Honor Marriage! Series

Honor Marriage!

Ephesians 5:21-33

Focus: Christians are called to submit to one another; to put the other’s will over & above your own out of reverence for Christ; especially in the marriage relationship.

Function: To honor the institution of Christian Marriage.

Open by recognizing folks in the congregation who’ve been married: +25 yrs; +35 yrs; +45 yrs; +55 yrs; +65 yrs ???? (Include widows/ widowers who were married)

Then recognize couples who are planning weddings in the next year.

{Prayer over these couples}

We need to honor marriage in our society & especially within the Church! With the divorce rate climbing to almost 50% of all new marriages ... we need to lift up and honor marriage in the church! With more and more of our kids growing up in homes with only one parent for a variety of circumstances ... we need (for their sake) to be lifting up Christian marriage before them!

Marriage is a wonderful thing and we need to honor those who have demonstrated successful Christian marriages to us! But, what makes a marriage successful? What’s the secret to a long and successful marriage? I once heard a man being interviewed on t.v. as he and his wife celebrated their

65th wedding anniversary. The reporter asked him just that: what’s the secret. The man’s face turned intensely serious and he said that the secret was two

simple words: “Yes, Dear.”

One of the largest television audiences in history gathered around their sets on July 29, 1981 to witness one of the most glamorous, storybook weddings

of all time! Britain’s Prince Charles of Wales and Lady Diana were married in an elaborate ceremony that was watched by an estimated 750 million people

worldwide. 75 technicians with 21 cameras allowed us to watch this fairy tale wedding; a royal prince weds a lovely lady in a grand cathedral surrounded by

hundreds of adoring subjects! What more could a woman want? They were the envy of millions; young, rich, handsome; a marriage made in heaven,

right? We know better now, don’t we? As may have happened to some of you, reality hit when the cameras were turned off and the guests went home.

Charles’ & Diana’s dream wedding soon became a nightmare marriage. Britain’s tabloids were filled with stories of unfaithfulness, of a royal couple

growing farther and farther apart. It takes more than a prince, a lovely lady and a storybook palace to make a happy marriage!

In our text that __________ just read, Paul gives us a picture of a Christian marriage and some tremendous advice. As we look at it again, let’s remember where Paul is coming from . . . Since Chpt. 4, he’s been discussing what it means to live worthy of our call as Christians. We’re to live worthy by preserving the unity of the Spirit thru the bond of peace among fellow

Christians. We’re to live worthy by being different from the world around us...

And part of that being different is avoiding ANY HINT of sexual immorality

among us! And WE made the observation last week that sexual immorality not only destroys the soul, but it destroys marriages by perverting God’s

intention for the way men & women are to live in relationship together.

Vs. 21 is another transitional statement, I believe.

Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Part of what it means to ‘walk worthy’; of what it means to live in Christian

community is to “submit to one another” ... WHY? “Out of reverence for

Christ.” I.e. b/c we ‘fear’ God; b/c we respect God!

We’re not extremely comfortable talking about ‘submission’ today, are we? What’s the dream in America? It’s to be your own boss! To answer to nobody but yourself! Like my sister used to tell me, “You’re not the boss of me!” We don’t like to be told what to do; to live in submission to another person ... but that’s just what the Bible is saying: We are to submit our will to the will of others.

Submission is a crucial ingredient in Christian living in general.

In 1 Cor. 16:16, Christians in Corinth were asked to submit to workers who had become servants to the church– they were to submit to servants! Jesus

himself repeatedly taught throughout his ministry : Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, but whoever humbles himself will be exalted. (Matt 23:12) That’s the same idea! Christians are to live in mutual submission! Notice, Paul is NOT saying that SOME Christians are to submit to other Christians . . . RATHER that ALL Christians are to submit to each other! I especially appreciated what _______ said to us the other night regarding our building program, for example. While there were only a few who indicated that they did not support the new building proposal on those surveys we filled outlast month, we understand that there were a few of you who don’t. Submission means that those who believe in the project respect you and your opinions; that they don’t think less of you for them. And submission also means that you who may not be ‘for it’ respect the decision of the rest to move forward, that you don’t think less of them for it and that you don’t work against them. And we all PRAY for God’s will to be done in the matter. That’s