Design for Your Marriage

God’s Design For Your Marriage

Ephesians 5:33 (HCSB) 33 To sum up, each one of you is to love his wife as himself, and the wife is to respect her husband.

Big Idea: God's instructions for husbands and wives are the key to a long and happy marriage.

Introduction

Today's passage is unpopular, but nonetheless a much-needed section.

Before looking at the Scripture, three preliminary principles to underscore:
- God is our designer and knows what is best for us; thus this "owner's manual."
- Man is a sinner and in rebellion against God's authority.
- A Christian is a servant acknowledging the authority of God and his Word.

What is the wife's role in a marriage?

Wives are to submit to husbands "in the same way" that Christ submitted. That submissive spirit in Christ, far from being degrading, was his glory.
God created Marcus just for you and wired him with a desire to lead and love you in powerful way

In every man there is a desire to

Be the Hero
Fight the good fight
Rescue the Princess

God had several purposes for delegating leadership to the husband in the home:
- For the orderly function of the home: Any group needs a delegated leader.
- To fulfill a need of your mate: If a man doesn't lead, he has poor self-image.
- To exalt Jesus Christ: The wife by respecting her husband brings him honor and every husband wants his wife to respect him and consider him a hero.

What is the husband's role in a marriage?

1 Peter 3:7 (HCSB) Husbands, in the same way, live with your wives with understanding of their weaker nature yet showing them honor as co-heirs of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.

To be "considerate" means putting the wife's interests ahead of everything else.

"Love your wives as Christ loved the church…" (Ephesians 5:25). Here's why:

For the orderly function of the home: She gets the security of knowing she's loved.
To meet our wife's need to feel cherished: The most important thing in your life.
To honor Jesus Christ.

Illustration: he 50th wedding anniversary of a couple in the church, and said to the man, "Fifty years is a long time." The man replied, "Not nearly as long as it would have been without her." That's the model for marriage.

"Treat her with respect as the weaker partner." It doesn't say "weak," but "weaker," because you're both weak.

Illustration: Russell holds up a cheap but rugged coffee mug, noting its strength. Then he holds up a $25 Laura Ashley teacup, noting it's "the weaker of the two vessels." It's more easily damaged but also the more valuable.

Conclusion:

Jeremiah 29: " `These are the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord."