What Would God Say To Britney Spears About Marriage? Series

God Speaks On Marriage Series

"What Would God Say to Britney Spears About Marriage?"

Heb. 13:4 (NASB)

2/08/04 Chester’s First Baptist Church, Chester, Illinois Mike Fogerson, Spkr.

Introduction:

A There is an divorce epidemic in America. (1 in 2 marriages in divorce. Wrg!)

(Birth rates & Death rates in Randolph County.)

a In 1870’s 1 in 34, 1900 1 in 5, 1950 1 in 3, today 1 in 3/4

b In 1967 for every WIFE that left her family, there were 600 men who did. Today, for every man who leaves, two women do. (Chuck Swindoll.)

B Harvard University performed a study on divorce and discovered the following: the national divorce rate is 1 in 3.

a The average for people who were married in a church ceremony is 1 in 50.

b For those couples who were married in a Christian wedding ceremony, attend church weekly, read the Bible and pray together, the divorce rate average is 1 in 1,105. Christianity can truly divorce-proof your marriage! God is so for MARRIAGE!

* "The Foundation for a Strong Family," Rick Warren, The Encouraging Word, 1992

C We’re beginning a new series, "God Speaks on Marriage."

*Ryan & Trista (Next Week), Bob & Wanda, Betty & Earl (2/22)

a "4 Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge. Heb 13:4 (NASB)

b ETS: The author of Hebrews (Authorship Debate: Paul, Luke, Barnabas, Apollos, Priscilla, ???) told the early Christian to guard their precious marriage.

D ESS: Marriage is not a joke.

a Objective: I hope you will treat your marriage with the honor it deserves.

b Probing Question: What are you doing that shows your honoring your marriage?

T.S. Let’s look at two steps that we can take to give our marriages the honor they deserve.

I The first step we can take to honor our marriages is to . . .SEE YOUR MARRIAGE AS PRECIOUS. "Marriage is to be held in honor among all..." v.4a Honor your marriage and its vows, Heb 13:4 (TLB)

A A biblical marriage was to be viewed as an extremely expensive.

a A biblical marriage was divinely designed to be a union of one one man and one woman.

*24 For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. Gen 2:24 (NASB)

*2 But because of immoralities, each man is to have his own wife, and each woman is to have her own husband. 1 Cor 7:2 (NASB)

Our President is not okay with Gay Marriages:

February 4, 2004 STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT

Today’s ruling of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court is deeply troubling. Marriage is a sacred institution between a man and a woman. If activist judges insist on re-defining marriage by court order, the only alternative will be the constitutional process. We must do what is legally necessary to defend the sanctity of marriage.

The Supreme Court of Massachusetts is okay with Gay. (In fact, according to an AP article on 2/5/4 "The soonest a constitutional amendment could end up on the ballot would be 2006, meaning that the nation’s first gay marriage could take place in Massachusetts as soon as May."

God is not okay with Gay!

(cf. Gen. 19.1-8, Judges 19.16-30, Lev. 18.22, 20.13, Romans 1.25-28, 1 Cor. 6.9-10, 1 Tim. 1.10, 2 Pet. 2.6-7, Jude 7)

b Honor: (gk. time) Price paid, sum, the cost, precious.

19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. 1 Pet 1.19 (NASB)

*Jesus blood was ‘held in honor’, precious, expensive, price paid.

*The writer is saying to treat and view marriage as something sacred and precious. DON’T TREAT YOUR MARRIAGE (ANYONE’S) CHEAP!!

B Britney’s representative released this statement to Entertainment Tonight shortly after her wedding on 1/3/04 "On January 3rd, Britney Spears and a friend took a joke too far by getting married."

a Marriage is a precious jewel, not a practical joke.

*Marriage is be honored by who? ALL. (The most important ALL is BOTH!! The husband & the wife)

b My spouse is irreplaceable. (No one can take her place.)

*Treat your spouse as a precious, irreplaceable jewel that they are.

*Maybe you don’t have a precious Jewell, maybe you have a precious Pam, Connie, Donna, Linda, Dwain, Jason, Paul, Mike, Don.

C Maybe you heard about the guy who fell in love with an opera singer. He hardly knew her, since his only view of the singer was through binoculars - from the third balcony. He was convinced he could live "happily ever after" married to a voice like that. He scarcely noticed that she was considerably older than he. Nor did he care that she walked with a limp. Her mezzo-soprano voice would take them through whatever might come. After a whirlwind romance and a hurry-up ceremony, they were off for their honeymoon.