The Experiential Dimensions of the Father’s Love: An extraordinary synthesis (Roger Bennett, Audio + Text)
The following sermon is the fruit of 60+ years of preaching and in-depth counseling, presented in its entirety. The audio for the below message can be found here with the full text below.
No relational techniques or evangelical buzz words.
Life viewed through the lens of Scripture and experientially applied in a way that brings understanding into our lives.
Bennett’s 8-part series on the Gospel Applied to Relationships and Marriage is soon to follow.
We know how much God loves us,
And we have put our trust in His love.
God is love,
And all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them (I John 4:16, NLT).
Introduction
I really do believe that "love makes the world go round,"
Why would I say that?
Because God is love.
It is His love for us that makes all of life meaningful. I John 4 reminds us that when we realize how much God loves us, it is so magnificent that we put our trust in that love.
Even those who do not believe in God are the recipients of His love. He gives them life and the opportunity to respond to His love. He wants to forgive and enrich their lives. His plans for them are good.
What does all of this have to do with relationships and marriage?
God instituted marriage because He loved us. His intention was certainly not to make us miserable; He made us for each other. Husband and wife are designed to work together as a mutually supportive team to discover and fulfill God's plans for their lives. It's beautiful when it works.
What is the key to having that kind of marriage?
In a word, love.
It is the choice to look out for each other in the same way that God looks out for us. It is allowing God to express His love through us.
It doesn't require warm feelings, but it does require an open heart.
Prayer
Father, thank You for Your amazing love for us.
When we know You, we know the true definition of love, because You are love.
We want to have this kind of love for our spouse, too.
Please transform us and show us how to love our husband or wife this way.
Love & Marriage: Deep security…or…a great battlefield
Paul said,
“Three things will last forever: faith, hope, and love.
And the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor13:13, NLT).
Love and marriage—they go together like a horse and carriage. Right?
Well, they could and in a healthy marriage, they do.
Most people agree that our deepest emotional need is to feel loved. The apostle Paul even identifies love as the greatest thing, and King David wrote that God's
“unfailing love (khesed) is better than life itself” (Psalm 63:3).
There's no question that God's steady love for us can be our emotional rock. But we also need to experience human love. And if we are married, the person whose love we long for the most is our spouse.
In fact, if we feel loved, everything else is workable. If we don't feel loved, our conflicts become battlefields.
We also have emotional needs for security, self-worth, and significance. Love interfaces with all of these.
If I feel loved, then I can relax, knowing that my spouse will do me no ill. feel secure in his or her presence. I can face the uncertainties in my vocation. I may have enemies in other areas of my life, but with my spouse I feel secure.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, thank You for Your love that never fails.
And thank You for the love I can share with my spouse.
Please help me to love effectively, so that he or she will feel secure in our relationship.
Our lens: “Delight yourself in the Lord”
For weeks, we have been in a series on "The Gospel Applied to Relationships and Marriage" (II Timothy 3:16,17). We have been applying the gospel to marriage with a focus on the verse, "Delight yourself in the Lord" (Psalm 37:4), which will be our lens.
As you delight in the Lord, God's desires will become your desires.
As you delight in the Lord, God will change your innermost being (your thoughts, your feelings, your desires, your attitudes, your motivations, and your character traits) to reflect God's thoughts, God's feelings, God's desires, God's attitudes, God's purposes and God's character traits.
As you delight in the Lord, the Lord will sanctify your desires and will fulfill all your desires in Himself. As you delight in the Lord, God will fill you with Himself so that you are free to love each other with the love of the Lord.
As you delight in the Lord, the Lord will enable you to have a vibrant, passionate, growing, exciting, fulfilling, successful, delightful marriage.
What does it mean to “delight yourself in the Lord”?
First, to delight in the Lord means you delight in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
In speaking of Jesus Christ, the Father said,
“Look at My Servant. See My Chosen One.
He is My Beloved, in whom My soul delights.
I will put My Spirit upon Him, and He will judge the nations.
And His Name shall be the hope of all the world” (Matthew 12:18, 21; Living Bible).
Through faith in Jesus' sinless life, substitutionary death, bodily resurrection, glorious ascension and soon second coming, God delivers us from our pride, dishonesty, self-centeredness, selfishness, fear, lust, greed, shame, guilt, resentment, bitterness, and false gods (which we may speak of as addictions).
Deliverance from our additions and character defects
It is only through the Gospel of Jesus Christ that God can deliver you from these character defects that will destroy your marriage relationship. It is only through the Gospel of Jesus Christ that God can replace your character defects with His character traits which will unite your two hearts into one.
This is why Jesus prayed,
“that they may be...one; even as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You...
that the world may believe that You did send Me” (John 17:21).
The only way you or any other couple can become truly one is through believing and delighting in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Only God can make you one.
Internalizing the Gospel
And once you internalize the Gospel, the Lord will energize you to evangelize the unsaved and to disciple other new believers into maturity. And the unity and oneness in your marriage relationship will proclaim the Gospel message you verbalize to others.
Through meditating on the love of God for me, allowing His love to fill, satisfy, transform, and empower me, confessing His love (I Cor 13:4-8) in me enables me to actively love my spouse with the love of God rather than reacting with human, bankrupt, fickle, self-serving love.
Paul said,
“And beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity” (Col 3:14).
To delight yourself in the Lord means you delight yourself in the law of the Lord. David said,
“But his delight and desire are in the law of the Lord, and on His law—the precepts, the instructions, the teachings of God—he habitually meditates (ponders and studies) by day and by night.
And he shall be like a tree firmly planted (and tended) by the streams of water, ready to bring his fruit in its season;
His leaf also shall not fade or wither, and everything he does shall prosper" (Psalm 1:2-3; Amplified).
Agápē love
David delighted in God's Law because he delighted in the Lord, and God's Law revealed to David who God is—in a real, intimate, and personal way.
The Bible says the law was fulfilled in one word.
Do you know what that word is?
It is agápē—God's love.
Paul said,
"He who love his neighbor has fulfilled the law" (Romans 13:8).
Paul said,
"Love does no wrong to a neighbor; love therefore is the fulfillment of the law" (Romans 13:10).
Loving God, oneself, your spouse, and one's fellow man with the love of God is the fulfillment of the law.
The Law of God, the Bible, the Word of God, or the Scripture is fulfilled when we have right relationships with God, ourselves, and other people.
The Judgment of the Pharisee vs the total identification in Gospel love
The self-righteous, legalistic Pharisee is unloving, judgmental, arrogant, opinionated, critical, non-relational, and a great law-breaker.
God, through personal Bible study, instructs us in righteousness (II Timothy 3:16)—in wholesome, healthy, growing, Christ-centered relationships.
In the gospel of Jesus Christ, He comes to us.
He Identifies with us.
He enters our world with acceptance, trust, communication, forgiveness, unconditional love, respect, encouragement (John 17:21).
Jesus said,
"Just at the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love" (John 15:9).
Jesus Christ is the Son of God's love. Jesus is the bearer, the revealer, the communicator of His Father's love for us. Jesus was made like us in all things, that we might be like Him in all things.
Jesus opened up a path in which we may walk even as He walked.
He took upon Himself our human nature that He may teach us and encourage us to walk in God's love.
Until we understand the Father's love for His Son, we can never understand His love for us.
And no one better understood the Father's love for His only Son than Jesus.
Christ’s experiential understanding of the Father’s Love
Listen to the words of Jesus out of His own mouth. In John 15:9, Jesus told His disciples,
"Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you." (John 15:9).
The Father's love for His Son motivated Jesus. Jesus acted in response to His Father's love for Him.
In John 10:17, Jesus said,
"the Father loves Me."
The Father's love for Jesus was the motivation for His death on the cross for man's redemption.
And then in Jesus' priestly prayer in John 17:26, Jesus prayed to the Father for His disciples
"that the love wherewith You (My Father) did love Me (Jesus) may be in them (His disciples), and I in them."
Jesus prayed that the love of the Father for Him which motivated His every thought, desire, word, and action would become the motivating factor in His disciples' lives.
May Jesus' prayer be answered as the Holy Spirit enlightens, convicts and convinces us that the love of the Father for the Son was the prevailing, victorious force in Jesus' life.
What wondrous love is this?
What kind of love did the Father have for the Son that nourished and fed the soul of Jesus?
What kind of love occupied the thoughts and the heart of Jesus as he walked upon this earth?
What kind of love did the Father have for the Son—that convinced Jesus that nothing could separate Him from it?
What kind of love did Jesus meditate upon?
What kind of love did Jesus tell Himself that the Father had for Him?
Let us examine the Scripture to see.
A. The Father loved the Son eternally.
Jesus said to His Father, "
for You (My Father) did love Me (Jesus) before the foundation of the world." (John 17:24).
The Father loved the Son from eternity, before the world was ever created.
The Father never began to love His Son because the Father loved the Son in eternity past. The Father always loved the Son. And the Father loved the Son without end.
God, the Father, loves His Son infinitely.
Without beginning has the Father loved Jesus, and without end will the Father love Jesus and also without change, without limit, and without degree does the Father love Jesus.
The love of the Father—what wonderful, satisfying, substantive food Jesus had to feast His soul upon!
B. The Father loved the Son unconditionally.
Jesus said,
"on Him (Jesus is talking about Himself) the Father, even God, has set His seal" (John 6:27).
The Father testified to the perfection of His incarnate Son, and communicated His unconditional love for Jesus by sealing Jesus with the Holy Spirit.
C. The Father loved the Son by spending time with Him.
Jesus said,
"He (the Father) who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone" (John 8:29).
The Father and the Son were in constant communion with each other.
The Father was always there, present, for the Son.
D. The Father loved the Son by listening to Him.
In Luke 3:21, Jesus talked to His Father at the beginning of His public ministry when He was baptized.
In John 6:11, Jesus talked to His Father before feeding the 5,000.
In Matthew 14:23, Jesus talked to His Father before rescuing the disciples at sea.
In John 11:44, Jesus talked to His Father at Lazarus' graveside.
In Mark 14:22, Jesus talked to His Father at the Last Supper.
In Matthew 26:36-44, Jesus talked to His Father at Gethsemane.
In Luke 23:34, 46 Jesus talked to His Father on the cross.
In Hebrews 7:25, Jesus is talking to His Father even now on our behalf.
Do you know why Jesus talked so much to His Father?
It was because His Father loved Him and showed that love to Him by listening to Him.
Jesus prayed,
"Father, I thank You that Thou hear Me.
And I knew that You always hear Me..." (John 11:41,42).
E. The Father loved the Son by affirming Who Jesus was and in what He did.
The Father affirmed His love for Jesus' personhood at His baptism. In Matthew 3:17, when Jesus was baptized, the heavens opened and the Father said publicly,
"This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
What a loving, affirmative statement and what a great encouragement this must have been to Jesus as He started His public ministry.
In Matthew 17:5, when Jesus was transfigured before three of His disciples (Peter, James and John), His Father spoke to these disciples and said,
"This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; hear Him!"
This affirming statement about Jesus, from His Father, was heard by Jesus, Peter, James and John. And His Father told the three disciples to keep on listening to the words of His beloved Son and to take Jesus' words to heart.
It was the Father Who, in His great love for the Son, clothed Him with glory and encouraged Him with a bracing reaffirmation of continued delight in Who Jesus was, in order that this affirmation might sustain Him in His fast-approaching agony.
What a positive, encouraging, glorious experience.
But the Father did not only affirm Jesus in Who He was, the Father also affirmed Jesus in what He did. Jesus said,
"For this reason, the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again" (John 10:17).
The Father affirmed Jesus in His willingness to die on our behalf that we might have eternal life. Persecuted by men, and sometimes depressed in His own spirit, Jesus comforts Himself with these words,
"For this reason, the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life" (John 10:17).
In the heaviest toil, in the darkest slander, in the deepest perplexity, His Father said,
"This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased."
Jesus was refreshed with meat which others knew not of (John 4:32). The love of His Father for Who He was and for what He was doing was Jesus' comfort, His joy, His strength, and His hope.
What more can a person have than the love of God?
F. The Father loved the Son by accepting His limitations.
Jesus was human.
He was limited in what He could do. Jesus could only do what the Father did through Him as Jesus responded to His Father's love.
This is why Jesus said,
"The Son can do nothing of Himself (ἀφ’ ἑαυτοῦ οὐδὲν—lit. from Himself nothing), unless it is something He sees the Father doing;
for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner" (John 5:19).
Jesus said,
"I can do nothing of My own initiative (lit. from Myself nothing).
As I hear, I judge.
And my judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me" (John 5:30).
Jesus said,
"I do nothing on My own initiative (lit. from Myself I do nothing), but I speak these things as the Father taught Me" (John 8:28).
Jesus said,
"I speak the things which I have seen with (lit. in the presence of) My Father” (John 8:38).
Jesus said,
"I proceed forth and have come from God (the Father),
for I have not even come on My own initiative (the love of the Father motivated and compelled Jesus to come),
but He (the Father) sent Me" (John 8:42).
Jesus acknowledged His limitations and His powerlessness to do what the Father asked Him to do.
The Father also accepted the limitations of the Son. It was the love of the Father for the Son, and the Son's belief, conviction and persuasion of the Father's love for Him that enabled Jesus to do what He did.
Only as Jesus saw, heard and believed the love of His Father for Himself and others could Jesus do the loving deeds of His Father.
G. The Father loved the Son by giving Him freedom of choice.
The Father didn't make Jesus do anything.
What Jesus did, He did of His own free volition.
Jesus said,
"For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again.
No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it (my life) down on My own initiative.
I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.
This commandment I received from My Father" (John 10:17,18).
Jesus laid down His life willingly and voluntarily.
The Father gave Jesus this authority in love. Thus, Jesus was not made to do what He did upon this earth. Jesus voluntarily chose to do what He did in response to His Father's love for Him and for others.
H. The Father loved the Son by allowing Him to live with the consequences of His decisions.
Jesus chose to redeem sinful man.
What were the consequences of His choice?
It meant that He would be born of a Virgin, that He would be born under the law, that He would die on a cross as a substitute for sinful men, bearing the penalty of our sin, so that He might bring us to a right relationship with His loving Father.
Did the Father stop Jesus from making such a choice?
No.
Did the Father remove the consequences of Jesus' choice?
No!
Remember, the Father's intimate, infinite and unchanging love for His Son did not prevent Jesus from being
"despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief" (Isaiah 53:3).
The Father's eternal love for His Son did not keep Jesus from saying,
"the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head" (Matthew 8:20).
The Father's love for Jesus did not prevent His bloody sweat in Gethsemane.
The Bible states,
"although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered" (Hebrews 5:8).
Jesus chose to redeem us from the bondage and penalty of sin. There were terrible, painful consequences for Jesus because of His choice. But out of love, the Father honored His Son's choice.
Out of love, the Father would not remove any of the consequences of His choice. There was much pain for Jesus. But there was also great gain. Because of Jesus' pain, His sinless life, death and resurrection, the Father has given endless life to all the redeemed.
And the Bible states,
"Therefore also God (the Father) highly exalted Him (Jesus), and bestowed on Him the Name which is above every name,
that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth,
and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:9-11).
I. The Father loved the Son by giving and sacrificing.
The Bible declares,
"For God (the Father) so loved...He (the Father) gave His only begotten Son" (John 3:16).
When God, the Father, gave His Son, He gave God Himself.
For Jesus was no less than God, the Father, in His eternal nature. When God the Father gave Jesus for us, He gave Himself.
What more could the Father give?
In giving His Son, He was giving Himself—What a sacrifice! What love!
What principle ruled in Jesus' every thought, in Jesus' every attitude, in Jesus' every decision, and in Jesus' every action?
Listen to Jesus:
In John 3:35, Jesus said, "The Father loves the Son."
In John 5:20, Jesus said, "For the Father loves the Son."
In John 10:17, Jesus said, "...the Father loves Me."
In John 15:9, Jesus said, "...the Father has loved Me."
In John 17:26, Jesus said, "...You (Father) did love Me."
According to these verses, Jesus was continually telling Himself that the Father loved Him. Jesus was convinced in His mind and in His heart that nothing could separate Him from the Father's love.
In response to the Father's love for the Son, Jesus trusted His Father. Because Jesus believed His Father loved Him, Jesus listened to His Father. Jesus believed the Father had the best plan for His life and had His best interest at heart.
Because Jesus believed with all His heart that the Father truly loved Him, Jesus had an intimate relationship with the Father.
Jesus knew the Father, listened to the Father, trusted the Father, and obeyed the Father. The Father rubbed off on Jesus because of their intimate trust relationship.
They were one.
Jesus only spoke what He heard His Father speak to Him.
Jesus only did what He observed His Father doing.
In response to the Father's love for the Son, Jesus loved the Father.
And because the Lord Jesus loved His Father, Jesus obeyed the Father's will, no matter what the cost.
Obedience out of Love with no turning
Jesus did not permit people to turn Him from the will of His Father.
When Peter suggested that Jesus not go to the cross, Jesus replied,
"Get behind Me, Satan!
You (Peter) are a stumbling block (skándalon) to Me;
for you are not setting your mind on God's interests (phronéō), but man's" (Matthew 16:23).
Our Lord's obedience to the will of God cost Him His life.
Jesus actually believed, '
"Your lovingkindness is better than life" (Psalm 63:3).
The Bible states,
"He (Jesus) humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross" (Philippians 2:8).
Taking up our cross: What does it mean?
This is what Jesus means by taking up the cross.
Jesus said,
"If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.
For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it;
but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it" (Matthew 16:24,25).
To "take up his cross" means obedience to Jesus in spite of suffering, shame, sacrifice or death.
To take up the cross means to identify with Jesus Christ in His rejection, shame, suffering, and death. Only the love of God experienced by us in our hearts can produce that kind of personal obedience to God's commandments.
Who or what met Christ’s emotional needs?
Jesus did not look to the religious community to meet His emotional needs.
Jesus did not look to His disciples to meet His emotional needs.
Jesus did not look to His circumstances to meet His emotional needs.
Jesus did not look to His ministry to meet His emotional needs.
Jesus did not look to a denomination to meet His emotional needs.
Jesus did not look to money or retirement to meet His emotional needs.
Jesus did not look to a wife to meet His emotional needs.
Jesus did not look to children to meet His emotional needs.
Jesus did not look to a career to meet His emotional needs.
Jesus did not look to the world's definition of success to meet His emotional needs.
Jesus NEVER doubted the Father's love for Him in His sufferings—The Father's love for Jesus met all His emotional needs.
How Jesus endured the testing
When the religious community (Pharisees and Scribes) hated Jesus and called Jesus shameful, evil names, Jesus said,
"The Father loves Me" (John 10:17).
When Peter denied the Lord three times, Jesus said,
"The Father loves Me."
When Judas betrayed the Lord and sold Him out for thirty pieces of silver, Jesus said,
"The Father loves Me."
When all His disciples fled when He was going to the cross, Jesus said,
"The Father loves Me."
When the soldiers physically, verbally and emotionally abused Jesus on the cross, Jesus said,
"The Father loves Me."
Knowing the Father, staying focused on the Father, never doubting the love of the Father for Him enabled Jesus to endure the suffering, the pain, the hostilities of sinners against Him, the shame, and the trial.
How we endure life’s testing
Jesus continually kept on trusting the Father to meet all His emotional needs.
Paul said, "Fixing our eyes on Jesus" (Hebrews 12:2).
Paul said "Consider Him (Jesus)" (Hebrews 12:3).
Jesus said, "Come to Me...learn from Me" (Matthew 11:28-29).
Jesus never doubted God the Father's love and goodness no matter in what circumstances He found Himself.
When you look at Jesus on Calvary's Cross taking your place to pay the penalty for you sin, do you ever doubt the Father's love and goodness when you are suffering or when you are shamed or rejected by others?
John said,
"By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His (Holy) Spirit.
And we have beheld and bear witness that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
And we have to come to know and have believed the love which God has for us.
God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in Him.
By this, love is perfected with us, that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because as He (Jesus) is, so also are we in this world" (1 John 4:13-17).
The pathway of endurance: Believing in the Father’s love
God the Father treats believers the same way He does His Son Jesus Christ.
Do you believe this?
Do you believe God the Father loves you the same way He loves His Son?
Have you allowed the love of God for you demonstrated on Calvary's Cross as Jesus took your place as a substitute for the penalty of your sins—to fill your heart, to meet your every emotional need (Philippians 4:19; Ephesians 1:3)?
This is how Jesus endured and it is only by learning this love from Jesus that we can endure.
J. The Father loves the Son because of what He has given His Son as a result of His suffering and atonement for our sin.
The Father says,
"Let God's angels worship Him" (Hebrews 1:6).
The Father says that the Son of God is worthy of all the worship that the hosts of heaven can give—not to mention our own.
The Father says the theme song in heaven is
"Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing…
Blessing and honor and glory and power
Be to Him who sits on the throne,
And to the Lamb, forever and ever!” (Revelation 5:12, 13b).
Nor will the Father Himself be excluded from the celebration of His only Son.
The Father is thrilled over the greatness and goodness and the triumph of His only Son.
The Father is thrilled that His Son is a perfect replica, representation, and expression of His Father's character, attitudes, beliefs, values, and redemptive purposes.
The Father so loves the Son that He has given His Son His Kingdom, His authority to execute judgment on all mankind, His absolute power, the worship of heaven and earth, His glory, a spotless and holy Bride, and His own fullness.
The Father has highly exalted His Son and “given Him the Name which is above every name in heaven and on earth” (Philippians 2:9). The Father has “crowned” His Son “with glory and honor” (Hebrews 2:9).
Our own belief and trust in the Father’s Love?
If the Father loved His only begotten Son and if the Father gave us His best, His only begotten Son, do you believe He loves you and your spouse?
Can you trust Him to take you to heaven to be with Him forever when you die?
Can you trust Him for justice to those who have wronged you?
Can you trust Him for mercy, compassion, and forgiveness through Jesus Christ?
We are truly loved.
God the Father is totally trustworthy!
He is worthy of our trust because of who He is and because of what He has done for us in Jesus Christ.
Jesus said,
"Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you;
abide in My love" (John 15:9).
Love as the principle thing
Christian, is your life principle the love of God?
If it's not, you are unhappy. You are on the wrong track.
May the life of Jesus call you back to your first love.
May the love of God melt your heart, fill you to overflowing and motivate you to live and to love as Jesus was motivated to live and to love your spouse.
The Bible states,
"Now abides faith, hope, agape love, these three;
but the greatest of these is agape love." (1Cor. 13:13).
May that love draw you to Jesus and to His body, the church, and cause you to love your spouse with the love of the Lord.
Closing Prayer
Our Father, thank You for loving Jesus eternally, unconditionally, infinitely, immeasurably.
Thank You for showing us what real, normal, healthy love is. For Lord, we live in a world that defines love so differently than You do. If it were not for You, Father, we would not know what real love is.
But now that we have heard and seen Your love in Scriptures and the way it was communicated to Your Son, we pray that You would give us hearts to believe in Your love for us, that You would give us minds that would be filled with thoughts of Your love for us, that You would give us a will to choose Your love as the ruling principle in our lives.
We pray that Your love for Jesus and Your love for us would impact us in the way it impacted Your Son.
God of love come into our hearts.
Fill us with Your love so that all our doubts, fears, anxieties, guilt, and anger may leave us and so that You can do Your works of love through our lives and bless our spouses and marriages.
In Jesus Name.
Amen.