The Power of Biblical Faithfulness in Marriage from Proverbs

So good to be in the house of the Lord and it’s good to be returning to the book of Proverbs. We were prior to Palm Sunday. We were in a series out of the book of Proverbs and so we’re going to go back into the book of Proverbs and for the next three or four weeks, we’re going to be talking about marriage and everybody said, Oh yeah, so we’re going to be talking about marriage and sexuality and identity. Yeah, come on. It’s going to get real in here. So it’s the book of Proverbs and yes, it’s true. The book of Proverbs has a lot to say about relationships. The book of Proverbs has a lot to say about human sexuality and we’re going to tie into that at least one message about identity and who we are as a creature of the Lord and who we are in Christ. But this morning we’re going to be focused on marriage in Proverbs and especially the power of faithfulness, the power of faithfulness. So if you’ll stand with me this morning and we’re going to be in chapter five and then a number of other Proverbs, but I want to read from Proverbs chapter five verse 15 and then I’m going to turn over in my Bible to Jeremiah chapter two verse 13 so first Proverbs five verse 15 drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well and then Jeremiah two 13 and the message this morning is not really just on cisterns, but look with me now at Jeremiah chapter two verse 13 we’re going to see this word again. My people have committed two sins. They have forsaken me the spring of living water and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. Let’s pray. Lord Jesus, I pray today that we would learn about God’s faithfulness. Lord help us to understand that anything less is a substitute. Anything less than what you provided for us in the holy relationship of marriage is just a substitute that will leave us unfulfilled. Lord I thank you that you are a faithful God. You’re a God that is true. You’re a God that keeps his promises and Lord I pray that today each of us as we walk with Jesus will grow in faithfulness. Lord help us to understand the power of faithfulness and the joy of faithfulness. We give you all the thanks in Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated. God bless you. So I want to begin in Proverbs chapter five verse one and two and let me, let me read both verses. I’ve got verse one on the screen or maybe that’s both Proverbs chapter five one and two. My son pay attention to my, to my wisdom. Turn your ear to, to my words of insight that you may maintain discretion and your lips may preserve knowledge. And so chapter five of Proverbs begins like many other chapters in the book of Proverbs. It begins with a father giving wisdom to his son. In fact, all of Proverbs one through seven begin that way. It’s interesting then that Proverbs 31 is the wisdom of a mother to a son. But the first seven chapters in Proverbs begin like, like a father giving wisdom to his son. But here in verses one and two, we are reminded that it’s important to pay attention and to listen well for wisdom inside and discretion and knowledge. What is wisdom? Wisdom is really a skill. It’s the ability. It’s the moral skill, the spiritual skill to apply what we know about God in daily situations. That’s wisdom. Insight is another word for understanding discretion. When I looked the word discretion up, I thought of the word strategy. To have discretion is to know what to do that is morally right, but to actually have a strategy to help you do that. So if you’re going to be a person of discretion, you’ve got to have a strategy for how am I going to live the way God wants me to live in daily life. And then knowledge, of course, we know in the old Testament is the Hebrew yada and it’s much more than just knowing about something. There’s a big difference in if you buy a new car, for example. I’ll use this as an illustration. Let’s say you go out and buy your favorite brand new car and you drive it home and you sit it, you park it in your garage and you go downstairs and for the next six months, all you do is read the manual. Nobody would do that. Why? Because you want to have an experience in the car. You want to get to know that car and how it shifts and how it drives and how all the buttons work, right? And that’s what the Bible really means when it says to know something. To know God is to experience God, to walk with God, really to learn who God is in your daily life. And so let me read this again. My son, pay attention to my wisdom. So that’s like, listen well, like pay attention to my wisdom. Incline is this idea of turning your ear or leaning in the direction of understanding that you may keep discretion and your lips may guard knowledge. And so as we begin to talk about marriage, we’ve got to talk about humility. If you want to understand God’s teaching and God’s truth about relationships and sexuality and marriage, you’ve got to have a humble heart. And I can tell you the best marriages are marriages that have two people that have surrendered their heart to Jesus and are keeping a tender heart before the Lord. There’s no perfect marriages, right? Come on, somebody say amen. There’s no perfect marriages, right? I mean, we’ve all got struggles and personality and things that can bring challenges, but the best marriage is with two people who have tender hearts to the Lord and tender hearts to each other, and we are surrendered, it’s another word for submission, we’ll talk about that in a few weeks, surrender. You are totally surrendered to God and God’s plans for your life. That will produce a successful marriage. So if we want to have knowledge, if we want to have wisdom, if we want to have discretion, if we want to have insight, we’ve got to have humility. We’ve got to say, Lord, I need help. I had the opportunity to fish on Friday, we were at the Lake of the Ozarks, and there was this really big sign in front of somebody’s house, and it just said, help me Jesus. But my first reaction was, I hope they’re okay. It just, it was a little bit, the wording was different, and then really in small print, you had to get really up close to where the crappie were on the bank to even read it, Romans 10, 13, of course I knew what that was, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. I thought, well, maybe that should be a little bigger, because it just said, help me Jesus. I’m like, what’s going on, are they in there, do they need help? But that’s exactly what we’re talking about this morning. If you want health in your relationships, if you want to understand the purpose that God has for your human sexuality and for marriage, you’ve got to have humility. You’ve got to lean in the direction of God. You’ve got to lean in the direction of wisdom, and you’ve got to listen well. Understanding biblical marriage and enjoying a flourishing marriage requires humility and wisdom. We’re going to work our way here through chapter five, just for a few minutes, so what we see in Proverbs chapter five is warnings against adultery, and that’s why this morning we’re focused on faithfulness. Proverbs is filled with warnings against adultery, unfaithfulness, or loose living. We see it in Proverbs two, Proverbs five, Proverbs six, Proverbs seven, Proverbs 22, Proverbs 23, Proverbs 29, Proverbs 30, and Proverbs 31. It is throughout the book of Proverbs, God is a God of faithfulness. He’s not a God of unfaithfulness. He’s not a God of adulteries. He’s a God of faithfulness. Adultery, of course, is one of the commandments given in the Ten Commandments, Exodus chapter 20. Jesus affirmed this law in Matthew chapter five, verse 27 through 30, where he points out that adultery begins not in a physical behavior, but adultery begins in the heart. Adultery is a heart issue. Faithfulness, friend, is a heart issue. It’s not just our outward behaviors, it’s what’s going on in our heart. Adultery violates God’s sacred view of human sexuality. You see, in Proverbs, human sexuality is more than just physical. Young person, I want this to sink in today. In the world around us, they will teach you, the culture will tell you, yeah, sexual expression is just like trying on a glove, it’s just like no big deal, it’s just physical. That’s not what the Bible teaches. The Bible tells us that your human sexuality is a part of your inner life, your inner strength. I hesitate to use the word life force, because I’m not sure that’s really biblical, but I think it kind of captures what I’m trying to say to you, and what I believe Proverbs teaches is that your sexuality is sacred to God. It involves your spirit, your emotions, and your inner strength. What Proverbs tells us is that if you go and throw your inner strength all around, and you live an adulterous, kind of loose life, it’s going to destroy you. It’s going to take away your life, take away your strength. In Proverbs, sexuality is more than physical, it’s spiritual, it’s emotional, it’s a part of who you are as a person. You see, this idea of faithfulness or unfaithfulness is so important in the Bible that often in the Old Testament, adultery is used as a spiritual metaphor. That’s why we read Jeremiah chapter two, verse 13. Let’s go back and look at that. You see, in Jeremiah chapter two, Jeremiah is calling out Israel because they have been faithless, they have abandoned God, they have turned away from the one true God. Here’s what Jeremiah says in chapter two, verse 13, and he’s using adultery as a spiritual metaphor, an illustration. My people have committed two sins, they have forsaken me, the spring of living water. Jeremiah is saying that God is the only true source of life. He is like a spring of living water. He’s the only place that we can find true joy, true happiness, true life. My people have committed two sins, they have forsaken me, the spring of living water. Jeremiah goes on and says, and they have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water. The cistern is this idea of a whole, it’s like, it’s not a pond, but it’s like a little place you would dig in the ground, or you might even use some rocks, and when it would rain, it would hold water. And so it’s kind of a man-made, it’s not a living spring. You know, if you go down to southern Missouri, if you’ve ever floated on the Current River or James River, all these beautiful places in southern Missouri, there’s all these fresh water springs. Beautiful water, cold, clear, crisp. Well what does that symbolize? That symbolizes life. I mean, if you’re really thirsty, you’re gonna need some water to keep you alive. And so here in Jeremiah chapter two, verse 13, Jeremiah is comparing God as the source, he’s the living spring, he’s the true source of life, and too often what we do in life is we settle for a substitute that won’t even hold water, rather than holding on to God’s best that’ll actually produce goodness and joy and purpose and the purposes of God in our life. And we’ll come back to that in Jeremiah chapter two. Covenant loyalty and faithfulness is promoted throughout the book of Proverbs, and we’re gonna see this, my favorite Hebrew word, which is hesed, show up in some of these scriptures. Why don’t we just turn to one right now, Lamentations chapter three, verse 22 and 23, I love this passage of scripture reminding us of God’s faithfulness. This is Lamentations chapter three, 22 and 23. Because of the Lord’s great love, we are not consumed. That’s verse 22. And of course, great love, I don’t know how your Bible translates that, but that’s the Hebrew hesed. And again, when you say hesed, you’d have to kind of spit, okay, hesed, don’t say it too close to anybody else. But that’s a Hebrew word that’s either transliterated into English, kesed or hesed. And it’s this idea of God’s covenant loyalty, he has a special love for those who are in covenant relationship with him. So here’s the good news. If you’ve surrendered your life to Christ Jesus, and you’re in Jesus, and he’s in you, the Bible tells me God has a special love for you, a special commitment to you. He’s not letting you go. He’s not going to stop loving you. Let me just preach on that for just a minute. I am so thankful this morning that God is faithful even when I’m faithless. God loves me even when I’m not lovable. Think about that for a minute. God doesn’t stop loving you when you disobey him. Romans 5, 8, but God commended his love towards us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So God’s in love with you, God loves you 100% all the time, and he’s not waiting on you to get your act together to affect how much he loves you. He just loves you. And that’s what Lamentations is telling us. God is faithful, and because he’s faithful, he loves us. Because of the Lord’s great chesed, we are not consumed. For his compassions, and your version may be mercies, his compassions or mercies never fail. They are new every morning, and then it closes with great is your faithfulness, oh God. And the Hebrew word for faithfulness is the idea that God is true every time. He’s true. He’s a promise keeper, he’s faithful, he doesn’t waver in his commitments. He keeps his word, he’s always true. Our God, the God of the Bible, is a God of covenant loyalty, and a God of faithfulness, and we see that throughout the book of Proverbs. And then Proverbs gives us a description of the adulterer in Proverbs 5, 3, and 6, and I want to work through this with us. An adulterer is anyone who leads you away from your covenant commitments. Now keep in mind that in Proverbs, it’s written from a father to a son, so naturally it’s going to describe the adulterer as a female, but we know that an adulterer is anyone who leads you away from your covenant commitments in life. So if there’s a person in your life who is trying to lead you away from your covenant commitment with the Lord, that person is an unfaithful person. That person is trying to lead you away from your love of God, your commitment to God, your faithfulness to the Lord. But specifically the adulterer in these verses, verses 3 through 6, well let me just read it for us. For the lips of the adulterous woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil, but in the end she is bitter as gall, sharp as a double-edged sword. Her feet go down to death, her steps lead straight to the grave, she gives no thought to the way of life, her paths wander aimlessly, but she does not know it. So in verse 3, she has seductive, sweet seductive speech, but in verse 4, her speech turns bitter as gall and sharp as a sword. Her steps lead to death, verse 5, her path is crooked, she is deceived, verse 6. It’s very interesting to me here in chapter 5 that when Solomon is describing the seductive work of an adulterer, he doesn’t describe her physical characteristics, he talks about her speech. Isn’t that interesting how powerful people’s speech can be? He would think that someone would be led astray by an adulterer by the way they look, or how fancy they’re dressed, or, no, it’s the speech, it’s the words they use, their speech is deceptive and sweet and it’s like honey and makes you feel good and you feel better about yourself because oh look how nice they’re talking to me, but all of it is deception and it leads to death. Many years ago, I was on a missions trip in New York. I was a younger youth pastor, we had a group of 30 to 40 kids, it was a great trip. We were walking on the streets of New York at one time, heading from one place to get some food and we came across two prostitutes on the street. From a distance, friend, they looked attractive and flashy. They did. I can remember, they were dressed to kill. They got your attention. As we walked closer, however, we saw a different picture. It was a picture of the devastating impact of drugs, alcohol, and street life. Their bodies were destroyed. They looked like they need a doctor, not another hookup. They were broken by the streets. Probably the best thing that ever happened to that youth group. As they walked by and saw the full effect of sin in two people’s lives. That’s what Proverbs is saying. As you read through Proverbs five and six and on to seven, it’s describing the result of a faithless life. That when you live a life either drawn in by adulterous people or you live a life of faithlessness yourself, it produces a brokenness in your flesh, a brokenness in your body, a brokenness in your spirit, and a brokenness in your emotions. The only answer for that is to run back to God and say, God, you are the fount of living water. You’re the stream that gives life. I don’t want to create my own cistern and try to drink out of it. I want to drink only from you, Lord, because you’re the only source of true life. Proverbs chapter five, nine through 14 goes on to talk about the high cost of adultery. And I won’t read these verses, but let me just work my way through them. Unfaithfulness will cost you your honor. Unfaithfulness will cost you your hard work and your wealth. Verse 10, unfaithfulness will cost you your physical and mental health. Verse 11 through 13, and unfaithfulness will cost you your reputation. Verse 14, I want to share another illustration. Many years ago, I was sitting in my office as a youth pastor. I was a young youth pastor and a man with many health problems came into my office asking for prayer. I listened, I listened and we did pray. But as he shared his troubles with tears and trembling, I began as a young youth pastor to feel overwhelmed. I mean, it was more than I’d ever heard. I had never met someone who had so many health problems and troubles and concerns in their life. His health was poor and he had no peace. He had lived a life, a secret life of adultery and betrayal. As a young man, it was his habit to visit prostitutes and as an older man, he was broken. He was scared and he was wondering if he could make things right. He was afraid to tell his wife how he had been living all of these years. So he came in to talk to a pastor and of course, we did pray and I’m happy to say he started it in church for a little bit. I do think his repentance was, and his cry for help, I think it was legit. I think he was real and wanting help. But my big takeaway, and I’ve never forgot it, I’ll never forget the brokenness and the intense remorse in that man’s life. Because he had chosen a life of unfaithfulness to himself, to his wife, and to God rather than a life of faithfulness. You see, what Proverbs is trying to warn us is that a life of adultery, a life of unfaithfulness will leave you broken. It’s not what the beer commercials are telling you. It’s not what the culture of the world is trying to tell you. They’re trying to tell you, party, live it up, it’s all going to be great. But they’re lies. The Bible’s telling us the truth. That when we go our own way and dig out and try to make our own cisterns, try to make our own little ponds of water and say, well this is where I’ll find happiness, this is where I will find my life, Jeremiah says, those are broken cisterns anyways. They don’t produce, they don’t even hold water. They won’t produce life for you. They won’t produce joy. And so we’ve got to get back to the God of the living water. We’ve got to get back to the Yahweh of Scripture, the one that is, he’s the living spring of water. He’s the one who can give you life and satisfaction and fulfillment. And so this morning I want to speak to us about marriage and Proverbs and the power of faithfulness. The first truth I see in the book of Proverbs comes from Proverbs chapter three, verse three and verse four. Marriage is built on faithfulness. And I hope that’ll be your big takeaway for this morning’s message. Marriage is built on faithfulness. And where do I get faithfulness when I’m running on empty? I run back to God. He’s the source of faithfulness. And if you’re married today, you know what I’m talking about. If you’ve been married for anything longer than a few months, you understand what I’m saying. There’s just days when you, you know, that other person’s hard to love and you just, you’re not feeling faithfulness or you’re not feeling like I really want to love this person like God wants me to love. And so where do you go when you’re running on empty? You run back to God. He’s the source of faithfulness. He’s the one that can help you love your spouse when you, when your needs aren’t getting mad, when you don’t feel love, when maybe you feel like his heart is hard, his heart is, is not running after God and Lord, what’s going on? I’m here all by myself, just trying to serve you and love you and love my spouse and I’m on empty. You got to run back to God. He’s the source of faithfulness. He’s the one that can strengthen you when you feel weak. Marriage is built on faithfulness. I love Proverbs chapter three, verse three and four, let love and faithfulness never leave you. Bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will find favor and a good name in the sight of God and man. Luke chapter two, verse 52 tells us about Jesus when he was growing up, it says, and he grew in favor with God and man. And so there’s a connection for us. If Jesus, the one we serve, our Lord and our savior, if he grew in favor with God and man, that means I need to grow. That means I need to grow in favor with God. I need more of God’s favor in my life. I need to learn to walk in God’s favor, walk in God’s loving kindness and I, yes, also in favor with other people. I mean, you know, that gets hard sometimes, but that means we’ve got to slow down sometimes and make sure we’re, we’re caring for our relationships around us, taking time to check in with the people that we love and the people that love us and make sure we’re building favor with the people in our lives. Verse three, let love guess what word that is. Yes, it, I, it kind of bothers me sometimes when the translators just translated love. It’s like, that’s not enough. It’s gotta be loving kindness or it’s gotta be covenant love. It’s this word is so much more than just agape Greek, you know, love it. It’s this idea that because God is in a relationship with you, he treats you special. I want to ask husbands and wives, don’t you treat your husband or your wife special? I mean, of course. I mean, if you don’t, I want to counsel you. Okay. I want to, I want to set up a meeting. Uh, let me, let me tell you what I can be in the middle of a meeting. I can be having the busiest day of my life, but if my wife calls or texts me, I’m going to attend to that because she’s special, right? That’s, that’s the way that works. And that is how God treats you. If you’re in a special relationship with him because of the blood of Jesus, you’ve been bought with a price. You’ve been purchased. You are a part of the family of God. You’re a child of God. Jesus died for you and if you’re in Christ and Jesus is in you, he has a special love for you. Now, I’m not taking anything away from John three 16 for God. So love the world. He does. He loves the whole world. God’s love is limitedness or limp without limit. Uh, that, that did not sound right, man. God’s love is without limit. There it is. All right. Praise the Lord. Uh, Hey, I did it. Otherwise you can get talking faster than your brain’s working. Marriage is built on faithfulness. It’s built on the hesed of God, the covenant loyalty that he has for you as his child. And Proverbs three tells us that we should bind love and faithfulness, hesed and faithfulness around our necks and write them on the tablet of our heart. That means that we need to allow the covenant loyalty of God and the truth or faithfulness of God to get into our hearts and to get into our minds. It’s not enough just to talk about it or know about it. We’ve got to allow the faithfulness of God to dig deep, to get deeply, to take root in our heart and in our mind. Friends, I really believe that’s the, that’s the key to a successful marriage. That’s the, that’s the key to a successful life. You’ve got to allow the faithfulness of God to take root deeply in your heart and your mind. Proverbs chapter three, verse three, I’ll read it one more time. Let love and faithfulness never leave you. Bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. You see, marriage is built on faithfulness. Marriage is also described in the book of Proverbs as joyful companionship, joyful companionship. Now I’m going to read some of the verses in chapter five and it’s going to get quite spicy. It’s going to get a little sexual and some of you are going to love that and some of you are going to be like, oh, pastor, why are we reading this? Well, it’s in the Bible. Proverbs chapter five, I want to read through this starting at verse 15. Proverbs chapter five, verse 15, drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well. Should your springs overflow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares. Now verse 16 we can take two ways. One, we can take it as a euphemism for sexual expression or we could take it and I would say and or because I think it’s both and or we can take it as Proverbs is reminding us that your sexuality is connected with your, your life strength. Your sexuality is not just, oh, um, you know, I just had this sexual experience. It’s no big deal. No. Like I said before, your sexuality is connected with your spirit, your emotion. It’s who you are in your life. And so in Proverbs 15, we’re encouraged towards faithfulness. Proverbs 5, 15, we’re encouraged towards faithfulness. Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well. Should your springs overflow in the streets, should your streams of water in the public squares. And of course the assumed answer is no. Verse 17, let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers. May your fountain be blessed and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth, a loving doe, a graceful deer. May her breasts satisfy you always. May you ever be intoxicated with her love. I know, kind of sexual, right? Kind of spicy. Aren’t you glad God cares about that area of our life? And again, this is a father giving advice to his son. Now if a mother was giving advice to a daughter or a father was giving, the words might be different. But I love how tender the words get. Here the father is just, is giving some advice to his son and this idea, the tender words, a loving doe, a graceful deer. You can see the tenderness that God designed for the marriage relationship. You know, too often our marriages, even yes, Christian marriages are filled with stress and harshness and hard hearts. That is not God’s design for marriage. God wants your marriage to be filled with joyful friendship, companionship, intimacy and unity. That’s God’s heart for your marriage. Proverbs 5 verse 18, let your fountain be blessed and rejoice with the wife of your youth. In other words, the one you made a covenant with. It doesn’t mean you had to be young when you got married. It just means whoever you made a covenant relationship, rejoice in that relationship. Proverbs 31.10, a wife of noble character who can find, she is worth more than rubies. Proverbs is encouraging us to find our joy in our covenant relationship of marriage. Proverbs 31.11, her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. Wow. There’s trust. There’s mutual respect. There’s mutual understanding. There’s confidence that they have in one another. Marriage, when it’s blessed by God and when we have two hearts that are tender towards God and tender towards each other, friend, your marriage can get through anything. You can get through any struggle, any hard season, any financial difficulty, whatever comes your way. If you keep your heart tender to the Lord and tender to one another, which takes prayer, it takes staying in the word, it takes abiding in Jesus, but you can have a successful marriage that lasts your whole life if you keep your heart tender towards the Lord. Why? Because Proverbs is teaching us that God’s view of marriage, God’s view of holy, sacred marriage is that it’s a joyful relationship. It’s not a stressful relationship. Let’s start confessing that, amen? Let’s start confessing that our marriages are joy. Our marriages are successful. Our marriages are enriching us. It’s bringing trust and confidence and strength one between the other. It’s building us up in Christ. That’s what marriage can be. Third, we see in Proverbs that marriage is blessed by God. Proverbs 18.22, he who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the Lord. I want to encourage all of us to believe in marriage. Sometimes we can come up in our culture today with all kinds of reasons not to get married, but from a biblical perspective, and today I’m just in Proverbs, next week I’ll be in all of the Bible, I’ve been in a few other scriptures, but I’m trying to stay focused in Proverbs. Proverbs clearly teaches us that God has a very positive view of marriage. Marriage is a special relationship like no other. Two guys can go off to war and come back as a band of brothers, no doubt about it. You can play on a football team through high school and then college, and you can have some special experiences with those guys that you’ve experienced. You’ve been in the trenches, you did the workouts together, but that’s nothing compared to what God has planned for marriage. A covenant relationship between a man and a woman is a special relationship that is designed and ordained by God, and there’s no other relationship on the planet that compares to when God calls a man and a woman to come together. We’ll talk about Genesis, leave and cleave and weave, okay, we’ll get there. It’s a special relationship ordained by God, and it’s blessed by God, and if you have the opportunity to get into one of those relationships, do it. Call for a pastor and get married, because God says it’s blessed. It’s blessed, and so I think I’ve already, I hope you can assume what I’m getting at is that if you’re thinking that God’s plan for my life is just to live together for the next 10 years, that’s not God’s plan for your life. That’s not the will of God. There may be 10 good reasons not to get married, but God says marriage is blessed. He didn’t say living together is blessed. See our culture today says that’s the way to do it, but God’s word says coming together, making a covenant commitment before God, that is the way to walk in the blessings of God. A fourth truth that we see in Proverbs related to marriage is marriage really does depend on character. Proverbs chapter 12, verse 4, a wife of noble character is her husband’s crown, but a disgraceful wife is like decay in his bones. A wife of noble character, a wife of noble character might be hard to find. A husband of noble character might be hard to find, but friend, it’s worth the search. I want to encourage you, it’s worth the search. That’s what the Bible is teaching us. Proverbs 19, verse 14, houses and wealth are inherited from parents, but a prudent wife is from the Lord. In other words, Proverbs is saying, oh, houses and riches are great, but if you get a wife or a husband that is prudent, that is wise, that is walking with God, you have received a gift and a treasure that is far above anything else you could have in your life. Friends, I want to say a big amen to that and tell you that when Jenny and I were first, and we were young, we were young once, we still are, and when we were first married, yes, some people said you can’t live on love. We proved them wrong, because we didn’t have a whole lot of money, but we proved that you could live on love, and if we’d have waited and said, well, how much are those kids going to cost, and, you know, do I really have enough money to get married, and what about this and that, you know what, we never got married. We would have found every reason to think, yeah, we better hold off, but no, with God’s help and not just us, I see some of you smiling, many of you out there, you, with God’s help, you proved, you know what, you can live on love, because it’s blessed of God when you do it God’s way. God will bring the, he’ll bring the increase, he’ll bring the resources, he’ll bring the funds, he’ll bring what you need. Do it God’s way, when you do it God’s way, he will bless you, he will bring increase into your life, he will meet all of your needs, but what we see in Proverbs is that marriage really does depend on the character of the husband and the wife. Proverbs 25, verse 24, it is better to live in the corner of a housetop than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife. And again, let me be quick to say that’s true, husbands, if you’re quarrelsome, if you’re picking fights all the time, if you’re just difficult to get along with, if you’re just difficult to live with, then your wife’s thinking, yeah, I’d rather just stay in my own room. Proverbs 31.10, a wife of noble character, who can find she is worth far more than rubies. Proverbs 31.12, she brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life. Husband, wife, are you bringing good, or are you causing harm? Are you bringing good to the loved one? You’re in that relationship, and you need to ask yourself from time to time, what good am I bringing into this relationship? A fifth truth that we see about marriage, in marriage, the husband and wife, you can build up or you can tear down your house. It’s really up to you. If you’re in a married relationship, today, I want to encourage you to build up your house. Proverbs 15.1, a gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. Proverbs 31.26, she speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue. I’m going to turn to Proverbs chapter 14.1. I’m going on memory, and the Bible won’t open here, here we go. Here it is. I didn’t include this on the slides, but here it is. The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands, the foolish one tears it down. This morning, if you’re living in a marriage that is really, really struggling, please at least be willing to ask yourself, am I tearing it down? Or am I building it up? Because what Proverbs is telling us is that marriage is blessed by God, but the two people in the marriage, you can either build it up and build your spouse up, or you can tear your spouse down. Often, it’s with our lips, it’s with our tongue, it’s with our words. Remember how the adulterer tries to seduce someone? It’s with their lips. You can build up your spouse, or you can tear your spouse down. If they’re angry, and you get angry before you know it, it just escalates, there’s just anger and upset, and it takes someone to be the leader in the home with the spirit of God at work in their life to go, okay, I get it, you’re angry, I’m not going to get angry. That’s what Proverbs says, if you have a soft answer, it kind of turns away wrath, but if you answer anger to anger, it can get a lot worse than it was, and the argument was only about who left the dishes here or there, or something else really simple. You can build up or tear down your house. Proverbs shows us a path to faithfulness. The power of faithfulness produces joyful companionship, God’s favor and blessing, it gives us an opportunity to grow in our character, and isn’t that wonderful about marriage? Christ-like marriage, Christian marriage, is designed for holiness, not just happiness. Now I don’t believe anybody gets married to be miserable. I didn’t. I got married to be happy. I got married to help my spouse be happy, but the Bible teaches us that happiness is not God’s number one goal for your marriage. God’s number one goal for your marriage is holiness. He wants you to become a better man, a better woman. He wants you to become more like Jesus, and if we keep that in focus, we’ll begin to understand that our marriage relationship as we walk with God is an opportunity to keep our hearts tender, it’s an opportunity to keep our hearts surrendered, it’s an opportunity to stay focused on God and run to Him for faithfulness, and to grow in our character to become more like Jesus. And the power of faithfulness is always also encouragement to us to build up our house and not tear it down. I don’t know if it’s an old song or what, but when I was a teenager I used to say this, I used to say, well, love the one you’re with, love the one you’re with. I think it was some old song that I’d probably heard as an 18-year-old. But you know, there’s some truth in there. If you’re always focused on what you don’t have and always focused on what you wish was, you’re going to have a hard time just loving what is. You need to stay focused on what God is doing in your life today, and friend, that’s especially true if you’ve had more than one marriage in your life, that’s okay, God takes us right where we are, and He moves us in the direction that He wants us to go. So let’s focus on the, let’s love the one we’re with, and let’s focus on the faithfulness of God, and that God’s faithfulness fill our hearts and our minds. Marriage is built on faithfulness. I want someone to slip to the piano if they would. Thank you, Easton. I want to turn back to Jeremiah chapter two, verse 13, and I want to close with that passage of scripture. Because church, I never want to preach a message that comes across sort of like this, hey, God’s faithful, you’re not, get with it, right? I mean, that’s not the gospel. The truth is, every one of us have had seasons, choices in our life where we were not faithful. And so without God’s help, we can’t live up to the blessing of God. You can’t do it. You can’t do it on your own. You need God. You need God’s help. But here’s the beauty of the gospel message is that if you will turn to God, if you’ll incline your ear to God, if you will lean in his direction, if you will invite Jesus and his faithfulness, his goodness into your life, you know what? Miracles are still possible. Marriages that aren’t working can start working. Marriages that are causing nothing but frustration can suddenly start to experience fulfillment. God can make a way. I can’t just try to be more faithful. I can’t just try to work harder and be better. I’ll never get there. And so I want to, I want to conclude this morning with Jeremiah 2, 13, where the prophet Jeremiah reminds us that we have this human tendency, don’t we? Where we kind of reject the living water and we go over in life and we try to do it our own way. We try to make our own little cistern or pond of water and think, well, I’ll do it my way, God. And somehow this is going to work. And it doesn’t work every time because that doesn’t hold any water. And then we end up thirsty and dry and lifeless. God is calling us back to him. He’s the source of faithfulness. So if you are here this morning and you, by the power of the Holy Spirit at work in your life right now, you’re, you’re recognizing, man, I, I don’t have a lot of faithfulness in my life. I’ve got struggle. I’ve got no peace. I got lots of difficulties going on. I don’t have faithfulness at work in my life. Friend, we, we’ve all been there at some point. God is the source of faithfulness. Will you run to him? Will you come to God and by his grace? Let him begin to grow faithfulness into your heart, into your life. I’m calling you to faithfulness this morning, and I’m standing here saying as your pastor, I need more of God’s faithfulness in my own life. And sort of how I wanted to find that for me this morning is when I’m not feeling it, can I still walk with God in faith and faithfulness, Lord, I need your help. That may look different for you right now. I don’t know exactly where God has you, but are you willing to ask God for his faithfulness to start working in your life? I hope you will stand with me this morning. I want to just begin to ask if you’re here this morning and you need some, some of God’s faithfulness in your life, would you just step out to the altar? People will begin to pray for you. Do you need God’s faithfulness in your life? Do you need some of God’s truth, some of God’s faithfulness to help you with what you’re going through? You’ve tried to do it on your own, but this morning you’re saying, Lord Jesus, I need your help. Remember that sign I saw at the lake, help me, Jesus. Would you just bow your head? I’m going to pray for us. Lord Jesus, pray for each person here this morning. We’re so thankful that you’re a faithful God. You’re a true God. Lord, I pray that if anyone here today needs to grab a hold of the faithfulness of God and pull your faithfulness and your presence and goodness into their heart, into their mind, Lord, let this moment be the moment. Thank you, Lord. As you continue to pray, would you, if you need some of God’s faithfulness in your life, would you just raise your hand? I’m going to pray for you. Yes. Thank you, Lord. Amen. Amen. Lord, we need your faithfulness. We’re often not faithful, Lord. We need your faithfulness. Thank you, Lord. Lord, I pray for each and every person who’s asking for more of your faithfulness in their life. Lord, we pray that you would show up and you would be real to them. And Lord, we’re so thankful that you’re faithful even when we’re faithless. You don’t stop loving us. You don’t abandon us. You don’t give up on us, God. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for that covenant loyalty that you have towards your children. Thank you, Lord God. Thank you, Lord Jesus. I’m going to invite the worship team to come and close with a song. And as they’re coming, if you’d like to step out and spend some time in prayer as we close in worship, I encourage you to do that. Let’s seek the Lord. Let’s ask God for more faithfulness in our life. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Hi, I’m Pastor Tom Ragsdell. I’m Pastor Ellis Benus. And we’re from Columbia First Assembly. We are a church that’s on mission with Jesus. Our vision is simple. We want to make Jesus famous in your heart and in our community. Absolutely. Thank you so much for connecting with us online. We would also love to connect with you in person. We are located at 1100 North 7th Street, right in the heart of Columbia, Missouri, right across the street from Hickman High School. So if you’re in the central Missouri area and you’re looking for a home church, come hang out with us. If you’re just connecting online and you’re nowhere near us, then please connect with us in the comments. If you have a prayer request, if you have a question, if you’re wondering anything about the Lord or Christianity, please let us know, and we’ll be happy to engage with you in the comments. We believe God’s doing something special in our church, and we want you to be a part of it. We’re a multi-generational church. We have people from all different backgrounds. We’re a church of the Word. We’re a church of the Spirit. We believe Jesus can transform your life. That’s why we’re on mission with Him, and we want to help you know God. We want to help you grow in God, and we want to share hope in our community. So connect with us, and we want to connect with you. Awesome. Have a wonderful and a blessed day.