this week in it, i want to stolook at fighting for an awesome marriage, and te take out your notes to look at the first of the top. paul says this, now paul was not married. paul was a single adult, and sapaul says this, the first current seven seven seven, we're all given different gifts. god gives the gift of marriage to some and to others, he gives the gift of singleness. so then i'i've very supposed to me, married god, says in his word that we get different gifts from him. some he gives the gift of marriage, and some he gives the gift of singlelness old translations called the gift of celebasacy. but we everybody knows what is it's singlelness. now, how do you know if you have the gift to single us? i know you're waiting with batted breath for this. and here's the right, if you have any desire to get married someday, you don't have this gift. that's the tel tail sign. okay? if you say, you know, really, i'd like to be married, someday i'like to have a wiwife. i like to have a husbthen, then you don't have the give a single ness the gift of singsinglist. when god gives, it means i'm perfectly happy to live the rest of my life, not married. that's a give single ness.

now whether you are have never been married or you're divorced or you're separated, or your widowed, or you are currently married, regardless of what state iran, the next verse supplies to all of us. look of this. first, he brews thirteen four marriage should be honored. red. read it with me by everyone circle that by everyone. so regardless of whether i have a marrior, not or whether i've been married in the past, and i'm not now i am to honor marriage. the bible says by god, everyone is to give honor to marriage. so sadly, marriage is no longer honoured by everyone in our society. in fact, just the exact opposite. but today, marriage is dismissed as irrelevant by many people as and our cake, they who needs to get married. that's something somebody made it in another generation or another culture, a man made lifestout choice. and really it's dismissed where body needs get married today. it's the mean by many people nobody getting married as a career buster. you're getting married where thethere goes your career. it's down the pike. it's down. the tube marriage is delayed. people are delaying marriage more and more many times for the wrong reasons. now they're good reasons for delaying marriage, but there are also selfish reasons for delaying marriage. marriage is being redefined. it's being ridiculed that's being demean. it's being announced that's being discouraged. marriage is disrespected. we don't live in a culture where marriage is honored by everyone anymore, and even christians fall for this trap. and part of the promise nobody knows the basics of marriage anymore. fifty years ago, if i were to glon on strestreet, say, tell me the purposes of marriage, they could give you the five or six purposes of marriage. nobody knows these today. and so marriage disttreated, like just one more little lifestyle choice. it is not, it's far more important than you realize whether you ever get married yourself or not, and it's absolute essential.

god gave it to us marriage for six reasons. most people don't know why marriage matmatin facfact people eieia have an incredibly unrealistic view of marriage, which there's no way anybody could measure up to it or two. they're just flat out wrong about the meaning and the purpose and the design of marriage. most people don't get it right now. the reality is marriage won't solve all your problems. let me correct that marriage won't solve any of your problems. anybody married want to give a text of only right now. okay. now a lot of people think marriage creates problems. i didn't have problems till i got married. oh, no, no, no, that's wrong. too. marriage doesn't solve your problems. marriage doesn't create your problems. marriage reveals problems. it reveals problems. if i'm cranky, my marriage is gona reveal it. if i'm a perfection, is my marriage just going to reveal it. if i'm fearful and insecure and a worriworked, my marriage just going to reveal it. if i'm bitter and angry and controlling and manipulative, my marriage is going to reveal it. marriage don't create problems, marriage reveal them. they just show up in marriages, like in no other relationship. i've got friends who've gone through multiple relationships, some have been in multiple marriages and and sometimes i'm councisome stubying us. i don't understand. you know, i've been married multiple times that my relationships just suck. and i won't say, well, what do you think the common denominator you are, you know what the problem with my marriages me, you know, the problem with your marriages you. and so we bring problems in the marriage and marriage simply magnifies what's already a problem that maybe it's masked when i'm living as a single little. so marriage isn't going to solve all your problems. it reveals if marriage will not turn your lives into a picddick, marriage will not balance a harmonic convergence of the universe there. a lot of things marriage can't do, but it does have a god designed function. it does have a god design form, and it is far more important. marriage is far more important than you realize. now i can't go into these six reasons, but in detail, but i wanted i want you is list these before we get into how do you fight phenosy marriage? i want you to know the six reasons why marriage it matters. this bribrief of you, because you need to be able to explain it. other people nobody body lyou nobody in culture, nobody body know, get get married or get in divorce knows all six of these, they just don't think about them.

so let's look why god designed marriage number one, right? these down, first, god created marriage for the connection of men and women. god created marriage for the connection of men and women. now i want to show you a verse up on the screen in just second first grantians eleven eleven, says this on the screen in god's plan, men and women need each other. do you know how a radical statement that is today, a lot of people don't believe that there are a lot of music women. they don't need men. why would i need a men? and a lot of en say, why would i need a woman? well, you do, and the god who designed you created, whether you ever get married or not. if you're a woman, you need man in your life. if you're man, you need women in your life, why? because nobody holds the full image of god? women get part of it? men get part of it, and we need each other guide wired it this way. god thought ght up gender, god thought up sex. what a god and god fought up marriage. he thought it all up. it was his idea. it wasn't some men me construct. now. the bible goes back to the very beginning in the creation of the first couple and the first marriage and gengenciis chapter two, the bible says, god creates adam, and he doesn't make eve yet. why did god make men? and then woman a little bit later? why did you make about the same time? because obviously had every digit, i think he did it for adams benefit. i think adam, he, he wanted adam to realize how much he needed women in his life. now, the bible says this and genesis to eighteen. it is not good. this is god talking. it is not good for the man. that's adam to be alone. i will make a companion who is right for him. i will make a companion who is right for him. i will make now notice the first thing i need to realize is marriage, gender, sex, men and women, all the differences. this is a god given thing, and god intended marriage. one of the purposes of marriage is as an antidote to loneleliness.

look at the next verse. he says, there. it is not good for man to be alone. now there are many that i want to make it a companion. and many companions are important in life, unineed companions in all your errors, but there's nothing like the companionship of a riage. you talk to any merricoucouple. and to tell you, yes, there there many other kininds of relationships, and they are all good in life, but nothing at all, compares to the companionship of a man and a woman who are committed to each other for the rest. their lives there is no other relation that could possibly compare. that is in a relational class by itself. and god calls that marriage. now here's what jesus had to say about markn. god's plan has been seen from the beginning of creation when he made us male and female, god made males guyve made females, and god shows what he wanted you to be. this explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united as one body. now, since they are no longer two, but one god sees a america couple, as one no one should separate them for god has joined them together. now there's a very important passage descripture and and i spspa a lot time on. let me just make three points at it that passage cesterory. thanks. it's number one marriage, just god's plan. it's not a human plan. it's not a human idea. it's not a tradition that we could to throw out god invented marriage when he invented you when he invted in me when ininvented humanity marriage just god's plan. second thing that verse says is marriage is between a man and a woman and a lot of other relationships, but those aren't marriage. marriage is between a man and a woman and their body parts fit together and they fit together for a purpose, the creation of everybody else. and the third thing it says, is marriage is to be permanent. it says what god joins together, god joins a couple and marriage. no one, no one else should separate. it's meant to be permanent to be like. do you realize how radical those three statements are that marriages? god's idea and plan that marriage es for a man and a woman. and that marriages be permit. nobody believes that anymore, but it's still the truth. it's still the truth. it's still the way god designed marriage. and just because we live in the real, not necessarily the ideal doesn't mean we get say the ideal doesn't exist.

it does god wants your relationships to be more than just fair, average, good or even great. he wants your relationships to be awesome life, giving filled with joy and purpose. that's why casteroric has developed the awesome relationships bible study through this four session DVD and workbook study. y'll discover the tools you need to build an awesome marriage and family, awesome friendships, and most importantly, an awesome relationship with god. this resource is perfect for individual or group study today will send you. you pasterrics awesome relationships bible study, as thanks for your gift to help daily, hope, take the hope of jesus to a desperate in a hurting world. thank you so much for helping share the hope of jesus with people everywhere.

now as a pastor, i have done, i don't know how many thousands of weddings i couldn't count how many weddings i've done one of things. i like about the modern wedding is that people are writing their vows. now. i think that's good in one sense because it's better than just saying i do. i mean, i went when people write their own vows, they tend to express more of themselves. and you get to hear their love that for other person. that's a good thing, but there's also a downside of people people writing their own vows today. and it's this they're leaving out god. i can't say how many, many ws i've heard they're really more like a junior high social contract. i love you as long as this is the suunshines all what happens when it rains tomorrow. okay, you get a divorce, then i will love you because you make me feel so great. what happens when they get in a hospital, and they can't make you feel great. do you divorce them? then i love you because you're so beautiful. what i hate to tell you this, she's gonnlose your beauty and you already have. okay, i love you. if i love you if as conditional love, that's not a love that that makes a marriage last. so a lot of contracts today in marriage, really sound like a thirty six, six month police police for an auto is like i love you as long as we boss h love really, really love you until debt. do us part or divorce do us part. they're leaving out god. the first thing about marriage is that god created it, and he created for the connection of a man and a woman for life.

number two, god created marriage for the multification of the human race for the multification of the human race. it's how we all got here. you are sitting where you're sitting and you were listening online where you're listening online because a couple got together and made you. and this was god's idea, god populated the human planet through marriage for thousands of years. billions of people have come on into existence, because men and women got married, and god says, this is part of my plane. then let me give you little background on this. the bible says that god is love. we've talked about this many times that this character it's is nature. the only reason is love in the universe is because god is love. if god was not a loving god, you would not have any love in your life. there would be no love in the universe. the only reason you were able to love is because you, as a man or woman were created in go's image. squirrels. don't love because they're not made in god's image worms. don't love because they're not made in gogod's image ants. don't love because they're not not made in god's ige, but milmilwomen have the capacity to love because we're made in god's image. and god said, i want to love, and i want express my love. and the bible says everything that d has made. he made it simply in order to love it. you were made in order for god to love you. that's why you exist. if god didn't want to love you, you wouldn't exist everything in the universe. god made to love it. and the bible says that god created the universe because he wanted a family to love. so he created the universe so he could create the human race. so he could love us knowing that some of us would choose to love him back. and then we would live with him forever, ever never in his eternal family in heaven.

now think about this, god shows everybody who's gonna be in heaven to come into existence through marriage insex. that's the way he shows nobody would be in heaven if god hadn't created marriage because everybody's come into existence through the tool that he designed. and now let me show you some versus genesis. one twenty seven says this for god created people in his own image. he patterned them after himself, creating both male and female with his image. then so not every males don't have all the image. god females. we both get parts of god's ige, then god blesshed them and comandded them. now here's the very first command. god gives to the human race and want you you to ad it allowoud with great gusto ready here we got god commands them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. wow. so god's first command to human races, get married and has sex that, by the way, friends is the only command of god, the human races has been able to keep. and we've done a pretty good job at that when they're about seven billion of us on the planet, because your parents and their parents and their parents and their parents and their parents, we're fruitful and multilied and fill the land fill the world. so we're all here that the point is that god says one of the purposes of marriage is for the multiplation of the human race. it's not the only purpose, but it's a big one. look at this next verse malai q fifteen. i love this in the message. carephrase. god, not you made marriage, his spirit inhabits, even the smallest details of marriage. and why does he god? what does god want from marriage? he's reclear goddly children from your union. because if people don't have kids, nobody's, those kids are not going to be born. they can get into heaven. he wants goddly children from union, so guard the spirit of marriage within you.

now this is not an indictment for a childdest couple. couples who don't have kids that there are couples who want kids and for whatever reason cannot have them or have been unable to have them. and if you can't if you're married, you can have kids, god is not disappointed in you that's not what this voices versus saying. what it is saying is that we're all alive because some couple got together. and for thousands of years, god is used marriage to populate heaven. and if men and women weren't getting together and marrying and having sex, then there would be nobody in heaven. this, a second reason, a second purpose of marriage number three, the third reason gud created marriage for the connection of men and women for the multification of human race. third, for the protection of children, god created god invented marriage for the protection of children. we all know that kids grow better, healthier, stronger when they grow up in a stable family when they grow up in a marriage of the mom and a dead.

now, why did god create marriage for the protection children? because when you were born, you were born completely helpless. you could not do anything, you couldn't feed yourself, you couldn't dress yourself, you couldn't change your dieper. er. you couldn't blow your nose. shoyou. you couldn't even turn over on your back. when you first started, you were literally totally helpless. god knew that human children needed a safe environment, and you were going to need somebody to feed you and dress you and nurture you. you were going to need someto protect you to guide you to train you to care for you and all these things. now we i ask my researchers to go out and research all of the national and international studies on the effect of marriage or the lack of a marriage on children. and i ask them to to find the all the studies here they are. okay. these are in chchristian studies. these just studies by harvard, you know, university and the united states government and the national ininstitude hehealth re's, about one hundred and fifty different studies. i want to read to you some of the statistics, i can find them of what god said about. i mean, what society has about, and i can't find those notes, never mind sit down there. what's in here? you're right. thanks, steve. would you please sit on the front row from now on and you, you it a good guy, right?

let me give you a study, a summary of one hundred and fifty studies on the impact of marriage negative positive on children. studies have shown that if children grow up without two parents without a mom and dead, there's an increased risk that they're going to a fail in school kids without two parents are more likely to not graduate from college kids without two parents, are more likely to be involved in substance. are alcohol abuse. they're more likely to experience ed distress, depression in risk suicide. they're more likely to do jail time. they're more likely to live their entire lives in poverty, and they're more likely to increase the risk that they themselves will divorce or will better children outside of marriage. on the other hand, children who live with their own two parents, growing up, statistically brave, enjoy better physical health than children living in any other family form. now i didn't say this is just what hundred and fifty years so studies have shown about women. studies show that women who married and stay married have lower rates of depression than neither single women or mothers cohabitating with a guy that they're not married too women who marry stay married, have a lower risk of being a victim of a crime, have a lower risk of violence in their life. women who married stay married, have a higher net worth than those who are living with a man. they're not marry, too. if that interesting have about men, studies have shown that men who marry and stay married, earned more money than single men with similar education, job histories, and they live men who marry and stay married, live longer than single men. men who married, stay married a mass more net worth than those who live with a woman and not being married to them. and men who marries stay married, have fewer injuries and illnesses. what's that saying it's just saying rosumpand more simple when you do it god's way, it works up better in your life.

god wants your relationships to be more than just fair, average, good or even great. he wants your relationships to be awesome life, giving filled with joy and profss. that's why casteroric has developed the awesome relationships vibal study through this four session DVD and workbook study. y'll discover the tools you need to build an awesome marriage and family, awesome friendships. and most importantly, an awesome relationship with god. this resource is perfect for individual or group study today will send send you. you payrics awesome relationships bible study. thanks, thanks, your gift to help daily. hope. take the hope of jesus to a desperate in a hurting world. thank you so much for helping share the hope of jesus with people everywhere.