Making Marriage Work

May 25, 2008

Title:  Making Marriage Work

Text:  Matthew 19:1-12

Proposition:  We have misunderstood the purpose of confrontation and reconciliation.

Application: Dealing with sin and forgiveness are the couple and the churches alternative to divorce.

Opening:   Don Miller and the crashes of the 500.

  I.  The Debate

            What is the ground for Divorce

                        Deuteronomy 24:1

                                    Shammai – Indecent

                                    Hillell -  Something Indecent

 II. The Issue of Focus

            What about the following verses? (v.2-4)

                        What is the consequence of filling out that certificate?

            Teaching of multiple wives (Exodus 21:10)

                        Consequences – Don’t reduce her level

            Contemporary Church – Biblical/Non-Biblical divorce

                        There is divorce

                                    In the understanding of marriage it is all non-Biblical

                                    In dealing with sin -  unfaithfulness leads to bonds that cannot be repaired

                                                But this does not bind a partner to divorce.

III. The Issue of Sin

            The struggle of individual sin is the threat to marriage.

Bob Russell wrote “Someone once said that when the wedding march begins, a bride sees three things—the aisle, the altar, and him—and from that time on her motto is: ‘I'll alter him.’ And when it doesn't work that way, there is disillusionment and difficulty.”[i]

Bill Sperle, restores cars for the IMSHoF – It is challenging, but the reward is when you can drive them again

            The church offers hope in the change by which the Gospel brings

                        Forgiving spouses

                        Shared experiences of others who have overcome the marriages on the rocks

                        Accountability for a brother/sister in error, protection for one in danger.

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[i] Bob Russell, Take Comfort: Encouraging Words from Second Corinthians (The Living Word Inc., 1991), pp. 91-92