*Even Here [Matt's Messages]

*Even Here - Challenge 2026

Lanse Evangelical Free Church

July 19, 2026 :: Psalm 139

Thank you, Challenge Team, for sharing about your week in Kansas City. It sounds like it was an incredible time of learning and fun and spiritual growth. I’m so glad we all could have a part in sending you with our gifts and especially with our prayers.

All week long, I used the prayer guide that Challenge sent us of what to pray for you every day which included what Psalms you were learning about each day.

The theme this year was *Even Here: Experiencing God in the Psalms. And every day you studied at least one Psalm together with 4,000 of your closest EFCA friends. I saw Psalm 19, 73, 51, 13, 100, Psalm 10, and Psalm 145. What wonderful songs to take into your heart!

Today, for the sermon, I thought we might take a short break from Hebrews and look at a Psalm together, specifically Psalm 139 which I think inspired the theme for Challenge this year. 

Psalm 139 ends with this prayer request. “Search me.”

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

Isn’t that a great prayer? “Search me.” Have you said that to God this week? I’ll bet the Challenge Group has. “Search me.”

That’s not a snide remark like, “What are you bringing to the picnic on the 2nd?” “I don’t know! Search me!”

No, it’s a prayer for God to look into our hearts and to see what is truly there. It’s an invitation for God to know us as we really are and to move us to become who He wants us to be. “Search Me.”

How did King David get to the point where he could and would ask God to search him in that way? I think King David got to that point by knowing what kind of God He truly is. And Psalm 139 sings it to us. Let’s look at together. Verse 1.

“For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.”

We don’t know much more about the context of this prayer–many scholars believe that David has been accused by someone else of being unfaithful to the Lord, and he is seeking vindication here. I’m not sure if that’s true. I’m not sure at all what the historical setting was for this Psalm. I’ll bet they said at Challenge that sometimes it’s better not to know those details because the application feels even more immediate to our lives now.

Regardless of the setting, it’s a psalm of King David meant to be sung by others like you and me and applied to our lives today. 

David ends the Psalm by asking God to search him, but he begins the psalm by stating that he knows the LORD already has searched him. V.1

“O LORD, you have searched me and you know me.”

I’ve got four points this morning that are actually four prayers that we can pray back to the Lord ourselves. 

#1. YOU KNOW ME.

David can end up asking God to search him, because he already knows that the LORD has already done so. You know me.

“O LORD, you have searched me and you know me.”

That word for “search” means “to examine.” In our computerized world, we use the word “search” all the time these days. Often, we set a computer going to find some piece of information that we lack. We “google” things nowadays. Right? The ubiquitous “search bar.”

But this is not an impersonal search for a trivial piece of information. This is being known. This is being examined. This is a Person taking a close look at another person. It’s more like a trip to the doctor than putting a query into ChatGPT.

“God, You have checked me out. You know me.” 

David is amazed at how well God knows him. V.2

“You know when I sit and when I rise;”

Up or down. You know it. And not just what position I’m in. What I’m thinking! “...you perceive my thoughts from afar.” God is a mind-reader. V.3

“You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.”

We just sang those words together. “All my ways are known to you.” Whether I get up and head out on a walk in the morning or come home and go to bed, you know all of my doings. My patterns. My ways.

And this is not just impersonal information. It’s not just that God has a database of factoids about me. I’m not just in His spreadsheet. He knows me. He is familiar with my ways.

Many of you have pets. Do you know “the ways” of your pet? If you come home and your pet is nowhere to be seen, do you have a good idea where they could be found? You know the ways of your pet. Their comings and goings and habits. It’s not just that you could look it up in an Encyclopedia. “This is what cats generally do.” You know this pet and how he or she acts. You are familiar with their ways.

How much more is God familiar with our ways? He knows us much better than we know ourselves. V.4

“Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD.”

Sometimes my wife knows what I’m going to say before I do. I thought I just came up with that sentence, but Heather was way ahead of me. Not necessarily because we think alike, but because she knows me. How much more does God know us! 

Do you see how personal this Psalm is? David is saying, “You know me.” Completely. And not just as a bunch of facts but personally, intimately, deeply, truly, relationally. You know me. V.5

“You hem me in–behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.”

“I just can’t grasp how much you know me, God!”

David is filled with wonder that he is known in this way. Does that same truth fill us with wonder today? 

Most people desperately want to be known. I think that’s one of the major reasons for much of what we see, for example, on social media. People are saying, “Know me! I’m putting myself out here. Know me!”

Church, you are known! By the One that matters the most. V.6

“Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.”

#2. YOU’VE GOT ME.

That’s what David was saying in v.5 with “You hem me in–behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me.”

You’ve got me. I’m trapped! There is no escape from behind–no back door. And there is no escape from before–you’ve arrested me. You’ve laid your hand on me.

It’s not clear whether or not David wants to escape from God. Perhaps, that feeling of being known also gives him a touch of the willies and fosters an urge to escape. Or maybe he’s just saying that even if he wanted to get away, he knows that he can’t. Either way, there is no. hiding. from the Lord. V.7

“Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.”

We sang those words this morning, too. “You will hold me fast.” There is no getting away from God. He is everywhere. 

If verses 1-6 were about God’s omniscience, verses 7-12 are about God’s omnipresence.

But it’s not just that God is there and standing around like some absent-minded professor. “Oh yes, he’s here, but he’s not all here.”

No, this is saying that God is present. He is relationally with David wherever David would run to.

The sky? Check.

The ocean floor? Check.

Flying at the speed of light? He’s there.

On the other side of the world? He’s there, too.

You can’t get away from God. You can run, but you can’t hide. Not even in the darkest place. V.11

“If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,’ even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.”

For the God who is light, there is no place that is dark.

What’s the upshot of that? 

Well, at first, it might not seem like good news. Who wants inescapable supervision? Somebody watching you all of the time? Kind of sounds like prison?

But David knows that it is good news. V.10 again.

Wherever I am, “...even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.”

“Even there.” 

“Even here.” I’ll tell you who wants inescapable supervision...sheep do. Or at least if they don’t want it, they need it. Sheep need a shepherd. You and I are needy people, and we need a good shepherd to keep a guiding hand on us all of the time. It’s so good to be able to say, “You’ve got me.”

Have you prayed that this week? Perhaps you’re going through something right now that is really painful. Have you thanked the Lord that you are not alone in that pain? Have you given yourself and your situation over to Him?

I talked to someone this week who just wasn’t willing to say that to the Lord this week. “You’ve got me.”

“Lord, you’ve got me. I know that I can’t get away from you, and that’s  such a good thing! I’m yours.” Because...

#3. YOU MADE ME. 

Verse 13. 

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”

This is how deep this relationship goes: David knows that he is the Lord’s own creation. God is not just omniscient and omnipresent. He is the Creator. The Maker. God didn’t just come to know David over time. He has known David all along, from the beginning. Because He made him!

This is the verse that we quote every January around Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. And that’s right. It’s all about that. It’s all about how God is intimately involved in making us. He designed us. He designed each of us personally, and that bestows a heaping measure of dignity to every human life.

But David is saying something even more profound. He’s saying that in making us, God knows us and has every right over us. V.15

“My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place [the womb]. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”

I think that David uses the image of “the depths of the earth” to describe the most hidden place that he can think of. They didn’t have any ultrasounds back then. The womb was, for David, the most hidden place a person could be alive on earth. But God saw into the womb. God was there, and God was directing that new life.

“All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you.”

David just lives in amazement. He can’t hardly believe how fearfully and wonderfully he is made, and he can’t hardly believe how sovereign God is over his life, and he can’t hardly believe how deep and long and wide are the thoughts of God. Thoughts that make and create. Thoughts that are so awesome they cannot be numbered!

Now, scholars are divided over what that last sentence in verse 18 means.

“When I awake, I am still with you.”

Does that mean that David has been exhausted by these innumerable thoughts and then wakes up at that point? Or does it go back to the first section and mean that even in the mornings when David gets up, there is God? “Even there.” Some scholars even think it means awakening from resurrection. Even when we come back from the sleep of death. 

Any way about it, the point is “I am still with you.”  There He is! There God is. God is not absent. God is present. And I am with Him. *Even here.

Now, how “with Him” am I? How with God am I? He’s all here, but...am I all His? I think that’s the point of the next four verses.

For many of us, these four verses feel like an intrusion. Like they don’t fit. But they flowed very naturally for King David. Look at verse 19.

“If only you would slay the wicked, O God! Away from me, you bloodthirsty men! They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD, and abhor those who rise up against you? I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies.”

That’s what we call an “imprecatory” prayer. The Challenge Group learned about that on Thursday when Pastor Stephen Love preached on Psalm 10.  It’s an imprecatory prayer is a prayer for justice to be done by the Lord. *Even here.

Now, we tend to stumble over these verses because they can seem so far from our Lord Jesus’ command to love our enemies. And there is something new about our Lord’s command that at least modifies what is going on here in these verses. 

But the emphasis here is not on personal hatred of those who are our enemies. The emphasis is on loyalty to God over against those who are His enemies. David is saying that he does not side with those who side against God.

“Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD, and abhor those who rise up against you?”  

Another way of saying it would be to say, “I am not on Satan’s side. Not one bit.”

I’m on the LORD’s side!

I’m on Yahweh’s side.

I do not identify with the enemies of God. I hate them.

Do you see how that works? It’s not saying that we shouldn’t love our enemies. God loves His own enemies! But there is a right way to love our enemies and even a right way to hate them. If the choice is between loving them and their ways or loving God and His, then we side with God every time.

In other words, David is saying:

#4. YOU CAN COUNT ON ME.

How’s that for a prayer? Can you pray that today?

“You can count on me, Lord. You know which side of the battle You will find me on.”

I know that you know me.

I know that you’ve got me.

I know that you made me.

And so I’m yours. I’m completely yours. So, yes, go ahead–search me. V.23

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

Go ahead, Lord. 

I know that You already know what You’ll find.

Search me. Know my heart.

Test me. Examine me.

Listen to my thoughts.

Some of them, I admit, are very anxious. This generation of young people is marked by anxiety.  And so am I.

And if I’m really honest? Yes, I’m anxious about You, too, God. 

"Lord, sometimes You worry me. Sometimes, I feel like I want to escape, to hide, to get out of Your gaze. But I know there is nowhere to go. And when I think about it the right way, I know that there is no place I’d rather be than. with. You. And to the degree that this is not true for me today, please forgive me. See all of the offensive ways in me, and cleanse me by the precious blood of Jesus Christ."

King David knew that God knew his sin. It was ever before him. And David knew (we know from Psalm 51, which Pastor Eric Rivera taught at Challenge on Tuesday) that David knew what it means to be forgiven.

And we know that forgiveness comes from the work of our Great High Priest the Lord Jesus Christ.

Who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God to cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death so that we may serve the Living God.

Search me, O God, and cleanse me God, I pray.

*Even here.

***

People with sharp memories may remember earlier forms of this message preached in 2013 and 2020. What a joy that Psalm 139 is all true all the time!

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LEFC Pastor's Report - 2025 In Review

Lanse Evangelical Free Church exists to glorify God

by bringing people into a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ

through worship, instruction, fellowship, evangelism, and service.

Celebration Sunday September 2025

The Annual Pastoral Report

Pastor Matt Mitchell

Year in Review: 2025

Dear Church Family,

Serving King Jesus as your pastor is one of the greatest privileges of my life. Thank you for giving me another year to preach the Word, equip the saints, and shepherd the flock of Lanse Evangelical Free Church. 

Ours has been a long and fruitful partnership. Our congregation is nearly 134 years old, and I have been the pastor for more than one fifth of our church’s history. And I’m not done yet! I am eager to see what the Lord might do in and through us in the coming year.

Serving the King in New Territory

In my pastoral report this time last year, I emphasized the new territories that we had recently entered in ministry together and laid out a vision of “Serving the King in 2025.” I’m pleased to report that, by God’s grace, that’s truly what we did. Read through the pages of this document, and you will be encouraged to see many of the ways that our church family rolled up our sleeves and served the King of Kingdoms over the last twelve months. These are some highlights:

Ark Park Pavilion

Probably the most obvious new thing that happened for LEFC was the construction, dedication, and utilization of our brand new pavilion for the Ark Park! We are praising the Lord for this sheltering structure that is now giving us a new place to foster relationships both for the church family and our community. The Ark Park Pavilion is a perfect complement to the playground which we launched twenty-five years ago and the Lanse Free Fridge which just celebrated its first anniversary of helping our neighbors to feed one another. Thank you to our trusty Facilities Team who coordinated all of the efforts to erect it, and thank you to everyone who gave over the previous five years to fund this project. You were serving the King!

Serving Neighbors in Kentucky and Lanse

In July, we sent a ministry team to eastern Kentucky to serve the King by serving precious people whose homes had been devastated by flooding in 2022. The eleven of us (in our bright green t-shirts) lived in an EFCA church building for a week and traveled up and down the “hollers” doing construction and re-modeling led by ReachGlobal Crisis Response missionaries (in blue t-shirts). The motto we learned that week was “People Over Projects.” 

After we returned, some of our team, along with others from the congregation, served the King by serving a homeowner here in Lanse who needed help cleaning up garbage that had been dumped in a ravine behind his house. I hope we can do more to serve others locally, regionally, and globally in the days to come. 

New Logo

For over a year now, a diligent group of our staff and leaders have been working on ideas for a new logo to express the essence of our church in one simple recognizable image, and we hit upon an acorn with a cross embedded in it. We hope it captures the idea of life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ. The cross is red to symbolize what our King did for us in His sacrificial death, and there is a green leaf shooting from the top to symbolize our spiritual growth together as a church family.

The acorn fits with our location here in the woods of central Pennsylvania, and it corresponds with the tree logo of the EFCA down to using some of the exact same colors. Thank you to the team who worked on conceiving it, especially Jeff Schiefer, our resident graphic artist, who donated his time and expertise to crafting this deceptively simple and deeply meaningful logo for the church.

Every Good Deed and Word

For the second half of 2025, I endeavored to pray 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 for every family in our church directory:

“May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.”

I prayed those words especially for our hard-working church staff and leaders.

Jordyn Skacel has led the growth and development of our Family Ministries in the last year. Read her report in these pages to learn about the many events, programs, outreaches, retreats, classes, and resources that have helped parents to lead their families into a life-changing relationship with our King, Jesus Christ. We are blessed to have a lot going on for families right now. And she’s still just getting started. There is much more to come!

Cindy Green continued to clean up our many messes and help us to be good stewards of the building that the King has given us to share and use for ministry.

Jenni English kept us all pointed in the same direction, providing clear church communications and orchestrating all of the details of the church office. After two years of faithful service, Jenni is now transitioning out of this role as her family has moved out of state. She continues to run the office from afar while she trains her successor. Thank you, Jenni, for all of your service for us and for our King!

As we prayerfully searched for Jenni’s successor, we were pleasantly surprised to learn that the Lord was answering two prayer requests at the same time. Ever since we learned the sad news that the Quehanna Boot Camp and SCI Rockview would be closing, we had been praying for the many in our community and church who are affected. And the Lord led Keith Hurley who had been employed at Rockview to apply for the administrative assistant position for us which he will assume, Lord-willing, in early March. We look forward to seeing what our King will do in and through Keith in that new role.

I was privileged to serve the King alongside the other elders of our church–Keith Folmar (2025 chairman), Cody Crumrine (2025 vice-chairman), Keith Hurley, Curtis Quick, and Abraham Skacel. I believe that the King encouraged our hearts and strengthened all of us in every good word and deed done in His name in 2025.

Even More Growth

We continued to grow in 2025 in church participation, setting new records for attendance in Sunday morning worship. We averaged 171 people per Sunday, a 4.2% increase over the previous year (which was a record in my time here as your pastor).  We have grown significantly in attendance since the pandemic (up 24% from 2019), but we’ve been learning that the average attendance numbers don’t tell the whole story of just how large our worshiping community has become. Our attendance team tracked 467 individuals who came at least one Sunday in 2025! The previous year was 411 which had been another record.) The lowest attended Sunday was February 9th (121 people), and the highest attended was Resurrection Sunday (April 20th) with 254 people counted (more than the previous year). Perhaps the best number to focus upon is that we had 247 people who attended on average once per month in 2025.

We grew in membership, as well, taking in five new official members: Macy Mitchell, Roye & Cayli Houston, and John & Kara Suhoney. With a few departures and counting our five associate members, our membership now totals 96–which is also a record in my time here as your pastor.

Clearly we are continuing to grow which is encouraging because it means we have more people to bring into a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ and more people to send out to make disciples of others. This growth is also challenging in many ways because it brings new complexity, logistical problems, space considerations, and scheduling issues. We are “a growing family in a smaller house,” and we don’t all know each other! Let’s endeavor to set new records in 2026 for making new connections, learning each others’ names, and serving one another in love. 

Pastoral Ministry

This was a very active year for me in ministry. Being the solo vocational pastor of such a lively and growing flock means that I always have something valuable to do and also that I have to learn to prioritize my time and to empower others to serve the King, as well.

Preach the Word (2 Timothy 4:2)

In 2025, I chose to lead our church into several daunting yet delightful books of the Bible which I had never preached through before with an overarching focus on eschatology. We began the year in 2 John and 3 John and then dove head first into the wild and wonderful Book of Daniel, focusing on the prophesy of “The King of Kingdoms.” After that, we studied both of Paul’s letters to the Church of the Thessalonians putting special stress on the “Eternal Encouragement” that we can enjoy and pass to others today. Near the end of the year, we reveled in the rollicking Tale of Queen Esther that raises the searching question “Where Is God?” and then answers it indirectly yet overwhelmingly in story form. I am so glad we are living in a comedy and that there is no such thing as chance! Lastly, during the holiday season, with the classic carol, “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus” on our lips, we studied what the Bible has to say about the arrival of the Son of the Most High and prayed for His soon return–“Come, Lord Jesus!”

Abraham Skacel, Cody Crumrine, Keith Hurley, Chip Wolfe, Caleb Lucien, Jim Panaggio, James Laird, and District Superintendent Kerry Doyal also fed us nourishing meals from God’s Word in 2025.

Equip the Saints (Ephesians 4:12)

I spend a lot of time in meetings and sending messages to empower, equip, and guide our staff and leaders to develop our ministries. I continue to be encouraged at the beautiful blend of new and older members who are working together to do effective ministry at LEFC. Check the roster for any of our ministries, and you will see the names of both younger and more seasoned volunteers listed. Ministry is a team sport, and while I do also get into the game as a player, increasingly my primary role on the team is to be a coach and a cheerleader. 

I also get to invest in equipping ministry beyond our local church family. In 2025, I got to teach on the Tale of Queen Esther and Resisting Gossip for the School of Discipleship at Miracle Mountain Ranch. I continued to serve as the Chairman of the Allegheny District Constitutions and Credentials Board. I got to assist five pastors get their ministry licenses in 2025, and there are more candidates for credentials right now than we have ever had in the process. Once again, I coordinated the Stay Sharp Theology Conference and answered theological and governance questions for churches who are considering affiliation with our association of churches. I also led an ongoing district pastors’ gathering that meets near Pittsburgh several times a year.

On the national EFCA level, I continued to serve as the Book Review Coordinator for the EFCA Blog. We published three book reviews this year including one by our own Cody Crumrine! I also continued as a member of the EFCA Spiritual Heritage Committee which met both at EFCA One in Des Moines and also at my alma mater, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS), one last time at their campus in Illinois. TEDS announced this year that they are moving to British Columbia to become the seminary of Trinity Western University, our sister school in western Canada. This seems to be a good move for TEDS as they continue to serve our King by raising up well-educated leaders for His global church.

One highlight of national ministry for me this year was being included on the interview team for the new EFCA Director of Pastoral Theology and Care. As a long-serving local EFCA pastor, I know how valuable it can be for our churches to have someone in that key role, and it was a joy and privilege to get to interview candidates and to provide my input on the selection. The new director is Scott Barber who works closely with Greg Strand and will also be teaching at Stay Sharp in March. 

It is no secret that I love the EFCA, and at the end of the year, I got to shoot a video for the national office extolling many of the things I deeply appreciate about their ministry for us. 

Thank you for allowing me time to serve our King outside of the West Branch area. 

Shepherd the Flock (1 Peter 5:2)

In 2025, I had the honor of spending more meaningful time with the people of our church family. Thank you for inviting me to visit your homes and workplaces, to sit in the audience or the stands cheering on your talented kids at dance recitals, drama productions, musical concerts, and all kinds of sporting events. It is a great privilege to sit by a hospital bed or stand by the casket of one of your loved ones. I truly love getting to be present for both the high times and hard times for our flock.

I had the solemn privilege of leading two memorial services in 2025–John Walter (who had died in late 2024) and Christine Miller. That is  probably a record for the fewest I’ve ever led in a year.

This year, I had the joys of officiating for Roye and Cayli (Bundy) Houston’s and attending Chad and Meizhen (Belko) Green’s weddings. I also got to speak at George and Betty Leathers’ fiftieth wedding anniversary celebration.

We had a record number of babies (6!) born to people connected to our church in 2025! I had the privilege of helping four sets of young parents dedicate their little ones to the Lord.

In November, I was honored to play a part in baptizing three followers of Jesus–Whittaker Crumrine, Jon Michaels, and Holly Michaels.

I can’t be there for every special moment, but as your shepherd, I love getting to be present for every one that the Great Shepherd allows me.

Speaking of shepherding, my own pastor, Kerry Doyal, is on a much-deserved sabbatical from December 2025 through February 2026. He has done a fabulous job of shepherding me these last six years, and I’m glad he’s getting a break. Pastors need pastors, too, and I have one of the best. 

Thank you all, as well, for loving and supporting me and my family. This flock takes good care of its shepherd, and Heather and I are extremely grateful.

Vision for 2026 - Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus

I don’t have a grand plan for 2026. 

I know some of the things we hope to accomplish this year. You can get a glimpse of them from the other parts of this annual report. We hope to partner with up to three new missionaries to reach out with the gospel both in the United States and around the world. We hope to send youth to WinterCon and Challenge. We are gearing up for another excellent Family Bible Week and Fall Retreat. The Facilities Team is going to upgrade the playground and try out a pickleball court. There are all kinds of new things in the works, but I don’t have a detailed plan for everything we’re going attempt together this year.

I have, however, settled on what I’m going to preach first, and that is the Letter to the Hebrews. The unnamed author of that New Testament letter is concerned that his readers are tempted to take their eyes off of Jesus and go back to their old ways. So the author reminds them just how superlative and superior Jesus is to every other option. Jesus is greater than anything else and therefore is worthy of our continued contemplation. In chapter 12, he writes:

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrew 12:1-2).

I can’t think of a better focus for us in 2026 in all that we do as a church than to keep our gaze fixed on our King. He is worthy!

In His Grip,

-Pastor Matt

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LEFC Pastor's Report: 2024 in Review

Lanse Evangelical Free Church exists to glorify God

by bringing people into a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ

through worship, instruction, fellowship, evangelism, and service.

Celebration Sunday - October 2024

The Annual Pastoral Report

Pastor Matt Mitchell

Year in Review: 2024

Dear Church Family,

I am incredibly grateful to be your pastor. It’s difficult to believe that this is my 27th annual report for you. We have been on a wonderful adventure serving King Jesus together for over 26 years now. Thank you for entrusting me with the responsibility of shepherding this flock. It is a great joy and a privilege which I do not take lightly.

I find that writing my report each year helps me to gain a much-needed perspective. It’s easy to focus only on what’s right in front of me and miss what the Lord has done in the past and might be doing in the future. This last year we celebrated our 132nd anniversary as a church. We have been very blessed in so many ways, and it’s important to stop, give thanks, and reflect.

New Territory

In many ways, 2024 was a year much like previous years for LEFC. We didn’t experience extreme disruption. We didn’t change how we do everything. Our leaders led. Our ministries ministered. Our bills got paid. We met on Sundays. We focused on worship, instruction, fellowship, evangelism, and service. We kept the main thing the main thing. There was a lot of steadiness in ministry for which I am very grateful.

And yet, this past year, we also entered into a lot of new territory as a congregation.

Jordyn Skacel - Director of Family Ministry

Perhaps the most obvious new territory is that we called our first Director of Family Ministry. After a long and twisty search process, we were led by the Lord to an ideal candidate! Jordyn Skacel was installed in August in this brand new part-time role, and I am eager to see what the Lord is going to do through her leadership over our ministries to children, youth, and parents in the days to come. Jordyn and her Family Ministries Team have already led us into new territory with an Egg Hunt outreach in the spring and a discipleship retreat for families in the fall! 

Jordyn is a terrific addition to our existing church staff, and we are all enjoying collaborating together. Jenni English completed her first year as our administrative assistant and brought both a trustworthy dependableness and an innovative approach to how we get things done in the office. Cindy Green continued to cheerfully clean up our messes and help manage our facility. Leading a busy staff this size is new territory for me, and I would appreciate your prayers as I grow in my abilities as a manager. 

Malawi Team

Keith, Stephanie, and Mary Beth definitely entered new territory when they flew across the Atlantic Ocean to share God’s love and our love with the people of Malawi. Our Malawi Team served alongside our missionaries, Fred and Cindy Cressman, and their friends at Community Impact Malawi. Thank you for prayerfully supporting them on this new venture. It was a stretching experience for them and for us which I expect to have long-lasting impact both in the “warm heart of Africa” and in the warm heart of Lanse Free Church.

Lanse Free Fridge

We also certainly entered into some new territory when we decided to offer a community fridge and pantry at the Ark Park to give our neighbors a good place to share God’s good gifts with each other. I love how the Lanse Free Fridge communicates our love for our neighbors and facilitates healthy community relationships. I was delighted to see how it took off right from day one! As with all new territory, there will probably be some unexpected problems along the journey, but our church family and our community have already clearly embraced this fresh concept. I am thankful for Holly and Cody’s determined vision for combating food waste and hunger, meeting both the physical and spiritual needs of our neighbors. I look forward to seeing where the Lord leads us all next!

Participation Growth

In 2024, we entered into new territory for the number of people who participate regularly in worship together as Lanse Free Church. Our average attendance at worship grew another 15.4% to 164 people per Sunday. That’s the most people we’ve ever had worshiping with us in my time here as your pastor (the previous “record” was 149 people per Sunday in 2013). In the last three months of 2024, we were averaging 171 people per Sunday. The lowest attended Sunday was October 13th (103 people) and the highest attended was Resurrection Sunday (March 31st) with 250 people counted (50 more people than the previous year). We certainly are growing.

Even though those numbers are very encouraging, they don’t really tell the whole story of just how big our worshiping community has become. We have many more than 164 people who call our church “home.” It seems like it’s almost a different 164 people each Sunday! Our attendance team tracked 411 distinct people who came onto our campus on Sunday mornings in 2024. (The previous year was 293, a 40% increase!) Some of those were one-timers or out-of-town guests, but we had 257 different people who attended on average at least once per month.

With this new territory of growth also comes new challenges. Things become more complex. It’s hard to keep track of everyone. It’s harder to foster community. A bigger group means bigger problems. Last year, in my annual report, I highlighted King Jesus’ new command to us that we must love one another as He has loved us. I’m grateful to report that I saw our church family love one each other in big and small ways throughout the year! From simply greeting one another and praying for one another’s needs, to funding the teens’ trip to Challenge, through the building of the Lanse Free Fridge and the sending of the Malawi Team (along with a love-gift to feed Malawians that was four times our goal!), to being patient with one another and bearing with one another, our church family followed our Lord’s example of sacrificial love (John 13:34-35).

It’s familiar territory for me, but I am so proud to be your pastor.

Blessings Upon Blessings

2024 was a year of joyful weddings. We celebrated the blessing of marriage with seven brand new couples: Reece & Hannah, Jim & Janell, Peter & Macy, Jeremiah & Jordan, and Casey & Emigh. That has got to be some kind of a record for LEFC, and several more twosomes got engaged!

The Lord is blessing our church family with more babies. Darren and Judy were given Ada, and Abe and Jordyn were blessed with River. And there are at least three more on the way in 2025!

The Lord blessed us with ten baptisms this year! We celebrated the sign of salvation with Landen, Treiton, Keagan, Katie, Maria, John & Kara, Alexis, Cayli, and Janell.

We were blessed to be led by faithful church leaders in 2024. I had the privilege of serving alongside a bang-up team of Elders: Keith Folmar (chairman), Cody Crumrine (vice-chairman), Abraham Skacel, and Keith Hurley. I enjoy attending Elders’ Meetings, praying with each other, and working together to provide vision and leadership for the congregation. On top of that, we, along with our wives, take turns meeting with the young people for Snack and Yack on Sundays to help them get the most out the sermon. 

All of our various ministry teams had faithful leaders who carried the responsibilities on their shoulders, including some who have done it for many years. Read the rest of this annual report to get a snapshot of what the Lord was doing through them in 2024.

One of the more unusual blessings of 2024 was the “Great Clean Out” and “Challenge Thrift Store.” All of our ministries worked together to get rid of the things we’ve accumulated over the years to free up space for ministry and to share the leftover useful items with those who wanted them in exchange for a gift to send our teens to the Challenge Conference. Everybody benefitted!

I’m pleased that our teens got to return to the 2024 Challenge Conference after missing the last few. And I’m very encouraged that they came back from the mountain top with a serious desire for serious growth in seriously following King Jesus together. May that be true for us all.

Pastoral Ministry

I love what I get to do as your pastor. I especially enjoy the variety of activities I get to engage in, most of which fall under three main headings: preaching, equipping, and shepherding.

Preach the Word

I love to study and teach God’s Word. Thank you for setting me to this task, for listening closely on Sundays, and for applying the preaching to your own lives.

In 2024, we completed our sermon series on The Gospel According to John. From John chapters 6 through 21, we learned more about how there is true, abundant, and eternal Life in Jesus’ Name! I also got to share John’s message that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life at the 2024 West Branch High School Baccalaureate. The timing of the Gospel of John sermon series was interesting because we ended up centering on the Cross and the Empty Tomb during the holidays when we often focus on giving thanks, the coming of Christ, and the Incarnation. The juxtaposition was striking and brought out new significance to the whole story! At the end of the year, we had a brief though illuminating study of the Bright Star of Bethlehem–predicted in the Torah, fulfilled in the Gospels, and fully realized in the Apocalypse. Jesus is stellar in every way.

We were blessed with nourishing preaching from other solid Bible teachers in 2024. Our own Joel Michaels, Abraham Skacel, and Keith Hurley, our missionaries Donnie Rosie and Fred Cressman, district pastor Joel Zaborowski, and our district superintendent Kerry Doyal all taught us something vital, encouraging, and challenging this year.

Equip the Saints

It’s a good thing I like meetings because I spend a lot of time at them. I also spend a lot of time reading and sending messages to church leaders to support our ministry teams in doing their important work. I love supporting ventures like the Wild Game Dinner, Men’s Breakfast, Family Bible Week, Good News Cruise, Malawi Team, Lanse Free Fridge, and so many more. 

I’m very encouraged to see so many of our newer members stepping into ministry and even leadership roles! As we grow, we have a beautiful blend of younger and more seasoned leaders working together which is incredibly important for the future of our church. 

Also as we grow, my role as an equipper is changing. Now that we have Jordyn directing our Family Ministries, I do less direct work in that area and more empowering her to do it. At the same time, I get to stay involved in things like Snack and Yack and writing many of the “dessert” recommendations for discipleship-minded parents in The Family Table newsletter.

 

My equipping ministry extends beyond our immediate church family, to our associational family of churches, the EFCA. I continued to serve as the Chairman of the Allegheny District Constitutions and Credentials Board in 2024. I got to participate in a double credentialing council for two pastors in one weekend back in March and assist a handful of churches who want to associate with us by reviewing their governing documents. I also got to help lead the Stay Sharp Theology Conference, and Heather and I were privileged to be the speakers for the 2024 Pastors and Wives Retreat in October. 

On the national level, I continued to serve as the Book Review Coordinator for the EFCA Blog and as a member of the EFCA Spiritual Heritage Committee (SHC). In October, the SHC met on the campus of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, our EFCA seminary in Illinois (and my alma mater!). It was good to see the progress our school is making especially at raising up well-educated leaders for the global church. As a member of the SHC, I also got to provide editorial input for Evangelical Heritage: From Immigrants to a Church of All People—The Story of the Evangelical Free Church of America by Dr. David M. Gustafson which is set to be published early in 2025. Evangelical Heritage is the second book in the essential EFCA trilogy to help readers understand the theological, history, and unique ethos of our beloved association of churches. 

In September, I got to visit Valley Church in Des Moines Iowa to speak to their large ministry staff about cultivating a gossip resistant church. Valley Church will be the site of EFCA One next summer. Thank you for gifting some of my time to our wider family of churches.

Shepherd the Flock

As your pastor, I love to be involved in your lives. Thank you for inviting me to watch your kids’ games, concerts, and shows. (I’m glad I have a season pass at West Branch!) It’s a privilege to visit you in the hospital, to share a meal with you, or provide you some counsel.

Because it was such a year of weddings, Heather and I did a lot of pre-marital counseling. At one point, we were making appointments with three different couples! That’s a record for us and a great joy.

The Lord gives, and He also takes away, including deeply beloved church members. In 2024, I led funerals and memorial services for LeRoy Nearhhood, Conlee Isaacson, Robert Lockman, Jr., Jonalie Evans, Randy Killion, and Roper Houston, Sr and spent meaningful time with John Walter in his last days. I also walked alongside couples who had experienced the pain of miscarriages and infant death.

Shepherding can be hard but is holy work. Thank you for allowing me into your lives to represent the Great Shepherd (John 10:14-18).

A Personal Note

This year was significant for Heather and me as we celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary. We traveled out west to visit our son Andrew who is a wildland firefighter in Washington, to visit Heather’s Canadian family, and to vacation where we got married on June 18, 1994. 

Even more significantly in 2024, we gained a delightful daughter-in-law as our son Peter got married to Macy on August 10th! We have been praying for Macy for twenty-one years, long before we knew her name. I had the privilege of officiating the ceremony for the new Mitchells, and their wedding reception culminated in a giant spray of fireworks–a perfect symbol of their rocketing joy and ours. We couldn’t be happier.

Our daughter Robin spent 2024 preparing for a career in animal care and veterinary medicine. She took an excellent internship at a animal rescue and rehabilitation center in Washington and then also moved to Indianapolis to pursue a degree as a vet tech.  

Our son Isaac flew across the ocean for a short-term Bible, theology, and ministry course at Capernwray Hall in England. We’re excited to see where the Lord leads him next.

My parents, Chuck and Anita, sold their house in Ohio and set up a home in our area. We’re looking forward to having them around a lot more in the warm-weather months.

Thank you for praying for our whole family this last year. We feel loved and fully supported. Thank you, also, for continuing to strongly support the Allegheny District which supplies me with my pastor. Kerry listens to me closely (and frequently!), and he speaks wisdom into my life. Pastors need pastors, too, and I have one with a servant’s heart.

And thank you, once more, for providing my three-month sabbatical back in 2023. The positive effects of that deep rest still carry on strongly today. It was the re-set that I truly needed. I am blessed to be your pastor, not just because I love taking good care of you, but because you take good care of me.

Vision for 2025 - Serving the King

The first word that came to my mind when I thought about the year we are now facing was “serving.” 

In 2025, we have a number of things planned that call us to serve others:

- We are planning to serve the people of Hazard Kentucky who were severely affected by flooding a few years ago by sending two ministry teams on two different weeks this coming summer.

- We are planning to serve our neighbors with the first full year of the Lanse Free Fridge. It’s so popular right now that we need to raise a small army of “fridge checkers” to keep it tidy and update its social media.

- We are expecting to serve many families through new initiatives that Jordyn and her team are cooking up.

- We are hoping to erect a pavilion at the Ark Park to serve our congregation and our community with an improved place to gather and enjoy each other’s company outdoors yet in the shade.

In fact, all of the hopes and dreams you read from each of the ministries in this report will require people to serve for them to become a reality.

Thankfully, serving is one of the things our church does best! We have a church that overflows with humble servants who put others ahead of themselves and Jesus first. Serving is not new territory for Lanse Free Church.

Yet, as our church family is growing so much more, this may become difficult in some perplexing ways. We may experience growing pains which require serving others in ways we wouldn’t do naturally. 

Amazingly, our own King showed us how to do it. Jesus said that He did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45). So my encouragement for all who participate in our church is to follow our own King’s example by finding where our service is needed and stepping up and kneeling down to fill those needs.

And to do it for the glory of the King of Kingdoms! I’m glad we’re starting 2025 focused on the vision of the matchless eternal kingdom that has been given to our Lord (Daniel 7:13-14). May His kingdom come and His will be done in Lanse Free Church as it is in heaven and will be on earth (Matthew 6:10).

A Vision for 2045?

Earlier, I said that writing my report helps me with perspective. So does reading my old reports! I recently re-read my pastoral report from twenty years ago that reviewed our ministry together in 2005. It was intriguing to see how much has changed from then and how much has not. In 2005, we were growing in attendance and focused on making disciples, we took in several new members, we got a new administrative assistant, I preached through an Old Testament book (Exodus) and spoke at the West Branch Baccalaureate Service (for the first time), Keith & Heather got married, and we paved the parking lot! It was a big year for LEFC. Perhaps the most interesting point of comparison with today was that we were seriously contemplating a search for a second staff person in the realm of...family ministry!

Fascinatingly (at least for me ☺), at the end of my report about 2005, I shared a vision for ministry in 2025. That sure seemed like a long way off! That year, Heather and I had set a goal of serving here for another twenty years for a total of 27 if the Lord should lead and tarry so long. That is now a goal we will reach, Lord-willing, this coming June.

[By the way, our current goal (not a promise, but a goal) is to serve here at least until I retire–if the Lord allows and you all continue to think it is best.]

Back then I wrote, “I desire for the church to grow in quality, quantity, effectiveness, and influence because of that kind of pastoral longevity.” And, praise God, I believe we have! I also offered a twelve-point list of hopes and dreams that I had for LEFC by 2025 and published them on my recently launched “weblog.” I am deeply encouraged that I can see how more than half of them have come to fruition in meaningful ways.

Looking back like that makes me think about looking forward another twenty years to 2045. If the Lord tarries and gives us that time together, I will have had a 47-year ministry here and be 72 years old. 

I’m sure that in 2045 our ministry together will look very different in many ways. Will we have a new lead pastor (or pastors!)? I hope so! I’ll probably be retired, or at least part-time. Will the children of our current leaders be the leaders then? Will I have preached through all of the books of the Bible (probably not, as I have so many left!)?

At the same time, I hope nothing essential will have changed in 2045. I hope that LEFC will still be keeping the main thing the main thing. I hope we will have the same mission and message. I hope that we will be making disciples with a life-changing relationship with King Jesus. I hope that our families will be thriving because of some of the investments we are making right now. I hope the Bible is being believed and taught in our pulpit, classrooms, and living rooms. I hope we are reaching the world. I hope that we are serving our community. I hope we have hundreds of visitors to our Lanse campus each year, playing on our Ark Park, eating at the pavilion, and maybe sharing free food at the Free Fridge.

And I hope we’re also doing these things in ways and levels I can’t even imagine right now.

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen” (Ephesians 3:20-21).

As I wrote back then, “Who knows the future? Only God does. Thankfully, we belong to Him through Jesus Christ. So we can expect good things from His gracious hand.”

In His Grip,

-Pastor Matt

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“If You Love Me” [Matt's Messages]

“If You Love Me”

Life in Jesus’ Name - The Gospel of John

Lanse Evangelical Free Church

July 7, 2024 :: John 14:15 

We’re only going to make it through one verse this morning. I wasn’t sure how long the Challenge Group would want to share, so I kept this message focused down to just one sentence from our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Here’s the sentence. It’s very simple, and the logic is clear. It’s an if/then sentence. If this, then this. John chapter 14:15. The words of Jesus to His disciples:

“If you love me, you will obey what I command.”

Jesus said to His disciples on the night before He went to the Cross, “If you love me, you will obey what I command.”

Jesus draws a tight connection between our love for Him and our obedience to Him. 

This is going to be a theme we’re going to see again and again in the Farewell Teachings that we’re studying together this summer–chapters 14, 15, and 16 of the Gospel of John.

In fact, Jesus connects love and obedience five times in this chapter alone. Real love and true obedience are intimately connected. 

Which might be surprising until you think about it a little. We tend to connect obedience to duty or fear. We obey an authority just because they are an authority or because we are afraid of them. But that’s not the only reason why we might obey, is it?

Employees might obey the boss because they love the company. Citizens might obey the government because they love their country. Children don’t just obey their parents because they might get spanked. Children might obey because they love their parents.

Children might obey because they know that they are loved first. And the focus in the Gospel of John up to this point has been to demonstrate how much God loves us!

“God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (Jn. 3:16 NIVO).

This very night, the Lord Jesus has gotten up from the table where they are having their Passover meal (the forerunner to our communion table), and He’s shown them the full extent of His love (13:1).

He kneeled down behind them and washed their dirty, stinky feet.

Jesus has been comforting their troubled hearts even as He’s told them that He is going away. He’s told them about His Father’s spacious house and how to get there. He’s just promised to answer their prayers about “anything” and “whatever” when prayed in His own name. And He’s just about to promise them the gift of the Holy Spirit Himself to take up His place in their lives.

Jesus loved these disciples, and they will know that. And they will love Him back. And that love will look like obedience.

“If you love me, you will obey what I command.”

As I thought about this one sentence this week, I thought how appropriate it would be for our Challenge Crew to hear as they came down from the mountain.

Because they have been learning all week about what Jesus commands for His followers. The Sermon on the Mount. And we heard a little bit from them this morning about what they learned. 

The Lord Jesus wants His followers (who love Him) to live differently from the world as citizens of His kingdom (obeying what He commands).

We studied the Sermon on the Mount together here the first half of 2018. 

Jesus invites you and me to live as citizens of His upside-down, inside-out, counter-cultural, counter-intuitive, Kingdom of Heaven. 

That’s what our group heard about this week at Challenge. That’s what Jesus commands of us.

The question is: Will we obey? Do we trust Him? Do we love Him? Will we actually do what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount? “If you love me, you will obey what I command.”

If you don’t, you won’t.

And if you don’t, your life will ultimately crash.

At the very end of His Sermon on the Mount Jesus tells the story of the two builders, the wise and the foolish builders. 

I’m sure the last speaker on Friday night at Challenge talked about this story. It’s in Matthew chapter 7, verses 24 to 27.

Jesus said, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice [“If you love me, you will obey what I command.”] is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.

But everyone who hears these words of mine [the commands of Jesus in the the Sermon on the Mount] and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.'"

I love that story. I love singing it with kids. 

This story sounds a lot like what we’re fixing to learn about here at Family Bible Week with “Breaker Rock Beach.” It’s beginning to look a lot like FBW around here! I grabbed my seashell already to remember to pray for FBW the next two weeks.

The idea of Family Bible Week this year is that we live in world of sifting sands, but God’s truth is a solid rock that can be trusted for us to build our lives upon. We can and must obey what Jesus’ commands.

The trick question I always ask when teaching on the two builders is–which house gets hit by the storm? 

Both houses probably looked great. In fact, the house built on sand might have looked better because they didn’t have to waste time and resources with all that digging. 

But when the storm hit, you could see which builder was wise and which one was a fool.

Jesus forces us to choose.

“Are you going to obey my commands? Or not?”

“Are you going to build your life on my teachings? Or not?”

“Do you love me, or don’t you?”

“If you love me, you will obey what I command.”

That means change. And change can be really hard. When you’re on top of the mountain like being at Challenge or being at church, it kind of seems easy, but when you come down from the mountain, that’s when reality hits.

And that’s when you have ask yourself the question, “Do I love Jesus?” Do I really trust Him? Do I really know that He loves me? And if do, then I will obey what he commands.

The last few weeks, I’ve had some great conversations with different folks about following Jesus. Sadly, a couple people I talked with turned away from following Jesus when they heard what He was asking them to do. Some others turned towards Him.

How about you? What is King Jesus asking you to change right now so that you are obeying His commands? Living as citizen of His upside-down, inside-out, counter-cultural, counter-intuitive, Kingdom of Heaven.

We’ve heard from the Challenge Crew. What about the rest of u?

Jesus is saying to us today, “If you love me, you will obey what I command.”

***

Messages in this Series

01. "That You May Believe" - John 20:30-31
02. "In The Beginning Was the Word" - John 1:1-18
03. "John's Testimony" - John 1:19-34
04. "Come and See" - John 1:35-51
05. "The First of His Miraculous Signs" - John 2:1-11
06. "This Temple" - John 2:12-25
07. "You Must Be Born Again" - John 3:1-15
08. "God So Loved The World" - John 3:16-21
09. "Above All" - John 3:22-36
10. "Living Water" - John 4:1-26
11. "Ripe for the Harvest" - John 4:27-42
12. "Your Son Will Live" - John 4:43-54
13. "Pick Up Your Mat and Walk" - John 5:1-18
14. "To Your Amazement" - John 5:19-30
15. "Testimony About Me" - John 5:31-47
Christmas Eve Bonus: "The Astonishing Gift" - John 3:16 Again
Christmas Eve Bonus: "We Have Seen His Glory" - John 1:1-18 Again
16. "Enough Bread" - John 6:1-15
17. "You Are Looking for Me" - John 6:16-36
18. "I Am the Bread of Life" - John 6:35-71
Vision Meeting Bonus: "As I Have Loved You" - John 13:34-35
19. "At the Feast" - John 7:1-52
20. "I Am the Light of the World" - John 8:12-30
21. "Your Father" - John 8:31-59
22. "Now I See" - John 9:1-41
23. "I Am The Gate" - John 10:1-13
24. "I Am the Good Shepherd" - John 10:14-21
25. "I And The Father Are One" - John 10:22-42
26. "I Am the Resurrection and the Life" - John 11:1-53
27. "Expensive" - John 11:54-12:11
28. "The Hour Has Come" - John 12:12-26
29. "Father, Glorify Your Name!" - John 12:27-36
30. "Believe In Me" - John 12:37-50
31. "Do You Understand What I Have Done For You?" - John 13:1-17
32. "I Am Telling You Now Before It Happens” - John 13:18-38
2024 West Branch Baccalaureate: "The Way, The Truth, and The Life" - John 14:6
33. "I Am the Way and the Truth and the Life” - John 14:1-6
34. "Show Us the Father" - John 14:7-14

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“More to the Story” by Jennifer Kvamme

I have been searching for a book like this for a very long time.

As a Christian pastor, I want the young people I care for to have really good answers to the difficult questions they are all asking about sexuality these days. And to be really good answers for today’s teens, they have to be realistic, biblical, confident, joyful, hopeful, comprehensive, concise, and readable. That’s a tall order!

How pleasant it was for me to discover that one of my EFCA friends had written such a book.

Jennifer Kvamme is Student Ministries Catalyst at Centennial Church in Forest Lake, Minnesota. She and I have collaborated on EFCA publications in the past, and when I heard about More to the Story: Deep Answers to Real Questions on Attraction, Identity, and Relationships, I was eager to hear what she had to say.

Jennifer writes as a true friend and wise mentor. She is sensitive to her young readers’ feelings and gentle with past hurts and poor decisions. Life is gritty, confusing, and painful. At the same time, Jennifer is joyful, confident, and unwavering in holding out God’s good design for sexuality. In three opening chapters and then at every turning point across the rest of the book, Jennifer embeds all the biblical teaching on sexuality in the grand storyline of the Scriptures. Sexuality is a grand glimpse of something deeper. There is more to the story. And the ultimate hero of the story gets the credit He deserves for His compassion and redemption. Jesus is fixing what has been broken so that following Him will be worth it all.

More to the Story does it all. I no longer have to point teens to a little library of resources I have assembled to address the long list of questions they have. Jennifer covers the waterfront in concise chapters that each end with meaningful questions for personal reflection. Students that need or want to go deeper can follow the endnotes or read her annotated recommendations for further reading. Youth groups can utilize the well-written discussion guide to jumpstart great conversations. The folks at The Good Book Company have done a beautiful job of laying out the book’s design to undergird its message.

While I’m sure it’s not perfect, I don’t have any real critique to offer. Unlike most books on this topic, I never had to wince as I read it. I never wished that Jennifer had said something differently or “not gone there.” Her counsel is sound, balanced, robust, and hope-giving. It’s even humorous at appropriate times! As all other books on this topic, More to the Story will feel dated at some point, probably frustratingly soon. Life is just getting more complicated. But this book is simply excellent and just what the church needs in our day.

I wish we had this book when our own kids were teens, but I’m glad we have it now. Highly recommended.

Give a copy of More to the Story to every sixteen-year-old you know.

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“What God Has Joined Together" [Matt's Messages]

“What God Has Joined Together”

Marriage - God’s Divine Design

February 18, 2024 :: Matthew 19:1-12

“What God Has Joined Together.”

Those words are how our Lord Jesus describes marriage in Matthew chapter 19, verse 6.

The chief reason for our detour into the Gospel of Matthew this morning is that a number of you have asked me to share more about what we had studied last week at the EFCA Theology Conference in the Chicagoland area.

The theme of the national theology conference was “Marriage: God’s Divine Design – Protology/Teleology, Anthropology, Hamartiology, Soteriology, Ecclesiology, and Eschatology.” Three guesses who came up with that subtitle, and the first two don’t count! Yes, it was Greg Strand! Typically big words and typically rich and robust theology. 

At the conference, Isaac and I listened to six major lectures on the theology of marriage and a number of breakout workshops, as well. I’m so thankful to belong to an association of churches that takes sound biblical theology so seriously.

And what an important topic for today, is it not? Just as Keith Hurley is teaching the teens about these things at “Chasing Love” on Sunday evenings, our theology of marriage touches all of us in some way in today’s culture. There is a lot of confusion about marriage, not just out in society but within the church, as well. The whole first lecture at the conference by a Christian sociologist from Grove City College was all about the state of marriage, changes and challenges, how we’ve gotten to where we are. [All of the messages are now online.]

And as we’ve been focusing here this month on LOVE, especially God’s love, vast as the ocean, and our being God’s people exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit, the first aspect of which is LOVE as Joel taught us last Sunday, it seemed to me like it might be good for us to meditate on marriage today.

 

“What God Has Joined Together.”

There are many married people in this room. Some of you have been married for a long long time. Heather and I are coming up on 30 years this June. We’ve celebrated a lot of Valentine’s Days together. Some of you have seen many more! I think the Kepharts have been married for 66 years! There are also many unmarried people in this room. Some of you have recently had to bury a spouse. Some of you had to do that years ago. Some of you have been divorced. Some of you have never married. Some of you will soon marry--Reece and Hannah!. Some of you will never marry. Some of you will marry down the line. I doubt that anybody coming to Snack and Yack today with Heather and me is engaged yet!

We’re all in different places, but we all need to have a good theology of marriage in place no matter where we are at in life. 

And Matthew 19 is a great place to start building one.  Matthew 19 marks the beginning of a new section in the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus has finished teaching in Galilee in the north and is now headed south towards Jerusalem. It’s a little bit further into the story than we are right now in the Gospel of John. And on His way to Jerusalem, Jesus runs into some Pharisees, and they have a test for Jesus on His theology of marriage. How do you think that’s going to go?

Here’s a life-hack for you. A pro-tip for living: Never try to lay a trap for Jesus. 

Unless you like falling into your own traps! Let me read the first two verses.

“When Jesus had finished saying these things, he left Galilee and went into the region of Judea to the other side of the Jordan. Large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.”

Jesus is marching towards Jerusalem. You and I know what is going to happen there. And Jesus knows what’s going to happen there. It’s what we focus on this time of year. Jesus is headed towards the Cross. He’s going to be abandoned there as He pays for our sins, but right now the crowds are still following Him and He’s healing the sick among them.

And then in verse 3, some Pharisees come, and they see the good work that Jesus is doing, and they see how the crowds are following Him, and they are convinced by His words that He is the Messiah, and they bow before Him and lead the nation to follow Him themselves.

Just kidding. LOL. That’s not at all what they do! That’s what they should do, but it’s not what they do. No, they come to Jesus and try to trap Him. V.3

“Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?’”

“Let’s give Jesus a theological test and see if He passes.” They are not sincere. They are not asking this question to find out the truth. They have an agenda with this question. They want to trap Jesus.

How does that work? Well, there was a big debate during this time about the theology of divorce. There were two major schools of thought. The school of Rabbi Shammai and the school of Rabbi Hillel. We learned about this in the third main message at the conference from the author of this book: Marriage, Divorce, and Remarriage: Critical Questions and Answers.

Rabbi Shammai said that God requires divorce only in the case of adultery. But Rabbi Hillel said that God allows divorce any time a man is unhappy with his wife. Even if she burns dinner or her eyebrows get too bushy. And the Pharisees think that they can trap Jesus with this question: Which side are you on?”

“If you side with Rabbi Hillel, and anything goes, doesn’t that contradict what you said at the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:32? And where does it all end?

But if you side with Rabbi Shammai (and I think that’s what they really hope He will do), then you might get into trouble with Herod Antipas.”

Do you remember Herod Antipas from when we studied this gospel together? John the Baptist (Notorious JTB) told “King” Herod Antipas that his divorce and remarriage to his former sister-in-law Herodias was not lawful. Do you remember what happened to John the Baptist because of that? Prison first. And then off with his head. That’s what happens if you side with Rabbi Shammai in those days.

They think they’ve got Jesus. Maybe they’ve even stumped Him. Can Jesus answer this stumper of a question?  What do you think?

The last time I preached this passage, I titled my sermon, “The Lord of Marriage.” Because Jesus does not just have a theology of marriage; His theology flows from His own authority. He is Lord over marriage. 

The Pharisees obviously don’t recognize this or they wouldn’t be asking the question this way, but that’s their mistake. Jesus pushes back. V.4

“‘Haven't you read,’ he replied, ‘that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,' and 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 man not separate.’”

It’s always a sick burn when Jesus says, “Haven’t you read your Bibles?” They think they have Him stumped, and Jesus says, “I think the answer to that one is on the first page of your Bible. Haven’t you read it? I think you’re missing the point. Let’s go back and look.”

And Jesus leads them on a Bible study of Genesis 1 and 2. And that’s what we did at the conference in the second major message. The speaker, a former professor at Trinity, started in Genesis and took us all the way to Revelation, seeing what the Bible says about marriage from cover to cover.

It’s always smart to start at the very beginning. It’s a very good place to start. Jesus was saying that they are starting in the wrong place with their questions.  We’ll see that they are starting with Deuteronomy 24, but Jesus says, “You’ve got to go back further than that or you’ll be missing the point.”

And speaking of points, I have three points of application for today’s message.

Here’s the first:

#1. TRUST THE DESIGNER TO DEFINE MARRIAGE.

That was the title of our conference, “Marriage: God’s Divine Design.” Look at v.4 again.

“‘Haven't you read,’ he replied, ‘that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,' and 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.” 

Marriage is God’s idea. He designed it. It’s not something that we came up with. It came from (v.4), “the Creator.” The Designer. The Original Lord of Marriage. Marriage is God’s idea, and so we should get our ideas of what marriage should be from Him.  Make sense?

Obviously, this flies in the face of so much of our modern culture, including among professing Christians. We want to define marriage our own way. We want to do what we want to do with it. And we figure that God (if He exists) just has to be okay with that.

But that’s exactly wrong. He is the Lord of Marriage. We need to listen to Him.

Marriage, for Christians, is a matter of discipleship.

This passage (vv.4-6) is very relevant to a whole host of contemporary issues and questions. It addresses marriage and also divorce. It also addresses same-sex marriage and transgenderism, doesn’t it? It has implications for LGBTQ.

Because Jesus says (v.4) that Genesis 1 says that humans are made male and female. Two biological sexes. Different and complementary. Male and female, not interchangeable. Not changeable. And that it was good. It was beautiful. It was God’s good design.

And here’s what marriage is. Jesus says that Genesis 2 says that a man (1 man, this passage addresses bigamy and polygamy, as well, a man) will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife (1 biological woman), and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one.

So here’s God’s math for marriage: One plus one equals one. One man and one woman come together to be one flesh. One new thing: a married couple. That’s the design.

Do not believe it if people tell you that Jesus never said anything about same-sex marriage.

Jesus said, “I agree with Genesis.”

The Creator has designed marriage, and it is good. In fact, it’s beautiful. God designed marriage to be a thing of beauty. Every faithful marriage is a gorgeous glorious thing for the whole world to behold!

In fact, the Apostle Paul quotes this same passage of Genesis and says that every marriage is designed to be a beautiful picture of the relationship between Jesus Christ and His church! Read Ephesians 5 this afternoon.

The final main message at the conference was about that. There was a married couple who shared together on stage how they tried to live out Ephesians 5 in their own gospel-shaped marriage every day so that Jesus got the glory.

And that’s happening in every faithful Christian marriage in this room right now. The marriages here are a thing of beauty that sing about Christ’s love for His bride and His bride’s love for Him.

Well done, you. Keep it up! Don’t stop now. If you're engaged or believe you should be, jump into marriage live this thing of beauty! Be a picture of Christ and His bride that sings!

Trust the Designer to Define Marriage and believe that it is good and beautiful and sacred.

Which also means that abuse within marriage is a terrible, ugly, anti-picture of the gospel. Our fourth main message was all about that, by a Christian counselor who works with victims and perpetrators of domestic abuse. It was probably the most painful and sickening message at the conference. It was also a compelling Bible study of the book of Genesis which does not shy away from recounting ugly intimate partner abuse and how antithetical that is to God’s good design.

If you are abusing your spouse, you are defying God’s good design for marriage.

And if you are being abused, that’s not the way it’s supposed to be, and you don’t just have to take it. Get to safety. Find help. There was whole session on responding wisely to domestic abuse, and we are committed here to doing that as a church. Because God’s good design is on the line.

Jesus taught, “[A]t the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,' and 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.”

Trust the Designer to Define Marriage.

By the way, this passage also addresses co-habitation, doesn’t it? Living together as if you are married when you are not married. We talked about this recently in John chapter 4 with the woman at the well. It's one of the things I'm most concerned about as a pastor as even many professing Christians are falling into this sinful error.

Living together as if you are married when you are not married is not how God designed the one-flesh relationship.

The one flesh relationship is for a husband and a wife. Two people who have de-prioritized all other loyalties and then re-prioritized each other as their number one loyalty on earth so that they have actually formed a new entity, a new family, a new unity. “So they are no longer two, but one.”

That’s what marriage is, and it’s where sex belongs. “One flesh” means more than just sex, but it doesn’t mean less. Two bodies coming together in sexual intimacy is for marriage, by God’s design.

When God made our bodies, He made them for sex. He didn’t make Adam and Eve and then say, “Oh no, what are they doing?!”  No, Genesis says that after He made them male and female, “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it” (Gen. 1:28 NIVO). He knew what He was doing when He made us sexual creatures.  But He gave us the gift of sex to be enjoyed within the covenant of marriage.

Trust the Designer. He knows best!

I know it doesn’t always seem that way.

I do know that some people have same-sex attraction–persistent, unsought same-sex attraction. And they want to marry somebody of the same sex, and it seems like that would be really good to them. But that’s not how the Creator designed marriage. That’s not what marriage is. And the Lord of Marriage is calling us as His people to trust Him to do things His way and be blessed.

And I also know that some people suffer from gender dysphoria. They feel great unease about their own bodies. They would rather be the other sex than what they were given when they were conceived. I empathize with that pain. It must be very great, and I don’t pretend to know the half of it. It’s part of the brokenness of our world. But I do know that my Creator is good and His design for creation is good. And I know that I can trust Him.

And I know that some people are simply wary of marriage. They think it’s just a piece of paper. They have seen the ravages of divorce. They want to make sure that this person they want to be with is the “right person,” and so they want to test drive the relationship and live like they’re married before they are married just to make sure. And there are, unfortunately in some cases, financial benefits to living together instead of getting married. But that’s not how God designed it. That’s going against the grain of the universe. As is polygamy. And, as we’ll see, as is divorce in general.

Jesus is asking us to trust the Designer of Marriage and do it His way.

If you are living together like you are married and you are not married, the Lord of marriage is calling you to repent and to either to marry or to separate. To follow Jesus and do marriage His way.

One of you asked me after the conference if pastors in the EFCA were open to performing or blessing same-sex “weddings.” And the answer is no. And that if we did, we would lose our standing as pastors in the EFCA as would any EFCA church that went down that road.

In June of 2017 the national conference of the EFCA affirmed a resolution that says, “The Evangelical Free Church of America affirms that God created human beings uniquely in His image as male and female, and He has designed marriage to be a covenantal relationship between one man and one woman.” Sounds like Genesis. Sounds like Jesus.

And that was affirmed unanimously. For which I’m grateful. But I’m also grateful that at that very same conference, we followed that unanimous affirmation of God’s good design for marriage, by spending three hours in training each other how to love and serve and care for and relate to people with same-sex attraction and gender dysphoria.

Because we have been so loved, we are called to love. There are probably people several people in this room that experience same-sex attraction. I’m so glad you’re here. There may be a few of you who experience gender dysphoria. I’m so glad you’re here. I’m glad that we have a single-use restroom back that hallway over there so that everyone can feel comfortable and go to the bathroom in peace. I’m sure that if someone who is trans* or queer or non-binary (or de-transitioning) comes respectfully into our meeting, checking things out, that you all will show the love of Jesus to them with sweet hospitality.

Because we are trying, in God’s power, “to be God’s people in this place, live His goodness, share His grace, proclaim God’s mercy through His Son, be His love to everyone.” (Charles F. Brown)

Without compromise to His truth.

The Lord is calling us to trust the Designer to define marriage.

We don’t look to society to define marriage.

We don’t look to the US government to define marriage.

We don’t look to the Supreme Court to define marriage.

They are all going to do what they are going to do. But we, as Christians, are called to do what the Lord Jesus says we should do.

Now, your struggle with defining marriage might be different from what we’ve talked about already today. I don’t know what everybody here is tempted to do with marriage. But left to our devices, we will always come up with a design flaw, and we need to go back to the drawing board and follow the original design as best we can.

Again, in Matthew 19, the main issue was divorce. And here’s what the designer of marriage said about that. Look at verse 6.

“Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”

Application point number two (and,, don't worry, they will get shorter as we get towards the end of this message):

#2. DON’T RUSH TO AMPUTATE WHAT THE LORD HAS STITCHED.

“[W]hat God has joined together, let man not separate.’” What has God joined together? He calls it “one flesh.” Now, that’s just a metaphor, but what a picture that is! It’s like one man surgically sewn together with one woman to form a new unity. And after the surgery heals, there’s just one entity there.

And Who is the surgeon? “What GOD has joined together.” Marriage is not just something that two people do to themselves. It’s not even just something that the state does to two people. Jesus says that God puts people together into marriages. So we should be very careful about pulling them apart!

Do you see how this answers the Pharisees’ question? They wanted to know when it was okay to divorce. Jesus says, “Divorce?! Uh. That’s never ‘okay.’ That’s never best. That’s never good. Divorce wasn’t the idea. Divorce wasn’t the design, the intention from the start.”

Don’t do that if you can at all help it. Don’t just amputate what the Lord has stitched together.

Now, I know that this is a painful subject for many us in this room.

We have all been touched by divorce in our families, and many of you have experienced divorces personally. It has come closer in our extended family in recent months than ever before. I know this is painful. For some of you, it’s painful because you didn’t want it, but it happened to you anyway. For some of you, it’s painful because you know you did it wrong, and you feel the weight of that. For some of you, most of you who have been divorced, you feel some degree of shame. Even if you didn’t do anything shameful in the whole process, you still feel shame put on you by others. Even what I’ve said so far this morning might seem to pile it on further.

There is confusion and hurt. When you let someone into your life so that they get all the way to “one-flesh,” and then that relationship breaks and becomes jagged, it’s got to hurt. Being in conflict and estranged and eventually divided from the person who was the closest person to you has got to have lingering effects.

I know that divorces are painful. And so does the Lord.

And divorce, even sinful divorce, is not the unforgivable sin. And not all divorces are sinful (at least on one side) as we’ll see in verse 9. But Jesus is saying that divorce should be avoided if at all possible. We should be extremely reluctant to divorce because what God has joined together is something we should not separate. Marriage wasn’t designed to be temporary. It was supposed to be dissolved only by death.

So the Pharisees have a comeback. They don’t realize that they have already lost. They whip out Deuteronomy 24:1, and think they have answered Jesus. V.7

“‘Why then,’ they asked, ‘did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?’ [Huh, Jesus? Riddle me that! Answer that one!]

Jesus replied, [You numbskulls] ‘Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning.”

Notice that word “permitted.”

Here’s where Jesus differs from Rabbi Shammai. Shammai thought that if there was adultery, then God required a divorce. “No,” Jesus says, “God through Moses permitted a divorce in those cases because of hard hearts, but He didn’t command them.” You don’t have to divorce even when there has been sexual immorality. That’s not the way it was is in the beginning. The design was for permanence. Marriage was built to last.

Yes, we messed it all up. Hard hearts. Lots of sin. Lots of covenant breaking. Yes, divorce got allowed. (Even polygamy gets allowed for a time.) But that wasn’t the design. Don’t rush out and get a divorce! Make every effort you can to salvage that thing. 

I know that’s not what the world says. The world rushes to divorce. And so do many professing Christians. And again, there are solid reasons to divorce, as we’ll see in verse 9. And if you have divorced for the wrong reasons, there is plenty grace at the Cross for all repentant sinners.

But the Lord of Marriage says, “Don’t rush to amputate what I have sewn together.”

Divorce should be a last resort. If possible, if the conditions are right including the appropriate repentance, then lean towards forgiveness. Because, verse 9: “I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery.”

Now, you hear the exception there. And there is at least one other exception that Paul lays out in 1 Corinthians 7, abandonment by an unbelieving spouse. There may be more exceptions when the covenant is broken beyond repair.

But the emphasis here is not on the exception of sexual immorality, the Greek is “porneia” from which we get our word “porn” and it means various kinds of covenant-breaking sexual unfaithfulness.

The emphasis isn’t on the exception. It’s on the fact that if you divorce and remarry for the wrong reasons, you are committing adultery, breaking the 7th commandment. You’re badly amputating what the Lord has sewn together. 

And notice by Whose word this is. V.9 “I tell you...” Don’t miss that! That’s super important. Jesus is laying down the law here Himself. Jesus is the Lord of Marriage! And He’s saying, “Don’t do it. Don’t divorce for the wrong reasons. What God has joined together, let man not separate.”

Now, there is an exception here. And it’s a true one. If one spouse falls into marital unfaithfulness (porneia), they are, in that moment, ripping up the surgery themselves and defacing the one-flesh  relationship.  If your spouse has done that to you, you are permitted by the Lord of Marriage to divorce them.

Permitted, not commanded! I’d still say, “Make every effort. Even when it doesn’t feel like it.” Because we know that our marriages are pictures of Christ and the Church. And if we can salvage them, they can still be wonderfully beautiful pictures of Christ and the Church! We should be extremely reluctant to throw away any pictures of Christ and the Church.

But it is permitted, especially if an offending spouse is unrepentant. If they are amputating what the Lord has stitched together, you certainly don’t have to pretend that all is well. But the Lord of Marriage wants us to do everything on our end to uphold it.

Now, the disciples overreact to what Jesus has just taught. V.10

“The disciples said to him, ‘If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry.’”

I’m pretty sure that was the Apostle Peter! Sounds like him, doesn’t it? Peter was married already. He knew that marriage was a lot of work. And now Jesus says that it’s “for better, for worse, and for keeps?” 

You might feel trapped in a marriage if it’s for life. A life sentence.

What’s fascinating is that even though that’s a rash overreaction, Jesus basically says, “Yeah, that’s right for some people.” For some people it is better to not marry. V.11

“Jesus replied, ‘Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. [There’s three kinds.] For some are eunuchs because they were born that way; others were made that way by men; and others have renounced marriage [or became eunuchs] because of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.’”

So, surprisingly, our last application point is:

#3. SERIOUSLY CONSIDER CELIBACY FOR THE KINGDOM.

Ironically, the Lord of Marriage says that marriage is not for everyone. Some people are (at least for a time and some for a lifetime) called to celibate singleness. 

And that’s not strange. We think that’s so strange. We think that’s so hard.

“Celibacy is so hard!”

But Jesus says, “Marriage is hard. Celibacy is just a different kind of hard.”

You know what’s hard?

Being born an eunuch. Being celibate because your body came out that way. Being celibate because somebody did that to you. It’s actually much easier to choose to live the celibate lifestyle than to have forced on you.

But what if you choose it for the kingdom? Isn’t that quite a phrase in verse 12, “because of the kingdom of heaven?!” Last time I preached this passage, I was really struck by this quote from Pastor Douglas O’Donnell.

He said, “The kingdom of heaven is so important that it should seem perfectly normal if someone would want to give up marriage for it.”

The remaining major message at the theology conference was by a pastor who has been a single man for his whole life. And he said that there are a bunch of reasons why it can be advantageous for the kingdom for Christians to stay single, at least for a time, and for some a life-time.

And if you are called to that, embrace it. Jesus says, “The one who can accept this should accept this.” 

And those of us who are married should celebrate those who are single right now for the kingdom. I think, all to often, we’ve treated singles as second-class kingdom citizens. But that’s totally wrong. The Apostle Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians 7, as well. Single Christians are first class kingdom citizens if they are living for the Lord. And this church has an awesome history of having wonderful single people in it serving the Lord.

There are many right here in this room today. If you are single right now and serving the Lord, thank you.

Thank you for being celibate.

Thank you for being devoted.

Thank you for using your singleness for the Kingdom.

You are living something beautiful, as well.

You know who you are like? You’re like the Apostle Paul. 

And you’re like the Lord Jesus Christ. Because ironically, the Lord of Marriage never got married Himself.

Or perhaps it’s better to say, He’s still engaged to be married to the Church His Bride, and we await the Wedding Supper of the Lamb when all earthly marriages will be over and we all will have in full what they all pointed to in part, the relationship between the Lord of Marriage and His Church.

What God will join together for eternity.

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