Surviving the Second Marriage
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· 8 viewsWhat a joy that we have been set free from the horable marriage
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Introduction:
Introduction:
Have you ever been in a relationship where the standards of the other person are so high you can never measure up. Meaning no matter what you do it's not good enough. No matter how hard you try there's always something wrong.
You didn't fold the towles right,
you didn't park the car in the right spot,
your not raising the kids right,
you didn't put the dishes in the dishwasher properly,
you didn't handle the money right,
and the list goes on and on.
It’s defeating and degrading. And the worst part about it is you have married this person because you love them. Yet now the biggest source of your joy has become become your worst nightmare!!
You feel stuck in this ugly relationship with a perfect partner that never does anything wrong with no hope of getting out.
Your mind starts going to some crazy places,
like what if I were to put a little rat poisoning in his food;
or what if I were to take a pillow and smother the life right out of her before she says one more word about how I screwed it up again.
(Oh Pastor, we would never think such things). I'm sure Kim's killed me off all kinds of ways in her mind.
You might even let your mind wonder to an unhealthy place of thoughts like it might be better for me to just die than to continue in this life of condemnation.
I’m not trying to be dramatic. This are thoughts that people have every day.
This is what it’s like trying to measure up to the expectations of the law of God. We feel defeated because no matter how good we are it’s just not good enough. We fall short of the standard of the law.
The Law that husband that finds fault in every thing we do, and rightfully so because we are not perfect.
We start looking for a way out knowing there is no forgiveness, grace, or mercy in this relationship with the law. There is only defeat and failure.
Sometimes we equate the law to God himself . and we get resentful to God because we thing he is demanding sinless perfection from us. But this is not true. The Law is true, holy, just, and perfect. But God is gracious, merciful, loving, and kind.
So how do we have a perfect love relationship with perfect God and not be perfect?
Let’s look at this morning to find our answer to the question that we face every single day.
Rom 7
1 Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? 2 For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. 3 Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.
The only way to escape the cursed marriage to the law is to die.
The only way to escape the cursed marriage to the law is to die.
4 Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.
rom 7:4
You must first die in order to live the new life.
You must first die in order to live the new life.
Jesus spoke about the seed how it must first fall to the ground and die and then it brings forth new life. When we accept Christ as our Savior we are crucified with him.
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
Romans
You can’t be married to both the law and to Christ.
You can’t be married to both the law and to Christ.
You can’t be married to both the law and to Christ.
Through death we are set free from the slavery of sin.
14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
Romans
6 But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.
Marriage to Christ brings grace for the battle with the flesh.
Marriage to Christ brings grace for the battle with the flesh.
When you are married to a person for many years and that person passes or you get a divorce, it take a while to get that other person out of your system.
All your thoughts, actions, and reactions were based upon this other persons responses and actions.
Counselors will tell you that for every 5 years of marriage is takes one year to rediscover who you are by yourself.
Once you have gotten rid of the influence of the other you will be free to build a new relationship with someone without it being tainted by the old relationship.
Most people because of their insecurities and need to feel loved jump right into another relationship not understanding that the old person still has great influence over you.
So it is with our marriage to the law. It takes us awhile to get over the oppression that the Law brought to our spirit and life. Defeat in the law has molded and shaped our thinking. We must renew our minds and put to death the things of the flesh, so that we can be free to give ourselves wholly to Christ.
Our relationship with the law is much the same way. It has molded and shaped our thinking. We must renew our minds and put to death the things of the flesh, so that we can be free to give ourselves wholly to Christ.
Living in grace means that you will now be at war with your flesh.
There are 3 levels of Spiritual battles that every Christian faces:
The battle of the Will
The battle of the World
The battle of the Wicked One
Most Christians never get past the first battle with their own will and flesh so that is the one we will focus on today.
15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good.
19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.
Romans 7:
The battle of the will is aways fought in the mind. If we can ever get our mind right we would be able to win the war in our flesh.
21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
Roman 7:21-
3 Steps to fight the Battle of the Mind
3 Steps to fight the Battle of the Mind
Find your strength for the battle in the grace of Christ.
Find your strength for the battle in the grace of Christ.
24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
Rom 7:
Jesus is not a husband like the law. He is full of grace, mercy, and love.
He understands the journey you’re on an the time it takes to renew your mind.
Christ is your biggest cheerleader and will empower you to overcome your flesh through the Spirit of God.
24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
Romans 7:24-25
11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Let the Spiritual mind of Christ influence your thoughts and actions.
Let the Spiritual mind of Christ influence your thoughts and actions.
We have been given the Spirit of God which is the mind of Christ to guide our thoughts and actions.
14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16 “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
1 Cor 2:14
2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Before you think, act, or speak consult the Spirit on the matter. Let him guide your actions.
14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16 “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
Before you think, act, or speak consult the Spirit on the matter. Let him guide your actions.
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
Allow the Word of God to transform your will to God’s will.
Allow the Word of God to transform your will to God’s will.
Every marriage is based on a purpose for life.
Your new marriage to Christ has given you a new purpose that you are discovering with Christ.
God’s Word reveals that new purpose to you.
2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
The more you learn of God’s Word the more you will understand how to support Christ in his work.
You will become a glory and delight unto your new husband Christ and become a light in a dark world.
Review:
3 steps to fight the battle of the Mind
Find your strength for the battle in the grace of Christ.
Let the Spiritual mind of Christ influence your thoughts and actions.
Allow the Word of God to transform your will to God’s will.