, who invented it, who established it, who instituted it, and that's the Lord himself. One man, one woman, sixth day of creation. He created them to compliment and complete one another as a unit for the purpose of bearing and raising children and for mutual companionship and for the glory of the Lord. We read in verse 18 of Genesis two and the Lord God said, it was not good that man should be alone. I will make him and help me for him and in Genesis one hundred twenty seven and twenty eight, so God created man in his own image in the image of God created he, he, him, male, and female created he them.

So, God blessed them and God said unto them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. The beautiful creation, invention of God, of the human marriage, and home. For the purpose of raising children, of mutual companionship, and for the glory of the Lord. Again, Christ here in Matthew chapter 19 when the Pharisees asked him about this issue concerning marriage and divorce, he answered in verse four and said, have you not read that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female? Oh, haven't you read the Bible?

Don't you know these these are the the the the religious theologians of the day. They're the teachers and Jesus said, don't you know the scripture? Don't you know the scripture? Of course, they did. Problem is, they didn't want to what?

Didn't want to obey the scripture. That's still a problem that we face today. Even Christians sometimes, we know the scripture, that's not the issue. The problem is, we don't want to obey it because it doesn't fit into our ambitions or our desires. The second thing I want us to see is that the two were to become one.

Verse five of Matthew 19 and said, for this call shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife and they twain or they too shall be one flesh. This is not merely a physical act though physical intimacy is involved and implied but it is also a merging together of two lives, two ambitions into one partnership. Two lives, two ambitions, one partnership and one union with one another and Jesus Christ. A union, a partnership where each loves and respects the other above themselves. That's how this partnership is supposed to work.

Take your Bibles, hold your place in Matthew 18, and turn to Ephesians five. Turn if you would over to Ephesians five. Ephesians five verses 21 through 25, there, Paul is addressing the issue of husbands and wives, of marriage in the home, as well as other relationships in Matthew five And the beginning of Matthew six. In verse 21, he says, to the Christians there at the church of Ephesus, he says, submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. Wives, submit yourselves under your husbands as unto the Lord.

For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church and he is the savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject under Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. This is a union, a relationship that is to be based upon each partner loving and respecting the other above themselves. Second law of all, it is a partnership wherein each embraces their varied roles within the home, the new home that is created by their union.

A one in which each embraces their varied roles within within the new home. Why is was the woman created as a help meet for the man because he he needed a compliment or a completer. They have varied roles within the home and those roles are fulfilled differently by each one. We are equal in the side of God. We are of equal value.

God loves men men and women just the same. He created both of them. There is no question about that or there shouldn't be. But we have different roles. As husband and his wife to fulfill in the home.

We have responsibilities in marriage relationship to one another. As two lives merge into one union and partnership. There is no perfect marriage. There are no perfect people. So, therefore, there is no perfect marriage.

However, when a couple enters into marriage with this understanding that two become one. In their service of the Lord together, in their raising of children. In their love and respect for one another. When a couple enters into a marriage with this understanding before the Lord and grow in that understanding and love for one another, it creates a bond which is not easily broken. And one which provides a healthy environment for the Christian family.

When two become one. But sadly, when this is not the case, which it often is not. Sometimes even among Christians, where one or both partners refuse to leave and cleave as God has commanded. Marriage often and predictably falls apart. When I and my wife got married, her friends became my friends.

My friends became her friends. We don't have my friends and her friends, we have our friends. Now, obviously, she talks to the lady friends a lot more than I do, and I talk to the men friends a lot more than she does, but we don't have separate friendships. They are our friends. We don't have separate bank accounts.

We have one. We don't have separate interests. Do we have differing interests to a point? Sure we do. She is not into football.

I have figured this out. And I'm not into plastic canvas, if you know what that is. We have some differing interests and hobbies, but she sits a lot of times and watches football, though, it's not her favorite thing and and while she watches football, she does plastic canvas and so she does her thing while I do my thing but we're still what? We're still together, you see. I don't have my hobbies and her hobbies and we go our different ways and and we're we're one.

She doesn't have her career ambitions and I have my career ambitions. We have our ambitions. We have our children. We are lives have merged into a union, a partnership where each loves and respects the other above themselves, though not perfectly, particularly on my end sometimes. And each embraces their roles within a home.

And when that happens, marriage works. And when that doesn't happen, often marriage does not work. It is important imperative that Jesus gave in looking back to the creation of the home itself. The third thing I want us to look at today is this, it is a relationship that is supposed to last how long? It's supposed to last for a lifetime.

Jesus said this, he said, verse six of Matthew 19, wherefore, they are no more twain but are one flesh. What therefore, God hath joined together, let no man put asunder. The implication and inference there clearly is that it isn't a relationship that is supposed to be broken. It is supposed to be for a lifetime. Thus, in most Christian marriages, the vows often end with till what?

Till death do us part. Why? Because it is supposed to be for a lifetime and that is understood. God created marriage. Man invented divorce.

Jesus was very clear with his disciples that men not need dismiss so freely that which God ordained and established by his authority so long ago to be a lifelong commitment. Scientists today will point to the animal kingdom and say, well, look what the animals do. Well, guess what? We're not animals, folks. Amen.

We are created in the image of who? We're created in the image of God. God created us in his image. God created the home and God established a relationship that is supposed to last a lifetime. That is his will.

That is his clear command and expectation concerning marriage. However, due to man's sinful nature and inability to remain faithful to marriage, man developed something to deal with this inadequacy and it is called divorce. Oftentimes, in scripture, it's called putting away especially when it's in reference of a husband putting away his wife. Joseph was going to put away Mary privately or privily it says in the King James version. He was going to do it privately because she was with child that wasn't by him and they were not yet married yet but they were betrothed which in Jewish society, if you're betrothed, you still had to be divorced to end the relationship.

If he made it a public thing, she could've actually been what? She could've been stoned. She could've been executed for committing adultery. However, she didn't commit adultery. She was of child by the Holy Ghost and when Joseph found that out, he changed his mind and he didn't divorce Mary because he believed the word of the Lord that came to him that that child was conceived by the Holy Spirit.

But it was said that he was going to put her away and that's that's a common terminology in the New Testament for divorce but that is what it that is what it means. It was developed by man to deal with this inadequacy and God permitted it to continue under certain stipulations in the law of Moses. If you look back again in Matthew chapter 19, the Pharisees, those to whom he was speaking, said to him in verse seven, well, why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement to put her away? Look if you would in Deuteronomy 24. Hold your place.

Look if you would in Deuteronomy and chapter 24. Okay? Deuteronomy 24. We're going look at verses one and two. This is what the Pharisees were referring to.

They would refer to scripture when it they thought it supported their position. It was when it didn't support their position that they kind of skirt around it. Does that sound familiar? We have a tendency to do the same thing. Particularly our society today.

Verse one of Deuteronomy 24. When a man hath taken a wife and married her and it come to pass that she find no favor in his eyes because he had found some uncleanness in her, then let him write her a bill of divorcement and give it in her hand and send her out of his house and when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man's wife. Now, Christ and his answer to the Pharisees, Christ said, because of the hardness of your heart, Moses by God's consent suffered you to divorce your wives. Now, the word suffered means permitted, okay? Now, in the previous verse in Matthew 19, the Pharisees said, well then, why did Moses command them to give a right endorsement?

In Christ answer, Christ said, he permitted. Different verb, divorce. Because of the hardness of your hearts and why was it that God permitted divorce? It was because of this. It was because the Jews coming out of Egypt had already learned this pattern and lifestyle.

And they were already practicing this in their life and they were putting away thus divorcing their wives. God put some stipulations on it, put some restrictions on it and God said, you cannot put away your wives without a reason, okay? The word uncleanness means some kind of moral deficiency. Now, it is more than adultery because if the wife had actually been convicted of committing adultery, there would be no reason for divorce because under Old Testament law, she would be executed. Therefore, when she died, he would be free to marry another.

There would be no need for divorce. So, the word uncleanness must apply to something other than just adultery. Some moral deficiency and he had to give it in what? In writing, okay? And he had to give that paper, that writing divorcement to the wife that he was divorcing.

Why? Well, it it protected the woman because now, the woman who had been divorced through this process with a paper could be free to go what? To go remarry. Because otherwise, she was in a bad spot. Because in the ancient world, to be a to be a a woman without a husband meant to be off most of the time without a means of providing for yourself and your family and so in order that she might be married to another husband, God permitted divorce, okay?

But that was not his invention. That was something developed by man in order to deal with an inadequacy and something which God permitted but with restrictions that protected who? Protected the one who was being divorced particularly in the Old Testament, the woman. Now, notice, Christ said, God didn't command that you divorce your wives. He did what?

He permitted you. Because of the hardness of your heart, your determination. To not stay married. To divorce your wives. However, the Pharisees and herein is the issue in relation to Matthew 19.

The Pharisees and others were using divorce really as an opportunity to commit adultery without the stigma. That's really what was happening in some cases and that's why they asked Jesus, is it permissible for someone to divorce or put away his wife for every cause. In other word, for any cause. Because there was debate even among the Pharisees as to what causes those were. But some of them were taking the opportunity to divorce their wives for any any reason that they might go and get themselves another what?

Another wife and therefore, ignore avoid the stigma of adultery because they could divorce their wife and marry another. Turn if you would to Matthew chapter five and I think you'll see Christ addressing that issue here as well. In Matthew chapter five, the Pharisees to whom whom Jesus is talking about. He's talking to his disciples but he's talking about the practice of of the Jews around him including some of the leaders themselves. He says in verse 27, He says, you have heard that was said by them of old time, thou shalt not commit adultery but I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.

God said, okay, you think that you're okay with God, that you haven't broken any laws, that you don't need to repent and be saved? Guess again, if you looked at a woman to lust after her, then you've already broken God's law. You've committed adultery where in your heart and he goes on to say, if you look in verse 31, he said, it hath been said, whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a right of divorcement but I say unto you, that whosoever shall put away his wife saving for the cause of fornication, causes her to commit adultery, and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced, committeth adultery. What he's saying this, what Christ is saying is to the Jews that were there, he said, you think you're okay because you're not committing what? Adultery but he said, you're not okay because you're committing adultery in your heart and then you're finding a way to satisfy the lust of your flesh without it having been defined adultery and how were they doing that?

Well, they were seeing another woman that they liked and so they divorced the wife they had so they could take the woman they wanted and then when she got old, they divorced her and they took another one. What were they doing? They were committing legal adultery is what they were doing. They were using the law as a cloak. The letter of the law as a cloak to justify that which was clearly what?

Sin. In the eyes of God, it was adultery. So, Jesus said, if you just divorce your wives for any old reason, that you might go and take another one, you're still committing what? Adultery. That's what he's saying here and he's saying, if you kick your wife out so that she she is all by herself, then, you are making her an adulteress, the person that she goes with next.

He said, you are abusing the law of God, not obeying the law of God and what you are doing is sin. Now, is that a lot different than what is happening in our society today? No. It isn't. It isn't a lot different than what is happening in our society today that Christ is dealing with here in the society of his day.

Today, we are told that polygamy is wrong. I would agree with that. Polygamy is wrong. We already mentioned that earlier in the message. But we've been brainwashed to think that adultery, no big deal.

Even though it is one of the 10 commandments, even though Paul said, wrote in first Corinthians six that we are to flee fornication. Even though God said in Hebrews thirteen four, the marriage is honorable and the bed undefiled but whoremongers and adulterers, God will judge. Whoremongers and adulterers are those who are involved in an intimate act with someone with whom they are not married. Okay? Either someone, either they're married and they're out with somebody else, that's adultery, or they're with somebody to whom they're not married even though they're single.

That's a whoremonger. Both of those are sin before God and God makes a big deal about it. The world glorifies it. Today and sad to say the church often doesn't make a big deal about the sin of it. Though adultery like any other sin is forgivable by God and others.

It isn't the unpardonable sin by the way. It is a sin which God himself in his word seems quite concerned about. Well, why is that? Well, God has very good reasons for what he does and what he says and what he expects particularly of his children. It is a betrayal of the marriage covenant and of the offended spouse.

It destroys the fabric of society when it destroys marriages and families. And it destroys and mars the beautiful picture of the union of Christ and his church, which is an unbreakable bond for us who know Jesus as savior. Thus, God has very good reasons for condemning adultery and making a big deal of it and expecting marriage to be how long? A lifetime. We are being brainwashed to accept multiple marriage, marriages as acceptable.

By multiple marriages, mean marriage, divorce, marriage, divorce, marriage, divorce, so forth and so on. Divorce is allowed and justified for virtually any reason in The US today. Has that always been the case? No. It hasn't always been the case, but it is now.

The percentage of divorces in our country now exceed more than fifty percent of marriages, and that has now been the case for several years and it is still climbing. Despite the fact that many couples not never bother to what? To even get married. But yet the ones that do still have over fifty percent failure rate. Thus, it has become almost as common as marriage itself.

Therefore, cheapening marriage. You ever heard of a prenuptial agreement? Why do people make prenuptial agreements? What's the main reason? Maybe it's not the only reason.

Yeah. Brother Keith's doing this. Money. But a prenuptial agreement is often made under the conclusion that the marriage might not what? Might not last.

Because if you were going into the marriage committed to it being for a time, would there be any need for a prenuptial agreement? There would not be. But yet, you hear all the time on the news, people with money, people with fame, and and their prenuptial agreements because in the end, they really don't expect their marriage to last. They're not making that commitment for a lifetime. We wonder why our children have so many problems today, why they are confused, insecure and angry.

One of the main reasons for that is an insecure, fractured and incomplete home. Thus, God is very concerned about marriage, about fidelity, and about the home. In Malachi two sixteen, it states that God hates divorce. He still permits it with an exception. Christ gives in Matthew 19 but it doesn't mean that he likes it.

And it doesn't mean that he intends it, for God hates divorce, because of the effects that it has on the glory of God and the relationship between Christ and the Church, because of the effect it has on the fabric of society, the civilization that He created, and the effects it has on children and others affected by it. We are being coerced into accepting unmarried relationships as perfectly fine today and many professing Christians are living in sin, justifying it, and promoting it. They say, well, hey, we just won't bother to get what? To get married. And so that makes it okay.

You don't have to get divorced if you never get married, right? But what does God call that? God calls that fornication. God calls that sin. God says that we are supposed to be married.

Marriage is honorable and the bed, the relationship that goes with that undefiled. But whoremongers and adulterers, God will judge. Who are those? Those are those who refuse to get what? Among other things, refuse to get marriage, to get married.

Most churches no longer preach against it, many condone it, and some by the acceptance of it, promote it. I lived, I had a neighbor live beside me over on Evergreen. Good neighbor, nice guy, gave us a bunch of oranges every Christmas. Kept his place nice, raked his leaves, letting him blow into our yard. Nice fellow.

Not a Christian. Did not believe in the Lord, was more of a humanist than anything else. The who we thought to be his wife actually found out was just his girlfriend who had lived there for several years. And I talked to him one day about it. He said, well, I'm not going we're not going to get married.

I said, well, why not? He said, well, I've been married already three times. Those didn't work. And he said, I don't need the state. I don't need a piece of paper to have a relationship.

Well, he's right and he's wrong. The issue is not the paper with the with the Lord and the issue is not the state. What is the issue? Well, the issue is this, it is a union of love and sacrifice and mutual service entered into before God. With a lifetime commitment.

It isn't a piece of paper. It's a covenant made between two individuals. A union entered into before God with a commitment for a lifetime. That that is marriage, not the piece of paper. But if you mention that to many people who say, well, I don't have to have a piece of paper if I should say, well, have a marriage ceremony.

Get married without the piece of paper. What will they say? Nine times out of 10 what they'll say, well, they'll get flustered and they'll come up with another reason. Because really the issue isn't the piece of paper. The issue is the what?

It's the commitment. It's the commitment that is involved with marriage. That is really the issue. Cohabitation between consenting adults, whether it's for a month or a decade, without a marriage commitment, is not marriage. It's not marriage.

The government at some point may acknowledge it, may call it something, but marriage is a covenant entered into by two people who are committed to one another. That is what is honored by who? By God. We are being told today to back off and accept same sex marriages as equal with heterosexual marriages. Leviticus eighteen twenty two, thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind, it is an abomination.

Leviticus twenty thirteen, if a man also lie with mankind as he lieth with woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death, their blood shall be upon them. You say, well, pastor, that was the Old Testament law. That was under Moses. That's not New Testament.

That doesn't apply to today. Okay? Though the death penalty does not apply to today, God's view on same sex relationships hasn't changed. Romans one twenty six and twenty seven, for this cause, God gave them up unto vile affections. For even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature, and likewise also the men leaving the natural use of the women burned in their lust one toward another, men with men working that which is unseemly and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet or fitting.

Does that sound like something that God condones or something that God condemns? It's something clearly that God condemns. First Corinthians six nine, know you not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind. Okay?

The effeminate and abusers of themselves with mankind is a description of homosexual activity that God clearly condemns. Where? In the New Testament. God hasn't changed his mind. The Lord changes not.

Therefore, we can trust him because he doesn't change. Society changes, culture changes, man's opinion changes but who doesn't change? God does not change. And regardless of what a court or government or what legislation may be passed, it doesn't change the mind of who? Mind of God nor does it change his definition of that which he ordained and created.

We are told to get off of our high horse today that children really don't need a mother and a father. They just need one or the other or two of the same. Sometimes, that's unavoidable but it is not the ideal. Statistics clearly demonstrate that children brought up in a healthy home with a mother and a father are far better prepared for life than those who are not. Can that be overcome by God's grace and help?

Sure it can. But it is not ideal and it is not God's will nor God's intention. That's why God made a man and a woman, a husband and a wife, a father and a a mother. So, what must we do about it? What must we do about it?

Are we going to riot or descend upon Washington and protest and all that kind of stuff. I don't think that's the primary and first way we should react to what Christ says. What we as Christians should do is to simply do and apply and follow in our own lives that which Christ has exemplified and advised and instructed us to do. Marry Christians who have the same convictions concerning the Lord and the sacredness of marriage as you have. Don't be unequally yoked.

Stay married even when things are not rosy, because in every relationship there are times when things are not rosy. Treat each other with love and respect, that's what God expects of marriage partners. Don't entertain thoughts of infidelity. Don't play with fire. Embrace your roles as husband and wife, mother and father.

Raise your children in a manner commanded by the Lord. Do not allow the state, the media, or the academic world to tell you how to raise your children or how to conduct your home. Look instead to what? To the word of God. And the instructions of the one given us here in Matthew 19.

Who himself created and instituted the home and marriage. Do Christians sin? Still? Yes. Do Christian homes fail?

Yes. Does that create complications? It always does because divorce was not intended. And sometimes you have to deal with those complications. But we have to do our best to follow the Lord where we are.

We can't be go back and undo the past. Paul said, forgetting those things which are behind, I press forward to those things which are what? Which are before. We have to keep looking forward, molding our lives by God's grace more to the image of his son every day as best we can where we are, knowing that he forgives and that he will help us to do better. Most of all, as I close, again, marriage in the Bible represents the union between Christ and the church.

Question this morning to the to you as I close is this, as it always is, as I close on my Sunday morning messages. Do you know the Lord? Do you have a union? With Christ Through repentance and faith in his shed blood of Calvary on your behalf. You can become a child of God today.

Do you know him? He pleads for you to come to him by faith today and enter into a relationship with him which can never and will never be broken. Let's pray. Dear Lord, thank you for your love for us. Lord, we do fail in many ways and we need your help to change us and to help us to make the wise and the right and the righteous and the just decisions as we move forward for you.

Lord, there are many today that have been hurt and are dealing with issues in life concerning the home and marriage that they did not intend. Lord, I pray that you would help them. Lord, strengthen them. Lord, give them grace and wisdom. As some are raising children, as others are seeking to follow and serve the Lord now in their life.

I pray that you would be with them and give them special grace. Lord, I pray most of all that if there's one here today that's never received Jesus Christ as savior. I pray Lord that you would help them to see their need. And understand that you don't break your promises. And that when we come to you by faith that we will never perish because no man can take us out of your hands, and you will never cast us out.

In Jesus' precious name we pray. Amen.