Marriage: 6 Commitments Lesson 4 "Rooted in Worship"

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September 19th 10:30 and 5pm

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Lesson 4

Let’s read John 4:1-42

John 4:1–42 CSB

1 When Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard he was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (though Jesus himself was not baptizing, but his disciples were), 3 he left Judea and went again to Galilee. 4 He had to travel through Samaria; 5 so he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar near the property that Jacob had given his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, worn out from his journey, sat down at the well. It was about noon. 7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. “Give me a drink,” Jesus said to her, 8 because his disciples had gone into town to buy food. 9 “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” she asked him. For Jews do not associate with Samaritans. 10 Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God, and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would ask him, and he would give you living water.” 11 “Sir,” said the woman, “you don’t even have a bucket, and the well is deep. So where do you get this ‘living water’? 12 You aren’t greater than our father Jacob, are you? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and livestock.” 13 Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. 14 But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again. In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up in him for eternal life.” 15 “Sir,” the woman said to him, “give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and come here to draw water.” 16 “Go call your husband,” he told her, “and come back here.” 17 “I don’t have a husband,” she answered. “You have correctly said, ‘I don’t have a husband,’ ” Jesus said. 18 “For you’ve had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 “Sir,” the woman replied, “I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.” 21 Jesus told her, “Believe me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews. 23 But an hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth. Yes, the Father wants such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” 26 Jesus told her, “I, the one speaking to you, am he.” 27 Just then his disciples arrived, and they were amazed that he was talking with a woman. Yet no one said, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?” 28 Then the woman left her water jar, went into town, and told the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They left the town and made their way to him. 31 In the meantime the disciples kept urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32 But he said, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.” 33 The disciples said to one another, “Could someone have brought him something to eat?” 34 “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work,” Jesus told them. 35 “Don’t you say, ‘There are still four more months, and then comes the harvest’? Listen to what I’m telling you: Open your eyes and look at the fields, because they are ready for harvest. 36 The reaper is already receiving pay and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together. 37 For in this case the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap what you didn’t labor for; others have labored, and you have benefited from their labor.” 39 Now many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of what the woman said when she testified, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 Many more believed because of what he said. 42 And they told the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you said, since we have heard for ourselves and know that this really is the Savior of the world.”

Thoughts as you read this passage

“What is my definition of worship?”

Rooted in Worship

page 35

**A marriage of love, unity, and understanding is not rooted in romance; it is rooted in worship.**

Worship: It is your first identity before it is ever your activity. You are a worshiper, so everything you think, desire, choose, do, or say is shaped by worship.

Romans 1:19–25 CSB

19 since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse. 21 For though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became worthless, and their senseless hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles. 24 Therefore God delivered them over in the desires of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served what has been created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen.

The “Why” section…page 36

Every human being lives for something

What is your identify, your meaning & purpose, your inner self being attached to?

-Vertically: The Creator

-Horizontally: The Creation

Question #2 on page 365

How many of you took time to answer that question?

Anyone want to share?

“I have become more and more persuaded that marriages are fixed vertically before they are fixed horizontally. We have to deal with what is driving us before we ever deal with how we are reacting to one another.” page 38

What Does a Marriage Rooted in the Worship of God Look Like?

Galatians 5:14 CSB

14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement: Love your neighbor as yourself.

“At the foundational level, the difficulties in our marriages do not first come because we don’t love one another enough, They happen because we don’t love God enough; and because we don’t love God enough we don’t treat one another with the kind of love that makes marriages work.”

1. A marriage of love, unity, and understanding will flow out of a daily worship of God as Creator.

We try to “recreate” our spouse into something we can better relate to instead of celebrating the blessing of how He created our spouse.

2. A marriage of love, unity, and understanding will flow out of a daily worship of God as Sovereign.

Uncontrollable situations

The list of ‘givens’, expectations, roles, responsibilities....all are things that are not immediately or continually shared by your spouse.

At this point you either Worship God as sovereign and celebrate the differences or dishonor God by attempting to rewrite His story.

How will you choose to celebrate the sovereignty of God?

3. A marriage of love, unity, and understanding will flow out of a daily worship of God as Savior.

Must be driven by Worship

We are in need of His Grace

Find joy in being a part of God’s Grace towards your spouse.

Creator-Sovereign-Savior

Question #5 on page 365

“How will worshipping God as Creator, Sovereign Lord, and Savior give you reason to continue when marriage is hard? How can you put it into practice this week?”

Closing

750 Engaging Illustrations for Preachers, Teachers and Writers 773: Worship

In Touch and Live, George Vandeman writes:

A young stranger to the Alps was making his first climb, accompanied by two stalwart guides. It was a steep, hazardous ascent. But he felt secure with one guide ahead and one following. For hours they climbed. And now, breathless, they reached for those rocks protruding through the snow above them—the summit.

The guide ahead wished to let the stranger have the first glorious view of heaven and earth, and moved aside to let him go first. Forgetting the gales that would blow across those summit rocks, the young man leaped to his feet. But the chief guide dragged him down. “On your knees, sir!” he shouted. “You are never safe here except on your knees.”

My prayer is that we each stay safe on our knees in prayer, worship and humility to the One True King. We place our Worship of Him the priority in our marriages.

As Tripp writes at the bottom of page 43

(Read that highlight)

Let’s Pray