The Fulfillment of Marriage

Introduction

I have spent most of my 25 years of ministry counseling people in their marriages. Everybody seems to be longing for a happy marriage.

But it also seems that very few are able to really have the kind of marriage they have in their minds.

I believe this is because we don’t think properly about marriage. and we don’t understand the true reason for marriage.

This morning we are going a a biblical journey to try and discover the meaning of marriage. And once we understand marriage, I believe you will be able to function better in it.

Marriage is a high goal in many people’s minds.

Little girls start planning it early and often.

Boys start

We believe that if we just find the right person they will be the

love or our lives,

our soul mates,

The missing piece to my puzzle,

The one that completes me.

So we go on the hunt.

Who is this person that is going to fulfill my needs of love, sex, partnership, companionship, friendship, and relationship.

Who is the one that will know me inside and out. Take all my insecurities and sin and still love me with that unconditional love that I need.

Then we wonder why they don’t measure up.

why don’t they take all my crap.

Why don’t they love me through all my insecurities.

Why don’t they perform sexually for me the way they do on the internet.

Why do they want to break their vow and leave me.

Could it be that because we don’t understand marriage that we put undo pressure on it. So much pressure that it would never be able to hold up for a life time.

I think that if we really could understand the gift of God called marriage we could find the fulfillment in it.

Marriage like everything else is messy!

In Paul is responding to a statement written to him:

1 Corinthians 7:1 ESV

Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.”

This leads Paul to put sex into its proper context of marriage.

1 Corinthians 7:2–3 ESV

But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband.

1 Cor 7:2

1 Corinthians 7:4–5 ESV

For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

Paul was dealing with the same thing we deal with today. Everybody is concentrated on having sex.

1 Corinthians 7:8–9 ESV

To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single, as I am. But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

Biblical Storyline

God Views Marriage differently than Men and Women.

1 Cor 7:

1 Corinthians 7:10–11 ESV

To the married I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): the wife should not separate from her husband (but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife.

Marriage is for a lifetime.

One man one woman living as one flesh.

This was God’s creation and design before sin entered the world.

The goal of life is “to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.”

Marriage is ment to help you accomplish this goal.

Marriage is a tool given to man to help accomplish his mission.

Marriage is not forever.

Matthew 22:30 ESV

For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.

Matt 22:

Marriage is only for this life.

You are only bound in your marriage until death, then you are free to marry another.

God never intended for marriage to replace His relationship with you.

The reason many marriages are struggling is because you are looking or fulfillment in the wrong place.

You are asking your spouse to be God in your life.

Every person, Male & Female, should find their worth and fulfillment in your relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

Your mate is never going to be able to fill the God sized puzzle piece of your heart.

Your mate is a sinner just like you.

They have their own hurts and wound they are dealing with.

They have insecurities and fears of their own.

Sometimes we ask to much. We expect to much.

A happy marriage takes place when two people who love God with all their heart come together to share that love with the world.

You don’t have to be married to find real love.

God is love.

God is the one that you need to set your affection on.

God is the eternal love that will be with you forever.

Until you experience and live in the love of the Lord you will never be able to share that love with your spouse.

Don’t put an expectation of God on your spouse. They won’t be able to measure up.

Do put an expectation on your spouse to fall in love with Jesus.

Marriage is about accomplishing the mission of God during our time here on Earth.

1 Cor

1 Corinthians 7:29 ESV

This is what I mean, brothers: the appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none,

1 Corinthians 7:30–31 ESV

and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.

1 Cor 7:30-31

No matter how you got into the situation your are in:

The goal of each person should be to love God with all your heart and accomplish the mission God has for you.

Closing Thoughts:

Are you asking your spouse to take God’s place in your life?

Are you striving to love God first and foremost so that you can share that love with your spouse?

Is your marriage a tool that God can use to bring others into a personal relationship with him?