Video Transcript: Godly Living

Marriage is a lifelong union of a man and a woman. God's covenant addresses not only individuals, but also their families. And then when we talk about walking with God, our statement of faith says, We need daily conversations with God through Bible reading, and prayer. 

God calls us to a life of love, as depicted in the Ten commandments. Jesus said at the beginning, the Creator made them male and female. And he said, For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate. 

That, in a nutshell, is the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching of the entire Bible, on marriage, God, the Creator instituted it, it was between a man and a woman, it was meant to be for life. And so any practice contrary to that is contrary to God's will, for marriage, to break up a marriage at one's own convenience is to separate what God has joined together. And so divorce except for the weightiest of reasons is contrary to God's will, unless the other person has already violated the marriage. Sex before marriage is also ruled out. 

The Bible speaks of that as porn a or fornication, porn, pornography itself, what we call pornography, looking at obscene images or videos, is also ruled out because God designed our sexuality, to be directed toward and enjoyed with the person to whom we're married. 

Homosexuality is ruled out by Jesus statement here, because God designed marriage between male and female. And if anybody had doubts, that that's what Jesus meant, there are plenty of other scriptures that speak very, very strongly against sexual relations between two males, or between two females. 

And all the attempts in all the fat books by liberal theologians will not change the fact that marriage is between a male and a female. And so we need to hear God's will for marriage, and accepting that it's between male and female, that it's meant to be for life. And that sexual expression is to be within the bounds of marriage. And if we're living as singles, then we're not to be sexually involved with other persons. 

God gives His will for marriage and also for family. And it's a wonderful thing that God invented, that God created family, and that God made a covenant with His people, and that this covenant is with individuals. The faith is very personal. And God deals with individuals one at a time. But also God deals with families, with families as a unit, and with family from generation to generation. 

Deuteronomy 7:9, “says the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love Him and keep His commandments to 1000 generations”. The Great Leader Joshua spoke not just for himself, but his but for his family, when he said, As for me, and my house, we will serve the Lord, the head of the household was going to serve the Lord and his household was going to do that along with him. 

And as we have this relationship with God, this relationship that addresses us as individuals, and also as families, we're called to have a daily walk with God, to have a daily conversation. And a big part of that the biggest part, in fact, is listening to God, when you love somebody, you want to know what they're thinking. You want to know their desires. You want to know the information that they're providing to you. And you want to know how you can please them. And God has given us His written Word. And so, daily time in the Scripture is our daily time to listen to God. 

Psalm 1 says, “blessed is the man who meditates on God's Law Day and night. He's like a tree besides streams of water, and that tree is constantly nourished and bearing fruit and never shriveling because he's meditating on the Word of God”. And it's not Again, just personal daily time with the Lord and in the scriptures. But God invites us and commands us that were to share the Scriptures with our children, impress them on your children, talk about them, when you sit at home, and when you walk along the road, when you lie down. 

And when you get up, it's so very important to have a time of daily personal worship and prayer and listening to the scriptures on an individual basis. But also, if you're married, or if you have a family, to do that, with your family, to gather, to read the Bible with them, and then to have God's word be part of your ongoing conversation. Throughout the day, when the day begins, when the day ends, and all throughout the day, your family activities are an opportunity to be walking with God, and to be sharing the Word of God with your children just in the things you talk about. And in the things you discuss what God's perspective and God's truth, inform what you do. 

As a family. Remember, the Bible is personal, but it's never just individual. God is also calling us to influence the people who are around us beginning with our family. And prayer is a vital part of conversation. We listen to God in the scriptures, and as his Holy Spirit communicates the meaning of the word to us. But we also respond to God in prayer as the Holy Spirit moves us to pray. 

And prayer is so important that the great Prophet and leader Daniel would rather spend time in a lion's den, than give up prayer. There was a decree that anyone who prayed to anybody but the emperor, the the king of Persia, would be thrown to the lions. And Daniel was pretty high up in that kingdom and His enemies were spying on him. So what did he do? Three times a day, he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. 

Now, if Daniel wouldn't let lions keep him from his prayer time, what are you letting keep you from your prayer time? daily prayer is that valuable in the eyes of the saints of God, and the more you grow in the Lord, the more you're gonna want to be with him and spend time in prayer talking with him. We, we could say a lot more about this, we have entire courses about prayer. So this is supposed to remain a short video. 

So I'm not gonna say much more about that, except daily prayer is so important. Pray without ceasing. Don't give up on prayer, let prayer be or attitude throughout the day. But also when it says without ceasing. That doesn't necessarily mean that you got to be having a prayer being spoken all the time. But it means don't give up. 

Keep on praying, be praying each day, and frequently each day. And a life of walking with God is of course, a life of Bible and prayer and listening to God as an individual and as a family and as a church. But also, it's a life. It's a life of love. Don't just be hearers of the word, but doers of the word. 

Jesus said, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul with all your mind, this is the great and first commandment. And the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself on these two commandments. Depend all the law and the prophets, the Supreme Command, the greatest expression of God's will, is love. 

The Bible says God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. And so in loving the Lord our God and loving the people around us, we are expressing what it means to be a child of God what it means to have God living in us, and all other commandments depend on the commands to love. 

The loves not just to fogbank though love has a definite shape. Love involves obedience and the Ten commandments are God's way of distilling or expressing and very short form, the shape of loving. 

The first four commandments. Tell us what it is to love God and the boundaries of that kind of love. If you love God, you can't love other gods. And you can't remake the true God and the images that change him from who he really is as spirit and the invisible God. And you can't take His name in vain by swearing or misusing his name in court, or by acting all religious and using his name but then not doing what he wants. 

And he says to keep his day and in the New Covenant and keeping the Lord's day does mean that we still gather with God's people to worship him. And that we take that we structure our time around the Lord and worshiping Him and serving Him. So love has a shape.

The first Four commandments of the ten talk about loving the Lord your God, the last Six, talk about the shape or the boundaries of loving your neighbor, if you love your neighbor, you're going to honor the parents that God gave you. they're the closest neighbors you have, you're not going to kill and murder, you're not going to commit adultery and betray your wife, you're not going to steal and rip off what others have. You're not going to give false testimony and lie against your neighbor. And you're not going to cover what somebody else has. Because you love your neighbor, and you're glad they have what they have. And you don't want to grab it for yourself, you the rest content with what God gives you. And you refrain from coveting and you celebrate what God has given to somebody else. 

That's what love is like. Because sometimes we we hear love and we think oh, that's just kind of a warm fuzzy that I have a feeling about. But love behaves in a certain way. And the Ten commandments show us the boundaries and the shape of love. 

Jesus says, If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And the apostle Paul writes the commandments You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, you shall not covet. Those are all in the Ten commandments, and any other commandment are summed up in this word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 

What a joy it is that God calls us to a life of love. And he doesn't leave us wondering what love looks like he gives us the shape and the boundaries of love. So when we think about walking with God and living a life pleasing to Him, and we think about marriage and family, then we confess sexual intimacy is for marriage only.

And marriage is a lifelong union of a man and a woman. God's covenant addresses not only individuals, but also their family. And in walking with God, we need daily conversation with him through listening to what he says in the Bible, and then praying and pouring out our hearts to Him. And because God is love, he calls us to reflect Him to live a life of love, as depicted in the Ten commandments and all the other revelation of the scriptures about how God calls us to live