Covenant In Marriage Series

Well good morning newlife. Man, it is good to be with you guys again today. Love that we in spring, it is getting warmer. It looks like rain is on its way. Today I want to start off and ask you how many of you ever went into a contract, like a Vodacom, or home loan, or car buying. Can you show me. I mean the amount of paperwork you sign is insane, there is so many T and C and we have to initial what seems like a hundred pages, and it feels like we forced to miss the reading of the finer points, when you then all of a sudden pick up an issue, you cannot get out of that contract because see you sign here on page 74 clause point 3 subsection b sub section a. You all know that it is difficult to get out of that contract.

Well, I think we treat a specific relationship with much less reverence than we do a contract. I have been speaking to our men staff, at our morning devotionals, the last couple of weeks, and man the discussions has been good, and listening to all these guys speaking about marriage, and dating reminded me that we as Christians really do not understand the word covenant. What a covenant looks like, what is a marriage covenant. I mean once again it seems that we are getting a misinterpretation of how we need to step into marriage, how does marriage look, and if we are not happy well, we try to break this covenant. I mean the reality shows that we watch, yes, we do see them as entertainment, but somehow seeds have been planted that makes us think well maybe this is a good idea. I mean let me give you some examples of stories, let me do a bit of show and tell.

Married at First Sight Mzansi features eight hopefuls who agree to participate in an extreme experiment by marrying a stranger. Special experts – including a spiritualist, a relationship coach, and a sociologist – use scientific matchmaking methods to determine each couple, who will not have met or had contact with each other until the wedding day.

The Mzansi Magic series then documents the relationships, including honeymoons and other relatable events of married life. After several weeks, each couple must decide whether to remain together or go their separate ways. This “sensational” show, as described by Glamour magazine, has been trending on X every week since its premiere.

The bachelor and bachelorette: I mean 28 seasons of giving out roses, like Bless bridges, for those who do not know bless bridges go google him. Where a bunch of woman fights the for the hand of a man in marriage, or a woman in bachelorette. 28 seasons.

We have op my eish and Boer soek n vrou, it is literally a contest of who can win over a guy heart to go live on a farm or date a famous personality. I mean you taking 3 women to your farm and then you choose after a few weeks? You take ladies to a spa like retreat and then go on dates will all of them. It just seems a bit crazy, and I know Louis, you cannot judge, I am not judging, some of them are still married or together, but it just shows us how skew we have taken the way we should date, or find a husband or wife. How we somehow see this as the norm, that looking for a man or wife, they must look and act a certain way. That looking for a spouse means you can do it in a couple of weeks and be ok. It was more looking for that spark, that connection and not caring to look at the spiritual side, the personality side, the character side, the flaws, And what has been happening and what I been seeing a lot is also how to communicate in the long run.

So what I want to do today, is just from a biblical perspective look at marriage, I want to look at what that covenant looks like, I want to give you some really straight forward biblical advice going into marriage(you single people and those who are married to teach it to the next generation. And I want to talk from a grace perspective. I want you not to be ignorant of covenant anymore. I want you to really know what it means to be married, and also the cost of breaking the covenant, but I want to share most of all the joy, not happiness for marriage and also the healing that God can do, and that there is forgiveness at the cross.

So I want to ask how many of you remember what you agreed to at your beautiful wedding day. How many of you can remember what you said to I do, does anyone remember to this day the exact words? Ok good some of you listened when you get married. Well here is an example we use quite a bit at marriage ceremonies.