He Said/She Said Series

INTRODUCTION

• SLIDE #1

• We are beginning a six-week series that could very well change your life! A couple of weeks ago we showed the movie “Fire Proof” on Sunday evening as a kick off for this sermon series.

• If you have yet to see the movie, I would encourage you to rent it. It is an excellent movie that is very moving to watch.

• According to the dictionary, “FIREPROOF” means, “CAPABLE OF WITHSTANDING OR PREVENTING DAMAGE BY FIRE.”

• Over the next 40 days, I want to give you principles and practices from the Bible that will fireproof your marriage, your friendships, and your relationships at work, school and play.

• Fire Proof is the story of a couple – Caleb and Catherine - whose marriage is breaking up. They’ve been together for seven years, but they’ve lost that lovin’ feeling, and things are going south quickly.

• Fireproof is the story of how this couple, with the help of God, put their marriage and their lives back together again.

• They struggle through the issues of forgiving, rekindling feelings for each other, breaking free of addictions and things that hold us back, and finding the love of God.

• We’re going to explore each of these themes over the next six weeks as we learn how to Fireproof our Relationships.

• Two of the messages in the series will cover marriage, the rest will cover issues that all of us deal with as we learn to love those around us. There will be something for everyone in this series.

• Today, we’re going to look at how to get along with members of the opposite sex. I hope by now you’ve noticed that men and women are different? Well, in the film, one of the first cracks that develops in Caleb and Catherine’s relationship comes from a challenge all men and women face, which is, “How do I relate to someone who is so different than me?”

• In this clip we’re about to show, watch what can happen if you expect your partner to be just like you.

• SESSION 1 VIDEO CLIP. CLICK LIKE A NEW SONG AFTER CLIP CLICK LIKE NEW SONG

• How many of you can relate to that!

• Open your bibles to Ephesians 5:21-33.

• This passage gives us some very practical advice.IN first passing you might not see the advice so I’ll read it, and then give you a few principles.

• In the ancient wisdom of God, the Apostle Paul says that men and women should be treated differently. Why? Because we are different. As I read this, see if you can identify how men are to treat their wives and women are to treat their husbands.

• There are three of principles here that, if you practice them, will help you to fireproof your marriage.

• SLIDE #1

• Ephesians 5:21-33 ( ESV ) 21submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. 22Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. 25Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.£ 28In the same way husbands should love their 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 Christ does the church, 30because we are members of his body. 31£“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

• SLIDE #2

SERMON

Marriage works best when…

I. Both husband and wife give up their rights for the sake of the other.

• This thought comes to us from verse 21.

• SLIDE #3

• Ephesians 5:21 ( ESV ) 21submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

• That verb, “submit,” in the original text means, TO LINE YOURSELF UP UNDER, or, TO GIVE UP YOUR RIGHTS.

• Here’s what the Bible is saying: Men and women are to line themselves up under their mates in order to make the marriage work.