Maintaining the Marriage Deuteronomy 30 15-20
1. In order to maintain the marriage Continue the courtship
"Be kindly affectionate one to another ... in honor preferring one another." Romans 12:10. When you dated you were kind affectionate Marriages just don’t happen they must develop
2. Guard your thoughts— Maintaining The marriage remember wrong thinking can destroy a marriage .
• "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he." Proverbs 23:7. The wrong kind of thinking will destroy your marriage. The devil will trap you with thoughts like these: "Our marriage was a mistake." "She doesn't understand me." "I can't take much more of this." "We can always divorce if necessary." "I'll go home to mother." "He smiled at that woman." Stop thinking thoughts like these or your marriage is gone, Avoid seeing, saying, reading, or hearing anything that (or associating with anyone who) suggests impurity or unfaithfulness. Thoughts uncontrolled are like an automobile in neutral on a hill. Anything can happen, and the result is always disaster.
3. Never retire for the night angry with each other.
• "Let not the sun go down upon your wrath." Ephesians 4:26.
• "Confess your faults one to another." James 5:16
• Be big enough to forgive and to say with sincerity, "I'm sorry”
4. Keep Christ in the center of your home. "Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it." Psalms 127:1
5. Pray together. "Pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." Matthew 26:41. "Pray one for another." James 5:16.
6. Agree that divorce is not the answer. "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." Matthew 19:6.
7. God describes love in a odd way."Love is forbearing and kind. Love knows no jealousy. Love does not brag is not conceited. She is not unmannerly, nor selfish, nor irritable, nor mindful of wrongs. She does not rejoice in injustice, but joyfully sides with the truth. She can overlook faults. She is full of trust, full of hope, full of endurance." 1 Corinthians 13:4-7,
8. Determine to speak softly and kindly. “A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger."Proverbs 15:1. "Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest." Ecclesiastes 9:9. "When I became a man, I put away childish things." 1 Corinthians 13:11.
1. God and Israel are in covenant with each other we are in covenant as well With God. One might even say we are in relationship with God or we are married to God.
• There are many text that refer to us as Gods Bride and God as The Bride Groom
• Revelation 21:9 - And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.
• Matthew 25:1-46 - Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.
• Revelation 21:2 - And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
2. Moses tells Israel you’re at a fork in the road with your marriage now your forefathers chose the road called Grumple street and complaint ave this resulted in Cursing’s they wonder 40 years
• "I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses.” [15] See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction
• You get to choose which road to take Road called blessings or the road called Cursing’s
• Moses firmly reminds them of their forefathers choices they wondered 40 years in the wilderness as a result of their choices
• Moses told them their Forefathers Complained in their marriage with God They came to Marah, but they could not drink the waters they were bitter; The people complained against Moses saying, 'What shall we drink'". God said take another lap around The Road called Cursing’s.
• The entire assembly of Israel complained, "If only we had died by the LORD's hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death." God said take another lap around the road called cursing’s of Starvation
• Moses goes up a mountain Israel complains he’s been gone to long, They say, “ lets makes us a God to worship the golden calf”. God says, “take another lap around adultery Avenue.”
• Israel’s forefathers said, “'Who will feed us meat? We remember the fish that we ate in Egypt free of charge; the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic. But now, our life is parched, there is nothing; we have nothing to anticipate but the manna!'" God said, “Take another lap around the road called cursing of the wilderness” all their complaints just resulted in another lap around the wilderness
3. Obviously, taking the road of grumpiness and complaint ave was not good for the marriage
Moses tells Israel this marriage covenant is important life and death, blessings or curses, sadness or happiness, life and prosperity, death and destruction.
• Yes, The marriage covenant is to be taken serious its Gods way or no way and the decision to which it calls us is clear-cut. Yes, we like to talk about "gray areas” but Moses, having heard the word of the Lord, will have none of it. There are two ways and only two ways, he declares -- God's way and the other way -- and we have to choose.
• Note How Moses speaks [16] For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. [17] But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, [18] I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. No middle ground or third way is offered
• Peter's announcement to the ruling authorities in Jerusalem following his arrest "We must obey God rather than any human authority” (Acts 5:29). It was God's way or no way.
4. How do we Maintain The Marriage with God “OBEY” And Love Men learn OBEY
• If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the LORD your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess.”
• Moses says that choosing life and blessing means that his people will love God, walk in God's ways and observe God's commandments. And this love is a two-way street. love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
