The True Purpose of Marriage: Covenant, Brokenness, and Redemption (Sex, Love, and God Series)

Voxology

Religion & Spirituality, Philosophy, Society & Culture

4.7 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 25 September 2017

⏱️ 94 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How does our modern understanding of marriage diverge from its biblical foundation, and what does it mean to live in covenant rather than comfort? Continuing with the Song of Songs Series, Mike Erre unpacks the theological and spiritual weight behind the concept of marriage as a holy covenant—one that reflects the gospel itself. With warmth, vulnerability, and humor, he explores the Old and New Testament framework for marriage, diving deep into Genesis, Exodus, Ephesians, and Revelation to illuminate how our relationships mirror God’s redemptive relationship with His people.

Mike is joined by Jim and Roe Dodgin, a couple whose personal journey through sexual brokenness, addiction, healing, and street-level ministry powerfully illustrates how God can redeem even the most shame-filled parts of our stories for a greater mission. Their testimony sets the tone for an evening focused on grace, truth, and honest reflection about sex, sin, singleness, and sacred unions.

Key Takeaways:
• Marriage as Covenant, Not Contract – Why biblical marriage is about self-giving faithfulness, not mutual convenience or self-fulfillment.
• The Bible’s Marital Imagery – Exploring how God's relationship with Israel and the Church is framed as a marriage across Scripture—from Genesis and Exodus to Ephesians and Revelation.
• Redeemed by Grace – No one is too broken or too far gone; God’s grace transforms sin into mission, and brokenness into healing.
• Sexuality and Holiness – Why God addresses human sexuality through theological beauty and not shame, and how the "one flesh" union points to a deeper spiritual truth.
• Real Talk on Modern Marriages – Addressing infidelity, pornography, abuse, and spiritual mismatches between spouses through the lens of grace and covenantal love.

Guest Highlights:
Jim and Roe Dodgin – Longtime members of Vox community, they share their extraordinary testimony of overcoming pornography addiction and shame, and how God used their healing process to start ministries for the homeless and women coming out of the sex industry.

Resources Mentioned:
• Song of Songs 3 – Read Here
• Genesis 2, Exodus 6 & 19, Ephesians 5, Revelation 21 – Key passages highlighting marriage in Scripture.
• Treasures – A ministry serving women exiting the sex industry: iamatreasure.com
• Vox Care Team – Trained counselors and prayer warriors available after every gathering.

This is a must-listen if you’re married, single, divorced, or simply rethinking what love, covenant, and community look like in light of the gospel.

Join the dialogue by subscribing, leaving a review, and sharing this episode with someone who needs encouragement. Follow us on social media and be a part of the Voxology community online.

Are you wrestling with questions around marriage, sexuality, or identity? We’d love to hear from you. Email [email protected] to join the conversation.

We're on YouTube (if you're into that kinda thing): VOXOLOGY TV.

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Learn more about the Voxology Podcast

Subscribe on iTunes or Spotify

Support the Voxology Podcast on Patreon

The Voxology Spotify channel can be found here: Voxology Radio

Follow Mike on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mikeerre

Music in this episode by Timothy John Stafford
Instagram & Twitter: @GoneTimothy

As always, we encourage and would love discussion as we pursue. Feel free to email in questions to [email protected], and to engage the conversation on Facebook and Instagram.

We're on YouTube (if you're into that kinda thing): VOXOLOGY TV.

Our Merch Store! ETSY

Learn more about the Voxology Podcast

Subscribe on iTunes or Spotify

Support the Voxology Podcast on Patreon

The Voxology Spotify channel can be found here: Voxology Radio

Follow Mike on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mikeerre

Music in this episode by Timothy John Stafford

Instagram & Twitter: @GoneTimothy

Transcript

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0:00.0	All right. Hey, we are glad that you are here. My name's Mike. Welcome. We are, we're gathering on a Sunday night to look at a 3,000-year-old love poem that deals with issues and raises concerns.
0:29.8	Hello.
0:31.1	We're skipping.
0:32.5	Hello.
0:34.4	Oh, my goodness.
0:35.8	Right front row center. Holy cow. Ladies and and gentlemen i give you the face of godliness
0:41.1	right there now we are we are heading down the home stretch so what that means is tonight we're
0:49.9	going to talk about mawage uh next week we're we're going to tie if you missed the princess bride reference week, we're going to talk,
0:55.6	if you missed the Princess Bride reference,
0:57.4	next week we're going to talk about sex,
1:00.2	and it's going to be all sex all night,
1:03.0	is what we're going to talk about.
1:07.3	Yep, and then single folks can go home and not do anything and then married folks can
1:13.7	get there once a month you know in and it'll be glorious and then what we're going to do is
1:24.0	we're going to have some guests in and then we're going to do a big old healing service
1:30.8	and that will be we're we're it's just it's going to be a very important i think time in the life
1:38.5	of our church and the invitation will be uh to just bring a sexuality back under god's blessing. And so that will be in four weeks. And then maybe,
1:48.2	if we can, we'll try to fit a Q&A in there somewhere. I don't know. But I want to let you know,
1:53.1	after every meeting that we have, there's a crew of people that gathers up here and back over on this side. And we've been calling
2:02.7	them our care team. And these are folks that are trained to pray, but not only to pray to
2:09.3	listen. Some of these folks are lay counselors in the church. Some of these folks have stories
2:14.5	that are, you know, pretty amazing stories that out of their brokenness and into
	...

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