Marriage Sex and Dating #3

QUICK REVIEW

what does having a Biblical conscience mean?

what’s the point of dating? “don’t awaken love before it’s time...”

what’s the big point of marriage? “faithful children”

What is it to be unequally yoked?

Who is the head of the household? So, in conflict, who carries the burden of setting the direction?

Should we only “court” in dating?

TODAY - talk briefly about the secrets to a joyful marriage.

Marriage is a marathon - it’s not a sprint.

this is why you want to be very cautious of just marrying someone because of how passionate you feel about them.

this is why arranged marriages actually worked out pretty well, despite what Disney says.

and since it’s a long term run, we gotta make sure that we’ve got the basics. The mechanics down pat.

that we’ve got good shoes, with no rocks.

any runners in the room? If you start a long run and you’ve got a little twinge in your toe, what happens if you don’t deal with it?

a rock in your shoe? the wrong shoes? the wrong clothes?

Eph 5:19-24 “addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

give thanks for everything - even the negative. - why? because of what God is going to do through you in it.

“all things work together for the good of those...”

Eph 5:25-27 “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.”

provision - protection - and not just the providing of basic needs

she is the refinery of your household. she needs to have the tools she needs to make the household work. it’s her dominion. so make sure she’s got them.

Eph 5:28-32 “In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.”

eph 5:33 “However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.”