Making The Right Choices: Do Not Be Unequally Yoked In Marriage Series

MAKING THE RIGHT CHOICES: DO NOT BE UNEQUALLY YOKED IN MARRIAGE (GENESIS 26:34-35)

Compiled by: Herman Abrahams (Pastor), Cornerstone Faith Ministries, P.O. Box 740, Westridge 7802, Rep. of South Africa.

E-Mail: Mentorship2003@yahoo.co.uk

Note to the reader:

If you have been blessed with this sermon compilation, I would be honoured to receive an e-mail from you merely telling me where in the world you are based- I do not need any other information. This is just so that I can have the pleasure of giving thanks to Almighty God that all over the globe the ministry which he has entrusted to me, is blessing the body of Christ and helping to extend the Kingdom of God. Thank you.

Herman Abrahams, Cape Town, South Africa.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Acknowledgement: The idea for this message came from a study of the sermon “How To Avoid Making A Mess Of Your Life” by Larry Sarver (sermoncentral.com). I’ve borrowed some of his statements for this sermon, from which I hope to develop a series of sermons based on Larry’s “Two ways to avoid making a mess out of our lives” (see below).

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAKING THE RIGHT CHOICES: DO NOT BE UNEQUALLY YOKED IN MARRIAGE (GENESIS 26:34-35)

Series: Successful Family

(Read Genesis 26:34-28:9)

A large part of my and my wife’s work as a pastoral couple is to provide biblical counseling to people and families that are experiencing turmoil. They may be experiencing difficulty in some or other area which may include:

· their marriage,

· family relationships,

· their ministry,

· their finances,

· their career, or

· even in their spiritual walk with God.

Sometimes the situations are such a catastrophe that one often wonders “how in the world did they get themselves into such a mess?” The sad part is that often these messes are the result of their own decisions and actions. Many times when life is a mess, it is our own creation!

We praise God that He can turn a mess into a masterpiece. We can therefore give people hope, for our God is the God of hope:

Romans 15:4 “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”

Romans 15:13 “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

However, wouldn’t it be much better to avoid the mess to begin with? So we are going to talk about making the right choices by following God’s way and not our own.

In this story from Genesis we see a family in disorder and unrest. Through their own actions they have created an incredible mess:

· we see a husband and wife plotting against each other,

· we see one brother, Esau, weeping bitterly about what he has lost,

· we see Esau hating his brother Jacob so much that he plots to murder him, and

· we see that Jacob has to flee for his life to a distant land where he will be separated from his family for a period of 20 years.

This is a situation in which nobody wins. It is vital that we learn how to avoid these types of messes (see Rom 15:4 above- “Everything that was written in the past, was written to teach us …”). Allow the Word of God to teach you today so that you will not make the same mistakes.

In a sense this family’s life is like the totally wrecked cars that the traffic police often place on the side of the road as a sign to warn people about what happens when we disobey the traffic laws. We learn from these warnings and these negative examples what not to do so that our lives don’t end up in a similar kind of a wreck.

In this story, I believe we can to learn 2 ways to avoid making a mess out of our lives.

1. Don’t make your choices or decisions based on a wrong value system.

2. Don’t resort to wrong means of gaining what is good.

1. DON’T MAKE YOUR CHOICES OR DECISIONS BASED ON A WRONG VALUE SYSTEM.

We all have to make choices in life. We have to make choices about,

· relationships,

· purchases,

· careers,

· ministries,

· education,

· entertainment, etc.

The values that guide these choices will in large part determine whether these choices result in a blessed life or a messed up life.

Making decisions based on wrong values is one way to quickly make a mess of your life.

What are wrong values?

There are many examples of wrong values but the list would certainly include:

· sensuality,

· materialism,