"Marriage Sunday" By Brother Andy Geibler August 10th,
2014
We
started on this last week, and we talked about marriage. I want to say that it’s a
privilege it is
just to talk about this, and to be able to share with my brothers and
sisters. I don’t
take it lightly to
stand behind this pulpit. My
wife and I
want to share a couple of things off of our heart towards marriage,
because we
think it’s important. The
world has
given us a skewed vision of what marriage is these days. We need to take time, as
brothers and
sisters, especially as married couples, to have fellowship, and to talk
about
these things, and take time to just strengthen one another. If we don’t strengthen
each other, it’s not
going to happen. We
have—I have my wife,
and we have our times together—we should talk together and share
tings—but we
need fellowship with other couples, things that help encourage and
strengthen,
to kick out the nonsense of the world, and to reaffirm, fro the
scriptures,
what marriage is all about. One
thing
that’s on my heart is that our love for God, it doesn’t grow by chance. Our walk with God doesn’t
improve by
chance. God draws
us, but it’s up to us
to make that relationship work, because, a lot of times, we take and
use an
example where we’re talking about godliness and growing in God, and
compare it
to marriage, but I want to take it the other way,--that’s really where
it’s
at—because our relationship with God’s got to be first.
In our marriage, if we don’t take the time to
strengthen our marriage, if we don’t go out of our way to do it, if we
don’t
find things to make our marriage better, then things are left up to
chance,
just as if we leave out walk with God up to chance—we might find
ourselves down
the road, thinking, “In God, what am I doing?
Why haven’t I attained to something else?” I might have to stop and
think, “Am I doing
things? Am I
reading my Scriptures? Am
I praying like I should? Am
I getting fellowship like I should?
What am I doing to make that work?”
In our relationship with our wives or our
husbands, if we don’t take the time to learn of each other, if we don’t
take
time—if I don’t figure out what she likes?
I’m going to be in trouble.
Sometimes we have a tendency to become comfortable,
and we stop looking
at those things. We
have to go out of
our way for those things. A
lot of times
it’s learning about relationships.
A lot
of us were raised different ways; we have different ways that were
taught to us
by our parents, our grandparents, by our family around us… Some were good, some maybe
not so good, I
don’t know. Everyone’s
got a different
experience of people around them, how their marriage worked. That’s why we have to come
back to God, and
we have to come back to learning some things about each other. Sometimes, and this may
sound unspiritual,
but, I believe sometimes, in this society, take time to get counseling. A lot of people, and I’m
going to take the
stigma away from it, a lot of times, all it is, is two people having a
mediator
between them, because a husband and wife are two human beings. Sometimes it’s having a
pastor or a close
friend, and you’re talking to them, sometimes you’re able to—sometimes,
we can
be with a couple, and they don’t even know it, and we’re talking, and,
because
we’re with a godly couple, and I can see things in myself that I
wouldn’t see
if it was just us two. She
could say
something to me and I could blow it off, something that concerned her. If I see something in
anther godly couple,
that says, now I have to take that internally with me, and it causes me
to
think. Sometimes
reading a book
can—there’s a lot of godly books out there; there’s a lot of nonsense
out
there—but I have one that I’ve read that our pastor has—Pastor Paine
has recommended
to us, called The Five Love Languages.
It’s not an end-all fix, but it’s something that I
needed to do to help
my relationship; it’s something we did together.
I believe some of you have read it, too. I’m not trying to say this
one particular
thing; I’m saying that our marriages don’t get better by chance. They don’t get better by
just saying, “I want
to do this.” Some
people do this
naturally, some people do this more naturally than others, some people
have to
work at it. If you
look at someone and
think that they have the perfect marriage, and you think, “Why don’t I
have
that?” watch and see the things that they do.
I have more that I want to share later on in the
service; I’m going to
ask my wife to share her heart this morning, and then I’m going to ask
a few
other couples to share. SONIA: Good
morning. Just like
Andy was sharing
about our relationship with God is something that we have to invest
time
in. It’s not
something that we just
allow it to flourish by chance. When
we
went to this, “I Still Do” conference a couple of week-ends ago, just
like Andy
mentioned, not because our marriage was in danger, but, because we know
that we
are two very different human beings being together, and so very
different in so
many ways, but we’re willing to work through those differences. There’s many things that
we could stand up
here and talk about, but, by all means, our marriage is nowhere near
perfect. No one is
perfect. We’re
grateful that God put us together and
He’s allowing us to grow together each and every day, not only
enhancing our
marriage, but enhancing the lives that we come across.
Andy and I were talking last night about
doing things specifically to enhance and strengthen our marriage,
because I
need my love tank filled on a regular basis, and so does my spouse. If we just leave it to
chance, it’s not going
to happen. You have
to take the
initiative, and you have to work at it, just like with any interests or
hobbies
that each and every person has. Just
like I would invest time in a hobby, because I love to do that, or I
care about
that—Second to God, my spouse is the most important thing to me here on
earth. I know
that’s kind of shocking,
because I love my grandchildren, I love my mom and dad, I love my
friends, I
love a lot of people in my life, but—In this conference they mentioned
to us
that your spouse should be the second most important thing in your
life, and
that was very shocking to me, because I love my grandchildren, I love
my
daughter, I love my family, I love my sisters, I love my brother, I
love my
mom, I love you all, but, my spouse, if I don’t invest the time in him,
if I
don’t make him feel like I’m his number one cheerleader, somebody else
is going
to. I can’t let
that in.
Andy
also mentioned last week so many great points that I wanted to make. We have to protect this
relationship; no one
else is going to protect it for us.
We
have to protect it with our lives; no matter what it takes to protect
that
relationship, we must do it. How
do we
do that? we take an interest in each other.
We take interest in the things that we both like to
do together—a lot of
the things that Andy likes to do, I don’t like to do.
I know that’s shocking to a lot of you. My husband loves garage
sales; I do not like
garage sales, but I make it a point, and I know that sounds funny, but
I make
it a point, and I know that sounds like, “Wow!
Garage sales? big deal.”
It’s
time that we spend together, whether I like it or not, I’m investing
time in
something that my husband likes to do, and vice versa.
My husband may not like making the bad, but
he goes out of his way, and makes the bed, and that makes my day. He’s investing his time in
something that I
like done. You
know, finding quality
time to spend with each other; it’s not the quantity, it’s the quality
time
that you make for each other. It
helps
us to learn more about each other; it helps us to grow together, and
learn what
is it that makes him tick? what is it that makes him happy? what is it
that
makes him excited? If
you find those
small moments, that little quality time…
Life is going to pass you by, and, at the end of
your time, you’re going
to have lots of regrets. It
does take
lots of time, and love, and patience, and kind words, even though the
other
person might have wronged you or vice versa.
I’m not pointing fingers.
I believe
that we do need to make whatever necessary, whatever sacrifice
necessary to
invest in our marriage, to strengthen our marriage.
There
was a couple there that mentioned seven gifts that men should give to
their
women, and women should give to their men.
I wasn’t at all shocked that the number one that
they talked about was
godliness. We can
have everything in our
marriage, the love, and the patience, and the kind words, and whatever
it takes
for a marriage to flourish and be strengthened, but if the godliness is
not
there, what’s it worth? If
we don’t put
God first in our lives, this union is not going to work.
Another
thing that stood out to me was the encouragement that we should give
one to
another. I
shouldn’t be verbally abusing
my husband. I’m not
saying that I’ve
never done it, but verbal affirmation is very important. I should be his
cheerleader. He
should feel like he is on top of the
world; whatever he does, I should be cheering him on, regardless of
what went wrong,
or what didn’t go the way he thought it was going to go. Also, loyalty: Andy should never have a
question whose team
we’re on, whose team I’m on. It
should
just be so affirmative that he knows I’ve got his back, and vice versa. I should know the same
about him. You
know, there’s many gifts. They
talked about godliness, which I wanted
to point out, and unrivalled priority, respect, of course. If I can’t respect my
husband, how can I
expect others to respect him?
Encouragement, loyalty, and confidentiality. Men to women, they talk
about, of course,
godliness, unconditional love, understanding—because we’re so
different, you
know? Even though
he needs my
understanding, that’s something that I, as a woman, need—for him to be
a
provider, protector, trustworthy, and assertive leader.
I just want to point out that in order for
this union to be strengthened and to grow, along the lines, there’s
going to be
a lot of sacrifices made, and Andy and I, we made a vow to each other,
and,
yes, there’s been many times that those vows have been challenged for
whatever
reason—deaths in the family, or whatever the challenges might have
been—but I’m
so grateful that God has given me a man of God that stands on his word,
stands
on God’s Word, and, regardless of what’s happening, what’s going on,
with no
hesitation, I know that my husband is always going to stand firm on
believing
that it’s all going to work out, because we’re always going to put God
first,
no matter what else happens. We
learned
a lot of new tools, and different things to equip us as a couple. A lot of things that we
probably already
knew, but if you don’t put those things into action, it’s just like
having a
new pair of shoes and never wearing them.
So,
I just want to say that God has given us this union and I don’t want to
take
for granted the love and the patience and all the great gifts that have
come
through all the challenges, and through all the happy and not so happy
times,
we’re in it for good. We
just thank God
that He’s allowed each and every one of you to be a part of our lives
and we
just pray to continue to grow together.
One thing that I’d like to leave you with is they
said sacrifices made
for ach other determine the strength of our marriage.
I do believe that.
When you make the necessary sacrifices, and
you stand on God’s Word, and you work through it together, God is going
to give
you the strength, and He is going to the knowledge, and He’s going to
give you
what you need to get through it. We
do
have to protect our marriages, we have to stand on God’s Word, and we
have to
continue to work together. I
pray that
we continue to help each other through whatever relationships we have
together
and whatever challenges we face and, as we go forward, let’s just
continue to
help each other and stay encouraged in God.
ANDY: Mike
and Mary Ogden, if you could come on up.
I’ve asked them to share what they do to protect
their marriage and
strengthen their marriage. How
long have
you been married, Mike? MIKE: Coming
up on thirty-eight years. ANDY: Coming
up on thirty-eight years. Amen. MIKE: I got
to know Mary when I was nineteen.
We
went together; we started out when we were in college, and I had no
idea that
she was looking for anyone. My
roommate
had a party going on, he invited a friend; she brought Mary. I didn’t party. I was into painting;
that’s all I wanted to
do. Mary didn’t
party; she was just kind
of like a wallflower. She
just wanted to
sit on the bed and needlepoint. I
looked
at her, and I thought, “That’s a person I really want to get to know.” Over the next month, I
knew that she was the
person I was going to marry. I
knew that
so well, I bought the rings on the third year of just going together. I knew I was going to
marry her. I should
say, let’s go back—what do I think
Mary is? I go back to Adam and Eve.
God
made Adam, and then Adam was alone, and then God provided Eve. He took her in marriage,
and that was the
first marriage. They
messed up; got
kicked out of the garden; they stayed together, and they started a
civilization. Even
after they messed up,
their faith was still in God. I
said
within the first year, I knew I was going to marry Mary. God gave her to me; I
wasn’t looking for her,
but God said, “Here.” I
was smart enough
to say okay. By the
end of the fifth
year, I talked to Mary, and I said, “I give myself to you. I give my soul to you;
everything” So,
when it came time to get married, I was
already married. I
was already married
because God put us together; He joined us.
Nothing was ever going to separate us.
We became two sides of a coin.
Over thirty-seven years, I have asked her if I could
cash a check for a
dollar, anything. Our
hobbies are the
same. I know
exactly what she’s going to
say before she says it. Have
I gotten
mad at her? no. Frustrated?
yeah. She does
things that frustrate me, but she’s
never done anything to make me mad.
I
frustrate her a lot. She’s
my better
half, and when I look at her, I see God.
MARY: That’s
right, were two sides of the same coin.
He’s arts, I’m crafts.
He’s the
head of the household; what he says—when he makes up his mind, that’s
what’s
going to happen. Part
of my job is to
make sure that it happens. Think
resident and vice-president. The
president is the head, but the vice president is usually the one
running around
making things happen. Through
the yeas,
there have been times when we’ve been at church, and we’ve been in two
different places in the congregation.
I’ve had people come up to me and say, “You’re
married?” because this
young man is so self-effacing that he’s my support, but people don’t
see him
like they should. One
of the many things
that I have learned, growing up in the church, since we came here, is
that I
need to allow him to be the head of the household.
I need to be the person that’s second, not
the person that’s first. That
makes a
big difference when you talk about supporting something—if you’re
trying to be
first, then you’re competing, you’re not supporting.
So, you have to sit back, and you have to
support. We’ve had
some challenges; I
won’t tell you that we’ve had a perfect marriage.
There’s some things that could have just
blown us out of the water before we even came—me joining the military
and then
coming here. Michael
had to make a
decision, you know? I
had to make a
decision, too, because, at that time, we were both very cranky, and
very hard
to live with. We
had to stick with our
decision; we were going to get married once, we were going to get
married to
each other, and that was it. God
put us
together, we weren’t going to let anything take us apart. We didn’t, we talked about
this before we got
married. This
wasn’t something that we
waited until after we got married to talk about.
When we came to Christian Fellowship, we were
still right off base, and outside the Chinese restaurant there was this
dark
stairway that went pretty much straight up and at the top was your
access to
Heaven. That’s
where we learned about
baptism in Jesus’ name. Now,
we’d been
looking for years. We
started out in
college looking for the place that we were going to call home; when we
arrived
at Christian Fellowship, we knew that we had it.
When the decision came, baptism in Jesus’
name, yes or no? We
had the Bible
study. The
gentleman that was with us
was very kind, and stepped away so that we could talk.
We both said, “I’m not doing this without
you.” There’s no
reason to step into God
and His guidance without doing it together.
This is from 2 Corinthians 6:14
“Be
ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship
hath
righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with
darkness?” I can’t
even imagine walking
this path by myself. I
don’t know how
couples even try to do that. This
is—I
don’t understand that.
I
have some other things. I
want to
re-emphasize some things that Sonia was saying.
You have to put God first.
There
have been lots of times that, you know, we talk about things, and I’ve
got a
goal in mind, you know, get up in the morning and Mike says, “What’s on
today’s
agenda?” I’m
talking about all the
errands I’ve got to run. Sometimes
he
says yes, sometimes he says no, sometimes we put them on hold. He makes decisions. I encourage him. I’ve encouraged him to
continue to be the artist. I’ve
encouraged him to find a job. We
even, at one point, for two months, he was
going to be the house-husband. He
tried
that for two months, and he said, “I can’t stand it!” and went and
found a
job. So, whatever
he’s decided, I try to
be there. I try to
be very loyal to
him. I’ve had to
step back sometimes and
say, “Am I respecting my husband, or am I belittling him?” If my self-talk is
belittling, if I am doing
that internally, I’m also going to say that externally.
So, I watch my self-talk when I’m thinking about
my husband, when I’m thinking about my family, when I’m thinking about
my
church, because I don’ want those things in my life.
If
you watch TV over the years, they started out with married couples
being in two
beds in a room. That
was a married couple: two
beds in a room. Over
the years, they got so it was one bed,
and then TV went to, “It’s okay to divorce.”
The stuff that it is hard for us to deal with, TV is
bringing it into
our lives and saying, “Look what people are doing,” and people are
looking at
it and saying, “Oh, this must be normal.”
Gay is the current thing, you know, let everybody be
the same. It’s hard
to deal with sometimes, but, what
you put in here is what you and God are dealing with.
You have to deal with this, too.
So, we don’t watch a lot of television. When somebody comes up to
Michael and offers
him a better deal on his cable, Michael says, “Can you beat the deal
that we’ve
already got?” “How much do you pay?”
“Nothing.” We
are limiting the
amount of influences coming into our lives; we are picking things that
we
watch. That is a
choice that we’ve
made. Over the
years, we’ve gotten rid
of a lot of the garbage music. Things
that were cutting down life, cutting down marriages.
We don’t listen to a lot of country; I don’t
know, once you’ve lost your wife, your dog, your house, your car… Really?
Is this where I want to be?
No, I
don’t want to live this way. My
sweetheart here has a deal with me; so, if I cut the cake, he gets to
pick the
first slice. Think
about it, guys. God
bless you. ANDY: You
know what happens if you play a country song backwards?
You get your house back, your dog back, your
wife back…
We
need to hear more people’s hearts.
I’m
going to ask Bill Adams to come up next; I had asked Bill and Becky,
but Becky
is away tending to a grandchild. They
had to rush her to the hospital, so let’s keep that in prayer. That’s what mothers do. I was going to ask both of
them, but I’m going
to ask Bill to share his experience in putting God first in marriage. BILL:
Thanks. The
granddaughter didn’t have to be rushed to
the hospital, we thought we were going to have to rush the daughter to
the
hospital, and they’re fine. James
writes, “From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not
hence, even
of your lusts that war in your members?
Ye
lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye
fight
and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that
ye may consume it
upon your lusts.” (James 4:1-3) Now,
he
says, “…come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your
members?” the
husband and wife are one flesh. Left
arm, right arm; these are your
members. The left
arm and the right arm
don’t always get along. Paul
wrote, “…and
yet shew I unto you a more excellent way.”
1 Corinthians 12:31)
James says,
further on down, he says, “Do ye think that the scripture saith in
vain, The
spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?” (James 4:5) Doesn’t everybody want to
have their own
way? Doesn’t
everybody want to be the
one who’s right? But,
Paul says, the
greatest of these is love (1 Corinthians 13:13).
Yet, show I unto you a more excellent
way. Jesus said,
“Before you knew Me, I
created you, I formed you in the womb, before you were even born, I
called
you.” (Jeremiah 1:5) Sonia
has already
testified, God is above our relationship with our spouse. Our spouse is the second
most important relationship. After James
says, “Do you think
that the Scripture sayeth in vain, ‘The spirit that is in us lusteth to
envy.’”
He says, “But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth
the
proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.” (James 4:6)
I get to talk a little bit about my wife,
since she’s not here. How
do we
learn—how do we know about putting God first in our lives? well,
because we’ve
stumbled a couple of times. My
wife and
I, our personalities are very much alike and so we knock heads,
actually, quite
a bit. Honestly,
because of love, most
of it’s not fighting so much as just kind of bumping into each other
trying to
get to the same place. That
same place
has gotten to be Heaven. The
whole point
of it is, get to Heaven. If
you’re in
love with somebody, that’s great, don’t you want to see them go, too? Now, honestly, I had a
very privileged
childhood. No, we
weren’t rich. My
childhood was privileged in that, from the
time I was old enough to read, what I was reading was the Bible. From the time that I was
old enough to
understand how to share my things t-with the other kids, I was taught
that,
yes, you always want to be right, but, if you think you’re right, it
doesn’t
necessarily mean that you are right.
The
first thing that you better do is make sure that what you think is
right is
right. If you’re
presented with the evidence
that you’re wrong, you don’t change the evidence, you change yourself. That’s why, for example,
when Rich Brand
looked me in the eye, and said, “What are you going to do about it?” I
said,
“Where’s the water?” My
wife wasn’t with
me at that point, but I already knew her heart.
We were already—I don’t want to say destined, what’s
another word for
destined?—Oh, destined is good enough.
We were already destined to get married.
When she arrived here, that was the first thing that
she did, because,
like Mike and Mary said, doing this without the other…
because you can’t be unequally yoked with
unbelievers. Not
because somebody’s
holding a hammer over your head and saying, “You can’t do it,” but
because it
doesn’t work. Mix
oil and water; good
luck.
Now
I’m going to switch over and do my wife’s part.
Philippians 2:3
“Let nothing
be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each
esteem
other better than themselves.” It
goes
on to say, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of
God, thought it not
robbery to be equal with God: But
made
himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and
was made
in the likeness of men: And
being found
in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto
death…”
(Philippians 2:5-8) Now,
your spouse is
part of you. So, my
wife, being found in
the form of Bill Adams, did not think it robbery to be equal with Bill
Adams,
but made herself of no reputation, and took upon herself the form of a
servant
and was made in the likeness of… But,
you see what I’m saying, here? And,
I am
equal with her, and, being found in the form of Becky Adams, it doesn’t
bother
me to humble myself, although, sometimes it’s difficult to get to that
place,
because I have to wade through all of myself.
But, to humble myself, look at her side, see whether
she’s right, and,
how does the Bible say to deal with it if you are the one who’s right
in the
matter and your spouse is not? well, the same way you would deal with a
brother; you teach them in meekness.
Talk with them, pray, in faith believing; that’s how
we overcome every
obstacle in our lives, by faith; take it to God.
It doesn’t say everything except
marriage. But,
putting God first in your
life will ensure that your heart is right, that your spouse’s heart is
right,
and, if both your hearts are right with God, then God Himself is going
to solve
the problem. Amen. ANDY: I want
to focus on what was said, something very similar:
Mike and Mary talked about you were hearing
the truth for the first time, and you looked at each other and said,
“I’m not
doing this with out you.” It’s
important
that they made that decision. They
were
both putting God first in what they did.
Bill talked about it as well.
As
soon as Becky came here, even though Bill had already been baptized, it
was the
first thing that she did. They
both knew
that they wanted a life together, and they both knew they needed to put
God
first. You might be
asking, “Why is this
even important? Why
are we going all
over this?” First
of all, this is our
month of sound doctrine, and the Bible talks quite a bit about this.
There’s a lot of things in the Bible talking about
marriage. Paul
talked about it in several places in the
letters. I find it
unique, because I was
looking through the Gospels, and what Jesus said most about it was
divorce—or,
not divorcing. I’m
not going to go into
that too deep today, I’m just pointing out that was what Jesus said
when
marriage came up. It
makes you wonder
what was going on there that marriage just came up.
It asks in several places about giving a bill
of divorce. Jesus
spelled it out, “Moses
wrote this in the Law because of the hardness of your heart, but…” I don’t want to go to far
into that, but I
just want to point out that Jesus mentioned it, that’s what He
mentioned about
marriage. That’s
why we draw the
importance on it here, today. If
He was
staunch a=enough to say, “No, from the beginning, that’s not how it was
supposed to be.” Your
commitment, a man
and a woman, that’s your commitment; that’s your vow before God. He really put an
exclamation mark on that
when He was asked about it. We
get a lot
of our advice from Paul, through his letters to the churches.
I
want to highlight something in this vein, also, going back to last
week’s
service. Parrish
talked about, “Jesus
Saves.” He talked
about Jesus saving us
is not something that just happens one time.
Sure, we’re buried in baptism, and we follow in that
covenant, we take
on His name, but that’s not something that’s just a one time thing. Sometimes we ask the
question, “Are you
saved?” What are we
really asking when
we ask that question? Are
we asking,
“Have you taken on the name of Jesus?
Have you been buried in Jesus’ name?”
Really, when you say, “Am I saved?” what does that
mean for me, today,
if I say, “Yes, I’m saved?” That’s
the
condition of my soul. We
talked earlier
about putting things into your relationship with God.
that determines the state of your walk with God,
by putting things into it. As
we relate
it to marriage, how’s our marriage doing?
It’s directly related to what we’re putting into it. What was that quote you
said, Sonia? Investments.
Sacrificial investments.
The
product of your marriage is a direct result of your sacrificial
investments. So, if
you don’t make those
sacrifices, you’re not going to get the results you want. We’ll look at a scripture
for some context. We
talked a lot about putting God first, and
protecting your relationship. Let’s
look
at Ephesians 5:22, “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as
unto
the Lord.” Men, we
like to stop here; it
sounds pretty good, but, it goes on, there’s a lot more to this: “For the husband is the
head of the wife,
even as Christ is the head of the church: and He is the saviour of the
body. Therefore as
the church is subject unto
Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.”
(Ephesians
5:23-24) That’s
what society likes to
highlight, just that part, when they want to talk about God and
marriage. That’s
where they stop. It
says, “Husbands, love your wives, even as
Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might
sanctify
and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might
present it
to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such
thing;
but that it should be holy and without blemish. So
ought men to love their wives as their own
bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For
no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but
nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: For we are members of his
body, of his flesh,
and of his bones. For
this cause shall a
man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and
they
two shall be one flesh.” (Ephesians 5:25-31)
I’m going to go back to the second part, “Husbands,
love your wives,
even as Christ also loved the church…”
That’s not an authoritative, beating over the head
type of thing. If
we look at the Scriptures, at everything
Christ did for the church, if He ever get what we would call violent,
it wasn’t
to the church. He
went into the 1 Thessalonians 5:14 Now we exhort
you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded,
support the
weak, be patient toward all men. See that none render evil for evil
unto any man;
but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all
men. Rejoice
evermore. Pray without ceasing. In
every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus
concerning
you. Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings. Prove all things;
hold
fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil. And the
very God
of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul
and
body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Faithful
is he that calleth you, who also will do it.
If
we look at that as individuals, if a husband does that, and a wife does
that,
then how can a marriage not work right?
But, we are corruptible flesh and we need to be
strengthened. At
this time, I want to ask all of the
married couples to come forward. I
would
like to come together in a prayer of unity to strengthen one another. Those of you who are not
married, don’t feel
left out; I want you to pray for those that are up here, because we’re
all one
body, whether we’re married or single, we’re all one body in Christ. Even if your spouse is not
here, please come
up. If you need to
sit, bring your chair
up here. Even if
your spouse isn’t here,
if you’re a husband or you’re a wife, even though your spouse isn’t
here, come
on up, we want to pray for you. PARRISH:
I
anoint you in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Amen.
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