GraceLife - LIVE! @9:30am

so [Music] foreign so so [Music] [Music] hey everyone we want to welcome you to gracelife this morning whether you're here in person or you're watching online we're so glad that you're here today if this is your first time visiting with us make sure you stop by the guest services table in the front lobby or you can text welcome to the number on the screen we have a great opportunity coming up this saturday september 25th at six o'clock for you to invest in your marriage with our annual marriage conference it's going to be held right here at grace life you can get more details at gracelifefamily.org marriage tomorrow is a deadline to sign up so we can plan for space and food so don't forget to head to the website and sign up today hey if you're new here we would love to get to know you better so come to our guest reception next sunday september 26th this is a great opportunity for you to meet some of our pastors and staff here at graceline we would love to see you there registration has opened for upward basketball and cheerleading for this year you can register by going to gracelivefamily.org forward slash upward we're also needing help with coaches scorekeepers referees and concession stand workers for the season if this is something you'd like to help out with you can give us a call on the church office currently we're in our family series with pastor tim we are so excited about how god is moving us as a family here at grace life if you would go find us on facebook and share what has impacted you personally through this series it's another great day to be here at grace life it's time to worship so would you stand with us as we get ready to sing well good morning are you guys excited to be in the house of the lord today we are so excited you're here from wherever wherever you've come whatever walk of life we're so excited to worship the lord together i love what the psalmist says in chapter 18 verse 49 after he just he just begins to declare all these things that the lord has done how many of you guys can do that you can look back in your life and you can go god look i've seen you do this i've seen you do this i've seen you provide for this we can look back at our salvation we go lord we see how your grace has impacted us and then he says this for this for these reasons when i look back at my life and i've seen all that you've done it is for this o lord i will praise you among the nations i will sing praises to your name you give great victories you show unfailing love so let's worship the lord today amen for everything is for everything he has done so come on we say [Music] oh yes i will sing for joy when my heart is heavy you know my days yes i will today the same god that never fails will not fail me now he won't fail me [Music] the now god who's never late is working all things out you're working all things out oh yes i will lift you [Music] my is is heavy [Music] yes i will [Music] will not fail [Music] is [Music] is when my heart is heavy [Music] is [Music] [Music] glory by [Music] me [Music] is [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] oh foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] unlock these chains here in your presence [Music] you deserve it all [Music] [Music] broken and shameful to see [Music] [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] yes [Music] [Music] yes [Music] [Music] yes [Music] blue [Music] me [Music] [Music] oh oh [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] yes yes [Music] is [Music] the universe [Music] how great thou art again [Music] to take away my sins [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] how great though [Music] [Music] acclamation and take me home with joy shall fill my heart then i shall [Music] my god [Music] this is [Music] [Music] yes [Music] uh [Music] how great [Music] [Music] well maybe you didn't realize that your soul actually could sing but it can it's great when your voice helps it out uh one of the hymn writers said this says soul wake up and sing awake my soul and sing of him who died for me what a blessing to let your soul give expression this morning to everything that you feel and sense inside everything that we want to give to the lord today of which he's greatly worthy of amen uh so thank you for being here be seated let me mention a couple of things by way of announcement you you've heard these in the update you've seen them on the announcement slides but not everybody always gets that fully number one the marriage weekend is coming up this coming friday saturday okay 25th and you need to register for that by tomorrow a number of you've already done that we're doing this in partnership uh with right now media so it's gonna be a great night for you to have fun and be encouraged we're providing dinner uh there is a registration fee for that so if you get on there to register and you can't afford it i think it's 20 a person let us know at the church office we'll be glad to get somebody to scholarship that for you because we don't uh want money to be an issue for you coming maybe you're married or you're thinking about getting married wherever you fall on the spectrum it'll be a great night that's this coming saturday night then sunday the very next day if you've been visiting grace life for a while or or even just recently you're not a member we'll be having our next guest reception uh outdoors under the picnic shelter you don't have to register for that if you want to let us know you're coming that would be great but otherwise just show up and that happens right after the 11 o'clock service and so if you're here for the 9 30 service and then in a life group after that at 11 once that's done just make your way next sunday to the picnic shelter and then the following sunday i think that's october 3rd we begin a new series of discover grace life so if you've been visiting for a while thinking about joining or are not thinking about joining but you want to learn more about our church maybe somehow you've slept through as a member and you never took the class discover grace life you can plug in there as well uh it's four weeks pastor sean will be leading that begins sunday october 3rd so everything you need to know about grace life and how our church does ministry and such you'll learn in that class so we hope you'll be there especially if you've been visiting for a while and that'll help you get uh better acclimated and plugged in here in the life of our church thank you for continuing to give by the way so that we can keep doing ministry week by week if you want to tune in if you're in a place after this where you can tune in to the next service we have a special celebration that will be happening early on in the service i can't tell you now but you can tune in and watch or if you want to watch later check out the video that'll be up at the 11 o'clock service all right let's pray together i'm going to kneel if you want to kneel there you may join with me but most of all let's kneel in our hearts today whatever our outward physical posture is as we pray and talk to the lord and give him our honor in this moment you pray with me god it is a blessing to be here and we recognize that you our father are the giver of every good gift that our life our health our very next breath comes from you and we thank you you are worthy of more than we can give you today you are a great great father lord thank you for making the provision to pay our sin debt and lord jesus thank you that willingly and gladly you gave up all that rightfully belonged to you and emptied yourself in order to take the form of a servant and be obedient even to death thank you for covering us in your blood and giving us your righteousness in that transaction so that we might have new life and abundant life lord we pray your blessing on everything that happens today that ultimately every sermon every prayer every song every conversation in the hallway uh every life group lesson everything that happens back here in the nursery lord that it all would work together to give you praise and honor and glory we pray this in jesus name and for his sake amen [Music] [Music] happy family life you know this is beginning to be quite a family project it certainly is [Music] well all right that's a cute way to begin the sermon every sunday isn't it vintage values in the modern age and we're talking about families i hope you've been here so far for all of the series if you haven't you ought to go back because it all kind of works together and each sermon kind of builds off the last sermon and the first sunday we looked in the book of deuteronomy and we talked about families that last and how to build families and homes that go the distance we talked about the biblical blueprints and the fortified foundations and the concrete commitments and if you weren't here for a part of that i do hope and trust that you'll go back and listen to that and then last week the family job description in genesis chapter one uh god's purpose and satan's perversion of all that god intended for our families my family and your family today we're gonna switch gears a little bit uh today we're gonna talk about marriage and so if you have a bible be opening it to the fifth chapter of the book of ephesians and then if you wanna also turn to genesis chapter two so we're gonna look at that great passage in ephesians five ephesians five and six by the way great new testament passages about the home and about marriage and about parenting and growing up there's something for every role in ephesians five and six and i'm actually hoping in the coming sundays to spend a little bit more time uh there uh and we're looking at god's word obviously those are the vintage values that we're talking about and we want to lay uh this standard down in the midst of our lives that is the truth of god's word not not everybody's real happy in our culture nowadays about the truth of god's word are they especially about marriage and about family in fact i picked up the u.s news and world report article uh recently just a few months ago and the headline was this american marriage is in big trouble big trouble this is a secular newspaper article talking about uh the declining rates of marriage that are at their lowest in 150 years that is the number of people out of a thousand in america that are getting marriage marriage is in big trouble and you know how uh the age rates have been going up and so you know in the 60s the average age of a couple getting married was like 22 and 20. and now it's like 31 and 29 so not only are younger people waiting longer to get married not as many younger people are even planning to get married and so yeah marriage is in big trouble in america and of those who do marry there are fewer and fewer the article said who have marriages that they consider to be very happy well that certainly makes sense with what we see going on in our culture regarding marriage i heard about a pastor who was talking to a group of fourth graders one day about marriage and he asked them this question do any of you know anything that god has to say about marriage well a few of them made some suggestions of things that they believe that god had to say about marriage but the pastor said the best one was from a little boy in the back who lifted his hand and said yeah pastor i know what god says about marriage well what god says father forgive them for they know not what they do maybe you felt that way a time time or two in in in your life father forgive us for we know not what what we do somebody said married life can be very frustrating and in the first year of marriage the man speaks and the woman listens in the second year the woman speaks and the man listens in the third year they both speak and the neighbors listen well i hope that's not exactly true in your home you've heard this story before about the fellow that looked at his wife and said honey i just marvel at the way god could make you so beautiful and yet so dumb and she said baby i know exactly why god made me so beautiful and so dumb he made me beautiful so you would marry me and he made me dumb so i would marry you so ladies if he ever says anything like that you'll know why well today we're calling it marriage the match made in heaven the match made in heaven you know there there are some good things to say about marriage and marriage is still a good idea contrary to what our culture may say now pastor how do you know that how do we know that how do we know that marriage is a good idea here's how we know because the bible says so and the bible has a lot to say about marriage about a good marriage which is a biblical marriage which is genuinely the match made in heaven so look with me in ephesians chapter 5 and i'm going to begin reading in verse 25 and read down through verse 33 i think maybe i left a couple of verses out but you can follow along on the screen or there if you have your bible open paul writing this to the ephesian believers husbands love your wives just as christ loved the church and gave himself up for her in this same way husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies he who loves his wife loves himself after all no one ever hated his own body but he feeds it and cares for it just as christ does the church for we are members of his body for this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and the two will become one flesh this is a profound mystery but i'm talking about christ and the church however each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself and the wife must respect her husband now somebody's going to say pastor there's a key part of that passage you left out comes before that anybody thought that okay some of you did and i'm going to get to that you know maybe in a week or two all right we'll see so don't be disappointed ladies or gentlemen okay now the four things i'm i'm hoping to talk about today about a biblical marriage number one what i've called the power of a biblical marriage the power of a biblical marriage and i i read this portion of ephesians chapter five very specifically because in in those verses there's one word that's used more than any other word did you catch it do you know what word it is l o v e love seven times the word love is mentioned in those few verses in ephesians chapter five now now many of you know this there there are three different words for love that are used in the new testament there are four greek words for love actually one is storge it means a family type of love love between mother father mother son you know brother sister that kind of thing storge that's not actually in the bible three greek words used for love and one is phileo which is brotherly love it's where the word philadelphia comes from the city of brotherly love phileos brotherly love eros where we get the word erotic that's a self-seeking type of love a sensual selfish love that's the love that that gives in order to get if you will a selfish love and then the word agape you've heard that before you know that word agape that's the word love most often associated with with god's love and it is the love of god it's not a a a self-seeking love it's a self-giving love it's a sacrificial love it's that quality of god's character someone said that always responds in self-sacrifice it's a love that seeks the best in the person being loved now which word do you suppose paul used in writing to the ephesians about love and that relationship between husband and wife well of course he used the word agape that's the same word by the way and used in first corinthians 13 and so so paul talks about the love of god and the love of christ expressed in marriage to the ephesians but to the corinthian believers he talks about how you see that love expressed how that kind of love behaves both outwardly and inwardly and so he said it this way look up here first corinthians 13 beginning verse four love is patient was your love patient this morning when you were getting ready and trying to hurry to get here on time love is patient love is kind it does not envy it does not boast it is not proud it is not rude were there times this morning when your love was rude maybe maybe not it is not self-seeking it is not easily angered this is agape love it it keeps no record of wrongs love does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth or with the truth it always it always protects it always trusts it always hopes it always perseveres and then you know the next verse love never fails and so i think we ought to take some time this morning and and kind of deal with some misunderstandings out there about love or about true love genuine love biblical love god's love and i want to deal with just four this morning i hope to do this real quickly number one all right here they are it's on the screen you can download the notes later if we go too fast for you to write here they are number one our most complete understanding of genuine love comes from the bible all right our most complete understanding of genuine love comes from the bible our best understanding of genuine love comes from the scripture now i ask a lot of times all the couples that i've performed their wedding ceremony i require them to go through some degree of counseling and typically in those first sessions i'll ask them a question where did you get your ideas about love what are the things that shaped your understanding of what genuine love is and i ask that of all the couples now typically i i won't perform a wedding ceremony for someone who doesn't know the lord and so their their commitment has to be to christ so that they can be properly committed to each other um and so remember these are couples you know over 40 years of counseling that profess christ and when i asked them that question 90 of them maybe more maybe more than 90 but at least 90 answer that question this way where do you get your understanding about what genuine love is books movies tv shows music those are the four top answers that most professing christian couples give sometimes they'll say well we learned it we learned about love from watching our parents all right now that's a good answer but most of the time that's what they say movies books television music all right now let me ask you a question i think i know the answer you're going to give can you get a proper understanding of genuine biblical love from movies books music television absolutely not i mean absolutely not contrary to popular opinion the world's great greatest and best love story is not sleepless in seattle or you've got mail it's not the titanic it's not the way we were and it doesn't have anything to do with harry meeting sally all right where is that found that's found in the pages of the bible where you read from beginning to end the story of god wooing nurturing caring for seeking the best in those he loves as he seeks through his story to draw men and women boys and girls to himself in a relationship of salvation through christ and there's one verse that sums all that up jeremiah 31 3 the lord has appeared to me of old saying i have loved you with an everlasting love and with chords of love i've drawn you to me see if we could sum up the entire bible about how god loves we would say it it's god always doing what's best for those he loves and so that's what love is and that's what love does and here in ephesians chapter 5 we see that modeled in how christ loves his church and how his church responds back to him as the perfect pattern for married love and then here in first corinthians 13 how love actually behaves and so our our best understanding of love our most complete understanding of love comes from the bible here's the second thing i want to say and that's this love is an art to be learned and a discipline to be maintained an art to be learned and a discipline to be maintained now in saying that i want to say this love is not easy it's not easy it's an art and discipline that you have to decide to pour your life into something we have to learn and a common misconception is that you know love's an easy thing i mean you really don't have to do anything i mean it's just it's just some kind of feeling that wells up within you and it's just not a big deal i mean it's just the easiest thing in the world and it really requires no effort well that's false faults you have to learn to master the art of loving and if you would master the art of loving then you have to be willing to pour who you are into that as a discipline one guy said i've i've fallen in love hundreds of times since i've been married and every time with the same woman now that's not a simple thing that's an art to be learned and a discipline to be maintained number three love is a power that i control by my own will don't ever come to this pastor and tell me you've fallen out of love with your spouse because i'm going to look you in the eye and tell you you are a low down egg-sucking dog face liar i learned that from joe biden something like that listen you are not a helpless servant of love you get to choose to love now again the propaganda that floats out there in our culture is that is that love is some type of uncontrollable feeling that you get like you get heartburn okay like a wayward butterfly you just never know when when it's going to show up and and falling and loves like walking around and falling in a manhole and that's that's what movies and music or television are based on it's a feeling that just happens and that's not the truth the truth is it is a power that you were meant to control by the choice of your own will so if james brown were still alive today you could tell him that he got it wrong nobody is a prisoner of love nobody if you are a believer the love of god has been shed abroad in your heart the bible says and with an act of your mind and will you can choose to love it's a power that you control that i control here's the last one number four love multiplies itself as i learn to give it rather than work to attract it all right now our culture's got that completely flipped on its head like everything else and so all the advertising in our culture teaches us that you have to learn how to be lovable in order to be loved and our culture and social media tells us every day that you will be more lovable if you choose the right hairstyle or the right car to drive or the right cologne to wear or the right shaving cream or shampoo or deodorant and so on and so forth you have to make yourself more lovable but god's word is very clear that that's not true the secret to being lovable the secret to being desirable to your marriage partner if you will is learning to give love learning to give love rather than straining and working to attract it now that's a powerful secret really not a secret that many people fail to learn in a lifetime so the bible's picture of love is very different than the world's picture but the truest picture comes from the bible that's the where in the power lies of a biblical marriage a love that is self-sacrificial and committed for life that's the power of a biblical marriage number two what i'm going to call the purposes of a biblical marriage the purposes of a biblical marriage now let's go back we looked at genesis 1 and 3 last week let's go back to genesis 2. let me read through this beginning in verse 18. it's here on the screen if you need it all right this is in the course of creation and what happened the lord god said it is not good for the man to be alone i will make a helper suitable for him now that's a key verse all right not good that man is alone and so god decided i'm going to make a helper suitable for him now the lord god had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air and he brought them to the man to see what he would name them and whatever the man called each living creature that was its name so the man gave names to all the livestock the birds the air and the beasts of the field but for adam no suitable helper was found so the lord god caused the man to fall into a deep sleep and while he was sleeping he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh and then the lord god made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man and he brought her to the man and the man said this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh she shall be called woman all right that's how we say that but when actually when adam actually saw her for the first time here's what he said whoa man okay for this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and they shall be one flesh now let me give you three purposes there could be as many as five uh and i believe there may be in this passage but we only have time for three and i believe these are the three most important ones here they are number one companionship companionship you know of all the things god created this was the only thing that god said was not good everything else god said was good but he saw adam's aloneness and he knew that he had created adam for relationship and so he said this is not good everything else is good but this and this is not good and so if you follow the story what did god do god made the animals now the animals to solve the problem of adam's loneliness were not god's final plan all right god was exercising adam very deliberately both mentally spiritually and emotionally so he let adam name every animal himself and he let adam figure this out you know i'm really not interested in having a hippopotamus for my companion or a raccoon or a skunk or my goodness even a giraffe how am i going to kiss that thing see that's what happened when when god paraded the animals and allowed adam to this was not trial and error god knew what he was doing and so he put adam to sleep and he created what the bible says was a specifically designed companion just for adam men let me ask you a question do you enjoy the presence of your wife more than any other companion and ladies do you enjoy the presence of your husband more than any other companion that's why god did it this way for companionship you know loneliness is one of the most desolate words in the english language albert einstein was said to have said was said to have said it's strange to be known so universally and yet to be so lonely god created us for relationships now that doesn't always mean marriage i don't believe god intends for everyone to marry he certainly doesn't intend that for everyone but he does intend for everyone to experience the beauty and joy and companionship and fellowship in relationship with others but particularly in marriage god made us for companionship that we would become one in body soul and spirit and that's you know the highest form of companionship in marriage and this doesn't always happen but it ought to be a goal for all of us in the room today is to be able to say my husband or my wife whichever that is for you my spouse is my very best friend that's why god did this that's why god invented mary it was his idea marriage between one man and one woman companionship number two cooperation cooperation verse 18 said god said i'm going to create a helper a helper suitable for him or fit for him we'll get to that in a moment helper is not a verb it's a noun it's it's a part of what she is god and oh my goodness our culture hates that word helper man god made someone to help adam maximize his potential someone with whom he could be far more with than he could ever be alone and so men are either better or worse because of their wives and by the way that that that street runs both ways it does and you've heard people say behind every good man is a better woman all right that's a biblical statement every husband ought to be a better husband because god gave him a wife okay and every wife by the way ought to be a better wife because god gave her a husband this this runs both ways marriage is a team effort and there must be cooperation now that word's interesting as they're there somebody call that word's used all throughout the old testament to describe god and one of god's roles in our lives as our helper do you remember what the holy spirit's called in the new testament that word paraclete our helper it means the same thing so ladies let me just say this to you you're never more like the lord you're never more like god your father or jesus your savior when you are fulfilling your god-given role in the relationship all right by the way that's equally true for men men you're never more like jesus your savior as we've read in ephesians five than when you are fulfilling your god-given role in the relationship so cooperation here's number three completion completion god said i'll make a helper suitable for him a helper specifically designed for him an ideal partner specifically for adam and so eve completed what was lacking in adam eve was the solution stay with me ladies and men eve was the solution to all of adam's deficiencies a helper suitable for him and so only when a husband and wife live in this complementary relationship are they able to fulfill and reach their greatest potential and that potential now god could have made eve out of the dust of the ground couldn't he just like he did adam he could have done that couldn't he i mean he could have made her out of a out of a dead possum if he'd wanted to you know you need to think about the implications of this but but god didn't do it that way he took a rib he took a symbol that something necessary was missing from adam's life until it was returned to him in the form of a woman that's why matthew henry long ago said she wasn't taken from his head to rule over him nor from his feet to be trampled on by him but from his side to be equal with him from under his arm to be protected by him and from near his heart to be loved and cherished by him a helper suitable for him we are different male and female why so that god might make us one as peter said so that we would be heirs together of the grace of life and so we have far more potential together as husband and wife than we have alone there's the power of a biblical marriage check out the time up there the purposes of a biblical marriage all right number three the partnership of a biblical marriage the partnership of a biblical marriage now we already seen it in genesis or here in genesis 2 ephesians 5 31 paul quoted it again when he said this the two will become one flesh the two will become one flesh now you can't know how many incredible implications and gospel implications that one statement has for us uh emotionally physically spiritually sexually i mean the gospel is just all in that one statement the two man and woman the two male and female distinct separate and different the two will become one flesh god made us different so that he could make us one now i know our culture doesn't want us to believe that they want us to think that all the differences between men and women are due to culture and education and so on and so forth and not recognize that the differences are by divine design in fact we may do a whole message on that i don't know yet by divine design he made us different anatomically he made us different sexually he made us different psychologically he made us different emotionally he made us different spiritually why that he might make us one that we might live together in a heavenly biblical partnership every cell of your body as a man or woman has a different chromosomal pattern that's unique to being male or female and by the way and that's the only two choices you have that's the science your chromosomes determine scientifically and divinely that you are male or female now there are there are some obvious physical differences between males and females right amen viva la difference i say all right there's some not so obvious differences but in most women their first finger is longer than their third and in most men their third finger is longer than their first all right if you didn't know that check that out your brains are wired differently men work and think more from the right side of their brain and that's why they're more manual women think and work more from the left side of their brain and that's why they're more verbal that's why boys are more aggressive than girls when they play sports by the way that's the science by divine design does that mean one is inferior to the other no we'll talk about this more later no doesn't mean people say you know the bible makes women inferior nothing could be farther from the truth there are ways the bible makes women far superior listen my wife is way better at many things than i am you know what the main thing is she is way better at being a woman than i am and i'm so thankful for it you see the the roles are different because god created them differently men are providers women are nurturers and so god put men in the garden and god let women have children men are win breadwinners women are caregivers a woman's blood has more water and fewer red cells and red cells supply oxygen that's why women get tired or quicker than men all right that's the science by divine design his greatest need is for success and hers her greatest need is for security that's why his worth comes in his job and his accomplishments that's why ladies you're always gonna fight this issue with your husband by thinking his work is more important than you are when it's not it's the way god made him her worth comes from your relationships it's the way god made you he's a risk taker you're non-adventurous like that this is in most cases not all cases he's to be the leader you're the the enhancer he's the to be the protector that's why god blamed adam by the way for eve's sin if you're not aware of that go back and look at it it's why she cares about more details of the home and the kids than you do i don't i didn't care what they were wearing much when they left the house or how their hair looked but man that was really important to her and she cares about what i wear out of the house i don't care if it matches but she cares about that i don't always care how i look but she cares that's why she tells me you know put a hat on you may run into somebody from the church down there that's why god god made us that way i heard about a retired couple one evening they'd had supper and uh they went out on the front porch of their home they lived out in the country and they just wanted to sit on the back porch and watch the sunset and they got in their rockers and they were holding hands they weren't talking much they were just listening to what was going on around them and watching the sun set and enjoying life and down in the valley there was a little church and it just so happened that the choir was practicing that night and the windows were open and you could hear faintly the sounds of the choir singing and as the lady sat there holding the hands of her husband she was she was paying attention to the choir what they were singing what they'd be preparing for sunday but but as he sat there he could hear crickets chirping under the porch and he wasn't thinking about church or he wasn't thinking about the choir he was thinking about going fishing and all of a sudden she said something she said baby that's so beautiful and he looked over at her and smiled he said honey it sure is and they listened for another minute and she looked at him and she said baby i could listen to that all night and he smiled and he said you know i could too i could do they listened for a little while longer and she squeezed his hand and she looked at him and she said honey i've never heard such lovely music he looked at her and smiled he said me neither you know they make that sound by rubbing their hind legs together god made us different so that he could make us one somebody sent me this top 10 reasons why eve was created i i don't have long i don't have enough time to read all 10 but let me let me read you some of them here they are the lord worried that adam would frequently become lost in the garden and never ask for directions that's probably true the lord knew that adam would one day require someone to locate and hand him the tv remote the lord knew that adam would never remember which night to put the garbage out on the curb the lord knew adam would need someone to blame when the lord caught him hiding in the garden is that three or four i don't know here's the last one when the lord finished creating adam he stepped back scratched his head and said hmm i think i can do better than that man isn't that the truth listen that's that's it the partnership of a biblical marriage god made us different so that he might make us one and here's the last thing we've seen the power of a biblical marriage the purposes of a biblical marriage the partnership of a biblical marriage and then number four the proof of a biblical marriage the proof of a biblical marriage now you remember early on when we were talking about the family and the family's job description and why god made the family we talked about a purpose for the whole family not just marriage but remember that when we read in the scripture that that god made them in his image and we talked about our purpose as a family is to reflect the glory of god to to make god bigger to help people see what god is really like in our homes and and the same thing is true in our marriages but it even goes a step farther than that in our marriages it's even bigger than that ephesians 5 25 when when god said husbands love your wives it says this as christ loved the church and remember ladies where paul said earlier he talked about submission submit to your husbands remember what he said after that as unto the lord see there's a bigger thing happening in all of this and and the proof of a biblical marriage is this is it an adequate earthly representation of jesus that's it and that's only it because the scripture says that marriage between a man and a woman on this earth is the only earthly institution that puts on display the relationship of jesus and his bride the only one god didn't give that role to the church per se he didn't give that role to government he didn't give that role to anyone other than husbands and wives who love him and know him and walk with him that's your primary job that's our primary job my my and my wife that's that's it to put on display the truth about jesus and his bride and so that's the question i need to always be asking in my relationship and the way i relate to my wife and the way we relate to each other in the picture that we're painting before others who see us and know us does it illustrate jesus and how well am i putting jesus on display before a watching world somebody says well you know preacher we got married in church that ought to be enough yeah you're going to be buried in church too you can be married in church and buried in church and still bus tail wide open really see does it picture jesus does it model the relationship of jesus and the church by our mutual submission and sacrifice are we painting a picture of the love of jesus he has for his bride and the way his bride responds to him in everything it was william lyon phelps who said this the highest happiness on earth is in marriage every man who is happily married is a successful man even if he has failed at everything else well i would say that's true of every married man and every married woman somebody said a perfect marriage a perfect marriage is this it's just two imperfect people who refuse to give up on each other isn't that good that's good jesus refuses to give up on us doesn't he yeah god god i said god summed it up in that person in that passage in jeremiah i've loved you with an everlasting love i've loved you with a love that never gives up i've loved you with a love that runs after you when you run away from me i've loved you with a love that continues to pursue you when you don't care anything about me that's agape love and that's god's love it's a love that does not give up on his children and that's the kind of love that makes for a good long-lasting god-honoring christ-exalting match made in heaven bow your heads with me close your eyes look here's how we need to pray this morning i believe nothing wrong with praying for your partner and praying for your spouse and thanking the lord for them but before you pray for them anything other than giving thanks here pray this lord i want to be the right man i want to be the right woman i want to be the right person that you've designed me to be if you're not yet married and you're looking to be married or hoping to be married i don't know where you are in that but you could be thinking about that young or old friend before you start thinking about the right partner think about you becoming the right person person god wants you to be ask him to continue to mold you and make you into the image of his son i believe he's committed to that and his love never gives up never gives up perfect marriage two imperfect people who never give up on each other and maybe you need to pray today in the context of your marriage but just in the context of your life lord help me to treat others the way you've treated me help me lord to show the grace that you've given me the mercy that you've given me the love and patience and wisdom and understanding that you've shown to me friend if you've never come to the place in your life where you've turned to christ as your master and savior by turning away from your sin and received him into your heart by faith we would love to help you with making that commitment if you're not a member of this church and you'd like to be or you'd like to follow the lord in baptism if you'll reach out to us in the coming days we'll help you to follow through with that desire and those commitments whoever you are or may be stand with me let's pray together god thank you for the gift of this day lord thank you for your word and lord there are times when when your word says some hard things but yet lord we know that you're a god of immeasurable unending grace and lord we need your grace to be the right kind of men and the right kind of women lord thank you for letting us hold high the standard of your word in our lives in our homes and our marriages today and lord i know we've seen all of us seen some places where we need to change and so we pray for the power of your holy spirit and your grace to help us as we walk this journey together in jesus name we pray and for his glory amen god bless you [Music] you

Channel: GraceLife Television

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Id: toSHiKYZ-E0

Length: 76min 44sec (4604 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 19 2021