WE have a wedding!!
So today we talk about Relationships!
Your getting
married, we all will some day in heaven!
Revelation 19:7–9 (NLT)
7 Let us be glad and rejoice,
and let us give honor to him.
For the time has come for the wedding feast of the Lamb,
and his bride has prepared herself.
8 She has been given the finest of pure white
linen to wear.”
For
the fine linen represents the good deeds of God’s holy people.
9 And
the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the
wedding feast of the Lamb.” And he added, “These are true words that
come from God.”
Before we get into the nuts and
bolts of it let me start by saying this!
· Your marriage the way your treat
and love and serve your spouse is a direct reflection of your relationship with
Jesus!
· We are going to cover some things
that will get a little sticky you need to take it in its totality
· Jesus wants our marriage to mirror
his love for us
· So don’t take anything about your
relationship lightly
· Jesus said:
Matthew 25:44–46 (NLT)
44 “Then they will
reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked
or sick or in prison, and not help you?’
45 “And he will
answer, ‘I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my
brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.’
46 “And they will go
away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life.”
· This is just me saying, take your
marriage serious
· It’s something that needs to be
worked at daily
· I preach over and over to invest in
your relationship with Christ, and you should invest in your relationship with
your spouse
· It’s easy to get complacent
· It’s easy to take advantage, I
encourage you to get involved in a small group with your spouse, to pray with
your spouse, to spend time with your spouse and to understand what Gods word
says about marriage
Just the tip of
the Iceberg!
Ephesians 5:25–33 (NLT)
25 For
husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave
up his life for her 26 to make her holy and clean, washed
by the cleansing of God’s word.* 27 He did this to present her to himself
as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead,
she will be holy and without fault. 28 In the same way, husbands ought to
love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually
shows love for himself. 29 No one hates his own body but feeds and
cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church. 30 And we are members
of his body.
31 As
the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his
wife, and the two are united into one.”* 32 This is a great mystery, but
it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one.
33 So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves
himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
Vs 25:
· I want you men to think about this
for a minute
· How much did Christ love the church
o He stepped out of a mansion, and in
to poverty
o He gave of Glory, for humiliation
o He set aside a crown of Gold for
one made out of thorns
o He became homeless, penniless, to SERVE
His bride!
o He died a horrible, cruel death so
she didn’t have to
o Every day he makes her spotless,
blameless in Gods sight!
· Know compare your love for your
spouse to how much Christ loved the church, and when you do right where you are
bow your heads and ask God for forgiveness because everyone of us falls short,
but my question for you, are you even trying to love your wife like God loves
the church??
Vs 31:
· Are you and your wife one or are
you just coexisting?
· Are you making your family
decisions together, or are you just kind coasting along
· Marriage is work, Jesus just didn’t
show up. he worked hard every day on our relationship, and he still does
· Are you putting in the time and
effort to make this a relationship that mirrors Jesus’s relationship with His
church
Vs 33:
· Ladies, do you respect your
husbands
· Are you showing Him respect and letting
him be the spiritual leader of your home
· We talk a lot about men loving
their wives, we talk very little about women respecting their husbands
· This is more important then you
know, men need to be respected, more than they need to be loved
· As a man, I would rather be
respected that loved 9 out of 10 times
· Men and women are different, God
designed us that way.
Satan is out
there!!
So how do we guard our marriage
against Satan??
From the book real Marriage
Taking Out the Trash: deal with conflict wisely
· Conflict will come (married people, is this true?),
· You need Lots on repentance
· And you need lots of forgiveness
· And you nee to avoid bitterness (“The true test of whether or
not we are bitter is our tongues”).
·
Proverbs
6:17 (NLT)
17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that kill
the innocent,
Psalm
10:7 (ESV)
7 His mouth is
filled with cursing and deceit and oppression;
under his tongue are mischief and
iniquity.
Conflicts will come, fight will happen.
We have to learn to fight with love and respect. We have to learn to forgive,
to repent when we are wrong, and don’t let bitterness set in!
Are you Friend with Benefits?
· You have to be friends first
· You have to do life together
· You have define beautiful by your spouse, not someone else’s
· You have to put the others needs first
· You have to serve them, love them, look out for them
Physical beauty will fade, sex will
stop but your friendship will last as long as you live! Cherish your best
fiend, your confidant, your soul mate, whatever, however you define it. But
just as no other God is to replace the one true God, no one on this earth
should replace your best friend!
A new Study: I
have talked about before
I think
the best sociologist in this area is a man named Bradford Wilcox, at the
University of Virginia. He did a massive study, and he published a book on his
findings called Soft Patriarchs, New Men. And he says that for those who are
Christian, there are three variables that do not necessarily guarantee marital
success, but drop the divorce rate in half. I know we have covered these
before, but Christians, married Christians need to understand marriage is a war
and the devil will attack you and here are the best way to defend your
marriage!
Number one: shared theology.
· You agree on Jesus and the Bible
and marriage and roles.
· You both believe in God
· The trinity
· The forgiveness of Sin
· That Jesus was the Son of the holy
God
· That He died a horrible death for
your sins
· He rose on the third day
· The Holy Spirit was sent to dwell
in us
· We sin daily against God and others
·
We have
to agree, the Bible is God’s Word, Jesus is God’s Son, the law of God exposes
our sin, we need the grace of Christ, we need the humility of the Holy Spirit,
we need to repent to one another, we need to forgive one another, we need to
obey the Bible because Jesus is Lord and I’m not. If we agree on those things,
you can build a marriage. The rest is all details.
And this ties in to number two!
Number two:
regular, joint church attendance.
· Husband and wife going to, part of,
involved in community with the same church.
o This does not mean show up Sunday
and sleep half way through and go home
o This means being in community,
doing life with, being a part of a church
o Do you even know what Christ
defines as a church
o It’s not the building, its you, its
me; it’s the body of Christ!
· This allows you to be under
teaching, under authority, in community, getting accountability, positive
examples, negative examples, encouragement for being obedient, and
discouragement for becoming disobedient.
o Under teaching means learning what
God intends for His people
o Under authority, being help
accountable, seeing other struggle and helping in the work that God has called
us all to do, REACH THE LOST!
· Go to church together. And don’t just go to
church together, be in community, get in a small group, teach the kids
together, be a part of the body of Christ.
o Get in a small group
o Serve on Sunday together
o Go feed the homeless
o Help the arena team
o Take your family, and help someone
in the church out
o Go buy groceries for someone you
know needs it together
o BUT MOST OF ALL SERVE TOGETHER!
Number three: bring
your faith home.
·
Do
you read the Bible together at home?
o Do you talk about your struggles
with sin together
o I know this sounds chessey, but the
closer you are the harder it is for Satan to get in
·
Do
you read Christian books together?
·
Are you in a small group together?
o We have tons of small groups
o For women to grow
o For men to grow
o The one that saddens me the most
most is single gals with out there spouse
·
Do you pray together?
o If so, your odds of divorce go down
by 50% because the couple that prays together stays together
o You need to cover your marriage in
prayer
o Pray for your spouse, your kids,
your dog, your church, BUT MOST OF ALL PRAY!
