Blueprints for Marital Bliss, Part 2

This morning we want to continue looking at the blueprints for marital bliss. What is God's design? How does God draw it up? What are the details of what God has for us as we understand this great journey of joy called marriage?

You know, I've had the opportunity over the years to do a number, a number of sermons on marriage. Our first one was way back in the late 90s.

Maybe you were here then. Maybe you weren't even born yet. I don't know.

But it was in the late 90s. It was called The Remedies for a Rocky Marriage. What does God say? What does the Redeemer say about redeeming a rocky marriage? And I remember doing that series a number of years ago.

And like I said, it was in the late 90s. And there were a few couples who came to me and said how much that meant to them and how much they were really encouraged and how much they really enjoyed the opportunity to hear about how it is they could take care of the issues in their marriage and set it aright. I would like to say to you that those couples are still together today.

They are not. They've been divorced. And that's really too bad.

But they came and they said how much the message meant to them and how much it changed their marriage. But only changed it for a while. Because sooner or later they, they backed away from their commitment and were no longer married.

But The Remedies for a Rocky Marriage were designed to help those who are going through marital difficulties. It wasn't too long after that we did a series called Marriage Matters. Does your marriage really truly matter to you? And what are the matters of marriage that make it more and more magnificent?

And then there was a time in which we did The Survival of the American Family. It was all based on the Ten Commandments. Helping you understand how God has drawn up the Ten Commandments to bless the family.

It wasn't long after that that we did 25 truths that will transform your marriage. My wife and I went away for our 25th anniversary. We began to think through the 25 years that we were together. And we came up with 25 different principles that will transform your marriage.

In fact we even gave you a bookmark on that one. Because 25 years of marriage are 25 different letters. And of those letters we gave you the principles that would help you in your marriage.

It wasn't long after that we did a whole series called Rekindling Your Passion. It was first done at a marriage retreat for our church. And so we came back and decided to preach it to the whole church.

That you might be able to hear how to rekindle the passion in your marriage. And that too was a bookmark that we gave you to help you how to do this. So that you'd always be reminded on how to rekindle the passion in your marriage.

And I would like to say that everybody who heard those sermons and came to me and gave a testimony about those sermons were still together today. A lot of them are not. And the question is how does that happen? How do you hear the Word of God? How do you say it made an impact in my life and marriage? And then all of a sudden four, five, ten years later you say well you know what I'm done. I'm out. No longer are we going to stay together.

We did a series called The Building Blocks for a Biblical Marriage. And what were those blocks that would be built one upon another to give you a solid foundation in your marriage? We did another series and that was that was called The Foundations that Fortify the Family. And these are just a few of them.

But over the years, over the 30, almost 32 years that I've been here, we've done a series of messages to help the family. To help the marriage. To help the relationship between husband and wife. To be as solid and as strong and as steadfast as possible.

And yet there are many people who after hearing those sermons and even giving testimony about them some of them even being saved and baptized in the church decided that it was long enough. It's time to get out of the marriage. We can no longer rekindle that which was lost.

And that is just so sad. It doesn't have to be that way. It doesn't really have to be that way at all.

God is the one who initiated marriage. He informs us about marriage. He's instructed us about marriage.

He's the one who invented marriage. God has all the answers to whatever it is you're going through personally or maritally to help you solve whatever issues they are. God's Word has all the answers.

Your marriage matters to Christ. Your marriage matters to your children. Your marriage matters to your church.

Your marriage matters to your community. But you know who your marriage matters to the most outside of Christ is your combatant. The adversary.

The devil. Your marriage matters to him in in such a way that he wants to destroy it. Dismantle it. Do all he can to disrupt it so that you don't stay together. Satan knows that if he can destroy what God has set up as a picture of his relationship to the church, if he can destroy that, then he can destroy your testimony in your family, your testimony in your church, your testimony to your friends. He knows that.

If he can get you to compromise your integrity, he will do that. He doesn't want your marriage to succeed. He wants it to fail miserably. And he'll stop at nothing to make sure it is destroyed.

I had the privilege today of meeting a young woman that's come to our church. She's been here several times over the last five weeks, but she's from Arizona.

She moved here from there because California is such a better state than Arizona. No, that's not the case. But she moved here after 71 years of marriage.

Her husband just died last year, but she was married for 71 years. If you're having marital difficulties, those are the people you need to talk to. Those are the people that will help you the most.

Go to somebody who's been married for 50 and 60 and 70 years. Go see them because they have lots of wisdom. They've been through many waters, many fires.

They've seen things come and go over the years, and they can give you some wisdom, some wise counsel in terms of your marriage, your family, your relationships. But Satan is a master deceiver. He is the father of lies, and so he will set out to tell you all kinds of lies about your marriage.

A number of years ago, there was a Christian magazine who did an article about how Satan wants to destroy your marriage through lies, and they listed several of them lies. Very subtly, they're used to disrupt your marriage. Here's what was said.

Lie number one. If you're unhappy in your marriage, remember it is never your fault. Now that's a lie from Satan.

If you're unhappy in your marriage, remember it's never your fault. Forgetting the fact that we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and none of us are perfect, but if Satan can get you to believe that you're never at fault, but that your spouse is always at fault, then he's succeeded as your combatant to get you to believe something that is not true.

Number two. It says that you need to always stand up for your rights. That you have rights as a wife. You have rights as a husband. Always stand firm on your rights and never acquiesce to your husband or to your wife.

Thinking that your rights are always first, and we've shared with you, and we will share this Wednesday night as we talk about Matthew chapter 5, that when your rights are first, righteousness will always suffer. You got to be careful about that.

That's a lie that Satan has told, and it's very subtle. It's not strong. He knows that the subtleties of his lies are what's most important.

He doesn't want to come across too strong for fear that you might reject his lies. So he just inserts them very simply.

Lie number three. Bickering, complaining, grumbling, fault-finding are expected in every marriage. That's not true. But if you expect it, it's going to happen.

And the Bible says that we're to do all things without bickering. All things without grumbling. All things without disputing.

Because if you want to prove ourselves to be children of the light, that's how we live. Because children of the light don't live lives of bickering, complaining, arguing, but they live lives of joy, excitement, because they love the Lord.

Another lie, number four, was it's my house, it's my money, but they are your children.

That's not true either. Number one, it's not your house and it's not your money. It's God's house and God's money. And they are God's children, not your spouse's children. And God has given them to you that you might raise them, nurture them, care for them, and raise them in a way that honors and gLauriefies the Lord.

But Satan so subtly wants you to think that what you have is yours. It's my car, my money, my bank account. Don't touch it. But it's not.

And so therefore we begin to think that we really own something, when in reality we own nothing. It's the Lord who owns everything. But you see, Satan doesn't want you to believe that either.

Lie number five. Sex is not important. That's a lie.

All you got to do is read 1 Corinthians chapter 7. Because in 1 Corinthians 7 it says that the wife's body is not her own, but her husband's. And the husband's body is not his own, but his wife's. And you should never refrain from intimacy unless it's for a time of prayer, and only for a short time unless Satan gets an opportunity to infiltrate the marriage.

You can read about it in 1 Corinthians chapter 7. But if Satan can get you to believe that sex is not important, and then he can effectually infiltrate the marriage and cause all kinds of disruption through pornography, through harlotry, through all kinds of immorality.

Lie number six. Children are a burden, but they're not.

Satan wants you to believe that your children weigh you down. They are a burden to you.

The Bible says your children are a gift from the Lord. It's the Lord who's given you your children. They are a blessing, and the blessing comes when your quiver is filled with all kinds of little arrows. But if Satan can get you to believe that lie, that your children are a burden, it weighs heavily upon you.

Those were just a few out of the article, but it helps you begin to realize that Satan is out to destroy that which God has brought together. So we are looking at the blueprints for marital bliss.

We began last week by telling you that blueprint number one is to realize what God has said from the very beginning.

That's found in Matthew chapter 19, when the Lord said to the Pharisees when they came to Him to talk to Him about divorce and remarriage, He said, have you not read? From the beginning it was not so. And He begins to quote Genesis chapter 2 verse number 24, because that is God's instruction on marriage right from the voice and the lips of our God. If you understand Genesis chapter 2 verse number 24, then you begin to go the right way.

And so Jesus takes them all the way back to the beginning, because you need to realize what God said from the very beginning. If you're ever going to experience marital bliss in your marriage, because God is the author of marriage, what He says truly matters.

Blueprint number two was that you needed to recommit yourself to the person and purposes of Christ.

Once you realize what God said from the beginning, now you recommit yourself to fulfilling all that God has said by committing yourself to His purposes and to His person. Once you have done that, blueprint number three comes into play.

And blueprint number three simply is to recognize that the days you have together are numbered. Your days are few.

For those of you who have lost a spouse, you know this, that your days are numbered. You never know when the Lord is going to take one or both of you.

And so therefore you cherish each moment, each day as if it's your last, because you never know when that last moment is going to be. You never know when that last kiss is going to happen, that last goodbye is going to be said, that last good night will be the last. You just never know.

So once you begin to realize what God has said from the beginning, then recommit yourself to the plans and purposes and the person of Christ, you begin to see how your days are numbered. And you want to cherish each and every moment. And as you do, blueprint number four comes into play.

And that's this. Re-evaluate the state of your marriage. Have you ever done that? Re-evaluate the state of your marriage.

You recognize that there's only a few days. You never know how long you're going to be married. And so what you do is you re-evaluate the state of your marriage.

Because you want to make sure that you're on an upward trend. Things are progressing properly, biblically, spiritually. And then as you're progressing in your walk with the Lord, you're progressing in your marital bliss.

I've had the opportunity over the last 40 plus years to do marital counseling. I've had so many people in my office over those years. Or I've been in their homes or they've been in mine.

To walk them through the difficulties in their marriage. And I've come to realize that there are seven stages that lead to divorce. Seven stages that move on a downward spiral that move people to separate and no longer want to be together.

And that's why it's so important to re-evaluate the state of your marriage. The first stage is delight. That's always the first stage.

Can you think back about on the day you were married? The joy that was there. The excitement about the future. The opportunity to have a family.

The excitement about love. Newfound love. Nothing quite like it when you're young, right? That's why the Bible says, Rejoice with the wife of your youth.

Go back and remember those days, right? They were great days. It all begins with delight. The excitement.

The anticipation. As you stand on the altar and you say those great commitment to one another. Those vows that you have committed to keep from this day forth until death do you part.

Whether you're sick or whether you're healthy. Whether you're rich or whether you're poor. You're in it for the long haul.

And there's great delight. Can you remember those days? Solomon wrote a book. Wrote three of them, to be honest.

Probably more than that, but three that are recorded in the scriptures. He wrote the Song of Solomon. Wrote that one first.

And he wrote that when he was married to Abishag. Now there's a debate about which woman he was married to, but I believe it was Abishag that was his first wife. Remember, he had 700 wives. 300 concubines. 700 wives is not the problem. 700 mother-in-laws is the problem.

But all that being said, he was he was married to Abishag first and he saw how Abishag took care of his father David in his old age and was enamored by her. So much so that he fell in love with her.

And his brother, his brother wanted Abishag. So he killed his brother. That's how much he loved her. He killed his brother so that he could have Abishag as his wife.

And so I believe that the Song of Solomon is written about their relationship together. And I want you to note what his wife says. If you got your Bible, turn with me to the Song of Solomon.

The Song of Solomon. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 9, another book written by Solomon, later in life it's his book of repentance. He said in Ecclesiastes 9, verse number 9, these words, enjoy life with the woman whom you love all the days of your fleeting life.

Again that re-emphasizes the points we've already gone through. That you need to number your days because you never know how long you're going to have. Solomon repeats that by saying you need to love the wife because your days are fleeting.

He says enjoy your life with the woman whom you love all the days of your fleeting life which he, God, has given to you under the sun. God has not only given you the days, he's given you the woman that you were to love during those fleeting days. And says this, for this is your reward in life. I love that. This is your reward.

My wife's not in this service. She's in the second service. But I can tell you, even when she's not here, that she is my reward. She is my gift from God.

And I wonder if you see your wife as your reward. Some people don't. I wonder if you see your husband as your reward.

But Solomon knew this. Now Solomon, remember, had 700 wives and 300 concubines. But this is his book of repentance.

It's taking him back to his first book, the Song of Solomon. It's taking him back to the beginning of his marriage to Abishag. But I want you to notice what she says. Because what she says speaks of her commitment to Solomon. Her love for Solomon.

And ladies, ask yourself this question this morning. Is this my love for my man? Listen to what she says. Verse 6 of Song of Solomon, chapter 8.

Put me like a seal over your heart. Like a seal on your arm. Listen, when you get ready to go to bed tonight and you're with your husband, just reach over and say, I want to be a seal on your arm and a seal on your heart. And that might seem a little corny to you.

It's like when your husband says to you out of Genesis chapter 2, when he says, oh babe you are bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. That doesn't go over very well, does it? Although it's scriptural. All right.

If you as a man would say that to your wife, she probably would be taken back for a moment. But as a wife and you say to your husband, I want to put you as a as a seal. I want to be the seal on your arm and a seal on your heart.

What on earth does that mean? That means you have ownership in his possessions. Ownership in all that he has. Notice she didn't say, I want you, I want to be a I want to be a seal on your wisdom.

I want to be a seal on your riches. I want to be a seal on your wealth. I want to make sure that I get some of that.

That's not what she says. She says, I want to be a seal on your heart and on your arm. The heart is a center of affection, right? The arm is a center of strength and stability.

She goes, I want to possess all of your affections. I want to possess all of your strength. I want all of it to come my way.

This speaks of an intimate commitment. I wonder if as a husband your wife has all your affection. All of your efforts, your strength.

I wonder if she has that. If she was to ask for that, she shouldn't have to ask for it, but if she was to ask for it, would you be able to willingly give it to her? This is an intimate commitment. That she wants to have with Solomon.

And then it says this. It says, for love is as strong as death. Jealousy is as severe as Sheol or the grave.

Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the Lord. In other words, this speaks not just of an intimate commitment, but an intense commitment. Why? Because love holds on for dear life.

Knowing that death and the grave are imminent, love holds on as if it could happen at any moment and never lets go. And love has the flame of Jehovah. The flame of Jehovah.

The God who says that He is jealous for us is the same way we should be for our husband and wife. That we are jealous for them. There is this intense commitment to them.

I want you only for myself. I want to be only for you. And my love is as strong as the grave, as strong as death, because I am zealous as the flame of Jehovah for you.

That's supreme delight. And then she says this. Many waters cannot quench love, nor will rivers overflow it.

That's an indestructible commitment. No matter how high the waves, no matter how rough the waters, my love for you is indestructible. Why? Because no matter how raging the river flows, it cannot stop my love for you.

And then she says, if a man were to give all the riches of his house for love, it would be utterly despised. Because you can't buy love. Because this is an invaluable commitment.

You can't sell it. You can't buy it. It's something that you give.

And this is His delight. But what happened to Solomon? What would move him from Abishag to 699 more wives? What was he thinking? 300 concubines, a thousand other women. What on earth could he possibly be thinking he was doing? But that's the direction he went.

And so when you come to the book of Ecclesiastes, he says, son, you know, you need to enjoy the wife that God has given you. He's saying, in essence, I did not. I should have, but I did not.

You need to make sure that you do. You see, when you begin, there's great delight, is there not? But the second stage after delight, I must hurry, is disappointment.

I'm sure Abishag faced that. I'm sure Solomon faced that to some degree. Because when you get done with marriage, and you get back from your honeymoon, and the rigors of the daily grind set in, and your husband is off to work, working long hours, coming home late, and you're by yourself, or you're working, and you're working late. There's no time for one another.

You have children. The children take up your time. They wear on you throughout the day.

You just long for adult conversation when your husband comes home, but he's so tired that he can't converse, because he's been conversing with adults all day, and he's tired. He wants to rest. He wants to sleep.

Disappointment begins to set in. Where is my protector? Where is the man that won me over? Where is the man that dated me, and said how much he loved me, and where is that man who would bring me flowers, and gifts, and chocolates for Valentine's, for birthdays, for anniversaries, for Christmas? Where is all that? Where did that go? And he's saying, whatever happened to my Proverbs 31 wife. Where did she go? The woman who would always speak well of me in the marketplace.

Where was the woman who used to always make sure that there was a hot meal when I got home? What happened to her? Where did she go? And all of a sudden, delight turns to disappointment, because things aren't quite like they were in the marriage manual. Things aren't quite like they were when we were dating and engaged, and all of a sudden, it begins to fall apart, and we begin to question true love, and disappointment sets in.

One author, Joseph Aldridge, he is home with the Lord now, wrote a book called The Secrets of Inner Beauty, and in it he says these words.

It doesn't take long for the newlyweds to discover that everything in one person nobody's got. They soon learn that a marriage license is just a learner's permit, and ask with agony, is there life after marriage? An old Arab proverb states that marriage begins with the prince kissing an angel. It ends with a bald-headed man looking across the table at a fat wrinkly old lady.

Socrates told his students, by all means marry. If you get a good wife, twice blessed you will be. If you get a bad wife, you'll become a philosopher. Count Hermann Kesselring said it well when he stated that the essential difficulties of life do not end, but rather begin with marriage.

That part's true, and yet so many times we have this anticipation of how things are going to be. We've watched a lot of Hallmark movies, we've read a lot of novels about marriage, and we think that this is how my life's going to be. We watch other marriages on Instagram and on Facebook and think, well that's how my marriage is going to turn out.

But what you see on Instagram and Facebook isn't really true. It's just what they want you to see. It's not what is reality.

Just remember that. But you see, we get caught up in that and think, wow man, their marriage is great.

Look where they are on vacation. How come we don't take vacations like that? Look where they are at dinner for their anniversary. Look what they did for Christmas. Why can't we do that? And disappointment begins to set in because we really think that that's the way things are for them all the time.

But it's not. And disappointment comes quite easily. If disappointments aren't taken care of quickly, the third stage is discouragement.

You move from delight to disappointment, from disappointment to discouragement. You could even say despondency or depression simply because what I expected to get did not come my way. And it moves from a simple little disappointment to a huge discouragement.

That's why it's so important to hope in God. Your husband will never give you what God will give you and your wife will never grant you what God will grant you. We just want to replace God with them. It doesn't work that way.

That's why the Psalm was said in Psalm 42. Why are you in despair, O my soul? Hope only in God, for He is your countenance.

He's the one who changes your appearance. Because He changes the inside, He can change the outside. That's why Paul would say these words way back in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Since we have this ministry and we have received mercy, we never lose heart.

We can continue on. He would say later in Galatians chapter 6, Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. So then while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are the household of faith.

Let us do good to everyone, especially those in your family, especially your husband or your wife. But if you keep doing good, do not lose heart. Don't give up.

Keep giving of yourself to the other one. Why? Because that's what love does. It just keeps on giving.

And so you move from delight to disappointment, from disappointment to discouragement. Before I married Laurie, she had just turned 20 in July of 86. We married in August of 86.

But when she was 19, she wrote this psalm or a prayer to her Lord. Listen to what she said. She was 19.

She said, Lord, marriage will be a big undertaking. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed. Sometimes I doubt that I can handle all that it entails.

Marriage is a lifetime commitment, a lifetime that includes struggle, sorrow, and uncertainty. Thank you, Lord, for making me still so I can listen to you. Thank you for making me realize in these few quiet moments of anxiety the depth of the commitment marriage brings.

It is now, Lord, more than ever, ever before, that I see I will need to draw on your strength. You have given me a wonderful man. That's me.

He loves you. He loves me. He desires a relationship that puts you first.

Yes, Lord, I do means forever. “I will” means we face life's uncertainties together, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health. Lord, Lance is the one you've given to me.

In my periods of anxiety, Lord, you bring such comfort. I trust you to make me what you desire me to be. That has been her life for 40 years.

I can testify to that. She wants to be what God wants her to be. How about you? Is that what you want? So easily we move from delight to disappointment to discouragement without ever turning that around because we don't re-evaluate the state of our marriage.

If not careful, it moves to doubt. That's number four. We begin to doubt God's will.

Did I make a mistake? Did I marry the wrong person? Did I not receive the right counsel? And we begin to doubt that this person is really the one that God had designed to be.

Remember, Satan is the father of lies. He's a murderer from the beginning. He wants you to believe the lie that this guy, this woman, is not God's will for your life. That you married out of God's will. You married the wrong person. You got to get it right the second time around. That's his lie. So he moves you to the stage of doubt.

Once he gets you to the stage of doubt, he gets you to the stage of delusion. That gets you to believe that there is hope outside of marriage. It's called the myth of the greener grass, that things are better over there than over here.

And that's why Solomon wrote Proverbs 7, Proverbs chapter 12, Proverbs chapter 5, to help you understand that the delusion that comes your way is not real. It will send you down a path that is totally and completely wrong. Proverbs 6:25 says, Do not desire the other woman's beauty in your heart, nor let her catch you with her eyelids.

Don't do that. But you see, when you begin to doubt God's will, the delusion sets in and all of a sudden, you're enraptured with the person on the outside of your marriage. And that delusion leads to despair. And despair will lead you to divorce.

That's why you re-evaluate the state of your marriage. Because, listen, you want to be the quintessential lover.

Are you a lover? If someone was to ask you, do you love your husband? Do you love your wife? You'd probably say, of course I do. But are you a lover? And how would you define a lover? I know my time is gone, but you're not going to want to miss this. What is a lover?

We like to say that you are, you know, the Casanova of all marriages. You are the Lance Romance of what it means to have marital bliss. You are the quintessential husband. You are the great lover.

But are you really? So let me define a lover for you. A lover, number one, listens intently. He listens. She listens intently.

You want to be a lover? You can't be talking while you're on your phone and texting somebody else. You can't be on your computer and try to listen to what your husband or wife is saying.

No, all eyes are on him or her. All ears are open to him or her. You listen intently.

You're all in to hear what they have to say. Remember, 1 Peter 3:7 talks about husbands living with your wife in an understanding way. Well, the only way you're going to understand her is to listen to her.

And if you're not listening to her intently, you're not listening really at all. You want to be a lover? Listen intently.

Number two, you want to be a lover? Overlook and overcome iniquity.

It is the glory of a man to overlook a transgression. Proverbs 19:11 tells us. It is a beauty of a man to overlook a transgression.

In other words, it's the beauty of a man not to seek revenge. It's the beauty of a man not to get back. It's the beauty of an individual to not keep a record of wrongdoing.

So you overlook a transgression and you overcome that iniquity. Proverbs 12, how? You overcome evil with what? Good. That's just so good.

When you've been done evil, what do you do? You return good. You just return the best. You overcome and you overlook iniquity because you've listened intensely.

That's a lover. Number three, you want to be a lover? You value intimacy. You value intimacy.

I'm not talking just about sexual intimacy. I'm talking about I'm talking about marital intimacy. I'm talking about about relational intimacy, social intimacy, financial intimacy.

That is, there's complete transparency in your marriage so that there is an intimacy that develops from that because you are completely open and honest with one another. You truly are one flesh. You're one together.

So you value intimacy. You value what everything he or she brings to the marriage. You want to be a lover? You listen intently because she has words of wisdom that you need to hear.

He has words of instruction, ladies, that you need to follow. You listen intently. You overlook and you overcome iniquity.

You value intimacy. You express charity. Love is an expression, a demonstration.

It's a verb. It's an action verb whereby you are actually demonstrating to the one you say you love all that there is. And so you're going to give to that person.

You're going to demonstrate, not just say I love you. You're going to demonstrate it personally and intimately because you want them to know that they are loved, not because of what you said but because of what you've done sacrificially, beneficially, transformationally on behalf of that person.

That's a lover. He listens intently. She listens intently. They overlook and they overcome iniquity. They value intimacy. They express charity. And then they relish, they relish every opportunity to fulfill their biblical responsibility.

They relish every opportunity to fulfill their biblical responsibility. Every moment of the day, every opportunity, every conversation, every date, every conflict, everything that you face. I'm going to model to you my biblical responsibility, my commitment to follow what God has said in his word no matter what because I want to honor God in my marriage.

This is what I want to do. That is a lover. It spells out the word lover.

So now you can follow it and say this is what I want to be for my husband, for my wife because as I reevaluate the state of my marriage, it only goes down and not up because I refuse to be a lover. Let me pray with you.

Lord, thank you for today, a chance to look once again at your word and the blessing that's there.

Thank you, Father, for how it is you have given us your word to instruct us in the way that we should go. And my prayer is for every marriage in the room and everyone who wants to one day get married in the room that Lord your word would speak volumes to them and they'd realize what they need to do to be a biblical lover for the sake of your kingdom and your glory.

Thank you, Lord, for this moment. May you be honored in how we live from this day forward until you come again as you most surely will. In Jesus name.

Amen.