Are You Married Or Just Dating The Church? Series

TITLE: ARE YOU MARRIED OR JUST DATING THE CHURCH?

SCRIPTURE: EPHESIANS 5:25-32

(This is not an original sermon as selective portions were gleaned from various ministers that contributed to on-line platforms)

This morning I will conclude our Four-Week Series entitled “The Church Series.” If you recall the first installment of this series was entitled –

1. The Church

2. The Church Has Left the Building

3. Last Sunday – Be the Church

This morning I want to tag this concluding series with the thought – ARE YOU MARRIED OR JUST DATING THE CHURCH? In a few moments, we will take communion together with Christ, remembering how we came to be His sons and daughters by faith, and recalibrating our lives to the incredible reality that we are loved by God. To prepare for this time, I want to talk to you this morning about a marriage. The marriage I have in mind is not my marriage or yours. Nor is it the institution of marriage, which seems to be moving in dishonorable and God-ignoring directions at every turn in our country.

This morning, I want to talk to you about Christ's love for his bride, the church. I want to speak to you about His devotion and sacrifice for what is, for Him, the unrivaled passion of his heart. And I want to argue that if the church means this much to Jesus, it ought to mean that much to you and me. In fact, I want to pick up on this analogy Paul uses of Christ's love for the church and ask you a very important question -- are you married or just dating the church?

Now the difference in the two is obvious.

• DATING is a kind of trial period in a relationship where your - commitments are soft - relationships are tentative - and you keep your options open

• MARRIAGE on the other hand, is a covenant relationship of Devotion and Sacrifice and Joy

• In marriage, you have burned the ships, there's no turning back, and you only have eyes for the one to whom you have pledged yourself

So, I ask you again -- are you married to the church -- fully devoted - making sacrificial investments of time and money and energy?

• Or are you just dating the church

• Nominally involved

• Partially invested

• Maintaining enough detachment so that if it doesn't work out the way you want, you can hit the door with no lingering obligations?

Statistically, one (1) out of four (4) church attendees are considered "Church Shoppers," with no real devotion to any particular local church.

• An estimated 15-20 million Americans have said they are Christians, but don't want to be a part of the local church

• Around 80 percent of American Churches are Plateaued or Declining

• When asked, people give the standard answers -- church is IRRELEVANT -- BORING -- HYPOCRITICAL -- AFTER MY MONEY

• Some have been hurt by the church - in some cases deeply

We live in a unique time in the United States, a time where church commitment is falling rapidly generation-by-generation. I was reading a newspaper article this past week that explained this is the first time in American history the predominant affiliation of religion in the United States is “None.”

• Generation X and Millennials continue to spiral downward in their faith in Jesus Christ

• I believe a big part of this is because we, the Church, are so involved in everything else that church is a mere afterthought

• ARE YOU MARRIED OR JUST DATING THE CHURCH?

In our text this morning, did you notice the intimate levels here?

• FIRST - we are the Body

• Working as a community together

• A community is one that takes on the roles and duties that it has

• In a community people do their part and keeps the community flowing

• SECOND - we see that we are the Temple

• A closer connection

• We are building together for a greater purpose

• Notice THIRDLY - that we are part of the Family

• A family should be a place of unconditional love

• They love us as who we are and it does not matter who we are

• FINALLY - we come to the most intimate of all relationships and that is MARRIAGE

• We are told that as a church we are married to Christ

• We are the bride of Christ

• This is a church promise but also an individual promise

• We are connected to Him in a very special and unique way

It’s our goal at ‘First Church’ to develop young people who, as they go into college or the workplace, will have the DNA to be committed to the local church.