Go to God with All Your Expectations and Honor God's Design for Your Home

So good to have you with us tonight and trust that the things we learn tonight will enable us to grow in our knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. You know, as we left off last week about going to God with all of your expectations, it's very important to realize that, you know, we assume responsibility for the things that we can control, but we pray about the things that we cannot control. And the only thing that we can control is whether or not I will magnify the name of the Lord in every conversation, in every relationship, in every situation, so that the Lord is put on display.

That's the only thing I can really truly control. Outside of that, I can't control anything else. And so, therefore, I must acknowledge the fact that God is sovereign. Upon acknowledging His sovereignty, I can truly then accept my responsibility, and that responsibility is to glorify the name of the Lord. And then and only then can I appropriate my ministry. That's the principle we learned last week, and that ministry revolves itself in our marriage and family around the husband-wife relationship.

So the question comes, why is it things can get so bad in a marriage? Well, tonight, I'm going to tell you how and how to rectify that by looking at what it is to honor God's design for your marriage and family. Well, the Bible says these words in the book of 2 Timothy that I think are so appropriate for all things because it says, this is the way the last days are going to be.

The last days are between the first and second coming of the Messiah. It says, but realize this, 2 Timothy 3, verse number 1, that in the last days, difficult times will come, for men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, and unloving. The word unloving means without natural family affection. That's the way it's going to be in the last days. There won't be any natural love in the family. And you begin to realize that the characteristic of the last days is all about self-indulgence and self-centeredness, that men will be lovers of themselves rather than lovers of God, lovers of pleasure more than anything else.

Why is it that way? Well, to understand that, we're going to take you all the way back to the book of Genesis, the second chapter, looking at the master's mind for marriage and then the master's mandates for marriage.

If you haven't outlined those, there are too many points this evening. The master's mind for marriage is all the way back in Genesis chapter 2. So if you got your Bible, I would invite you to turn with me to Genesis chapter 2.

Genesis chapter 2, we have the master's mind revealed to us in what is the ideal and what is the real, okay? What is the ideal in the master's mind? And then what is the real in the master's mind for your marriage and for mine? So the Bible says in Genesis chapter 2, verse number 18, then the Lord said, it is not good for man to be alone.

I will make him a helper suitable for him. Out of the ground, the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called the living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the cattle and to the birds of the sky and to every beast of the field. But for Adam, there was not found a helper suitable for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man and he slept. Then he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place.

The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which he had taken from the man and brought her to the man. The man said, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. For this reason, a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. Verses very familiar to most of us, but they describe to us the mind of God. What did the master have in mind when he created a suitable helper for Adam?

Because we know that everything was good. And so what did God have in mind? So let me give you four ways to see that which is ideal.

The Bible says that God fitted and fashioned for Adam a specific individual, a helper suitable for him.

In other words, God designed the exact person for Adam. So practically speaking, he forms a suitable helper that would specifically meet the needs of Adam. He did it specifically for him. He created the exact woman for him. In other words, do you realize that the woman you're married to is the suitable helper that God fashioned and fitted for you? Some would say, well, you don't know this woman I'm married to. Maybe God made a mistake in fashioning her. No, God didn't make a mistake. She was fashioned and fitted specifically for you.

What God has joined together, let no man put asunder. In other words, when two people are married, God joins them together. So God is sovereignly, specifically, significantly putting together two people that God in his sovereignty knew exactly what he was doing. And so God doesn't make mistakes. God doesn't give you the wrong person. He didn't marry the wrong person. You're married to the person that God ordained from eternity past. And therefore, you have to understand that this person was fitted specifically for Adam.

So practically, she is fitted and fashioned for him, and personally, God hand delivers her. It says that God brought her to man. Think about it that way. God brought her to him. You need to realize this because God not only fashions a person practically, but what God does is very specifically bring that individual to you in a very personal kind of way. We worry night and day about who I'm going to date and who I'm going to marry. Will I be an old maid or an old hag or will God bring someone to me?

Know this, God is always at work and God knows you better than you know yourself. And if you would stop looking for the right wife or the right husband and start looking for how you can better serve God in the meantime and let God take care of all the peripherals, God will bring him to you. She was hand-delivered to Adam. She was suitably fixed for him because God had a plan for Adam. God had a plan for the human race. Do you not think that God has a plan for you? Of course, he does. And so, she was, in essence, practically and personally fit for Adam.

And thirdly, she was perfectly fit for Adam. Could you imagine marrying somebody with no past, no childhood, no sin, no past relationship, no past loves, no past? It was a perfect uniting of two people. She doesn't bring any baggage to the relationship. She has no thoughts about what her father did in raising her and how you don't meet up to her father's standards. She has no recollection of anything in her childhood or any past relationships that could have damaged her mentally and emotionally. She is sinless.

She is perfectly fitted for Adam. This is the ideal. And so, she came to him practically, personally, perfectly, and primarily without any sin. No sin. Sin doesn't happen in Chapter 3. So, she's a sinless person. Adam's a sinless man. This is the ideal. Adam and Eve were created to live forever. They were created to live forever without sin. But sin did enter the world. And therefore, death came upon men because all now have sinned. But this was the ideal. But what's the real? The real is in the only definition in the Scriptures concerning marriage.

There's only one definition in the Scripture. It's four times given to us. In its verses, in Chapter 2, it's Genesis Chapter 2, verse number 24. For this cause, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife. Now, when God created a woman, the Hebrew word is soft. Isn't that great? Soft. That's what defines a woman, her softness. Not her harshness, but her softness. And so, God says these words, for this cause, a man shall leave his father and mother.

So, this is the real. And the real is this, four points. Number one, severance. Okay, severance. A man shall leave his father and mother. Whenever you get married, there is a breaking off of old relationships. There's a severance from old relationships. Okay? So, if you're trying to hang on to past dating relationships, it's not going to help your marriage, it's going to hurt your marriage. If you're hanging on to things in the past relationally, you got to sever those things. Why? Because you're going to leave.

So, when a man gets married, he leaves his father and mother. No woman wants to marry a man who is dependent upon his father and mother. He breaks off that relationship. He leaves. He's independent. And so, he leaves in order to cleave. But when a man decides to leave, he decides three things. Number one, to lead his wife.

Number two, to love his wife. And number three, to learn his wife. When a man decides to leave, he leaves in order to lead. In other words, he now accepts the responsibility to be the leader. That's what he does. And so, ladies, you're looking for a leader. You're not looking for a follower. You're looking for an initiator, a motivator, a cultivator. Looking for someone who's going to lead the way, not someone you have to lead, right? Because when he decides to leave, he decides to lead. On top of that, he decides to love his wife.

He chooses to love her, to fashion her, and to care for her. And he decides not only to love her, but to learn her. That's what a husband does when he leaves. There's a severance from his past upbringing that he might be now the leader that God wants him to be. And for the woman, when she decides to leave, she leaves in order to follow the leadership of her husband. And on top of that, she decides to find security in the man that loves her, as well as to forgive that individual, for sometimes he doesn't always lead properly.

But there's a severance. On top of the severance, there's number two, a permanence. For this cause, a man shall leave and cleave to his wife, to be glued to her, to be stuck on to her. This is a permanent union. That's why the two shall become one flesh, right? The two become one. That's so important. But you are cleaving to this individual. You are becoming permanently attached to one person. You don't leave and cleave for a month or two or three, or you don't leave or cleave in order to do it for a while, see if it works out.

No, when you leave, you cleave, and it's there for life. It's there forever. That's the ambition, that's the drive, that's the direction. You're being glued to that one individual. And then, you have to understand that in that permanence, as a man loves his wife, as Christ loved the church, in that permanence comes security, right? If the marriage is to picture God's love for his church, then, gentlemen, you have a great responsibility to picture security to your wife. She is 100% secure. She's 100% safe.

She's 100% taken care of because you have made a decision to leave and cleave. So there's a separance, there's a permanence, and then, number three, there is an acceptance.

The two shall become one flesh. Very, very important to understand this, as you will see in a moment, that the two become one. Only in marriage is one plus one, one. Nowhere else does that work. If you have one boy, one girl, you have two children. But in a marital relationship, one man being married to one woman equals one flesh. There is a union that's there. It all deals around acceptance. Because they were one flesh and they were both naked. It doesn't deal with nudity. That's not the point. There is no sin in the world, okay?

These are perfect bodies created together. It deals with transparency. It deals with openness. It deals with no hidden agenda. Why? Because we are laid bare one before the other. There's a complete acceptance based on the fact that you accept them just as they are, right? So many times we get married and we realize that after a while, I don't accept that attitude. I don't accept that behavior. I don't accept the way you... You accept them just the way they are. It doesn't mean you accept sin. You deal with sin.

But you can't think that you're going to change them once you marry them. Listen, what you see is what you get, okay? So if you marry them one way and you think you're going to change them, guess what? I got news for you. It doesn't happen. Ask my wife. She'll tell you. She can't change me. This is the way it is. What you see is what you get, right? So if you marry someone thinking you're going to change them, your expectation is, I can change them once I marry them because we'll be together. Oh, no, not at all.

You're only getting the surface of what's really there. That's why once there is a severance, once there is a permanence, there becomes an acceptance of that individual, which leads to number three, an interdependence.

Interdependence. For this cause, a man shall leave his father and mother. What's the cause? What's the cause? It's not good, verse 18, for man to be alone. It's not good. So what God did is He designed Adam to be able to realize that every animal that he named had a Mr. and Mrs. to it. There was a Mr. and Mrs. cow, a Mr. and Mrs. horse, and Mr. and Mrs. dog, and Mr. and Mrs. cat, and Mr. and Mrs. redbird. But there's no Mrs. to the Mr. Adam. So when God had him name all the animals, he's realizing that they all have a partner, but he doesn't have one.

And so God puts him to sleep. He creates Eve from his side and fashions for her this perfect person because it wasn't good for man to be alone. Why? Because in the relationship, there's this interdependence. There is this relationship where we depend upon one another in a certain degree because we offset one another. You know, when God fashioned Lori for me and fitted her perfect for me, he knew exactly what he was doing. He knew exactly what I needed. He knew the exact person that would offset all of my issues with all the positive things.

She can do things I can't even begin to imagine doing. She goes way beyond that. And so God fitted her, fashioned her specifically for me so that I would begin to realize the interdependence we have upon one another because I need her and she needs me. And that's how God designed the marriage. That's why one plus one equals one because you're one flesh. That's the real. So you have the master's mind. You have the ideal, and then you have the real. So what happened? How did things that were so good get so bad so fast?

Well, you know the answer. Sin. Sin entered the world in Genesis chapter 3. We're not going to go into all the temptation of Satan and how he tempted Eve and how Adam and Eve found the sin. We're not going to do that, but we're going to go to the consequences of sin because this is very important. This is why your marriage has problems, okay? Genesis chapter 3, verse number 16. Verse 15 is, of course, the first promise of the gospel, that the woman will have a seed, and that seed will bear the Messiah, and the Messiah will crush the serpent's head.

But then comes the result of the curse. Now, listen carefully. Verse 16, to the woman, he said, I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth. And all the women said, Amen, because he has, right? There's pain in childbirth because of sin. If there was no sin, you'd have no pain in childbirth. So blame Eve. Talk to her about it, okay? But then he says this, yet your desire will be for your husband. You say, wait a minute. That's a curse? I'm going to desire my husband? I'm going to fawn all over my husband?

I'm going to want to be with my husband? That's a result of the curse? No, no. That's not what it says. You say, well, that's what you just read. Yet your desire will be for your husband. Ah, what does the word desire mean? Well, the only way you know that is if you go to chapter 4 because the same word is used. And God is speaking to Cain in verse number 6. Then the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry and why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door and it's, what's the next word?

Desire is for you, but you must master it. In other words, God tells Cain, sin is crouching at the door. Sin is right around the corner. You know what sin wants to do? Sin wants to master you. Sin wants to control you. Sin wants to dominate you, but you can't let that happen. You must master sin. Now, you go back to Genesis 3, verse number 16, and it says, the woman's desire will be for her husband. What's her desire? To dominate and to control her husband. Same Hebrew word is used. You see, it's not a curse to love your husband and desire your husband.

You want to do that, but the result of the curse is that you're going to choose to dominate your husband, control your husband. And then it says this, and he, he will rule over you. You're going to seek to dominate him, but you know what? He now is going to reverse that and be authoritative and dominate you. Thus, you have the battle of the sexes. It began in Genesis 3, verse number 16, and it's continued for 6,000 years. Nothing's changed. Every woman seeks to dominate her husband. That's why you have arguments.

That's why you have fallouts. That's why you have divorces. That's why you have conflict. Why? Because you have this desire to be in charge. And the husband is not going to let that happen, so he's going to rule over you. He's going to dominate you. He's going to act in an authoritarian kind of way against you. And therefore, you had this battle going on all the time. That's what happened in marriage. So the master's mind was seen in the real and the ideal, and yet because of sin, the master came up with mandates to help you understand how do you deal with this?

How do you deal with this kind of conflict? Now, I know that every woman will attest to the fact that this is really not her desire. She doesn't really want to control her husband, but she really does. She wants to be in charge. And therefore, the husband then will fight against that, or he'll just acquiesce and just be passive-aggressive and let it take place and let the woman run the home. Every woman who's running her home, usurping her husband's authority, is fulfilling Genesis 3, verse number 16.

She's trying to be in charge. She wants to control her husband. She wants to rule the roost. She wants to be in charge. And either her husband battles against that and fights against it, or just says, you know what, those ends up, do whatever you want to do. And he goes off and does whatever he wants to do. Why? 2 Timothy 3 says, because men are lovers of themselves rather than lovers of God. Love is a pleasure, see? And therefore, sin begins to manifest itself. And the only way this is rectified is the book of Ephesians, the fifth chapter.

So turn with me in your Bible to Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5, and let me give you the master's mandate.

See, there's three of them. And let me tell you how this problem is solved. There's a very simple solution. We're not going to go through all of Ephesians 5, just pick out a couple of verses, but it begins in chapter 5, verse number 1, about being imitators of God and walking in love, right? So we need to imitate God, walk in love. And then we need to walk as children of the light. So we need to walk in the light. And then we need to walk wisely by redeeming the time. And then in verse number 18, look what it says.

It says, and do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the spirit. Here is a solution to sin's problem, being controlled and filled with the spirit of the living God. This is the only answer. This is the only way it happens. So he makes us this comparison, and be not drunk with wine, which is dissipation. This is not a sermon about drinking, but if you want to get drunk, you have to keep drinking. You don't just drink today and get drunk today and then wake up three days from now and still be drunk.

No, hopefully you'll be sober by then, but then to get drunk again, you got to just keep drinking. Well, the same is true with being filled with the spirit of God. The word for filled is plerao, which means to be dominated by or controlled by. It's used all throughout the Gospels to speak about how the religious leaders were filled with anger. So they were dominated and controlled by the emotion of anger. Or those who had seen Christ cast out demons, they were filled with awe. And fear. So the fear would control them because it was what dominated their life.

And when it says over in John 16, verse number 6, that they had been, sorrow had filled their heart. In other words, because of the sorrow was so immense, it controlled the way they lived their lives or attitudes and actions. Well, Christ uses the same word here, plerao, to talk about how we need to be dominated and controlled by the spirit of the living God. Okay? We know that we are baptized by the spirit of God. We are indwelt by the spirit of God. We are sealed by the spirit of God, right? We understand that.

We'll talk more about that on Sunday. But the fact of the matter is you need to be controlled by the spirit of God. In other words, God's spirit must dominate your life. Because if it does or he does, everything about your life changes. That's very important. Everything does. So how is one controlled by the spirit of God? One, there's a surrender of the will, and number two, there's a study of the word.

When you surrender your will to the Lord and to the spirit of God, he begins to dominate your life. But as you surrender your will to the Lord, you do it by the study of the word of God. So if you turn back over to Colossians chapter 3, verse number 16, look what it says in Colossians 3. Colossians 3, verse number 16. It says this, let the word of Christ dwell within you, okay? In other words, let the word of Christ be at home in your heart. Don't let the word of God become a stranger to you. Now, notice what it says.

Let the word of God be at home in your heart, and with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another, with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks through him to God, the fathers, wives, be subject to your husband. You will notice that the consequences of letting the word of Christ dwell in you richly are the exact same consequences of Ephesians 5, verse number 18, of being controlled by the spirit of God.

So if you go back to Ephesians chapter 5, verse number 18, it says, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father, and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. So the consequences of being controlled by the spirit or filled by the spirit, and the consequences of letting the word of Christ dwell in you richly are exactly the same.

They're speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. They're singing with melody in your heart to the Lord. There's a saying, thanks to God for all He's done and submission to one another because that's what happens when the word of Christ dwells in you richly. In other words, when God's word dominates your thinking, when God's word dominates your life, you begin to think biblically, begin to think scripturally, and the attitude begins to change. You begin to walk in the spirit so you don't fulfill the lust of the flesh.

Why? Because your life is dominated by the spirit of God. That's what God does. And the only way Genesis 3.16 doesn't happen is if man and woman are controlled and dominated by the spirit of the living God. For then, you will be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. This is so important. We need to realize how important it is for us to be spiritually controlled by God. Why? Because within the realm of the marriage, there is mutual submission. This is very important to understand. Subject yourselves to one another in the fear of Christ.

And then it says, wives to your own husbands. The word be subject is not in the original, it's in italics. Why? Because wives are submissive to their husbands and husbands are submissive to their wives. Now, listen carefully to what I'm going to say. The word submission means hupotasso, which means to rank yourself under, to line yourself under. In other words, instead of trying to be the top dog, fight to be the bottom dog. That's what it means to be submissive one to another. But we're so busy fighting to be top dog, to be in charge, to be in control, to be the leader, that we forget that there is an attitude of submission that's to permeate everything about our lives.

This is so important and so many people miss this. Why? Because within the realm of the marriage, there is always mutual submission. Why? Remember I told you, one plus one equals one, right? So therefore, you are one flesh. In essence, man and wife, absolutely equal. In function, there are distinct and unique roles. But in essence, you're one. In fact, look what it says over in 1 Corinthians 11. 1 Corinthians 11, the Bible says in verse number three, these words, but I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of the woman, and God is the head of who?

Christ. Wait a minute. I thought God the Son is equal to God the Father. They are, in essence, not in function. They are one. They're equal. God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, all God, yet three distinct persons. In an essence, they are one. But in order for the Godhead to function, the Son willingly submitted himself to the Father. And it was the Son who died on the cross, not the Father. Father didn't die. The Son died, right? Father raised the Son, exalted the Son. Why? Because the Son willingly submitted himself to the will of the Father.

The Son says, all authority on heaven and earth have been granted unto me, Matthew 28. That's true. Why? Because He's equal to the Father. I and the Father are one. And yet, He says in the incarnation, I always do that which pleases my Father. I've come down to do the will of my Father who is in heaven. Why? Because in order for there to be the proper function of the Godhead, the Son willingly submits himself to the Father. In essence, they are one. In function, He submits Himself to the will of the Father.

Husband and wife, you're one. In essence, there's no difference between you and your wife. You're equal in the eyes of God. But in order for you to function properly in the home, God has given a design. And He wants you to honor that design. And that is He's given the leadership to the husband and the followership to the wife for the purpose of function. When that doesn't work that way, everything goes out of whack. But that's the way God designed it. He designed it in government. The president of our country is no better than you are.

You are equal to the president. You are equal to the vice president. No difference. But in function, there's a difference. Why? Because they have a higher office. In order for government to function, there must be authority and submission. The same is true in the church. You're no better than me and I'm no better than you because we're all equal. But in order for the church to function, God has designed leadership in the church so the church can function in an orderly manner. Same is true in a marriage.

That's why in 1 Corinthians 7, the Bible says this, verse 3, the husband must fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise, also the wife to her husband.

The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise, also, the husband doesn't have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Why? Because it's mutual submission in the relationship. Stop depriving one another except by agreement for a time so that you may devote yourselves to prayer and come together again since Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. So in the area of intimacy in a marriage, Paul makes it very clear, husband doesn't have authority over his own body, but the wife does.

Wife doesn't have authority over her own body, but the husband does. So therefore, don't deprive one another of that which is most important because if you do, you're going to open the door for Satan to have a foothold in your marriage. So therefore, make sure you function properly because there is a mutual submission that takes place in the marriage. And that can only happen is if I am dominated and controlled by the Spirit of God. If not, I will seek to fulfill the lusts of the flesh. I will seek to be authoritarian over my wife, and my wife will seek to control me in my attitude, in my behavior, in the things I do or don't do.

But when you're spiritually controlled, you are humbly submitting yourself to the will of the Father, and you are being dominated because Scriptures dominate your life. You cannot be Spirit-controlled without being in the Scriptures. So important because the Scripture and the Spirit work hand in hand, and God uses His Spirit to illuminate your mind to the things of the Scriptures. And so the mandate is be Spirit-controlled, that's number one.

Number two, be submissive one to another. Why? Because this is what God wants for you. So important. And the husbands are to love their wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her. So he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless. So husbands are also to love their own wives as their own bodies.

He who loves his own wife, loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of his body. For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother, shall be joined to his wife, two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great, but I'm speaking with reference to Christ in the church. Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects, reveres her husband.

You see, the only way things can come together in a sinful world that's filled with self-indulgence and self-centeredness is if there is a spiritually controlled individual, submissive to what God says, and then thirdly, selfless in all their actions.

You got to be selfless, but we're not selfless, we're selfish. That's a problem. But you won't be selfless if you're submissive, and you're going to be submissive if you're spiritually controlled by God's Holy Spirit. That's how it works. And that's why the Bible says in Matthew 10.45, for even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.

You know, we want to be like Christ, but we're not sure we want to be like Christ in that arena. We don't want to serve anybody. But to be like Christ requires you to be a servant. It requires you to rank yourself under somebody else. That's why Paul says in the book of Philippians, the second chapter, these words.

He says, do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, regard one another as more important than yourself. Do not merely look out for your own personal interest, but also for the interest of others. Have this attitude in yourself, which is also in Christ Jesus. In other words, rank yourself under others. We're so busy ranking ourself above others. We're so busy trying to be the dominant person instead of being the submissive person. And you want to honor God's design for your marriage?

You have to go back to Genesis 2.24 and understand what it means to leave and to cleave, and to be permanently attached to one person, and to be interdependent upon that one person. Because if not, you'll seek to dominate and control one another. That's why there's conflict in your marriage. That's why there's conflict in any relationship, but especially in the marriages. And therefore, the only way it's solved is when you follow what God's Word says in the Scriptures, by submitting yourselves to one another in the fear of Christ, because you've already been controlled by the Spirit of God who dominates your thinking, who dominates your emotions, who dominates your responses in a Christlike way, because you want to selflessly serve the one you're married to.

Let me pray with you. Father, we thank You, Lord, for this evening and a chance to be in Your Word. Our prayer, Father, is that You'd illuminate our minds and hearts to be able to understand Your Word, that we might follow You and serve You. Give us wisdom that we might be the kind of people You want us to be for the glory of Your kingdom. We love You, Lord, and thank You for Your Word. In Jesus' name. Amen.