DISCLAIMER: This text is not a verbatim transcript. Communication Access Real Time Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication credibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. >> You can also download our church app. Just search for "First Colony Church of Christ" in the App Store or on Google Play. The app is a great resource where you can stay connected to First Colony Church. Thank you for joining us today. We're glad you're here. ? >> Thank you for joining us today. We want to let you know about a few items of interest. First, go to our website, firstcolonychurch.org, and go there often. You'll find links to our worship services; Bible study options; online giving; and our podcast, Anchor Point. You can also download our church app. Just search for "First Colony Church of Christ" in the App Store or on Google Play. The app is a great resource where you can stay connected to First Colony Church. Thank you for joining us today. We're glad you're here. >> Welcome to the worship services of First Colony Church of Christ. Whether you're joining us in person or online, we're glad you're here this morning. We get to make choices every day about what we serve and who we follow; but we're gathering together as Christians, and we're not following ourselves, but we have decided to follow Jesus Christ. You can get whatever you have going on this week to Him. You can trust your life with Him and we come to gather in His Name so let's stand and worship together. >> Richard: Amen! We want to teach you a new song this morning! ("God so Loved" playing) here we go! >> Richard: This is your part! Sing! One more! Come on! ? Can you see His open arms ? ? Praise God ? ? Yes, His amazing love ? >> Richard: Do you believe that this morning? (Applause) God so loved the world that He gave His One and Only Son, whoever believes will live forever. (the Blessing" playing) >> Richard: Amen. ? We sing, we sing ? ? Amen ? ? We sing, we sing ? >> Richard: Yes! Our God is for us! Amen! Please be seated. >> Joel: Well, good morning, everyone. It is a privilege to be with you again this wonderful Sunday in June, and if you're watching online, it's good to be with you guys as well. This morning when I was in if lobby, someone said, "Well, you got something big for us today?" And I said, "Well, I have a big truth in a small package. Ta-da! Introducing (drumroll) the clothesline pin! Ah! I know you're excited. Isn't this awesome? Yes. I don't even know where I got this; I kind of found it, but I have some backups just in case. Well, long story short, what is this clothes pin? This clothes pin represents you and I, whether you're a kid, an adult, wherever you are in this journey of life. And this clothes pin I will attempt to balance on my finger. Ta-da! Yea! You know, first service I actually struggled with that. It was harder than I thought, but the interesting thing is you will notice that clothes pin is precarious and could fall off fairly easily. If this represents us and we're kind of in a constant state of teetering, what does that mean? Well, when you go through life, there are different people saying, "Hey, listen to this!" "Hey, do this!" "Hey, don't do that." Are they telling you the truth? Well, the question is: Do you have roots? And that leads us to our Bible verse of the day that comes to us from Colossians 2:6-7. It says, so then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in Him -- here's the keyword -- rooted and built up in Him, strength the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thanksfulness. Now, in the mornings I have an opportunity to walk -- and we have had a lot of storms recently. I came across a huge tree that fell over in the storm, and the fascinating thing was its roots were not very solid. My prayer for you as a student, as an adult, wherever you are in this journey, your roots would be in Jesus Christ. We get that by knowing God's Word. I have a belt here, and this represents some pretty stout roots. If I put my paper clip on the side and make this fairly even, the interesting thing is that I can get it to balance fairly solidly. I can even shake something I couldn't have done earlier with just the clip on my finger. Bottom line: We want to establish roots in God's Word. How do you do that? You read God's Word and memorize that. I can't tell you how many Bible verse I memorized as a child that constantly are popping up back in my head as I go through life and as I encounter challenges. So yes, we encourage our students to learn Bible verses; but moms and Tads, keep learning Bible verses as well so you may be rooted in the Lord. Thank you very much. (Applause) >> Ryan: Thanks, Joel! We're really excited. We have two new summer intern that are here, working with our student ministry, faith and Dino. In a moment, Kevin porter will introduce them to you. Faith and Dino will lead us in communion today so if you're at home, get your supplies ready and everyone here, grab your communion packets. If you didn't get a chance to pick one up, we have some available at if back. And now Faith and Dino will lead us in communion time. >> Dino: Hello. Hey, there you go. All right, so yeah, I'm Dino and Faith. You'll meet us liter. I will pray for us, so if you will bow with me. Dear God, thank You so much for this day. Thank You me and Faith have the ability to be here. Thank you that we all are together. God, we thank You for guiding us through what was a crazy past year and I'm sure crazy future. Right now we come before You in remembrance and we just ask that as we take the bread and as we take the cup, You are with us and we recognize Your Presence right next to us and that we can really sit and remember the sacrifice You made. Remember that You sent Your Son for us. Let's, uh, really remember that in this time of remembrance, which is what we do. In Jesus' Name I pray, amen. >> Faith: I will read from Revelation 22:16. It says (reading) >> Dino: You can eat it now. ("Your Love Defends Me" playing) >> Ryan: It's time to collect our offering, and one of our shepherding elders, rocky Hudson, will lead us in offering prayer. >> Rocky: On behalf of the old e, I want to thank you for your continued financial support and thank you for your generous hearts. Your offerings make a difference not only for local church ministry and mission we do but for the church's physical plant we use to worship, provide Biblical education and facilitate our ministry here. You may have noticed the scaffolding around our bell tower and also around previously around the Worship Center. This is to correct the construction defects behind the brick veneer to prevent further water leaks. Thank you for your patience as we are nearing completion. We want to also let you know giving online is simple to set up. If you're watching online, simply click the link on your screen or text to give. For those in the Worship Center, we have offering boxes in the back that are available at the exit doors.. Will you join me now as we pray for pour offering? Father, we thank You for the blessings You have bestowed upon us. Help us to be faithful and cheerful givers as we thon nor You with our gift and give back a portion of what is Yours. May these gifts be used to glorify Your Name and further Your Ding Dom. In Jesus' Name we pray, amen. >> Kevin: Amen. My name is Kevin Porter, one of the Student Ministers here, and privileged to introduce our summer interns here. Faith is from Pepperdine University and drove all the way from California to be here with us this summer and is originally fromo land church of Christ in Kansas. And Dino is from Brentwood church of Christ. Would you give them a really warm welcome and welcome to our family? (Applause) (cheers) They will be here all summer, and we've got a full summer planned with camps, mission trips. We have Wednesday night in the gym, Sunday mornings up in the D-wing. We will help with VBS, all sortsover things. We're so excited to have a full summer ahead for us. Two thing to know -- Faith may be the nicest person you meet so you want to meet her. She eats a Snickers par almost every day. That's kind of strange. But anyway. Dino is not the nicest person you'll ever meet. (Laughter) He makes up for it by being really, really fun; so will you come meet them after service? We'll hang out in the lobby. Also, another kind of side thing -- if you're a student, we will sit up here all summer long so if you want to join us up here during service time, you're welcome to join us. Ryan, take it away. >> Ryan: Thanks, Kevin -- and welcome Faith and Dino. Where are my first to fifth graders? It's time for Main Street Live. Mr. Joel is waiting at the back so you can head over with him for our children's worship time. Parents, if you didn't get a chance to check your kids in, follow Joel over to the chapel. He'll help you get started with that. We'd love to have everyone fill out a Connection card this morning so if you're watching online, click the Connection card" button. Here in person, you'll see on the seat back there's a code. You can scan that code with your phone and will open up the Connection card. When you're looking at the card, there's place to tell us about ministry opportunities and church programs you're interested in. Maybe you'd like to learn more about baptism or do a Bible study. Maybe you want to know about membership or finding a Connection group or class to be a part of. We'd love to follow up with you about those things. You can also tell your prayer request so please tell us your prayer needs this week, and we'd be honored to pray for you. And then if you're a guest this morning, we're so glad you're here with us. We want to make sure you know about our New Here/Start Here area across the lobby. Head there after the service. We'd love to meet you and answer questions you have. There's some information we can give you about the church and also have a special gift for you razz our guest. So hope to see you over there after the worship service. It's time for our fellowship greeting so let's all stand and say good morning to people sitting close by. If you're watching online, say hi in the chat box. ("From the Day" playing) ? From the day You saved my soul ? >> Richard: Thank you for worshiping with us today! You may be seated! >> Ronnie: Thanks so much, Richard and team. We appreciate that. Good morning, everyone! Glad to see you today. Welcome to the First Colony Church of Christ. Welcome to our second service to those of you in the room. It's good to have you here. To those of you watching online, we welcome you as well. And to Faith and Dino, great to have you two with us for the summer. Thank you for giving us your summer, and we hope that when it's all said and done you can feel good about your time here, I have no doubt. In our first service today, we welcomed some new members, Brad and Amandaaer and Wendell and Annette Woodard so FYI on that. I would like to begin a brief brief series today. Jesus said as we follow Him and listen to Him, remember, Jesus is Lord and Savior; as well as teacher. He's the smartest person in the room. He's not just right about church things like baptism and communion; He's right about everything, about life. As we listen to Him and follow Him, we become, He says, salt of the earth, and the light of the world. Kind of different. We'll talk about a different kind of following and patriotism but today, a different kind of marriage. You heard the news a few week Asian go, the surprising news, really -- no joy in this whatsoever, to the contrary, of the divorce of Bill and Melinda Gates after 27 years of marriage. You never like to hear that about anyone. A national newspaper same s said this: If Bill and Melinda Gates cannot make a marriage work, what hope is there for the rest of us? What the article went on to say -- if you have a $130 billion fortune and you cannot make marriage work, well, is there any hope for anyone else? Well, as Paul said -- the Beatle, not the apostle -- as Paul said, you can't buy me love. But I do believe you can find a solid foundation for it, whatever the size of your fortune. Now, I've got three thing to say, three points. I'll get there in just a second, but let's sort of acknowledge the obvious, being that over the last year, this pandemic, it has forced many marriages to face at times some unpleasant truths. We've been REAL up close and personal with our spouses day in and day out. And that's been a blessing. And it's been distressing at times as well. Hopefully today can help and encourage. Not a single one of us in the room can claim to walk on water maritally, but we can all take incremental steps in a healthy direction, and when we do at times even a marriage that might feel hopeless, small change cans bring about significant degrees of hope, and that is huge. Here's the first thing I want to say: Because marriage takes work, it is built on vows. It is built on promises. And gang, you are so much like God when you are willing to make a promise and keep a promise. Remember last week I told you about the best-selling writer Pete Davis and his Harvard Law School commencement address where he says, "The spirit of our age is we want to keep our options open. We don't want to make a commitment. The indeferent browsing mode, never really walk through a door and commit." But when you make a promise and you commit to it and you honor it, you're so much like God because you think everything we are as believers is built on the promises of God. He made a promise to Abraham. In fact, our eternity is built on the foundation of simply God says so. A promise. 2 Peter 3:13. (reading) someone would say, Peter, how do you know this? You're banking on it. How do you know this? What's the foundation? What's the peg on which you hang your future? Answer: He says God promised it. And I believe Him. I trust Him. What if God changes His mind? He won't change His mind. He will keep His promise. Folks today, at large -- you know, I'm not saying there's not exemptions to this -- but generally speaking folks do not think of marriage and making marital vows. They think of, "Okay, this is a different relationship, but I'm looking for maximum benefit with minimum inconvenience." Best-selling writer Louis Smedes who passed away a few years ago, said something about vows. What a marvelous thing a promise is. When a person makes a promise, they reach out into an unpredictable future and they make one thing predictable, which is "I'm going to be here, even when it costs me more than I want to pay." And when a person makes a promise, they stretch into circumstances no one can control and no one can predict, but you say, I can control one thing. You can count on me. And with one simple word of promise, a person creates -- listen to this -- a person creates an island of certainty in a sea of uncertainty. Now, everybody, I realize one person can only do so much in a marriage, that we cannot control another person. Can't do that. I've never been divorced, and I have so many good friends who have been wolfed; but yet -- listen carefully -- I really believe they worked harder on their marriage than I have on mine. You know? You cannot control another person. You can seek to influence and bring the best version of yourself into that marriage, but marriage is difficult. It's a long adventure, and you know what an adventure -- it's not going to the resort. An adventure is an adventure, and you've got joys and difficulties in the midst of it; but it's built on vows. Back when I was in college, I had a friend named Jerry Douglas. He lives in Tallahassee, Florida, along with his wife and children. Jerry was a gymnast. He was an athlete. He got married, and within that first year of marriage, Jerry one day at gymnastics practice, took a tumble. He was injured. Jerry Douglas became a quadriplegic. Foyt to see him again two years ago most recently, at our 40th college reunion. Yikes! And there was Jerry and his wife together, and it was so great to see them, so encouraging to see them still faithfully serving the Lord and loving one another, raising a family. Kids grown and gone. When Jerry Douglas and his pride married, she thought, "I'm marrying a college athlete here." Within a year, that changed. Marriage is not going steady. It's establish on a holy promise and a vow. When you rejoice, I'll be there. When you hurt, I'll be there. You can count on me. Again, I'm not talking about extreme exception situations. The Bible sometimes addresses -- and by the way, let me say this, obviously: If you find yourself in an abusive situation, you call the national domestic abuse hotline immediately. You reach out to one of the elders in this church in those kinds of situations. Jesus said in Matthew 19, a classic passage. the Pharisees came to test him. (reading) Listen to this reading because Jesus is about to talk about marriage, gender, sex; male; female, all these differences. He said it's God-ordained, God created. Now, you read that and two or three things obviously come to mind from the mind of Jesus. Number one: Marriage is God's plan. It's not a man-made creation. It's God's plan. Number two: Marriage is between a man and a woman. God created us male and female. He said, be fruitful and multiply. Third, marriage is designed to be permanent and ongoing. What I want you to see here is that Jesus has such a high view of marriage, and I would suggest to you that no culture has found a better solution for aloneness; for intimacy; for a stable environment for the raising of children than the good and Godly gift of marriage. Here I am. I'm over 60. I have gray hair & as you well know, there's been a significant increase over the last few years in what people call "Gray divorces." Before 1990, people who were over age 50 divorced at a rate of like one out of every ten, according to a study by Ball State University. Since that time, it's more like one in four. You know, the divorce rate across our nation is actually lower, unless you're over 50. What I'm asking you to do, regardless of your age, you look at your marriage and you say, "I made some vows." Here's what that means. It means, "I will keep investing in this thing," not just "I will be here and show up. Not a passive puddle of protoplasm here." No, I will keep investing in this thing because marriage is a challenge built on voice. Secondly, God really want you to be a power couple for Jesus. I want to read a section of Scripture here about a couple in Scripture. They're mentioned six times -- get this, six times -- four different books of the Bible. And they are power couple. Greek Priscilla and Aquila. (reading) Listen to this description. Priscilla and Aquila were a power couple and ran a business, tentenmaking business. A lot of Bible scholars think Priscilla came from well-to-do means; but you will find them in Corinth. You will find them in Rome. You will find them in Ephesus and these legitimate centers of discussion and influence, and they were so tied to the mission of the Gospel and as a part of the Apostle Paul's ministry. I say this to encourage you that in your marriage I'm going to ask you to have a ministry focus and vision and to ask: What can WE do as a couple -- yes, to worship. That's wonderful and beautiful. Yes to connect and have friends at church. Yes. that's wonderful and beautiful & What can we do to serve and minister? How can we take our marriage and together impact the next generation, to impact someone outside of our circle, and to be that kind of power couple? You know, there's an interesting passage in Ephesians 5 that says this: For this reason a man will leave his father and mother, be united to his wife, the two will become one flesh. You have heard that and heard it in another passage. It's repeated throughout Scripture. Listen to verse 32. THIS is a profound mystery, but I'm talking about Christ and the church. He is saying that one of the beautiful purposes and means of marriage is not obvious. It's not right there on the surface. There's obvious blessings and beauties in marriage. Sexual, romantic intimacy; friendship; an environment for the raising of children; etc., so many obvious things. But here's one that tends to be overlooked. It's harder to understand, but he says that your marriage and mine is an illustration of. It's a witness to. It's a birled that point to the relationship of Jesus Christ and His church. Now, he's saying remind yourself your marriage has a bigger global, a grander goal, than just your personal happiness, even though that's one wonderful and a beautiful benefit but also has this purpose to point to Jesus Christ. Okay. So because marriage is an adventurous, long, at times difficult journey; marriage is the commitment that keeps you together between the roe romances. And God has a Dream and a vision for you to be a power couple for Jesus. And then thirdly -- and this is so countercultural -- if you want your marriage to last, put your spouse first. If that sounds a little grating, just imagine trying to make a marriage work with a "Me first" mind set. When I say "Put your spouse first," I mean put your spouse first as an expression of your ultimate allegiance to Jesus Christ. Let your ultimate treasure be your relationship with Him and then you treat -- your ministry to your wife flows out of your relationship with the Lord. Your relationship with your husband, your ministry to your husband, flows out of your ultimate alliance to the Lord. I believe you will be a better husband, connected to the Lord. You will be a far better wife with a solid relationship with the Lord. Jesus says in mark 8 (reading) Listen to how what a staggering message this is. (reading) Whoever want to save their life will lose it. It's counterintuitive. He said if you want a better life, if you want a stronger marriage, whoever loses their life for Me and for the Gospel will save it. Our marriages need the Gospel and with a world view to the Gospel, what that means is we're fully aware that in a broken world, it is unrealistic for two sinners to live together over the long haul and not wound one another, not wound one another in significant ways. So we need the Gospel. We need truth. We need a willingness to apologize and repent. We need grace and forgiveness and a fresh beginning. Somebody said, you know, marriage causes a lot of problems. I think marriage magnifies a lot of problems. If I'm groupy, marriages magnifies that. If I've got an anger problem, marriage magnifies that. If I'm a perfectionist and virtually impossible to please, marriage just magnifies that, shines a spotlight on it. Every marriage has conflict, what I want versus what you want; but I will also you to always ask this question, which is: What does God want? What is the will of God here in this situation? I don't know if you're familiar with John Gottman, a marriage researcher based out of the state of Washington. On your church app on today's Order of Worship, I will list resources connected with this marriage resources. One resource is a book by John Gottman and I think just a go-to book on marriage education. Gottman has done an incredible amount of research and in fact says he can predict whether or not a couple will last or not with 90% accuracy if he can spend a little time with them. He has ten questions that he recommends that couples sit down and ask one another regularly. Now, again, this is not Bible; but I think it expresses a lot of Bible wisdom here. Let me throw these out quickly. Here's the first one: What is your best and worst memory of your childhood? List your three biggest needs, and how can I fulfill them? Again, we're not saying" Hey, I will be at your beck and call on everything," but it's saying marriage is a relationship here. Of your friend and family -- question three -- who do you think has the best relationship and why? By the way, all these questions are in today's Order of Worship on your church app. Gottman said the reason why this question is so important is sometimes people have a difficult time articulating what they personally want to see in their relationship; but they can recognize it in somebody else and point it out. Number four: What's the best part about us being together? He said this is such a really good question because the answer is going to vary over your journey together. Number five: What kinds of things do I do that annoy you? This will take a lot of courage to ask this question. And what kind of behaviors do you think I should stop or modify? Some of you are going, "Forget question five. Let's move on." (Laughter) Number six: Does anything keep you awake at night that you haven't shared with me? Gottman says so often in a marriage, one might think of -- you know, "My wife has so much on her plate; I don't want to burden her with this. My husband has so much on his plate; I don't want to burden." So we don't share what is really keeping us up at night, a significant stressor. It's important to do so. Number seven: Is there something that you've dreamed of doing but haven't yet? What's prevented you from doing this? Number eight: Why do you love me? And when did you feel most loved by me? When do you feel most loved by me? Number nine: What would you consider almost unforgiveness and why? This is where you're looking to share -- I mean, here's a very vulnerable part. Number ten: How can we make our romantic life better? This is one of the most vulnerable areas in most marriages, and it's important, absolutely very, very important. It's important to talk about -- not in an attacking, demeaning way but talking about this area of marriage honestly and sharing your own personal desires, what each long to see in this part of your marriage. Okay. This past Thursday I had to go to Hobby Airport. My wife was going out of town, leaving on a 7:00 a.m. flight; so obviously you have to leave -- well, still dark. We're arriving at 5:45, and I'm in the far right lane on Telephone Road -- you know, you take the tollway there. Telephone Road, far right lane just before you turn right on Airport; and about 100 yards before the intersection, I hit the mother of all potholes. I mean, it startled both of us immediately in my Camry the caution light came on; and then the tire pressure indicator going from 35 to 30 to 25 to 20 to 15 to 10 to 5 -- and I'm praying "Lord, just let me get Martha to the passenger drop-off lane, and I'll take care of the tire then and there." And thankfully, we limped our way up to the passenger drop-off. "Honey, have a great trip to Tennessee with the family for that thing, and I'll see you later." "What about you?" "I'll be fine. You go, and I'll see you." So obviously I'm gonna have to change the tire, but immediately this guy runs up -- come to find out his name is teddy. He didn't really ask. He didn't really request. He just came up and he said, "Sir, I can handle this for you." I told my wife later, I said, "I mean, the guy could have wine an angel; I don't know. Gabriel, Michael, Teddy." (Laughter) He comes up and doesn't really ask. "Sir, I can handle this for you." And I have never seen anybody change a tire as quickly and as expertly as Teddy. Now, let me just -- I can change a tire, okay? I've changed lots of tires in -- well, not a lot but a few. I've changed tires in my day. It's been a while. I drive a Camry so I got Toyota Care and if I wanted to could call. Teddy comes right up. It's like the guy worked for a pit crew or something. He came in. He changed that tire. It was an AMAZING piece of work to watch him do this. Now, listen carefully -- again, I could change the tire, but with Teddy I had outside energy. I had outside wisdom, and that tire got changed faster and with greater expertise than it would have, had I just sort of said, "I can do this. I can handle it all on my own." Here's what I'm going to ask you to do. Some of you are experts in your field, and if you're not careful, you think your expertise in your field automatically translates to expertise in every field, including marriage. And ALL of us need coaching, teaching, help. Some of you need a Teddy in your life. You need a marital Teddy to come into your life and help you with outside wisdom, outside expertise to help you get faster where you want to be in your marriage. I hope some of you will seek professional help from counseling. I hope some of you will take the initiative just to -- I've just just giving you ten questions. They won't be answered on your own. Somebody in your marriage says, "Let's do this together." Sometimes when a marriage gets stuck, somebody has to say -- listen, we may not need a professional counselor and need friend at church and I'm not talking about echo chamber friend. "I can call so-and so, a nice echo chamber." I'm talking about sitting down with someone you can ask bold and insightful questions and get help. Do you need a marital version of Teddy to bring in outside energy and outside wisdom in your life? It's called having an open system where you welcome what God can do through His church and through wise people. All right, everyone. Let's very quick review. Marriage is a long journey. At times it's difficult, and that's why we have vow. Marriage is the commitment that keeps you together between romances. "Sweetheart, I will keep investing, bringing a good version of myself to this relationship." Secondly, God's vision for you is to be that power couple. How can we together be used by the Holy Spirit to build faith, hope, and love into the lives of people in our circle? And thirdly, if we want our marriage to last, we need to put one another first. You say, well, that's kind of different. It's kind of different. I believe it can bring a different kind of marriage. Now, one more thing as I close: All of us in this room who are married, we all have marital sin to bring to the table. I do, and you do. You know what grace is, don't you? Grace is God doing for us what we cannot do for ourselves. Our redemption and eternal salvation is secured because glory has done and is doing for us what we cannot do for ourselves.. By the way, you bring your marital sin to the grace and mercy and forgiveness of Jesus Christ. Bring it there. Run to Him in humility. I believe He will lift you up. And then some of us in our marriages here today, we're at a place where we say, "Okay, God. I need You to do for us and in us beyond." We'll ask the questions; we'll talk to people; but God, we're asking You to do for us and within us what we cannot do on our own. No one is cheering your marriage on more than the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. God bless you, everybody. We're going to pray now. Doug Freedt, would you come couple here, please, and lead us in our closing prayer. >> Doug: Good morning, everybody. Thank you, Ronnie, for that message. I can't help but think that I hope you gave Teddy at least a $20 for bill for helping you with your car on the way to the airport. Above would you please pray with me. Love, thank You that we have the opportunity to be here this morning. Lord, thank You that we are to the point now where we can gather together again on Sunday morning; that we will can have the fellowship that we have been missing for so long; that we can be together; that we can just draw that strength from listening to each other sing; that we can draw that strength from being able to shake hands again; to hug our friends; to see people we haven't seen; to be able to recognize that there is somebody we haven't seen for a while. Maybe we need to look for them. So Father, I pray we will not take this for Granted, that we realize a fellowship with each other is almost as important as the fellowship with You. Lord, as we've heard this morning from Ronnie, he's made some great points, some that have touched my heart for sure; but the parallels we have with our relationships with our spouse are so much the same relationships or parallels we have with our relationship with You -- to put each other first; to recognize really where our true treasure is; to realize the importance, recognize the importance of grace, forgiveness; and just there is more to our relationship with You than really a simple vow, although that vow is important; but the recognize that vow is a permanent thing. We're not just going steady with You, Lord. We are married. We are together. We are committed to a long-term relationship that will demonstrate what it means to be a follower of Your Son and demonstrate what it mean to truly love You; to accept that love and grace You have for us in every day, to recognize and realize that we want to be the best we can be for You. Lord again, thank You for our time together this morning. Thank You for all that You do for us, that You're doing for us. I pray as we listen this morning we'll bring what we've heard into our relationships with our spouse, with our friend, with everybody we come in contact and again with you. Thank You for Your Son, what for what He has done and means to us. It's in His Name we pray. Amen. >> Ryan: Amen. Just a few things before we wrap up this morning. Remember, Sundays at 9:45 we have classes for all ages. Our children and students meet in the Education wing and adult class is in the gym. We started a great new class today with Ron Ballard and Grant on Biblical sexuality. I hope you check that out. Of course, online Kyle Strickland leads the Conversation at 10:00 a.m. on Sundays. I'm really excited about this. The huddle starts June 16 so men, this is a really awesome summer opportunity that I want to invite you to participate in. Join Billy Franville and Jordan Black. They will lead this online on Wednesday mornings. Off chance to hear from a guest speaker each week, talking about relevant topics and challenges for men. They will share personal stories and experiences important to hear and breakout groups with discussion time and prayer time. Hope you'll sign up online for the Huddle. Camp Eagle is for students grades 6 to 12. You can register on the website. And VBS is next week. Today is the last day to register so if you want your kids to attend, it will be fun. Get them signed up today. We've also got Fam Blitz the last night of VBS, a really fun night for families. We hope everybody will plan on coming out for Fam Blitz. There's a summer go opportunity for you to think about. It's arms of hope in Medina, Texas. This is close to home. It's affordable. It's a high-impact service opportunity in a local area so we hope you will participate in that. The great thing is families can do it together, too. Kids five and older can participate and you can serve at Arms of Hope together. Well, thank you for joining us today. We love you and we are praying for you. We pray that you have a great week as you go with God so let's all stand and sing one more song together. >> Richard: Amen! (from the Day" playing) ? From the day You saved my soul ? >> Richard: Thank you for your worship today! You are dismissed!