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Scripture: Genesis 2:15–25  “So, in the one-flesh union of marriage... the married couple comes together completely, as long as they both shall live. In real terms, two selfish me’s start learning to think like one unified us, building a new life together with one total everything: one story, one purpose, one reputation, one bed, one suffering, one budget, one family, and so forth. Marriage removes all barriers and replaces them with a comprehensive oneness. It is this all-encompassing unity that sets marriage apart as marriage, more profound than even the most intense friendship.— Ray Ortlund, Marriage and the Mystery of the Gospel. + Relational Oneness: A Superlative Love “A husband must do his best to see that no one know his wife’s faults but himself and God. He should be unwilling to voice them to anyone but God, to pray that she may be pardoned for them and reformed from them. Likewise, a wife must do her best to keep her husband’s struggles and sins to herself, as matters of prayer and not gossip. Neither spouse should be surprised by the sins of the other, for each of them is well aware of their own sins. Can it be helpful to uncover faults in public and fling mud in each other’s face? Will this help a husband reform or a wife to repent? And which is more displayed in such a case, the spouse’s faults and weaknesses or the gossip’s unkindness, indiscretion, backbiting, and folly? Does not the family dog behave better than this when it barks at strangers but not at members of the family?” – Joel Beeke, Purtians on Marital Love.  + Spiritual Oneness: A Spiritual Love Hebrews 3:13 NIV Hebrews 10:24 NIV “…especially to be helpers of each other’s salvation: to stir up each other to faith, love, and obedience, and good works: to warn and help each other against sin, and all temptations: to join in God’s worship in the family, and in private: to prepare each other for the approach of death, and comfort each other in the hopes of life eternal.” – Richard Baxter  + Physical Oneness: A Sexual Love Matthew 12:20 NIV Proverbs 5:15–20 NIV

Scripture: 1 Timothy 4:1-5 Acts 20:29–30 NIV 2 Corinthians 11:4 NIV + Marriage is Proof of the Goodness of God. + Marriage is a Picture of the Gospel of God. Companionship Procreation Sanctification Proclamation Ephesians 5:22–32 Marriage is a Covenant not a Contract. Marriage is a Covenant of Grace not Works. Colossians 3:12–13 NIV

Scripture: John 5:21–29+Jesus gives Forever Life. Acts 17:31 NIV + Jesus gives Full Life. John 11:25–26 Ephesians 2:4–5 NIV John 17:3 NIVJohn 3:36 NIV

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 4:16–5:10 + We will be made glorious like Jesus. + We will be at home with Jesus. Most people, if they had really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want and want acutely something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise. The longings which arise in us when we first fall in love, or think of some foreign country, or first take up some subject that excites us, our longings which no marriage, no travel, no learning, can really satisfy. I am not now speaking of what would be ordinarily called unsuccessful marriages, or holidays, or learned careers. I'm speaking of the best possible ones. There was something we grasped at, in that first moment of longing, which just fades away in the reality. I think everyone knows what I mean.” – C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity. “Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exist. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such thing as water… If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing.” – C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity. John 17:24 NIV + We will be rewarded by Jesus Revelation 20:11–15 NIV Colossians 2:13–14 1 Corinthians 3:10–15 NIV

Scripture: Romans 1:18-25 + Creation reveals God’s glory  Acts14:11-17 “The universe, which to the atheist is full of darkness and confusion, to the Christian, is resplendent with light and glory.” – Archibald Alexander  + Jesus reveals New Creation Romans 8:20-23 + The Church reveals Christ to the World

Scripture: Matthew 22:34-39  1 John 4:19 “But what uniquely frightens about Putnam’s work on social capital is the dramatic trend line he unearthed through his analysis: across all these diverse contexts for human connection, Putnam found that from the mid-twentieth century onward, participation in every sort of collective activity was going down.” – Matthew Bingham, A Heart Aflame for God. 3 Tips to Better Love Others  1.      Be Present 2.     Be Listening 3.     Be Serving

Scripture: Proverbs 4:23 “Life is getting faster. And while some might be inclined to dismiss this accelerating pace as neutral or even beneficial, there are good reasons to suspect that our habitual exposure to this hyper-paced world has serious consequences for our capacity to slow down and pay attention to things that really matter.” – A Heart Aflame for God, Matthew Bingham.  “The Greatest difficulty in conversion is to win the heart to God; and the greatest difficulty after conversion is to keep the heart with God.” – John Flavel.   Luke 6:45 NIV  Mark 7:20–23 NIV  + Keep it Free  From Sin   Haggai 1:5 Lamentations 3:40–42 NIV  Psalm 119:59–60   From Idolatry   1 John 5:21 NIV  + Keep it on Fire  Matthew 15:7–8 NIV + Keep it Focused  Psalm 27:4  Deuteronomy 6:6 Psalm 119:11 Meditation  Psalm 1:1–3 Psalm 119:15 Prayer  Psalm 139:23-24 NIV 

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 3:4-18 The Average US adult spends 7 hours and 2 minutes a day onscreens. “The algorithm doesn’t just curate information. It catechizesimagination… What you take in shapes how you see everything.” — Jim Essian + The Fruit of your focus tells you something about the value of the thing that holds your focus.  Be encouraged. Be Realistic. Be intentional. Psalm 119:35–37

Scripture: Psalm 73 + Asaph’s Wander - Ps.73:1-14 + Abba’s Rescue – Ps.73:15-24  + Asaph’s Wonder – Ps.73:23-28

Scripture: Ephesians 6:24 + What you love most is the most important thing about you. “According to Augustine, ‘There is a scale of value stretching from earthly to heavenly realities, from the visible to the invisible; and the inequality between these goods makes possible the existence of them all.’ God is one thing, angels are another, as are people, terriers, red oaks, squash, rocks, and dirt. Each item fits in God's overall scheme of creation. The nature of things in the hierarchy is unchangeable, and so is the kind of satisfaction it can provide when we are related to it through love. Because of these actual differences in things, the outcome of loving each actual thing will be different. There is a divinely designed fit between our needs, the character of the things that can satisfy them, and the way we should love them in order to be satisfied. Even though each thing God made is good, delightful, legitimate, and a source of satisfaction as an object of our love, we "must not expect more from it than its unique nature can provide." We must give love and praise to things apportioned to their worth. - David K Naugle, Re-Ordered Loves; Re-ordered Lives. "Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And an outstanding reason for choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship...is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things—if they are where you tap real meaning in life—then you will never have enough. Never feel you have enough. It’s the truth. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you...Worship power—you will feel weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to keep the fear at bay. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart—you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out." - David Foster Wallace  + What does it mean to love Jesus? -       Adoration - thinking highly of Jesus. -       Affection - feeling deeply for Jesus. -       Allegiance - following faithfully after Jesus. Matthew 10:37–38 “All of Christ is to be loved, and He is to be loved above all.” John Gill. Revelation 2:1-5 Psalm 34:8 (NIV) + Examine Psalm 32:1–5 (NIV) + Exercise + Encounter

Scripture: Genesis 27:1-46 Genesis 25:27–28 + Value Character more than Success + Character is destiny + Character will eventually show itself + Trust God’s Ways to secure God’s Ends  Proverbs 3:5–6 Psalm 106:13–14 + Don’t assume a strong finish Hebrews 12:1–2

Scripture: Genesis 26:1-35 + We can pass down a spiritual legacy, and we can pass down sinful patterns. 1 Kings 22:41–43 1 Kings 22:51–52 + We can live in faith, or we can live in fear. Exodus 14:10–14 + We can live for the favor of people, or we can live for the favor of God Exodus 33:15–16 John 12:42–43

Scripture: Genesis 25:7-11, 19-34 “You contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary.” – Jonathan Edwards + God uses our prayer to fulfill His promises + God uses our weakness to fulfill his promises + God uses our opposition to fulfill his promises. Philippians 3:18-21 “We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea. We are far too easily pleased.” – C.S. Lewis

Scripture: Genesis 24 + A life that experiences God is one oriented toward God’s purpose. “…you might ask, “Why should God speak to me? What am I doing in life that would make him speaking to me a reasonable thing for him to do? Are we in businesstogether in life? Or am I in business just for myself, trying to ‘use a little God’ to advance my projects?” – Dallas Willard, Hearing God. + A life that experiences God is one of faith-filled action. + A life that experiences God is one that is growing in prayer. Psalm 127:1

Scripture: Hebrews 11:8-19 + Faith alone secures ouracceptance with God. Genesis 15:6 Ephesians 2:8–9 Romans 4:1–5 + Faith alone demands humilitybefore God and others. + Faith obeys God's word withouthaving all the details or all the answers. James 2:21–24 + Faith is future oriented "There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark rocky peak high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.” – JRRTolkien, The Return of the King. + Faith believes God more thancircumstances + Faith withholds nothing fromGod, no matter how precious