How to Love Your Wife (3)

At the very heart of the message of the Word of God and the very core of the ministry and message of this church is The message that Christ is the Redeemer that Jesus Christ God's Son came to this earth to pay the penalty for our sin to buy us back to Redeem us to buy us out of the slave market of sin and to set us free that we might become his His own possession. That's what redemption means and he is the Redeemer So that is the very core of the message that we preach here However, we also are commanded by the Bible the Word of God to preach the Word the whole Council of God and in recent weeks The Lord has impressed upon my heart to preach more topically on the subject of Marriage but pull together what the scriptures say what the Bible says about marriage now The reason for that is this I'd been praying about this Topic for some time and then it became clear as the summer started that this was the time Our culture is quickly abandoning our country. Let's just be specific our Political leaders are quickly abandoning what the Bible teaches about marriage And so it is critical that as a church as people of God We once again Understand and embrace and Passionately believe and live out what the Bible teaches about marriage It is also very critical that we as individual believers and couples and families Live out God's design for marriage because marriage is not only under attack Politically and culturally it's under attack in our individual homes and so there's never been a time when this is more needed When it is more needed for us to look at God's word again and say God what do you say about what a husband should do for his wife And what a wife should do for her husband and what that marriage relationship is supposed to look like A few weeks ago we talked about that we talked about what it means for a husband to love his wife And a wife to respect her husband We looked at Ephesians chapter five the last Sunday it was of July We looked at Ephesians chapter five and we looked at what God says about a husband's role and a wife's role in a marriage And he summarizes it with this one verse Husbands you are to love your wives as yourselves and why see to it that you respect your husbands and so we pulled out those two Summary principles that God gives about marriage to direct the at least a few weeks of this particular series Husbands are to love their wives and Wives are to respect their husbands With Paul summarizing all that he teaches about the husband wife relationship in those two principles It stands the reason it seems logical. Yes biblical that those two principles really summarize what the marriage relationship is all about A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church To love her as a part of himself and a wife is to respect her husband as The church is submissive and respectful to Christ Now fellas, here's one way not to do it. You see the picture on your screen You've heard the story probably the four guys that were out playing golf Come to the 18th green one of them is getting ready to put and all of a sudden They realize a funeral procession is coming by on a street that borders the golf course And so one of the fellas who himself is getting ready to put Suddenly stops turns and faces comes Direct to attention as he faces the funeral procession takes his hat off and puts it over his heart The other guys were stunned They said we've never seen anything like that. We've never seen any kind of respect someone getting ready to put on the 18th green And a funeral procession comes by and you stop and come to attention and put your hat over your heart The guy said well, it's the least I could do she was a good wife for 43 years He was not showing that he loved his wife very much was he obviously not The Bible says husbands love your wives and the model for that is Christ and his love for his bride the church We have seen that it is a sacrificial love But the way that love can be fleshed out understood and lived out in our own marriages can be described in six Principles and we've seen that if we take the first letter of each of those principles and put them together comes up with the word couple how fitting couple You show love to your wife This is the way she receives love by closeness my openness By understanding by peacemaking those four we've already seen and this morning it is my intention to cover loyalty and esteem although I will tell you right up front We did not get to a steam in the first service and so that I'm not preaching something to you They didn't get to hear and then I have to preach it to you again next week because I preach it to them Anyway, you get the picture. We'll at least talk about loyalty today, okay? What does it mean to love your wife in a way that this describes and and shows demonstrates loyalty let me first of all explain what I mean by loyalty love and loyalty By loyalty I'm talking about the reassurance on the part of your wife That you are committed to her and to your marriage That she is reassured that she knows for certain that you are committed to her and to your marriage It's not enough just to be committed to the marriage But committed to her as your wife Your wife needs to know that she needs to feel that she needs to know and have the reassurance that you are committed to her That's loyalty and that's one of the ways that love is demonstrated the kind of love that Jesus gave us The kind of love that we're to give to our wives What does that look like? How are we to do that? Let me give you at least these several principles about how to love our wives in a way that demonstrates Complete loyalty to our wives number one. Reassure her with your words You will demonstrate love and loyalty to your wife if you reassure her men with your words Would you open your Bible please to the book of Song of Solomon? You say oh boy song a Solomon again Yes Great love book of the Bible Right in the middle of your old Testament just after Proverbs and Ecclesiastes is this little Love story song of songs. It's called the song of Solomon and as we've already seen it describes a love relationship Early in Solomon's life between him and his one true love his bride early in his life and his adulthood and If you have a Bible that kind of sets it off by paragraphs you probably will have it marked in your Bible Who is speaking because if you don't it gets kind of confusing in the book who's talking when and so you may have one that Calls him the lover and her the beloved He is the one who loves her and she is his beloved Sometimes it'll be set off that way the Bible. I'm using this morning just has he and she so it Identifies whether he's talking or whether she's talking I went back through the book of Song of Solomon this week and I was Amazed to see this it had never struck me this way before Almost every time he speaks He is reassuring her how beautiful and how special she is to him Almost every time a good case could be made that every time he speaks he's talking about that That really struck me And I think there's a reason for it as we will see even in the book, but also as we'll see in our culture I just want to give you a feel a flavor of how pervasive this is in the book Let's begin in chapter one Verses nine through eleven where he speaks For the first time and he says I like and you my darling to a mayor among Pharaoh's chariot horses I know we got to stop right there that does not sound like a compliment that we've talked about this before He's not saying yours beautiful as a horse to me. He's not really saying that Those of you who love horses and are around horses a lot probably understand this better But particularly in that day the prized horses the most beautiful horses in all of the world Would be the ones who pulled the chariots of the Pharaohs of Egypt and In front of those most prized horses in the world the one leading them would be his prized mayor This is the number one horse in all the world This is the most beautiful elegant creature in all of the world That is what he's saying to his wife wife to be in chapter one You mean that to me you are as beautiful as precious as unique as that mayor Who is at the head of the horses the team of horses and Pharaoh's chariots? Then he goes on to say your cheeks are beautiful with earrings your neck with strings of jewels We will make you earrings of gold studded with silver the palace will provide for you those things Now if we were to go back and and begin in verse five You would understand the context and the reason for why the first time he speaks He speaks words of reassurance to her about how she looks to him Is because she's just come from up north and she's a country girl She's an outdoor girl She's a girl who's worked out in the vineyards and has a pretty good son tan and we might think that's desirable in our day But in biblical times it was not That was not considered a mark of beauty. It was considered something not to be desired They had no tending beds in that day by the way So fair skin was considered the optimum and So she gets into the palace and she's describing in verses five through eleven or five through eight I just don't feel very good about myself here I don't feel like I fit in very well all these other women are more beautiful than I am I don't know why you would choose me and so obviously he's reassuring her He's reassuring her with his words, but it doesn't stop he goes on throughout the whole book with the same line of Speaking to her reassuring her with his words look at verse 15 How beautiful you are my darling. Oh, how beautiful your eyes are Doves Chapter two verse two Like a lily among thorns is my darling among the young women what beautiful poetic picturesque language here skip down to verse 14 of chapter two He speaks again My dove in the clefts of the rock in the hiding places on the mountainside show me your face Let me hear your voice for your voice is sweet and your face is lovely Now skip down to chapter four chapter four is their wedding night and he has a whole lot to say to her to reassure her About how he esteems her Physically, but just pick out two three verses here verse one how beautiful you are my darling? Oh, how beautiful your eyes behind your veil are doves your hair is like a flock of goats Descending from the hills of Gilead and I know again for most of us it would have ended right there, right? Your hair looks like a bunch of goats hunting that doesn't sound real good But again, you have to understand the culture of the day which placed high value upon shepherding sheep and goats and The idea is a very picturesque picture of Someone looking across a valley to a hillside Goats and Israel were typically black and if you saw a flock of goats winding their way down a hillside just waving that waving black Bunch of goats from a from a distance Getting kind of deep in it from a distance that looked beautiful and And he's saying your hair is like that black wavy beautiful texture It really is a compliment and so he's complimenting her About her hair Move on quickly to verse seven Verse 70 summarizes everything he's saying to her about how she appears to him by these words You are all together beautiful my darling. There is no flaw in you and then look at verse nine You have stolen my heart my sister my bride You have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes with one jewel of your necklace again on their wedding night He is totally captured by her love and Expresses in a reassuring way how much he loves her and then in chapter six verse four And I'll pick out just this one last verse because it's later in their marriage and you can see it has not changed At all for him chapter six verse four he speaks again You are as beautiful as titsa my darling as lovely as Jerusalem as majestic as troops with banners Again, it doesn't sound very good. It's kind of like saying you're as beautiful as Princeton as lovely as Bluefield And that then you know just doesn't quite sound as right But what he's saying is he's picking out the two most beautiful cities in Israel at that time Tertzo was kind of a retreat summer retreat area in the north of Israel It's where the kings of Israel when the northern kingdom split from the southern kingdom would build their palaces It was a beautiful location surrounded by mountains I've been there and looked around at the mountains and taken pictures of the beautiful scenery would rival anything in our area It's a beautiful location Jerusalem is the crown jewel of Israel the most cherished city to Jewish people And so what he's saying is Just like titsa and Jerusalem are to our country you are to me You're the most beautiful most cherished Possession I have and so he is reassuring her with his words now remember why he did that Because she didn't feel like she measured up To others around her and men do you know for most of your wives? That's exactly how they feel We live in a day where she feels that she's competing with models on magazine covers all of whom have been airbrushed and glamorized And she feels like she's competing with them She needs the reassurance That you not only love her But you are the most she is the most precious thing to you in the all the world and She is beautiful to you. I mean I got an a a rp magazine the other day Mind you that's for old people for those who haven't gotten there yet. That's for old people and Typically they have on their cover. They did this time a picture of somebody and the caption or the big thing on the front says Look how good so and so looks at 60 Well, yeah after four hours of makeup and glamorizing and airbrushing even a till of a hunt would look that good But most women don't and it's just not natural and so reassure your wife that she is still special to you She is lovely to you reassure her with your words because we live in a day where there's so much unfair competition out there If I saw that person on the cover of that magazine first thing in the morning before the four hour makeup session I probably would not have said oh how good she looks probably not at all reassure her with your words Secondly men if you want to love your wives in a way that demonstrates loyalty to her reassure her with your actions With your actions Couple of verses in song of Solomon look back at chapter two verse four. We've looked at this verse before It's beautiful and what it demonstrates Chapter two verse four she is speaking here and she says let him lead me to the banquet hall and let his banner over me be love The ideas they're going into a very public setting a banquet in a huge banquet hall that kings would have and the desire of her heart and no doubt what she expects to happen is that He will let his banner over her be love now again remember that banners in that day were public posters if you will public billboards moving billboards that basically were used for troop movements or public announcements it was to let everybody else know what's going to be happening. That's what a banner was and So she's saying basically as we go into this banquet hall I know that the way he will treat me in public Will demonstrate to everybody else it will be like a moving billboard like a poster board that says he loves me In other words his actions will demonstrate His love and loyalty to me and everybody will be able to see That I am his Chosen one I am his wife One other verse that demonstrates this is chapter eight and verse six Song of Solomon eight verse six She's speaking again and she says to him place me like a seal over your heart like a seal on your arm Now she's expressing the desire of her heart and we'll see what that means in just a moment But she gives the reason why she's asking this in the second part of the verse for love is as strong as death It's jealousy unyielding as the grave it burns like blazing fire like a mighty flame She's indicating how strong and passionate love is and she's asking him to demonstrate his love for her with a couple of actions to seals the seal over the heart In in Old Testament times the seal over the heart basically would be some kind of insignia some kind of like a ring or something worn on a chain Especially by the king that would have his official seal on it That's what he would use to seal official documents You know we're familiar with how the Greeks and Romans did it and others with with scrolls and they would would bind the scroll together with Some kind of wax and while the wax was still wet they would impress the ring the sign the seal of the Emperor in that wax And then it would harden and and would be sealed Okay, the seal of the king in Old Testament times was a similar type of seal usually worn around the neck and so the seal upon your heart Is that very important Possession the most important official possession the king has because it carries his authority And it shows everybody else that he has spoken he has decreed he has declared something and it has his seal on it She says make me like that on your heart And then the seal on the arm was a band on the arm that would be worn by married people very similar to a wedding band that we use today The seal on the arm would indicate to other people that you're married And so what she's saying is by your actions Even by the symbols That you choose let other people know That I am yours and you are mine That's the desire for heart For his actions to demonstrate love and loyalty to her and to demonstrate those actions even with symbols By the way men again, we need to understand how important symbols are to our wives even the symbol of a wedding band Now I understand that sometimes the work you do men It's not wise to have a wedding band on if you work around machinery that could grab that and tell you finger off Understand that Understand if you place certain kinds of sports. It's probably not a good idea to wear a wedding band during that either but By all means either put it on afterwards when you can when you come home from work or if you cannot wear a wedding band Or you got an agreement with your wife that that's not a big deal for you. You're not going to do that That's good. It's between you and her somehow Though demonstrate to her with your actions Your commitment and loyalty to her Your actions even the seals even the symbols that are important to a woman demonstrate to her publicly That you're loyal to her that you love her and her alone So reassure her with your words. We assure her with your actions number three Make a covenant with your eyes men Make a covenant with your eyes You say what is that about? Well, Joe said that and we're gonna put this verse on the screen since it's by itself Joe said I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman This is part of Joe's defense of his conduct and his purity when his friends were saying you're suffering because you're such a terrible center and Joe was just stating the truth you know I Haven't done that I I've made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman Men we need to make covenants like that with our eyes We live in a sex crazed pornography riddled world Where even sports magazines have features that feature soft porn pornography nonetheless Even sports magazines ESPN the body issue Sports illustrated swimsuit issue you guys know what I'm talking about That's pornography And it's so accepted in our culture today and Because of that The eyes become a battlefield for every man And so we need to do exactly what Joe says make a covenant with our eyes Say well covenant with my eyes. What do I do get out of piece of paper and say okay eyes here it is maybe But there are several ways that you can covenant with your eyes Not to look lustfully at another person Here's one Making a covenant with your eyes can and I believe should mean that we learn to bounce our eyes away from temptation Let's face it our culture is so open and brazen that it's impossible to avoid every temptation But when you see something or someone who could be tempting to you learn to quickly bounce your eyes away to something else It is that second look and that continued gaze that leads you into sin And so learn to bounce your eyes I heard Dr. James dobson say that 30 years ago And many have said it since then that that is one way you can make a covenant with your eyes train your eyes that you will not Give in to lust if you see something that tempts you bounce your eyes off to something else Look at something else The second way to make a covenant with your eyes is when you see someone or something an image that might be tempting to you men Pray for that person and her family Pray for your wife and your family your parents That person's parents I mean that'll that'll check your heart and mind real quick When you remember that person probably has a husband I've got a wife we have children I Have parents come on let's get real here. I want to honor those important people in my life And so that simple act of training yourself to pray For the person who might otherwise become a temptation to you Will be a good way for you to make a covenant with your eyes Here's another way get an accountability partner if you really struggle with the sin of lust Get an accountability partner Someone that will ask you the tough questions and will hold you accountable to maintaining a pure heart and a pure mind And it may mean that you install a program on your computer like covenant eyes Covenant eyes is a program that basically tracks everywhere your computer goes and if you have an accountability partner It sends a weekly summary of websites visited to that partner I remember when I first went to Appalachian Bible College had several young men come to my office and say will you be my accountability partner on Covenant eyes and I would get those reports every week Of where their computer had been it was a way of holding themselves accountable if you really struggle with that Send men you probably need to do that on your computer It could mean if you really struggle with this that you need to read a good book Every man's battle by Stephen Arter Bern and he's written one for teenage young men too Every man's every young man's battle He will give you a number of strategies to help recapture your mind and heart and redirect it away from the sin of lust and the addiction of pornography because it is every bit as much an addiction as drug and alcohol addiction is and So he will help you with some very practical ways if you struggle with this man do whatever it takes Do whatever it takes to get victory in the area of your eyes make a covenant with your eyes like Job said that you will be loyal to your wife You say well, is this really such a big deal? Isn't that just typical of men? We're just being men, right? Let me ask you something guys Suppose your wife came home and Said this to you Suppose she said to you do you know that Joe Smith down the street just got his third promotion? My good friend Marge works in his office and she says people stop at his desk all the time just ask for advice They say he's a real man's man. You know he runs marathons He lifts weights and works out of the health club every day Then she would look at you and say when are you gonna start working out losing that pot belly? When are you gonna get a promotion? Give our family a little more money Now men what would that do to you? If your wife said those words to you It would be like a dagger to the heart because it strikes at the very thing you need most according to Ephesians 533 and that is respect From your wife But that's exactly how your wife feels when she sees you gazing at another woman It's exactly how she feels it is a dagger to her heart for what she needs most and that is love And love that is expressed in loyalty loyalty that is expressed by saying I will make a covenant with my eyes That my eyes will be for only my wife. That's what the Bible teaches Okay, principle number four If you're gonna demonstrate loyalty to your wife and love her that way commit to be faithful to your wife Proverbs chapter 5. Let's look at that passage. Proverbs 5 Commit to be faithful to your wife Proverbs 5 let's begin reading in verse 15 where Solomon is instructing his son He begins at the beginning of the chapter my son pay attention to my wisdom Notice what he says in verse 15 drink water from your own sister and running water from your own well Should your springs overflow in the streets your streams of water in the public squares? Let them be yours alone never to be shared with strangers you say okay Thought about drinking out of your own tap your own sink. What's this about? No? the image of water of course is is very well known to satisfy thirst to satisfy desire physical desire physical thirst is satisfied by a wonderful stream of water or a well of water But he's going to go on to apply that to our relationship with our wives So it's clear that he's talking about where you find sexual satisfaction not just for your thirst drinking water but he's saying where you find satisfaction should be kept only within your marriage and That becomes clear in the next verse verse 18 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 Why my son be intoxicated with another man's wife why embrace the bosom of a wayward woman For your your ways are in full view of the Lord and he examines all your paths God knows Everything you do see and think It's all open to him And so he says guard your heart Guard your eyes guard your relationship with your wife make sure that she knows you are committed you are faithful to her So men commit to be faithful to your wives Here's another Keep your promises to her If you want to love your wife in a way that demonstrates loyalty keep your promises to her Would you look at look with me at Malachi chapter two the prophet Malachi Chapter two very last book in the Old Testament if I can find it here. There it is Keep your promises to her we're going to see how strongly God feels about the promises that are made in what he calls the marriage covenant Malachi chapter two verse 13 the prophet Malachi has been Taking the people of Israel to task About their sins and shortcomings and why God is punishing them and in verse 13 He brings up another thing He says another thing you do you flood the Lord's altar with tears You weep and wail because he no longer looks with favor on your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands You ask why? Do you kind of get the impression the prophet's going to answer that question? Why does God no longer look with pleasure upon what you're doing and bless what he's what you're bringing to him why? He says it is because the Lord is the witness between you and the wife of your youth You have been unfaithful to her though she is your partner The wife of your marriage covenant notice God views marriage as a covenant Covenants in the Bible were to be taken seriously They were quite often that's the word that's used of the relationship between God and his people in the Old Testament God made covenants with his people unconditional covenants that would not break And he uses that same terminology to describe the seriousness of the marriage relationship It is a covenant before God and with each other and he says you've been unfaithful to that covenant Verse 15 has the one God made you you belong to him and body and spirit and what does the one God seek godly offspring So be on your guard do not be unfaithful to the wife of your youth again unfaithfulness the second time it's mentioned Meaning breaking breaking faith with her breaking the covenant that you made with her And then verse 16 I hate divorce says the Lord the God of Israel because the man who divorces his wife covers his garment with violence Says the Lord Almighty so be on your guard and do not be unfaithful the third time He has said You need to take the marriage covenant seriously Now I know I know that some of you are being hurt by those words I want to make sure you understand my heart. It's awful easy to understand what a preacher saying I Recognize there many divorced people here today Folks who either have committed mistakes and sins in their past that they have truly repented of and are sorry for But you can't unscramble the egg. It's already done or Maybe in your case as is the case with many Everything that happened was against your will and every effort you made to try to keep your marriage together and your partner left anyway Please understand I'm not trying to keep guilt on you That is not my heart We have a ministry here at the church that reaches out to people who've been divorced We have a heart for people who've gone through that agony and we want to help them be whole and heal again So that is not our heart at all as a church Not to add any guilt or keep guilt on you if you've been through a divorce But at the same time we want to reach out to people who've been through the divorce. We also want to uphold the standard of marriage very highly It's hard for people sometimes to make those two fit But the Bible is very clear God hates divorce. He never intended to be so sometimes it happens tragically But God hates it because it's a breaking of a covenant and So we need to model and teach especially to our young people that marriage is a covenant a commitment Forever it is a lifelong commitment not to be broken is to be taken seriously And yes, you may have endured hardness and even divorce in your life, but we're still gonna uphold the marriage covenant as the way God teaches it that it is designed for a lifetime keep your promises to her Don't even mention divorce don't threaten divorce don't joke about divorce See your marriage as a covenant with each other before God that you promise to keep forever And if your life has been tragically hurt by divorce and you're in another marriage Then make sure you communicate to your partner. This is for the rest of my life I am committed to you in a covenant with you We both may have made mistakes in the past, but we are committed to each other Keep your promises to her men Let me give you some practical ways to show loyalty You will show loyalty to your wife If you speak highly of her in front of others If you're involved in things that are important to her If you help her make decisions especially when it comes to the children Don't abandon her in that regard don't leave all that to her you will demonstrate your love to her if you were involved in that You will demonstrate loyalty to your wife if you don't correct her in front of the children Let that be behind closed doors between the two of you Don't embarrass her in front of the children If you don't look lustfully at other women You will demonstrate loyalty to your wife if you don't look lustfully at other women or if you make her and your marriage a priority If she understands that's a priority for you If the marriage and working on the marriage comes dead last Below all of your interests and hobbies and even your work She'll get the message loud and clear you're not really loyal to me you're loyal to yourself You demonstrate loyalty to your wife when you're never critical of her or your children in front of others When you include her in social gatherings when other Others may leave their spouses at home. I recognize it's not always possible to do that do it when you can When you tell the kids don't speak to your mother that way You're demonstrating loyalty to your wife you demonstrate loyalty to her when you call and let her know your plans or if your plans have changed Some things come up You demonstrate loyalty to her when you keep commitments you've made to her You demonstrate loyalty to her when you speak positively of her and the children That's love and loyalty One of the best examples of loyalty that I have ever seen Was a man by the name of Robertson MacQuilkin. I have read to you his story before I'm gonna summarize it this morning and closing and Remind you of that wonderful story Robertson MacQuilkin was the president of what was then Columbia Bible College in seminary in Columbia, South Carolina For 22 years now it's Columbia International University We've had some students go there from here and we've had some folks come to us who graduated from there It's good school. He was the president for 22 years then his wife began to slip deeper into Alzheimer's And he came to the point where he realized the disease had progressed where his wife simply could not bear To have him gone from her I've seen the home where they live and it's just just on campus just a couple blocks down From the made administrative building and he would walk to his office She would think he was gone. He was lost and she would come walking around the campus looking for him and he realized it was time for him to resign And to go full time into the home to take care of his wife She needed him full time and he admitted the decision was difficult, but he said in a way It's very simple. I want to quote what he said in his book telling his story a promise kept He said the decision was made in a way 42 years ago when I promised to care for Muriel in sickness and in health till death do us part He went on to say that he wanted to be a man of his word He had made a covenant with his wife and he was going to keep his word But he also wanted to be fair to his wife. He said He said she took care of me for 42 years While I was deeply involved in ministry And he said if I care for her for the next 40 years I will still be in debt to her So it was a simple decision he resigned his job Went home to take care of his wife He made this comment about her He said as I watch her brave descent into oblivion he was keeping a journal of this as I watch her brave descent into oblivion Muriel is the joy of my life daily. I've discerned And New manifestations of the kind of person she is the wife I always loved In his book he talks about how he was surprised and shocked by the response to what he had done All kinds of pastors were using this story as Cermin illustrations just like I'm doing this morning couples started renewing their vows With each other in churches when they heard about his story and he was shocked at the response He just didn't anticipate that kind of thing it was kind of a mystery doing until one day he was talking with a distinguished oncologist Debt constantly with people dying with cancer And this oncologist said these words to him From my experience almost all women stand by their men very few men stand by their women Obviously their exceptions And I trust that every man in this room would be an exception That you will stand by your wife no matter what happens No matter what life throws your way That you will demonstrate you love her as Christ loved the church and that means a deep loyalty to her Not just a commitment to staying married, but a deep loyalty to your wife If you do that men you will love your wife like Christ loved the church Let's pray together Well, there I pray that you would help each of us as men in this room today To renew those covenants we made with our wives To demonstrate the kind of love that says I am loyal to you that reassures Our wives that they are the highest treasure apart from our salvation that we've ever experienced I pray Father that we would demonstrate that by our words our actions by our covenant with our eyes By keeping our promises Help us in every way that we can To demonstrate that loyalty to our wives To be faithful committed Thank you that you were faithful and committed to us enough to die for us May we never forget that model in Jesus name we pray amen