Isn't She Lovely....isn't He Strong And Handsome

Text: Ephesians 5 : 22 – 33

Theme: Isn’t she lovely? Isn’t he strong and handsome

Introduction

- [Read and explain the text]

- [Speak of concern for marriages]

- This morning, we are going to do something that is different, but something that is long overdue

- I want all married couples to sit together [e]

- This morning, we are going to minister to all married couples [e]

- To those who are not yet married, or if your spouse has gone to be with Christ, sit back and enjoy some fun this morning [e]

- We are going to be very interactive

1. It’s time to shake things up…..and down

- I want all couples to now stand up and hold both hands

- [Play chorus of song 1: Shake you down by Gregory Abbot]

- You may sit down…

- Genesis 2: 18, 21 – 24 says, “Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.’

- “So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man He made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, ‘This at last is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.’ Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife.”

- The first thing that we must remind ourselves this morning is that GOD ORDAINED MARRIAGE. [e]

- Your marriage is of God [e]

- And if it of God, it is a holy union [e]

- And if it is a holy union, then we must treat each other as God would want us to [e]

- The second thing we must remind ourselves this morning is that God was deliberate when He created woman:

- He did take a bone from Adam’s foot….this would have signified that she would be beneath him [e]

- That he could trample her down all the time [e]

- Men you cannot put your wives down all the time [e]

- God did not design them to be trampled and abused [e]

- God also did not take a bone from Adam’s head….this would have signified that she would have been above him [e]

- Ladies, you cannot look down on your husbands [e]

- You cannot rule over him [e]

- God did not designed man to be ruled over by his wife [e]

- But God took a bone from Adam’s side….this signified that they were to accompany each other in life [e]

- God designed that they compliment each other (compliment in terms of them completing each other)

- Husband and wife were designed by God to be one [e]

- As we examine marriages today, we can agree with the song writer, Gregory Abbot…..it time to shake some things down and time to shake some things down [e]

- We need to shake out the cobwebs that have grown over our marriages [e]

- We need to shake out the apathy about each other [e]

- We need to shake out all fighting and shouting and insulting [e]

- We need to shake out that spirit that causes us to put each other down all the time [e]

- We rather need to shake up the tree of love again and see what fruits may fall off [e]

- We need to shake up the love again [e]

- If you need to go dig in your closet and look for those old cassettes and records and a-tracks and put on that old music to bring back those old feelings, then go do that [e]

2. It’s all about that…..

- We live in a world driven by the media [e]

- The media (TV, magazines, movies, social networks, the internet) has entered our lives in a big way and has also dictated the way we should look. [e]

- Men, we are told that all women, including our wives, must look like super models and dress like movie stars [e]

- Ladies, we are told that all men, including our husbands, must look like a cross between Brad Pitt and Shar Ruhk Khan and have muscles like The Rock and dress like George Clooney [e]

- Since we are using some songs in our sermon today….we would like to sing “All of me..loves all of you” [e]

- Love goes beyond looks [e]

- Love goes beyond worldly class and sophistication [e]

- Love goes beyond dressing and clothes [e]