Marriage: 6 Commitments-Lesson 13 "All You Need Is Love"

Housekeeping

-Family in Need Update

-Jim Mulvey has COVID

-Cocoa and Caroling Tonight 5:30pm

-EHBC KIDS will be moving to a new location, Room 217. However, we will need help coordinating and moving the items in there to the storage roll off. It will be either 12/20 or 21 in the morning, 10am. I will send out more info out as I have that date solidified. If you can help…great.

-Rundown for the Remainder of 2021: 12/19 Chapter 12 “Ready, Willing and Waiting.” 12/26 No Sunday School Class 01/2 Chapter 13 “Amazing Grace” and Chapter 14 “Before Dark”

Prayer

We are at the 4th Commitment

“We will commit to building a relationship of love.”

Question… “When was the first time, that you can remember, that you said “I love you” to that special someone?”

Let’s read 1 Cor 13 this morning.

1 Corinthians 13 CSB

1 If I speak human or angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give away all my possessions, and if I give over my body in order to boast but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, 5 is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. 6 Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will come to an end. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put aside childish things. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, as I am fully known. 13 Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love—but the greatest of these is love.

Love...

What do we know about “Love?”

Let’s talk about the “New Normal.”

Page 188, “Their problem is that they are all too satisfied with something that falls way short of what God designed a normal marriage to be.”

Apathy

Gary Thomas’ quote from Sacred Marriage, “It took years for me to understand I have a Christian obligation to continually move toward my wife. I thought that as long as I didn’t attack my wife or say cruel things to her, I was a “nice” husband, but the opposite of biblical love isn’t hate; it’s apathy. To stop moving toward our spouse is to stop loving him or her. It’s holding back from the very purpose of marriage.”

also page 188

-We are comfortable when we should be concerned.

-We are passive when we should be active.

-We are satisfied when we should be dissatisfied.

-We get up each day and make things work the best we can, but our best falls way short of God’s best.

“Love Drought”

Ephesians 4:1–3 NASB95

1 Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, 3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Ephesians 4:1–3 CSB

1 Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

Ephesians 4:1–3 NLT

1 Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. 2 Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. 3 Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.

Disunity

“Unity is not the result of sameness. Rather, unity results when love intersects with difference.”

Misunderstanding

Separation

Physical Dysfunction

Body part books are necessary. We’ll explain

“If your relationship isn’t a daily act of love, there is little chance that sex will be.”

Conflict

“If conflict between you and your spouse does not cause you grief, what is being exposed is a failure to love.”

Faux Love

Thoughts on this idea.

Physical

Emotional

Spiritual

For those married more than 7 years, what would you say to your “pre-married” self the week before the wedding regarding your more refined definition of love?

Close with this.

1 CORINTHIANS 13 CHRISTMAS VERSION

If I decorate my house perfectly with plaid bows, strands of twinkling lights and shiny balls, but do not show love to my family, I'm just another decorator.

If I slave away in the kitchen, baking dozens of Christmas cookies, preparing gourmet meals and arranging a beautiful table at mealtime, but do not show love to my family, I'm just another cook.

If I work at the soup kitchen, carol in the nursing home, and give all that I have to charity, but do not show love to my family, it profits me nothing.

If I trim the tree with shimmering angels and snowflakes, attend a myriad of holiday parties and sing in the choir's cantata, but do not focus on Christ, I have missed the point.

Love stops the cooking to hug the child.

Love sets aside decorating to kiss the spouse.

Love is kind, though exhausted and tired.

Love doesn't envy another's home that has coordinated Christmas china.

Love doesn't yell at the kids to get out of the way, but is thankful they are there to be in the way.

Love doesn't give only to those who are able to give in return but rejoices in giving to those who can't.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails.

Video games will break, pearl necklaces will be lost, golf clubs will rust.

But giving the gift of love will endure.

Merry Christmas!

-- Author Unknown

In Closing

Next week we will continue with our 4th Commitment: “We Will Commit to Building a Relationship of Love” with Chapter 12 “Ready, Willing and Waiting.”

Pray