Saturday, February 27, 2016

MARRIAGE MATTERS Session 3: Transformation

MARRIAGE MATTERS
Session 3: God’s Purpose for Marriage, Transformation

CONNECT

Why did God want me to get married? I had plans; I had dreams.  Getting hitched at 19 was not one of them! Why did God work a series of impossible events so that I could get married? What is so important about marriage that he allowed an entire country to fall under Communism so that my future wife would emigrate to the USA and settle in Albuquerque? What is so irreplaceable about marriage that my dad went bankrupt in farming because three consecutive hail storms wiped out our entire crops? Why did we move to Albuquerque?  I believe it was so that I could meet Alba, we could fall in love, and get married!

TENSION

Does it really matter who I marry?  Doesn't God's will get worked out anyway?  Why is the right spouse so important?  Isn't marriage all about me being happy?

SOLUTION

All of us have a story.  What were the circumstances that led to your and your spouse meeting and falling in love?  They are not coincidental.  God has a purpose for marriage in general and your marriage in particular.

INSPIRATION

Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NKJV) To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.

Ephesians 1:11 (NKJV) In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will,

So if God has a purpose for your marriage, what is it? God uses marriage to conform the partners to reflect the image of of Jesus Christ!

Romans 12:2 (NKJV) And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

We are born being like the world: selfish, egotistical, brute beasts.  God wants us to be changed as a testimony of what is good, and acceptable and perfect.  This is His will!
2 Corinthians 3:18 (NKJV) But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed (changed) into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

I have had many couples come to me over the years on the verge of divorce.  I encourage them not to.  They often ask, "You mean I have to live in misery the rest of my life with this jerk?"  No, you can get a new husband or a new wife.  It can be the one you have now, just changed to look like Jesus!  Don't you think Jesus would be a good husband?

Transformation is the purpose of marriage. Our spouses are holy sandpaper to rub off things that don't look like Jesus!

Proverbs 27:17 (NKJV) As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.

Spouses are each other’s best friend.  The Lord wants to use that relationship to mold your life to reflect the character of Jesus Christ.  Just as diamonds are created deep in the heat and pressure of the earth, just as metal is purified and molded by the heat of the blast furnace, so marriage provides a forge where the man and wife are fashioned into a beautiful reflection of his image.  This is our calling and purpose: to reflect His glory.

Divorces come because people refuse to be conformed to the image of God!  Have you noticed that people have a tendency to marry the same type of person the second time? Or third? Why? God is trying to change their character!


INSTRUCTION

How does transformation happen? Paul gives some definitive instructions in Ephesians.

Ephesians 5:15–33 (NKJV) See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, 16redeeming the time, because the days are evil. 17Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, 19speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, 20giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21submitting to one another in the fear of God.

1.     The things of God must have priority in your home.

VIDEO “Together Again”

Psalm 27:1 (NKJV) “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain that build it”.

a.     Let the Holy Spirit fill your house
b.     Let worship fill your house
                                               i.     Family devotions good but not necessary
c.     Let thankfulness fill your house
d.     Let mutual submission fill your house

22Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. 24Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.

2.     Submission to the scalpel of God as it is wielded by our spouse is essential.

a.     Let God cut away pride
b.     Let God cut away selfishness
c.     Let God cut away rebellion
d.     Let God cut away stubbornness

25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, 26that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. 28So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. 29For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church.

3.     The husband is the pastor of the home.

a.     Let love rule
                                               i.     Sacrifice is the order of the day
b.     Let the Word cleanse and sanctify
c.     Let God's glory be the goal
                                               i.     Holy
                                             ii.     Perfect
                                            iii.     No spot
                                            iv.     No wrinkle
d.     Your family is your offering to God.
                                               i.     It is the only thing you can take to heaven with you.
                                             ii.     You will stand before God and give an account for how your turns out.

30For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. 31“For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. 33Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

4.     Your marriage is the best picture of Jesus's love for His bride!

God loves marriage and hates divorce. Satan hates marriage and loves divorce. Why? Satan knows its power for transformation.


ACTION STEPS

Ephesians 4:31 NKJV Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.

Ephesians 4:32 NKJV And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.

Colossians 3:18-19 NKJV Wives, submit to your own husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be bitter toward them.


HASHTAG


#Changed

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