Marriage (2)
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Marriage
Marriage
Marriage is on a decline in our culture
We have hit the lowest number of marriages in our history - fewer people are getting married today than ever
Statistically %50 of all marriages are getting divorced.
Even secular sociologist believe family is an essential building block
Yet it is being torn down and redefined
Our culture and society says it is all about you, your feelings, your perceptions and truth
Marriage was never our idea - so we are not the ones to define it.
In sharp contrast with our culture, the Bible teaches that the essence of marriage is a sacrificial commitment to the good of the other. That means that love is more fundamentally action than emotion. But in talking this way, there is a danger of falling into the opposite error that characterized many ancient and traditional societies. It is possible to see marriage as merely a social transaction, a way of doing your duty to family, tribe and society. Traditional societies made the family the ultimate value in life, and so marriage was a mere transaction that helped your family's interest. By contrast, contemporary Western societies make the individual's happiness the ultimate value, and so marriage becomes primarily an experience of romantic fulfillment. But the Bible sees GOD as the supreme good - not the individual or the family - and that gives us a view of marriage that intimately unites feelings AND duty, passion AND promise. That is because at the heart of the Biblical idea of marriage is the covenant. - Tim Keller
That is what I want us to talk about today
Our marriages or future marriages are based and built out of a love that is not self centered but others.
It is a choice and a covenant.
There is no greater power that drives us more than love
Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love—but the greatest of these is love.
We have 1 word for love - Greek has 3 - Phileo, Eros, Agape
Agape love is a covenantal love - a love that loves no matter what
Our issue is we see marriage as a contract - i can get out of a contract
A covenant states I will hold up my end - no matter what you do
Turn to 1 Cor 13
Lets pray
Christian love is a:
1. Choice
Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs.
Christian love is a:
1. Choice
Every day I choose to put the other’s in front of me
No matter what I will keep my end up
I will be patient and kind - focus on him/her
I will not keep score
Christian love is a:
2. Conduct
Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth.
Christian love is a:
2. Conduct
It will be evident in the way I act and in what I do
Show the love
Love is always tied to action - not just emotions
If you love me - Jesus said
Christian love is a:
3. Commitment
It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Christian love is a:
3. Commitment
It does run away when it is hard
It has a vision for the future - do you have a vision for your marriage?
Christian love is a:
4. Covenant
Did you ever wander why you walk down a n aisle with family on each side - brides on one side and grooms on the other?
The father gives the bride away and then after the vows you both walk out
Turn to Genesis 15
This is the covenant that God is making with Abraham -to be a great nation
Abraham wants to know how he can be sure
He said to him, “Bring me a three-year-old cow, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” So he brought all these to him, cut them in half, and laid the pieces opposite each other, but he did not cut the birds in half. Birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away. As the sun was setting, a deep sleep came over Abram, and suddenly great terror and darkness descended on him. Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know this for certain: Your offspring will be resident aliens for four hundred years in a land that does not belong to them and will be enslaved and oppressed. However, I will judge the nation they serve, and afterward they will go out with many possessions. But you will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.” When the sun had set and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch appeared and passed between the divided animals. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “I give this land to your offspring, from the Brook of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates River: the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hethites, Perizzites, Rephaim, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.”
Christian love is a:
4. Covenant
Here is the covenant - may this happen to me me if do not keep my end
Notice only God walked through the middle
When you made your vows, you walked down the aisle
Families split in two on either side- you did the death march
May I die if I break my covenant
And you ask, “Why?” Because even though the Lord has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, you have acted treacherously against her. She was your marriage partner and your wife by covenant.
Marriage
Marriage
I am not coming to you as some expert
We have been married 32 years - and it has not always been a honeymoon
But we committed that no matter what- each of us will keep up our end
We remind each other of this - No Return, No Refunds, No Exchanges
Our secret is that we have made God center of it all
When He is not we know it
Men, you'll never be a good groom to your wife unless you're first a good bride to Jesus.
- Tim Keller
Marriage
Marriage
This was God’s idea - before the the Hebrews, before the church - family starting with a man and a woman in covenant
If you are married - are you holding up your end of the covenant? if not ask forgiveness and start
If you are not - become the person you would want to marry, it is not to be avoided or deemed unnecessary, you cant practice it by cohabitation, the best relationships are centered on God
Today we celebrate what God has brought together - let no one break apart
Let’s pray
