Adrian Rogers brings forth a deep understanding of the sanctity and permanence of marriage as envisioned by God. Through humorous anecdotes and profound biblical insights, he challenges modern perceptions of love and divorce. He urges listeners to embrace the divine plan for happy and holy family life, tackling myths and societal trends that often lead to broken homes. Join us in exploring the teachings that promise strength and unity in marriage.
Pastor, teacher, and author Adrian Rogers has introduced people all over the world to the love of Jesus Christ and has impacted untold numbers of lives by presenting profound truth simply stated. Thanks for joining us for this message. Here’s Adrian Rogers.
SPEAKER 02 :
I read of a man who bought from the city the city garbage dump. It had been filled up. It was a landfill and it was full. He negotiated with the city fathers and bought that landfill because he had a plan for it. And he began to haul in dirt and cover all of that garbage. And then he took his bulldozers and worked it over and tamped it down. And then he laid out a subdivision. It was a beautiful subdivision. He had streets, sidewalks. Contractors came in and built houses. And young families bought those houses and moved in. And it was as beautiful and pretty a neighborhood as you would ever see for several years. And then the streets began to buckle. The sidewalks began to crack and foundations began to give way beneath those houses and the roofs began to sag and the walls began to crack and one by one the people moved out and it was absolutely a worthless subdivision. The old timers knew what was wrong. They just laughed and they said, well, you know, that was a foolish endeavor to begin with. It was all built on garbage. And we have so many homes today that are built the same way. I want to talk to you today on this subject, a foundation for the family. A foundation for the family. Matthew chapter 5, verse 31. It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement. But I say unto you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery. And whosoever shall marry her that is divorced, committeth adultery. And then turn, if you will, to chapter 7 and look, if you will, in verse 24. Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house. upon a rock, not upon garbage, but upon a rock. Now, I want to talk to you now about a foundation for the family. We’re living in a time of national tragedy. And that tragedy is homes that are built on garbage and throw away marriages. people get married looking for an ideal, and that ideal turns to an ordeal, and then they look around for a new deal. And they’re trying to start all over again, and they say, well, I’m just going to get a fresh start. I’m going to divorce this mate and marry another. That is becoming an American way of life. But oh, the hurts, the heartaches, the hellishness that comes by not obeying the Word of God. Marriage is for keeps. I asked Joyce, Joyce, will you love me when I’m old and unattractive? She said, of course I do. That’s the way it is to be. One man. For one woman till death do them part. You don’t come into marriage with the idea if it doesn’t work out, we’ll bail out. Marriage is made in heaven. But my dear friend, it is worked out here on earth. Newsweek magazine said the landscape is littered with victims of the divorce epidemic. Ex-wives raising their children alone. Former husbands trying to start new lives and still be good fathers to kids they see only on specified days. And the children themselves often torn apart between two warring parents. And I say today, my dear friend, we are in an epidemic of it. And no wonder we have so many broken lives. Now you see, broken homes produce broken lives that produce broken homes that produce broken lives that produce broken homes. And the cycle goes on and on and on. And we need to learn from the Word of God how to break that cycle and get some foundations for the family. God hates divorce. God has said that in Malachi chapter 2 verse 16. He hates divorce. He hates putting away. Now there are three things I want you to see today as we talk about foundations for the family. First of all I want you to see the God designed plan for marriage. Now look if you will again in verses 31 and 32. It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement. But I say unto you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery. And whosoever shall marry her that is divorced, committeth adultery. Now that’s what Jesus said here in Matthew chapter 5. And then there is a companion passage over here in Matthew chapter 19. And I want you to read that. Matthew chapter 19, and I begin in verse 1. And it came to pass that when Jesus had finished these sayings, He departed from Galilee and came to the coast of Judea beyond Jordan. And great multitudes followed him and he healed them there. The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him. Now the word tempting means they were testing him, saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? There was a rabbi this day, Hillel, who was teaching that you could put away your wife if she didn’t please you with her cooking. You could put her away if her voice was too loud. You could put her away if she said something disrespectful to your parents. They had all kinds of laws. Hillel was teaching this. And so they asked Jesus, do you agree with Rabbi Hillel? That’s what they were doing. A man put away his wife for every cause. And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female? By the way, my dear friend, God is against the idea of unisex. When God made man and woman, He made he-men and she-women, a him and a her, not a shem. And God made them that way, male and female. And God said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they twain, they too, shall be one flesh.” Wherefore, there are no more twain, but one flesh. And then listen to this. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. Now, here’s the God-designed plan for marriage. And the Lord Jesus, in conjunction with the Sermon on the Mount, and here in Matthew 19, gives us that plan. Now, you could take the best carpenter in the world, I mean the very best carpenter in the world, and tell him to build a house, and if he didn’t know what a house was, he couldn’t build it. No matter what kind of a carpenter he is. You can take the most wonderful children in the world and say, build a Christian home or build a home as God designed. And if you don’t know what God designed, how are you going to build it? So let’s find out what God’s design is. What is the God designed plan for marriage? Now in this verse, in Matthew chapter 19, there are three key verbs. You know what a verb is? It’s an action word. One of those verbs is the word leave. The other verb is the word cleave. And the other verb is the word be. Leave, cleave, and be. Now, all of my marriage counseling is wrapped up in these three words. And all marriage problems come from a misunderstanding of these three words. This is God’s plan, and what Jesus Christ is doing is quoting the book of Genesis right here. Now, when Jesus said, let a man leave his father and his mother, that speaks of the priority of marriage. Marriage is the highest of all human relationships, and the relationship between husband and wife is a closer bond than the relationship, believe it or not, of parent and child. You may not believe that, or you may not say that is natural, but it is supernatural, and it is God’s Word that the relationship between a husband and wife is the closest, dearest relationship on this earth. And so When you’re raising your boys and girls and getting them ready for marriage, you have to be preparing them to leave your home. You know what your job is as a parent? It’s to give your children wings so they can leave the nest. The Bible says that the eagle stirs her nest. That is, what does she do? She teaches her little eaglets to fly. Now, that’s what you’re doing with your children if you’re wise. You know, boys and girls today don’t need to be too comfortable at home. Mother Eagle would come in there with little fish and juicy worms and keep feeding those eagles. But after a while there comes a time when she has to stir the nest and get that thing out. You know what many of us do? I know I’ve been guilty of it saying I don’t want my children to have it as hard as I had it. I want them to have the things I didn’t have. But I have to ask myself this question. Am I not only giving them the things my parents could not give me, but am I giving them the things that my parents did give me? I was born in the Depression, and right in the heart of the Depression. I have a real good idea I wasn’t planned. I came along right in the heart of the Depression. Thank God I wasn’t aborted, amen? But I don’t think I was planned. I’ve never discussed this with my mother. I’ve never wanted to put her on the spot. I just don’t think I was planned. But that didn’t make any difference. I know I was loved. And I’m going to tell you something. We had very little, but we had so much. And do you know what I remember primarily about our childhood? Do you know what I remember primarily about our childhood? The good times we had because we had so little. I can remember times when my dad, because there was no work, would say, well, let’s just load up and go fishing. We would spend the day on Singer Island there, one of the most beautiful islands there off the coast of Palm Beach there, all day long there in the pristine, clear water. We’d catch minnows where Dad would fish, and then we’d build a big bonfire on the shore and put a big can of Van Camp’s pork and beans in that fire until it got hot and bring some grease and fry those fish. And, hey, folks… That’s something money can’t buy. I can remember going out there and playing ball with an old… Did you ever have a bat that you had to wrap with tape because the bat got broke? And then, listen, if the guy that had the old ball went home, the game was over. I mean, that’s all you had. We had… But listen, those were good times. Good times. Things don’t make us happy. And what I’m trying to say is, don’t just be so interested in making your children comfortable. Try to build into them some character and get them ready to leave the nest. Do you know what your job is? Your job is to work yourself out of a job. Did you know that a parent is successful when the children no longer need them? You see, you work yourself out of a job, but you don’t work yourself out of a relationship. And that sometimes is hard to do because there’s several kinds of love. You see, a child needs love. Do you know why the child loves his mama? Not because she’s pretty in her face or not because she’s gentle or anything else. The child loves the mama because the child has needs and the mama meets the needs. That’s need love. Do you know why people have children? They have need to be needed love. That’s the reason why the people today, you know what a tragedy it is that little babies are being aborted because there’s so many parents who want to adopt a baby. They need to be needed. They want somebody to love. They want, they just have a need to be needed to give that love. And that is a God-given need. And so the little baby has need love and the parents have need to be needed love. And that bonds them together right away. And that’s the reason there’s such a wonderful bond there. But you see… What happens is this, that after a while a child grows out of that need love. There comes a time, a normal natural time, when the child does not need the mother like the child used to need the mother. And it’s our job to help that child to stand alone. to the degree that you can do that, you’re a successful parent when they no longer need you. Now that’s very hard because some parents, when they see this happening, when that child is getting 14, 15, 16, they see that child beginning now to stand alone and make their own decisions and do their own thing. The parent says, now wait a minute, they’re getting away. And the child no longer has the need love, but the parent still has the need to be needed love. And so what the parent does is create artificial needs. And at that point, rebellion can start because when you make those apron strings too tight and you put those cords too tight and you build the wall of that nest too high and this child is wanting to be independent and stand alone and you keep reinforcing your need to be needed when he no longer has the need love, if you’re not careful, you’ll say you are rebellious. It may not be rebellious at that point. It may be your problem at that point. But you may be creating a rebellious child if you’re not careful. What you do is just simply help that child to be able to stand alone, teach them how to make decisions, teach them how to earn their money, teach them how to save money, teach them how to go out and face this world and stand alone. Don’t try to hold them too tight like a bar of soap. If you try to hold them too tight, it will pop out of your hand. But my dear friend, if you teach them to stand alone and let them leave father and mother, they’ll come back and be the best friends you ever had. the best friends you ever had. You work yourself out of a job, but you don’t work yourself out of a relationship. And this is what marriage is all about, where a man will leave his father and his mother and will cleave unto his wife. And so the very first verb here is the word leave, and that speaks of the priority of marriage. Marriage is the highest of all human relationships. That’s the priority of marriage. But then look at the next verb, if you will, and that is the word cleave. Cleave. He leaves his father and mother and he cleaves unto his wife. Now, the word cleave here means to glue or to weld. There is a bonding that takes place, a welding that takes place between a man and a woman. And this speaks not only of the priority of marriage, to leave, but the permanence of marriage, to cleave. And if you keep those two things together, the priority and the permanence of marriage. Don’t even consider divorce. Don’t even consider it. Take your scissors, cut the word out of the dictionary, get it out of your vocabulary. Don’t even consider it. It is not an option. You are bound to your husband. You are bound to your wife. You… cleave to your husband. You cleave to your wife. You show me two kids who consider divorce as an option, and I’ll show you two kids who have a much greater propensity and potential for the disintegration of their home. You see, listen, do you think that those people who have divorce get divorced because they have problems, and those people who don’t get divorced don’t get divorced because they don’t have any problems? Who are you kidding? All couples have essentially the same kinds of problems. The difference is in commitment. My dear friend, there are no problems too big to solve. They’re just people too small to solve them. All people have problems, but there comes a time of commitment where you say, I will cleave to my wife. Now, leave, cleave, and the third verb is be. And be what? You are to be one flesh. Now that means more than sex and the sexual union. A person is a whole person and you’re to be one flesh physically, psychologically, and spiritually. You’re one flesh physically. That is for procreation and multiplication because God said be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. And by the way, you know it’s getting out of vogue today to have children. Oh, my dear friend, children… are the heritage of the Lord. Blessed is the man that hath his quiver full of them. You say, but we have things we want. We want another car. We want vacations. We want this and that. May God pity you. May God pity you. Oh, you say, children, make a rich man poor. No, my dear friend, don’t make a poor man rich. Hmm, rich man can’t take his money to heaven. I’m taking all my kids to heaven. Children are the heritage of the Lord and you’re to be one flesh for procreation that you might reproduce and replenish and enjoy God’s blessing. And then you’re to be one flesh psychologically. This is not only for procreation, but for communication, to enjoy one another. The deepest emotional and psychological needs of man are met in woman and woman in man. It is not good that the man should be alone, the Lord said. and not only should your wife be your sweetheart she ought to be your friend your friend not only should you be lovers you ought to be friends and then one flesh not only uh physically in one flesh psychologically but one flesh spiritually and that is for communion there is no deeper sweeter communion than a man and a woman loving god together Thank God for that union and that communion where two are one spiritually and they worship God and enjoy the things of God together. Now, my dear friend, that is the divine plan for marriage. That’s what the Lord Jesus said, the God-designed plan. Now, here’s the second thing I want you to see. Not only the God-designed plan for marriage, but I want you to see the God-desired permanence of marriage. Now, go back to Matthew chapter 5, if you will, and look again. Matthew chapter 5. Verses 31 and 32. It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement. That’s what was said in Deuteronomy chapter 24. But I say unto you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery. And whosoever shall marry her that is divorced, committeth adultery. Here’s our Lord Jesus talking about the God-desired permanence of marriage. And Jesus permitted, not commanded, but permitted divorce. for only one reason, and that was fornication. Fornication. Go back again, if you will, now to the Matthew 19 passage, and we’re going to pick up where we left off. Matthew chapter 19, verse 5. Jesus said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. Therefore there are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. And they say unto him, why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement and put her away? If you say that you’re not to put her away, why did Moses allow this? And he saith unto them, Moses, because of the hardness of your heart, allowed you, suffered you, to put away your wives. But from the beginning it was not so. That is, that’s not God’s design. That’s not God’s plan. That was only a concession for the hardness of men’s hearts. But I say unto you, now here’s verse 9, that whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, porneia. fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery. And whosoever marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery. Now Moses permitted but did not command divorce. Divorce is not God’s original intent. And pornea means sexual immorality. A physical act of sexual immorality is is the only reason, the only allowance that the Lord Jesus gave for divorce. But He did not command divorce. He did not even commend divorce. As a matter of fact, our Lord teaches that restoration and forgiveness, even in a case of marital infidelity, is far, far better. And I guess the classic example of that is in the book of Hosea. If you read the book of Hosea, Hosea had a wife whose name was Gomer, who not only committed immorality, but she had serial lovers, and she finally ended up as a prostitute on the streets. And yet Hosea went back to her, reclaimed her, forgave her, remarried her, and restored the home. And that is God’s ideal. Of course, you cannot make the other partner do that. Sometimes Hosea could have asked and Gomer could have refused and gone her sinful way. And Hosea then would have been helpless to do anything about it. But thank God for the Hoseas of this world who are willing and able to go and forgive and restore a marriage. There’s so many foolish excuses today for divorce. It’s amazing. They say, for example, well, I don’t love anymore. And since the love has gone out of our marriage, then we’ll get a divorce. That, my dear friend, is never a reason for divorce. And I’ll tell you why. It is not love that sustains your marriage. It is your marriage that sustains your love. Now get this in your heart. When you think of love, you’re probably thinking of emotion. But when God speaks of love, God is not speaking primarily of emotion. God is speaking of commitment. You are commanded to love. Let me give you a verse. Ephesians chapter 5 verse 24. Here’s a command to every man in this building who’s married. Husbands, love your wives. That’s not a suggestion. That is a command. You are commanded to love her. And love is something you’re commanded to do. It’s something you can learn to do. In Titus chapter 2 and verse 14, the Bible says that the older women are to teach the younger women to love their husbands. Teach them to do it. You see, love is not something that is so ephemeral, so emotional, that maybe you see it, maybe you don’t. You fall in love, you fall out of love. You are a helpless victim. No, no, no, no, no. God doesn’t buy that. The Bible doesn’t teach that. No, my dear friend, you’re commanded to love. Now, there’s nothing wrong with romance. There’s nothing wrong with emotion. I hope you have keep the honey in your honeymoon. I remember when I fell in love with a little girl named Joyce. gentry i remember sitting there in my desk looking across and seeing that girl and i said i like her i just liked her i don’t know why i like the way she smiled it’s just something about her i think i like the fact she always had her homework done and i never did i don’t know what it was but i looked at her and and there’s something about that that i just began to sidle up to her and write her notes and talk to her and see her on the playground and at the school parties i remember one time looking up there i was sitting in church and looking at joyce sitting in the choir I thought, I love her with all of my heart. Seemed to me I saw a halo around her head. I just thought, that is, it was just a glow about her. And the romance that was there. And I can remember all of those wonderful things. The moonlight, the roses, the sweetness. That’s wonderful. But my dear friend, it hadn’t all been that way. Hadn’t all been that way. Raising four children and having the funeral of a fifth child who died as an infant and getting those kids through school and working through school and going through eight years or seven years of school married where I was the breadwinner and letting Joy stay home and still getting an education and all of that. It was hard and there have been difficult times and there have been disagreements. I married a beautiful girl. I’m married to a complicated woman now. My dear friend, I have to make adjustments, and she has to make adjustments, and it has never gotten easier. It gets harder. It gets harder. I am telling you, it’s an amazing thing. You think after all this time, we, listen, we’re having new things to adjust to every day. And do you know what keeps us together? It is love, not romance. And you know what keeps the love there? Commitment. Commitment. Husbands, love your wives. Teach the women to love their husbands. Don’t give me this stuff that the love has gone out of your marriage, therefore you’re going to get a divorce. And then somebody says, oh, well, you know, it’s better for the children. It’s better for the children. We’re just so concerned about the children. And so because of the children, it’d be far better for the children if we got a divorce than to raise those children in the atmosphere of an unhappy home. Well, my dear friend, the study of broken homes do not back that up. Divorce is not a positive factor for the children. As a matter of fact, it might be helpful if you want to know whether to be better for the children or not to ask the children. And when you say, well, it’s better for the children that we get a divorce than to have the children live around constant arguments, well, you’re guilty of binary thinking. You only have two alternatives. One alternative is argument. The other alternative is divorce. I want to tell you there’s a third alternative, and that is for you to get right with God. For you to get right with God and cut this stuff out and make your marriage work. When you’re talking about it’s better for the children, that is generally really an act of selfishness. And you portray it as a noble sacrifice for the children. When you ought to be doing something about the relationship that is rending the hearts and lives of these children. And then here’s the classic one. Well, you know, I owe it to myself to be happy. Where’d you get that idea? I owe it to myself to be happy. I am to be happy. My dear friend, God has another plan for you, and that is that you be holy. Now, happiness is fine. But happiness, when you make happiness your prime goal in life, that is the ultimate selfishness. And my dear friend, it will end up in the ultimate unhappiness. You do not live in isolation. When you got married, you made a holy vow. You made a vow to your partner. And it is not only your happiness, but it is his welfare, her welfare that you to be concerned about. You made a vow to Almighty God. And my dear friend, your vow to God is more important than your happiness. You took a vow upon yourself and your character is more important than that. And don’t come around here saying, well, I am supposed to be happy. No, my dear friend, God has a plan for your life and it is to obey his word. Somebody says, but I prayed to God and God told me it’s all right. God wants me to get a divorce. God is leading me this way. My dear friend, God never, never, never, never goes contrary to his word. Never. And God’s not going to make an exception for you. And if you say, well, God told me that He’s making an exception for me, you’re guilty of self-deception, auto-suggestion. It is not the Word of God. So just simply throw away your parachute. Divorce is not an option. Well, you say, my marriage is in deep difficulty. Well, it may be. And may I say this, my dear friend, that marriages are not healed overnight. not healed overnight and even if you make a decision to put your marriage back together it’s not going to be just wonderful as a matter of fact it may be torturous marriages are not healed overnight but I’m going to tell you something the direction of your marriage can be changed overnight That’s the important thing. Just simply that you turn and begin in the right direction. It may take you a long time to get there, but at least you’re headed in that way. And by a decision, by a consecration, a surrender of your will, the direction of your home can be changed overnight. And you can begin to go in that great right direction. And why did you get married to begin with? Well, you loved her. She loved you. And if you were to sit down and think of all the positive things, you would think of so many positive things. But you think about 10% of the things that are bad. Well, why throw away 90% of a good marriage because of 10% of the things that are bad? Why not work on those 10% of the things? Change what you can change. Accept what you cannot change. Commit it to God. And don’t come around with these excuses. Let me talk to you about the God-declared pardon for a failed marriage. Now, we’re in Matthew chapter 5. Before long, we’re going to get over into Matthew 6, where our Lord taught us to pray. And in Matthew chapter 6, verse 12, He taught us this to pray. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Now, what about people who’ve already failed? Pastor Rogers, are you here today trying to put a guilt trip on me because I’ve gotten a divorce and I’ve been remarried? No, no, no, no, no. No, oh God, no. God is a God of forgiveness. God is a God of grace. And if you failed and your marriage is irreparably broken, you’ve remarried, you’ve got a second home and so forth, you can’t unscramble eggs. You can’t go backward. And one thing that really bothers me today is there are those who want to make divorce the unpardonable sin. They want to make divorce a dead-end street. They want to treat divorced people like second-class citizens in the kingdom of heaven. And they sit around and pass judgment. It’s an amazing thing that if a man could be a murderer or something and he gets saved and they put him on from the prison to the pulpit, how wonderful. He’s a preacher of the gospel or somebody who has been maybe a whoremonger before he got saved and he got saved and all of this. And we say, how wonderful, how wonderful. Look what God has done for him. But let somebody get a divorce. Let somebody get an irreparable divorce where it cannot be put together, whether they be the guilty or the innocent party. And then there comes those people who want with great judgment to say somehow that they are second-class citizens in the kingdom of heaven. My dear friend, if you have repented of your sin and given your heart to Jesus Christ, there is no such thing as a second-class citizen in the kingdom of heaven. Put it down big. Put it down plain. And put it down straight. Romans chapter 8 and verse 1. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Hallelujah for that. 1 John 1 verse 7. The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth us from all sin. Isaiah 1, 18. Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. And though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. I remember reading in the Bible about that woman who was taken in the very act of adultery. And there were those who wanted to stone her. You read about it in John chapter 8 and verse 7. And so when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him cast a stone at her. And then in John chapter 8, beginning in verse 10, when Jesus had lifted up himself and saw none, that is all the women went away. He said unto the woman, Woman, where are thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. Jesus did not take a weak view of sin. Jesus did not say, I’m condoning sin when he forgave her. But Jesus said, I do not condemn you. Go and sin no more. And there is that proper balance. Sure, divorce is wrong. But there are two sides also, my dear friend. While we must never lower the standard, we must never ever become… Pharisaical, we must never become hard-hearted to those who need the grace of God. There is a dangerous precipice, a dangerous cliff that’s called divorce. And our job, our duty as a church is to build a wall as high as we can, as thick as we can, as strong as we can, and say to our kids, don’t fall over that precipice. It’s dangerous. It’s destructive. Don’t do it. Don’t do it. Don’t do it. My dear friend, for those who do, for whatever reason, not only are we going to keep a wall up here, but we’re going to keep an ambulance down there. We’re going to keep plenty of gas in it. And to minister to those people and show them the love and the grace of God that every one of us have received. And that’s the kind of a church that this church needs to be and every church needs to be. Listen to me. If you’re married… And Jesus Christ is not the head of your home. Make Jesus Christ the head of your home. Because if you don’t, you have very little chance of having a Bible home. As a matter of fact, you have no chance at all. Without making Jesus Christ the head, you might be able to survive and stay married until you die. But you will not have the kind of a home that I’m talking about. Make Jesus Christ the head of your home. If you’re divorced and it was your fault, ask God to forgive you. And be reconciled to your partner. If your partner’s already remarried or you’re already remarried, still go and in repentance, go to that person and make every wrong right as you can and give forgiveness and receive the forgiveness of God. If you have been divorced against your will and you’re the victim of somebody’s treachery Ask God to take the bitterness out of your heart and forgive that person. Even if they won’t repent, forgive them in spirit. You cannot fully forgive them until they repent. But have the spirit of forgiveness. As Jesus prayed from the cross, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. And take the remainder of your life and give it to God. God is not finished with you. And if you’re listening to me and you’re thinking about getting a divorce, don’t do it. Don’t do it. I beg you in the name of Jesus, take the Word of God. Ask God to help you and put that home back together. And let me just say to those of you who are married, if you have a holy, happy, Christian home, I want to tell you it’s probably in today’s world the best testimony for Jesus you can have. Just your home. Just your home. Let your home be a light where Christ shines. And don’t build upon garbage, but build your house upon the rock. The Bible tells us in Ecclesiastes chapter 4 and verse 12, a threefold cord is not easily broken. That’s a man, a woman, and Jesus Christ. My dear friend, when you put that threefold cord together, then it’s very hard for the devil to break it. Father God, I pray that you’ll seal God’s word to our hearts today. And I pray, dear God, that hearts will be healed and homes will be helped through your word today. And, oh, Father, there are many here today who are not saved, and I pray that they might come to know Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. You want to have a Christian home, best way to do it is to give your heart to Jesus. The best way to find the right person is to be the right person. Get the Holy Spirit in your heart and God will put the Holy Spirit in some other person’s heart and just guide you two together. Maybe you’re married here today and you love your wife so much, but you can’t love her with that full communion. All you’re missing is dimension in your life that’s missing and in your home that’s missing if you don’t know Jesus. But you know, what if you had a happy home and then died and went to hell and were separated forever in a lake of fire? What good would that be? And, oh, friend, maybe nobody else in your home is a Christian, but you can be one. And then God will use you as a base of operations to pray for others. Father, I just pray that many today will be saved. In His wonderful name, amen.
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