We are joined again by Matt Chandler, the lead pastor at the village church. Matt is the author

of the new book, The Mingling of Souls. God's design for love, marriage, sex, and redemption.

And he joins us by phone and Dallas. Question number 10 in my list of questions for you, Matt,

is this, how does the gospel change or inform or help those who are dating, who have been victims

of past sexual abuse? Large numbers of men and women in the church represent this population.

How does Jesus Christ help the unique struggles that those Christians will face in the dating

relationship and as they look forward to marriage? Yeah, the first that I'm grateful to answer the

question because I'm actually present in this question, you know, the home I grew up in was

wrought with just about every type of abuse imaginable and it does leave some marks and it does

leave some dense and create some baggage that not just in dating but then on into the marriage

are going to need to be gospel. And what gospel change and help occurs is that for the one that

has not sat under the abuse but is free from that type of baggage. The gospel should create

patience, compassion, and empathy to walk alongside of the person who is bore the brunt of this

abuse. Now, for the one that has bore the abuse, the gospel begins to reshape our identity,

begins to reshape our hearts and wounds, enables us to begin to trust again slowly but surely.

And so when the gospel is at work, both in the one that was not abused and in the one that was,

you have a person who is patient and empathetic and compassionate and a person who is being reshaped

and healed by the gospel in such a way that there's an opportunity to grow into intimacy that

wouldn't have been possible outside of the gospel. And so that's really how I know the gospel

has worked in my own life and in my own marriage. It is lorn was able to be very empathetic and

compassionate and gracious and not demanding while the gospel did its work of healing and

repairing the broken parts of me. Amen. Thank you, Matt. And from one on this, pick up Matt's book,

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