Those are Hallie’s last announcements before she becomes a married woman. So we could pray for her and Benny, especially for Halle, beginning life with Benny. But we’re excited for that. Couple years ago when our kids still lived with us, we were in Washington state. It was 11:00 PM at night and it was that blissful feeling when you’re just about to fall into sleep. And I heard the sound that I hate more than any sound in the world. The smoke alarm beep, you know, and the batteries are going on. I just hate that sound. And they never go off at 2:00 PM they can’t go off at 7:00 PM It’s always the most unfortunate time when you’re trying to get to sleep. But we had high ceilings at the time. I’d have to get a ladder downstairs, I’d have to find the nine volt batteries. So I said to myself, mind over matter.

I’m just gonna will myself to sleep. But every time I tried, I’m just about there. Beep finally gave in, fine. I go downstairs, I get the ladder, I find the batteries, take the smoke alarm off, jam the battery in there, get back in bed. Couple minutes go by, beep I go, oh, it’s the wrong one. So I’m trying to listen for which one it is. There’s another smoke alarm in the hallway. I change that, put the battery in, get back in bed, think I’ve got it solved. Then I hear I in Washington state, every room has to have a smoke alarm. So there was my daughter’s bedroom, six linear feet from the hallway. I changed that. Now I’m worried I’m running outta batteries. My adrenaline is pumping. I know. ’cause When I get back in bed, I sort of catapult Lisa about two feet up in the air.

She’s like, did you take care of it? I said, I didn’t just fix it, I conquered it. I am lord and master of this house. And I heard beep. Lisa had been married to me long enough to kind of figure out what might happen. And she just looked at me and said, honey, whatever you’re thinking of doing, please don’t. And I gave her my favorite line from one of my favorite movies, Rocky two. I said, honey, I never asked you to stop being a woman. Please don’t ask me to stop being a man. And I ripped off every smoke alarm, put him in a box, took him downstairs. Lisa’s first a little bit concerned, she goes, well what if there’s a fire? I said, as long as the fire takes out all of the smoke alarms, God’s will be done. I’m gonna get some sleep.

A couple minutes go by, beep, okay fine. We just need an exorcist. There’s nothing I can do. Well, this is about an hour. So now it’s midnight. And my son came home, that was his curfew. And he was telling us about his evening and what he did and reminding us that he was home. And while he was there, one of the beeps went off. And he said, huh. And he walks over to the dresser where that day I’d gotten this brand new flip phone. Hey dad, you missed a call <laugh>. Now if you’re my age, you remember back when you had flip phones, they would always beep when you missed a call. Nobody told me that when I picked it up. And if I hadn’t just signed a two year contract, I would’ve smashed that thing with every utensil I could find. I just wanted the beeps to stop.

And I put so much time and energy trying to make the beeps stop. But I wasn’t dealing with the underlying issue. Often we do the same in our marriages and a lot of our relationships. There are things that frustrate. I want that to stop. I want that to end. Maybe I want this to start. And we focus on the symptoms and not the real causes. This morning I wanna address, I think one is the greater challenges for marriages today that keeps us frustrated. Not the symptoms but the underlying disease. In essence, it could be described this way. We were made for more than each other. I want you to think about it. We were made for more than each other. And we will suffocate our marriages if we ask to much of them. Elizabeth Gilbert wrote this, and I think it’s so true. Modern Americans bring to their marriages the most overstuffed bundle of expectations the institution has ever seen.

We expect that our partner will not merely be a decent person, but will also be our soulmate, our best friend, our intellectual companion, our greatest sexual partner, and our life’s complete inspiration. Nobody in human history has ever asked this much of a companion. It’s a lot to ask of a mere mortal. And here’s the key, the inevitable disappointments that follow such giant expectations can cripple marriages. If we don’t question what our culture says we should expect out of our marriages, we can suffocate them. We can cripple them with our expectations. It can happen throughout our marriage. I’ve had a number of times with God where I think some of my most intense moments of prayer with God have been about my marriage. And one time I was so confronted by him, I was praying about my marriage. I felt God challenged me saying, Gary, you’re trying to turn Lisa into a love Gary like he wants to be love machine.

I was so appalled ’cause that sounds so narcissistic because it is. And God is reminding me, Lisa was not created to make me a happy husband. You were not created to make your spouse a happy spouse. Your spouse was not created to make you a happy spouse. First and foremost, she was created. I was created. And you were created to fulfill what Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount. My key verses in the Bible, Matthew 6 33, when Jesus says, seek first not a happy spouse, not successful kids, not even a fulfilling vocation. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And then this incredible promise, she says, take care of this first. And all these other things that you understandably seek, those will be added to you as well. Now, Jesus isn’t speaking this just to married couples. He’s speaking it to people from all walks of life.

Widows, singles, married young people, you name it. But if we apply it to our marriage, what? What would happen? Instead of basing our marriage on our culture’s false expectations and we tried to grow a marriage based on service and worship, the Greek word for seek in this verse doesn’t mean try to find, it’s something very different. What it means is to make God’s kingdom the center of your existence. And it’s in the present tense, continually keep on doing this. And I love this. It’s saying, keep the rule of God in the work of God in the center of your heart. Think about that. My my first concern, my passion, my interest. When I wake up, my thoughts are, what is God doing? How do I exalt the name of Jesus? Who does God want me to reach out? His kingdom becomes more important than my own.

I’m here to serve him. Ultimately, it means we care more about his kingdom than ours. ’cause We keep his kingdom and his work at the center of our heart. Now, how does this affect marriages? I think it’s one of the key things for marriages today. Marriages break up for some reasons. You know, financial reasons. There’s abuse. We’ve talked about that, or infidelity or whatnot. But I think a lot of Christian marriages really run into problems, not because there’s some big massive sin. Like I’ve talked to a lot of couples, A lot of times they’re just bored with each other. They know each other. They think it’s routine. They think there’s nothing new to discover. Do I wanna go on another 20 or 30 years with this part of that’s just related to the human condition? Can we just be honest? None of us are so fascinating that we can keep somebody enthralled for 50 or 60 years.

We’re we’re just not five or six dates. If you’re really good, 50 or 60 years, good luck with that because we were made for more than each other. Angela Duckworth in her book Grit says something about vocation that I think is just true for relationships. What ripens passion is the conviction that your work matters. For most people, interest without purpose is nearly impossible to sustain for a lifetime. Now, let me throw marriage in there. What ripens passion is a conviction that your marriage matters. For most people, interest without purpose is nearly impossible to sustain for a lifetime. That’s why Matthew 6 33 is gold. When we apply it to marriages, small lives can’t sustain big marriages. Why? Selfishness is boring. It doesn’t matter how rich or famous or beautiful the person you’re married to or that you are. Selfishness gets boring. And I, I just gotta say, as a pastor learned with pastoral counseling, it’s exhausting trying to work with self-centered couples where all you’re doing is bartering over who gets this need met and who gets that need met. And what do you do when the needs conflict? That it’s really hard to come out on top in a situation like that. Now, I love Gary Chapman and I love his book, the Five Love Languages. I think every married couple should read it. It’s wonderful when you read it to find out how to make your spouse feel loved and cherished. But some people turn it around and this isn’t Gary’s fault, it’s the reader’s fault. Instead of learning how to love their spouse, it becomes their five demands. You must do this or I won’t be happy.

I’ve mentioned a couple weeks ago in a sermon just that I love to give and receive gifts. It just gives me a lot of joy. I mentioned that’s really not Lisa’s thing. She doesn’t like to do that. But here’s the big deal where I’ve moved on from that. When I think of the wonder that Lisa is to me, all that we have in our marriage, all that we mean to each other, all that we’ve been through, well, they get gifts three or four times a year. It’s 1% of our marriage. It’s just not that big of a deal. But when you have a self-centered marriage, I’ve seen people make their love language, 50% of the marriage, I can never be happy. You must do this. And their focus becomes getting their needs met, not using their marriage to meet the needs of others. And that’s almost impossible to fulfill.

Let me be honest. When it comes to my life satisfaction and fulfillment, there is nothing my wife can withhold from me. That matters half as much as the call that Jesus has given to me. I wanna say that again because I think it’s so key. There is nothing a spouse could withhold from me that matters half as much as the call my savior has given to me. Now I know some people are gonna push back. Well, it’s easy for you to say ’cause you have such a wonderful wife. Yeah, it’s true. So singles marry well, right? Boys and girls choose someone like my wife. Now she’s taken, I’m not giving her back, but find a person of faith that you could do this with. But even more if she wasn’t mature, if she wasn’t loving, I don’t wanna make myself vulnerable to an immature, selfish person for my fulfillment and happiness because whether I’m single, widow, divorced, or married, I believe I’ll find a happiest life.

The most fulfilling life when I’m seeking first God’s kingdom. See, I I wanna start an entirely new conversation here in the church calling the series Relationship Rehab. Here’s how we rehab. So often we say in the church, if you’re really serious about God, you’ll just be single, right? ’cause You have more time, you have more energy, you have more focus. And the Apostle Paul kind of says that. So I don’t want to discount that. That’s something we all should consider. But the corollary of that, if we’re not careful, it’s like, but if you’re not as serious about God, if you’re a little more selfish, go ahead and get married. ’cause That’s not a sin. But this notion of be single for God and married for yourself is one of the greatest, easiest ways to destroy what could be a great marriage. We should be single for God. We should be married for God. We should be divorced for God. We should be whittled for God. That’s where we find our fulfillment. So we’re not so susceptible and vulnerable to our life situation.

Which means, and this is the answer to the question Kurt gave on Easter Sunday to tease everybody to get here. Every marriage needs what? Every marriage needs a mission to keep your marriage alive. You need a mission. It gives you something to pray for each other and with each other about, it’s what makes the marriage feel fulfilling. Through the years, Kevin and Karen Miller discovered this. They wrote a book called More Than You and Me. There are cute couple Christians. They got married. And Karen admits when we first got, when when Kevin asked me to marry me, I never asked the question, why do I want to get married? Didn’t seem like it mattered. I thought he was attractive. We had feelings for each other. We were both Christians. What does it really matter? We’ll just go ahead and get married. And they did. And it was exciting.

But about two or three years into their marriage, and you could put this on the calendar of just about every couple that Listlessness sets it, I think we’re going to work. We’re waking up. Is this all there is? Because it was so fascinating when we were dating and so fascinating when we’re planning the marriage and now this is it. And there he is snoring. I’m gonna be married to this guy for the next 40 years. Really, there’s gotta be more to life than this. And this is, this is where Satan lies against young couples. I must have married the wrong person. And what I would push back with is maybe you’re married to the wrong purpose. Maybe you got married for the wrong reason for yourself instead of for God. And it’s when Kevin and Karen started giving themselves to the work of God that their marriage took on new life.

A pastor asked them to take over the youth group. They really needed some help. And they prayed about it, felt like God was leading them to do it. But when they got involved, they realized it wasn’t really a youth group. It was sort of, I don’t know, a, a weekly collection of juvenile delinquents, <laugh> their lives felt threatened at times. It was a really difficult group. But here’s something that shocked them. The group literally drove us to our knees Before each event. We began to pray for the youth and for ourselves. The group also forced Kevin and me to talk more than we had since we dated. We needed to plan together and present a united front to the kids as we did. We found out a lot about each other. Now, isn’t this interesting? See what makes dating so fun? You’re finding out new things.

You’re discovering new things. And newness is fun. It’s exciting. But then you get married, you know each other’s routines and you think, well, there’s nothing more to know. But what if there is? What if the reason you think you know everything about your spouse is because neither one of you are stepping out to be supernaturally used by God? What if you don’t know what it’s like to be challenged and to be stretched and have to depend on the power and wisdom of God to fulfill the work he’s called you to? And you look at each other with entirely new eyes because you’re becoming different people. Karen, the biggest surprise was through the process, something good was happening to our marriage. We were working together at something when we failed. At least it was our failure. And when we succeeded, it was our success. During most of each workday, we were miles apart.

But when we led the youth group, we were arm in arm and heart to heart. They started to respect each other in new ways and look at each other in new ways. I, I’ve seen this in my own marriage. When Lisa and I became empty nesters she started joining me for about all of the premarital counseling that we do before then. It was usually just me and one of the first couples we met with. It was a long first session. It was about two hours. And it’s one of those times, if you’ve been involved in ministry where the Holy Spirit just moves. I got an understanding of what her issues were and what her needs and his issues and his stuff, and what the extended family issues were. And we talked through, okay, we gotta work on this. We gotta talk about this. We gotta prepare for this.

It was, it’s an exciting time when the spirit moves like that. And we said goodbye. We’re gonna meet a bunch of other times. We’re walking away. And Lisa was kind of looking at me with a new look I hadn’t seen in a while. She just looks at me and we’re walk by. She goes, wow. I said, what? She goes, you’re really good at this. Now, I, I’m not. It was just the spirit working. Sometimes I’ve worked with couples meet five or six times. I wonder if I’m even any help to them at all. But I gotta tell you, if you want your spouse to respect you or look at you with new eyes, when God says, who will go say, here am I, send me? Because when you say yes, God sends you his spirit. He equips those, he calls, and then your spouse says, wow, I didn’t know you had it in you because you don’t.

But God will put it in you and you can have a new respect and a new appreciation for each other. And that will join your hearts and your respect and keep you falling in love with each other. It’s what the miller’s experience Karen said, what a puzzle. That youth group ministry, which by all rights should have pulled our marriage apart, actually bonded it in a new level of intimacy without trying to work on our marriage at all. It had become richer and deeper. They built their marriage by doing something outside of their marriage because they recognized the third hunger that Genesis talks about. Genesis presents three reasons to get married. I think there are a couple more. But in the first chapters of Genesis, we notice story. We always talk about companionship. Everybody knows two 18, it’s not good for man to be alone. All of us have heard.

Genesis 1 28, we get married for children, be fruitful and multiply. It’s the third sea that we don’t talk about enough. And that’s contribution. Because after God says, be fruitful and multiply, he says this, fill the earth, subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth is so powerful. What God is saying to this first husband and wife, I’ve created this beautiful physical world. Shape it, rule it, subdue it, form it, make it into something. Genesis 1 28 is the Old Testament version of Matthew 6 33. Because then Jesus comes and says, all right, we’re already shaping the physical world, but I’m launching a new spiritual kingdom. I’m sending the Holy Spirit after me. He will empower you to rule, to shape, to move, to do greater miracles than I have done.

And so now I’m giving it to you here. Take this and move the world. It’s a powerful call. It’s what God created us to do. And Karen says, we hunger for this today. Cooperating together, meshing, working like a mountain climbing team, ascending the peak of our dream and then holding each other at the end of the day. God has planted this hunger deep within every married couple. It’s more than a hunger for companionship. It’s more than a hunger to create new life. It’s a third hunger, a hunger to do something significant together according to God’s word. We were joined to make a difference. We were married for a mission. Jesus’s words to individuals, equally true to married couples. He says, if you want to save your life, you have to what? You have to lose it. And if you lose your life, you save it.

You wanna save your marriage, lose it. Don’t make it about you anymore. Give it away to others. And in doing that, you save it. Somebody told me about how this just transformed their marriage. They had already lived this out just in the last service. Some one woman wrote to marriage partnership years ago. Over 10 years of marriage. I have found that when my husband and I focus on our own needs and whether they’re being met, our marriage begins to self-destruct. But when we’re ministering together, we experience, to the greatest extent we’ve known, that the two shall become one. So singles, if you want a great marriage, find somebody who’s seeking first the kingdom of God. That will be the richest, most fulfilling relationship you can have. Now somebody say, well, what is our mission? How do we know that? First, I don’t think there’s just one.

If you’re raising young kids, that’s kind of your mission as long as you’re raising them to be disciples and worshipers of God. But beyond that, you just look at who God created you to be, what you, how you fit together as a couple. Because God doesn’t use a cookie cutter. Not every marriage is alike. Years ago a popular rom-com named the Runaway Bride with Julia Roberts and Richard Gere came out. How? How many of you have seen that is a pretty popular movie. And one of the reasons that Julia Roberts kept running away is that she was trying to pretend she was something she wasn’t. She thought she could be the athletic wife or the business wife, or the religious wife. One guy actually ended up becoming a priest and and she wasn’t any of that. And it because she was trying to make an artificial joining, it just wasn’t working.

And look, it’s not uncommon. I’ve seen young women do this. They’re sort of introverts where they’d love on the weekend. Their ideal weekend is to stream Netflix and maybe read books by the fire. But they come infatuated with some mountain man say, oh yeah, I love to spend the weekend in a tent on the side of a mountain and risk my life at least once a month. I mean single, you’ve gotta be fearlessly honest, courageously honest, to be who you are for the relationship to work. The one thing I liked about the movie is at the end they have this montage of all the couples that did form after Julia Roberts broke up with them. And it just sort of captures, it’s a little bit cheesy, but it just sort of captures how you see the athletic couples and the business couples take. Take a look.

Guess what? She did it. Maggie

Carpenter got married

Betty. She did it. She did it. It’s the game of give and take. I love you distract. You gotta how long it takes many heartaches. Plus I find a to live again. Right now, the only thing that keeps me hanging on when I feel my strength, yes, almost gone. I remember Mama just have to, she’s a game of giving. Cause my heart.

So when you’re looking at your own marriage, you’re saying, okay, we’re business. God’s called us into the business world, but how do we do more than make profits? How do we make disciples? We’re that musical couple, we wanna make beautiful music. It’s a wonderful thing. There’s a place for Christians there, but how, how do we lead people into worship? Not not just entertainment or you’re the sports couple, you’re involved volunteering for teams, you’re coaching teams, your kids are playing all those sports. How instead of just winning games, do you win people for Christ? It’s taking that step back and saying, what has God given us? And how do we start seeking to become a part of God’s growing kingdom? And I, and a lot of times it could be here in the church, I’ve mentioned Corey and Lori Friar a bunch of times. ’cause They’re here so often.

Every church needs a bunch of them. I saw Corey a couple months ago, and I swear I’d seen him like three days in a row that week. I said, Corey, we’re gonna have to start charging you rent. You’re here so often he says, or you could pay me. I said, well, maybe we’ll talk about rent a little bit more. But it’s just using this church to grow your marriage. So if your wife is on the worship team, you’re praying for her, you’re supporting her. If your husband is leading discussion at the Forge Men’s Conferences, Hey babe, I’m gonna pray for you. God give him sermon. You’re just supporting him. Just last week at Easter, my wife had volunteered to work on the, the coffee thing. And God kept reminding me all morning, make sure you pray for Lisa. Make sure you pray before she goes.

And it wasn’t this big prayer, it was just a silly little prayer while we were driving here, but asking that God would open up opportunities. And then a woman and her son came up to Lisa. Remember that incredible testimony of the young woman who came to know the Lord and she talked about reading her Bible. And so this woman comes with her young son to my wife and says, what Bible should I buy him? And I was glad she asked Lisa. ’cause Lisa knew. She goes, well, you know what Gary uses the NIV Kurt preaches out of the ESV. She goes for that I would recommend the NLT, the New Living Translation, which is exactly what I would’ve recommended. It’s a great translation. I really like it, particularly those kids. And I remember when I was growing up and, and I got my first Bible from a Sunday school teacher, the impact it made in my life.

I was so glad she was there to help point a mother and son to something that could have lifelong impact to empty nesters. There are interns that need to be housed this summer. There are seniors who need rides here. We need so much help with the kids’ ministry. There’s plenty of room in here for more people to come. But where church is really push away is taking care of the kids. What if most of the married couples here say, one weekend a month, we’re gonna help on a service where we’re not here watching kids. And you’d think you’re doing that for the church and you find out the church is actually doing it for you. Hebrews 10 24 says this, let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds. That’s a great verse for a marriage. How do I encourage my spouse to step out?

How do I support ’em? How do I release ’em? What I want you to do is get away from the fighting I normally see where couples are always saying, why don’t you do this for me? Why don’t you do that for me? And it can go back and forth. Well, you don’t do that for me and you don’t do this for me. I wanna give you an entirely different question just for once, step back and say, why don’t we do this for God? We’re always talking about how we meet this need or that need. Have we ever asked ourselves, why don’t we do this for God? God has given us an opportunity. What would happen if we do marital dissatisfaction tells you something is wrong. I don’t think it should be ignored. Just don’t assume that it means you married the wrong person. Maybe it means you’re married to the wrong purpose.

You become a self-centered marriage and it’s God’s kindness that doesn’t let you be satisfied in that because he has better plans for you. I’ve, I’ve said this here before, I say it in my marriage conferences, but I wanna remind us of it time and time again. Infatuation has a shelf life of about 12 to 18 months. So don’t worry about falling out of love. It’s gonna happen. Worry about falling out of purpose. Because when you give yourself over to purpose, you will fall in love with your spouse again and again and again. Not because you’re infatuated, because you respect each other and you depend on each other as you’re serving God. What if God is allowing a disappointing season in your marriage to say, I want you to reevaluate not who you’re married to, but why you’re married and what you’re doing in your marriage.

Because if you do this, look, Jesus never spoke a false word in his life. And at the end of telling us to seek first the kingdom of God, he adds this. If we do this, all these things will be added unto you as well. And I’ve seen it time and time again where couples give themselves to seek first God’s kingdom and they are so enriched accordingly. I think of two dear friends of mine, Jim and Anne Pearson, a generation older than me. That’s Jim on the left. And is on the right. When I first became self-employed as a writer and speaker, they were so encouraging to me because we spoke at a lot of the same conferences. And Jim would just encourage me and build me up when I had all of these doubts and insecurities. They ran a ministry in Philadelphia, well Pennsylvania was outside of that, called Loving and Caring Ministries where they would help train pregnancy resource centers.

But it was personal to them. They had housed over 200 pregnant women who needed a place to stay until they gave birth. Jim was a giant of a man. I I’m guessing at least 350 pounds. And he could be hilarious. He didn’t speak often, but when he did get up one time, he got up and he took out a bar of soap that he’d gotten from the hotel where we were at, put it in front of his big belly and said, I’m supposed to wash with this. What do they think is gonna happen here? I mean, he just was funny like that. He was the Braun and the, and and the business behind it. He took care of the books. He sold the book table and was the voice and the heart. She was usually the one speaking. But before she got up to speak, every time Jim would interrupt her before she could speak. It was largely a feminine audience. ’cause They were talking about pregnancy related issues. And Jim would walk up and sing out that wonderful Stevie Wonder song. Isn’t she lovely?

Isn’t she wonderful? And you know, this feminine audience would just soak it in to see a husband support and cherish his wife like that. Very sadly, in 2012, after a seven month battle with cancer Jim passed on and I got together with Anne after Jim had died. And we were counting all these stories. And, and Anne told me about the first time she spoke after Jim had died. She knew it was gonna be tough because he had always presented that song before she got up. And so she got in behind the podium and it was so silent, she was overwhelmed. So she just, she goes, I’m sorry, I I gotta pray again. And it was a long prayer. And when she opened her eyes, there was a vase with a flower in it. And she said, what’s this? And one of the women in the front row, she was embarrassed, said, well, when I was praying this morning, God told me you were gonna need some extra encouragement this morning.

And so I went out to get this flower and Anne shared how Jim had prepared her before every talk by singing that song. And it was God’s way of saying, Anne, I still got you. I use you when you’re married. I’ll use you as a widow. I encourage you through Jim. I’ll encourage you through others. Of course, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. Z and I were talking. It was hard for me not to cry every 10 minutes just remembering this, this wonderful man. And then just before I got out of the car to say goodbye to Anne, here’s what she told me. And it’s inspired me. To this day. I’ve had such a good life, Gary, such a good, good life Investing in others and sharing that with Jim. They didn’t have much of what most people think constitutes a wonderful marriage.

They didn’t have much money. Jim, when he died, he knew he was dying. He asked Ann if it was okay if he could leave $10,000 in his will so their daughter could buy a used car. Though they will always be one of the most beautiful couples I’ve ever known to the outside world. They didn’t look like Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt or Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt, or Gwyneth Paltrow and Brad Pitt, or Gina Davis and Brad Pitt, or Juliette Lewis and Brad Pitt. I didn’t make up any of those couples made. Maybe being really rich and famous and beautiful isn’t enough to sustain a marriage. Maybe you need more of what Jim and Anne had. They didn’t travel on European vacations. They didn’t have much money. They didn’t have a house that would make it in a TV program. But I bet you we’ll see it in heaven when they showcase this wonderful couple from simple surroundings that brought in 200 pregnant women who need it.

It tells us you don’t have to be beautiful to stay attracted to each other. You don’t have to be wealthy and famous. You need to be servants of God. It is God’s will that every married couple when we say goodbye to each other, could say the same words that Ann did. It has been such a good, good life, a rich life of investing in others and sharing that with my spouse. You can start that today. You don’t need all the other stuff. We need one thing. Every marriage needs a mission. Father, I thank you that you let us be a part of your kingdom work. Father, this isn’t an obligation. It’s a privilege. It’s a gift that you can lift us above our selfish preoccupation that never satisfies and be drawn together as we serve you. And the words of Jesus proof true that all these other things are added as well. Lord, start new conversations with our couples. Give wisdom to the singles. Give new purpose to the divorce and the widow, Lord, may we all gather around seeking first your kingdom, making your rule, and your work the center of our heart. Thank you Lord for not letting us be satisfied with any less. And it’s the name of your son who uttered these words that we pray. Amen.