His text:

Hebrews 13:4

1. Make your marriage a priority

Loving your wife shapes your character for choices you will make in your ministry.

Bruce said he and his wife  uniterrupted conversation when we come home from work, 2 nights will be at home, Friday are together, 2 retreats a year just as a couple,

 

lover second, leader first.  God did not love you with a kind of love that put you first. His love is first about his own glory first.   God's love is a kind of love that CREATES value in us, not SEEKS value in us.

 

2. See marriage as God's grace to you for spiritual formation

quotes Gary Thomas -"what if God created marriage to make us holy, not happy."

Before sin: characteristics of marriage:

naked ,not ashamed, completely known, unconditionally accepted

After sin:

hiding ,blaming,  

Where the Gospel is alive:

Truth, Grace

Keep your marriage bed undeflied. We have reduced sex to less than it is. Sex in marriage should bring glory to God.  Sex is a worshipful thing and we should do it regularly.

quotes Tripp. "you drag the quality of the relationship into the marriage bed"

I struggle with lust most often when my plans have been thwarted.  Lust lives in the neighborhood of violence not in the neighborhood of nurturing.

The law won't change your heart, but it will show you glory. It will protect you.

Bruce's fence of protection.. no girlfriends, no time alone with a woman, no conversation w a woman your wife warned you about, pray for protection.