Marriage: 6 Commitments-Lesson 17 "Worship, Work and Grace"

Housekeeping

-First Fudd’s next Sunday!! Every First Sunday we will meet up for lunch after church at Fuddruckers at Coronado Center. This is an optional lunch for our class to get together and share a fun meal.

-Next Sunday we are starting a new study in the book of Luke. It will be a 1 week study to help each of us better understand Jesus’ work and ministry. We will start off in Luke 1.

Prayer

Open up your Bibles to Philippians chapter 4.

This morning we are landing the plane from the study we began back in August. We took time to not only examine scripture as it pertains to marriage, we were encouraged to make 6 Biblical Commitments to the Lord and to each other. These commitments, which included a lifestyle of confession and forgiveness, building trust, appreciating differences will help each of us to begin to build on Christ-Centered marriages.

We will be in the last main chapter, “Worship, Work and Grace.”

But before we begin, let’s answer the question I emailed out to you all this past week.

“After reading this book, how has your understanding of the cause of your marriage struggles changed?”

“How do you now define the purpose of marriage?”

Let’s read Phil 4:4-14 this morning together.

Philippians 4:4–14 NLT

4 Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice! 5 Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon. 6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. 8 And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. 9 Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you. 10 How I praise the Lord that you are concerned about me again. I know you have always been concerned for me, but you didn’t have the chance to help me. 11 Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. 12 I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. 13 For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength. 14 Even so, you have done well to share with me in my present difficulty.

Worship Shaped Marriage

Turn to page 302.

Tripp lists 8 ways that identify when your life is shaped by worshipping God.

When your life is shaped by the worship of God...

-You Live with His plans

-You Live Thankfully

-You don’t shrink your world down to the size of your wants, needs, and feelings.

-You don’t try to do His job

-You want to give to others the same Grace you have recieved.

-People and things are in their right place

-You celebrate His work in your spouse

-You don’t live in fear

Worship and Work

Turn to page 314

Of the 28 Bullet Points we see on the next three pages, which one spoke to you the most.

Grace and God’s Love

Knowing that the secret to improving our marriage is to love God more, what are some practical steps you can share with everyone to help us grow in our relationship with Him?

Gratitude/Thankfulness Journal

-We are handing out these small journals to each of you. Kerry and I want to encourage all of us to focus on God’s grace in our marriages.

(Read from page 318)

Take time each day, wether it’s morning or night, but at least once a day stop and thank God for His continued love and grace. Spend that time and write down one way you were blessed, thankful or just simple gratitude towards your spouse.

This is not meant to be used as a weapon or a bargaining tool. Nope...

It’s between you and God only. No one else.

Share about mine.

Apply what we read from Philippians.

Pray

Closing

-Read chapter 1 of Luke for next week.

-First Fudds next Sunday!