Text:\u00a0 Genesis 2: 24\u00a0 Marriage Sunday<\/b><\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/b>The other day I heard this story.\u00a0 A husband got up to make something special for breakfast.\u00a0 His wife was still asleep.\u00a0 He went to heat something up in the frying pan.\u00a0 It made a little smoke-well that\u2019s what he said.\u00a0 The smoke detector went off and woke her up.\u00a0 Good morning, honey!<\/i>\u00a0 Marriage is like that.<\/b><\/p>\n
I was sitting with a couple married for years.\u00a0 I was listening to them, when I realized.\u00a0 They could complete each other\u2019s sentences, if they wanted to.\u00a0 And sometimes they did.\u00a0 They knew each other that well. \u00a0Marriage can be like that<\/b><\/p>\n
The young couple had their first child.\u00a0 They\u2019re listening to friends speak of their baby. Our little one sleeps right through the night.<\/i>\u00a0 They look at each other with bleary eyes, both thinking the same thing.\u00a0 Must be nice!<\/i>\u00a0 Marriage is sometimes like that.<\/b><\/p>\n
But what is marriage<\/b>?\u00a0 Our nation, many people in our country have chosen a new definition.\u00a0 Some say it\u2019s the right thing to do, even the loving thing to do.\u00a0 But what is marriage?\u00a0 Is it whatever someone says it is or wants it to be?\u00a0 Is it just one kind of social arrangement subject to change.\u00a0 What is marriage?\u00a0 If we take God at his Word, we know.<\/p>\n
Marriage is\u2026
\n<\/b>I.\u00a0 Simply, what God designed it to be
\nII.\u00a0 Designed for blessing
\nIII.\u00a0 Inhabited by sinners
\nIV.\u00a0 In need of Jesus<\/b><\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s a troubling time for Bible believing Christians.\u00a0 But come to think of it, what time isn\u2019t?\u00a0 The prince of this world is always busy ruining hearts and lives.\u00a0 Now he has found another way that our country has given him.\u00a0 Marriage.\u00a0 And that\u2019s troubling, sad to see.\u00a0 Yet one thing has not changed.\u00a0 The truth.\u00a0 The truth that stands firm in the kingdom of God.\u00a0 Marriage is \u2026. simply what the Lord designed it to be.<\/strong><\/p>\n We just heard Moses tell us about the first marriage when God created Eve and brought her to Adam.\u00a0 Then Moses tell us the significance of what God did there.\u00a0 He established something for all people.\u00a0 We call it marriage.<\/p>\n A man will leave his father and mother, and be united to his wife and the two will \u00a0become one flesh. (Genesis 2:24)<\/span> \u00a0Here we find the basic ingredients of a marriage.\u00a0 And unlike those many recipes in our kitchen, there are no substitutions in God\u2019s design.\u00a0 First, notice he speaks of two.\u00a0 Not three or four.\u00a0 Marriage consists of two.\u00a0 Two what?\u00a0 Again God spells it out.\u00a0 He mentions a mother and a father.\u00a0 A man leaves them to be married to his wife.\u00a0 So marriage is a man and a woman.<\/p>\n You might think that would be self evident.\u00a0 He made them male and female, for each other.\u00a0 Human anatomy speaks God\u2019s design loud and clear.\u00a0 Marriage is about a man and a woman.<\/p>\n But not just any man and woman.\u00a0 A man will leave his parents and be united to his wife.\u00a0 The word united speaks of that man and woman\u2019s commitment to each another.\u00a0 Marriage is a man and a woman \u00a0able to make that commitment for a lifetime. To stick together in good times and in bad.\u00a0 To stick together for a lifetime.<\/p>\n And whether we got married in a church or in a courthouse it\u2019s important to remember.\u00a0 When we marry it\u2019s so much more than our promise to one another.\u00a0 Someone else is very much involved.\u00a0 And I\u2019m not talking about our mom or the busy photographer.<\/p>\n Think of Adam and Eve.\u00a0 God first made Adam realize there was no one for him.\u00a0 Then he created Eve and what do you hear in his words.\u00a0 He was more than ready to receive her as his wife. \u00a0God clearly brought them together.<\/p>\n But our Lord Jesus says their wedding day was not unique.\u00a0 For He says the same about our marriages.\u00a0 What God has joined together, let no one separate. <\/span>We heard the prophet Malachi say the same: 15 <\/sup>Has not the Lord made them one?<\/span><\/p>\n You see, in a real way our marriage is God\u2019s doing.\u00a0 It\u2019s not something to discard when things don\u2019t live up to my expectations.\u00a0 No marriage is God\u2019s doing and therefore something to be honored, respected and worked at.\u00a0 For God designed marriage to last.<\/p>\n God\u2019s Word says in the book of Proverbs:\u00a0 He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the Lord.<\/span>\u00a0 (18:22) I was trying to find a verse that said the same about us husbands.\u00a0 I\u2019m still looking.\u00a0 But maybe it goes without saying.\u00a0 For God has designed this special relationship called marriage with purpose.\u00a0 Marriage is designed for blessing.<\/b><\/p>\n What did the Lord say?\u00a0 It is not good for the man to be alone<\/span>.\u00a0 We might like to hang out with the guys or the gals, but in marriage God has designed something unique and very special.\u00a0 The two will become one flesh.<\/span>\u00a0 There is a special oneness to be found and shared with your husband or wife.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t come automatically. It takes effort on our part. But when it comes, our marriage can be the safest place on earth.\u00a0 I know it is for me.<\/p>\n And that oneness goes even further.\u00a0 Marriage is that place, that one relationship that God has designed for a man and his wife to love one another sexually.\u00a0 Read the Song of songs.\u00a0 It\u2019s very sensual.\u00a0 A man and his bride.\u00a0 For sex is a gift of God, not something dirty.\u00a0 It only becomes dirty when we pervert it.\u00a0 No sex is a gift of God \u00a0for a man and his wife to enjoy their oneness and express it to one another.<\/p>\n And God has designed that special act of love to bring another blessing on the scene.\u00a0 If it be God\u2019s will, children.\u00a0 Solomon wrote in Psalm 127:\u00a0 Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from him<\/span>. (3)\u00a0 Of course, I realize that \u00a0children can at times fill our hearts with worry.\u00a0 They can even break our hearts. \u00a0But there is something a child brings to a husband and wife that is hard for me to express. \u00a0The joy of a mother.\u00a0 The responsibility of being a father. \u00a0<\/span>We grow as they grow.\u00a0 We learn to keep one step ahead of them.<\/p>\n For marriage is designed to also be a blessing to our children.\u00a0 There they see how husband and wife should treat each other.\u00a0 There they learn responsibility and respect for others.\u00a0 And there they learn of a God who loved them so much that he sent his one and only Son to be their Savior.\u00a0 And yes they may walk away from their Lord.\u00a0 But we give them a Lord to come back to.\u00a0 Marriage is designed to be that kind of blessing.<\/p>\n We know those blessings.\u00a0 We\u2018ve experienced them.\u00a0 But we also know something else when we look at our own marriages.\u00a0 Marriage is inhabited by sinners.<\/b><\/p>\n In Genesis 3, we read what happened to that first marriage which knew such perfect love.\u00a0 Adam and Eve chose to disobey God and something terrible took root in their hearts.\u00a0 Sin.\u00a0 That three letter word with a big I in the middle.<\/p>\n Right away we see how sin affected their relationship.\u00a0 \u00a0Adam points an accusing finger at his wife, instead of himself.\u00a0 He calls her the woman you gave me<\/i>.\u00a0 And Eve.\u00a0 She had gotten her husband to join in her sin.\u00a0 So now marriage was inhabited by two sinners.<\/p>\n And nothing has changed. \u00a0Now every person who marries has a heart infected with sin. So marriage is designed for blessing.\u00a0 But every one of us can make our marriage a not very blessed place to be for the one we promised to love.<\/p>\n Think of the man with roving eyes who leaves his wife feeling insecure.\u00a0 Or the wife so prone to argue and disrespect her husband.\u00a0 Or the couple so caught up in their own lives that they have little time for each other.\u00a0 Or maybe there\u2019s that pent up bitterness that a husband or wife refuse to let go.\u00a0 None of our marriages are immune to such things.\u00a0 For our marriages are inhabited by sinners<\/b>.\u00a0 And because they are, marriage is\u2026 in need of Jesus.<\/b><\/p>\n God\u2019s word commands us to love our neighbor as ourselves. Yet each Sunday, we must confess our sinful failures to do just that.\u00a0 And too often those sins have been against our closest neighbor.\u00a0 My spouse who I promised to love.<\/p>\n We need Jesus.\u00a0 We need his committed love that brought him to this world from God\u2019s heaven.\u00a0 He became our brother, lived as one of us, and then he went the way of the cross.\u00a0 And there God put our guilt on him so we could be forgiven.\u00a0 And that we are.\u00a0 What committed love!<\/p>\n That love changes us.\u00a0 It moves us.\u00a0 First of all to reach across the divide sin can cause in our marriage and forgive.\u00a0 Jesus\u2019 love gives us the heart to forgive as we have been forgiven.<\/i><\/p>\n And Jesus\u2019 love gives us the power to change.\u00a0 Every one of us can look at our life and see things we do or fail to do that can trouble our marriage. To know Christ\u2019s love brings a power to change, to be different, to be more the husband or wife that your Savior calls you to be.<\/p>\n And then there are those times when our marriage is not a blessed place to be.\u00a0 We might prefer to be out of it.\u00a0 To know Christ\u2019s love is to know better than that.\u00a0 To know Christ\u2019s love is to rise above those feelings and say:\u00a0 No, this is not what you want me to do Jesus.\u00a0 Lord help us through this time.<\/i>\u00a0 And he will.\u00a0 He will .\u00a0 Yes, marriage is in need of Jesus.<\/b><\/p>\n But that brings me back to that couple who knew each other so well.\u00a0 They were married over 60 years when we had our conversation. \u00a0They had lived what marriage IS.\u00a0 A man and his wife truly committed to each other. \u00a0A marriage of highs and lows, of joys and sorrows. \u00a0But together.\u00a0 They faced it together.\u00a0 They lived it together with Jesus and the love he brings.\u00a0 \u00a0Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Text:\u00a0 Genesis 2: 24\u00a0 Marriage Sunday \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The other day I heard this story.\u00a0 A husband got up to make something special for breakfast.\u00a0 His wife was still asleep.\u00a0 He went to heat something up in the frying pan.\u00a0 It made a little smoke-well that\u2019s what he said.\u00a0 The smoke detector went off and woke her up.\u00a0 Good morning, honey!\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermon"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":461,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459\/revisions\/461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}