God Speaks On Marriage Series
"What Would God Say to Britney Spears About Marriage?"
Heb. 13:4 (NASB)
2/08/04 Chester’s First Baptist Church, Chester, Illinois Mike Fogerson, Spkr.
Introduction:
A There is an divorce epidemic in America. (1 in 2 marriages in divorce. Wrg!)
(Birth rates & Death rates in Randolph County.)
a In 1870’s 1 in 34, 1900 1 in 5, 1950 1 in 3, today 1 in 3/4
b In 1967 for every WIFE that left her family, there were 600 men who did. Today, for every man who leaves, two women do. (Chuck Swindoll.)
B Harvard University performed a study on divorce and discovered the following: the national divorce rate is 1 in 3.
a The average for people who were married in a church ceremony is 1 in 50.
b For those couples who were married in a Christian wedding ceremony, attend church weekly, read the Bible and pray together, the divorce rate average is 1 in 1,105. Christianity can truly divorce-proof your marriage! God is so for MARRIAGE!
* "The Foundation for a Strong Family," Rick Warren, The Encouraging Word, 1992
C We’re beginning a new series, "God Speaks on Marriage."
*Ryan & Trista (Next Week), Bob & Wanda, Betty & Earl (2/22)
a "4 Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge. Heb 13:4 (NASB)
b ETS: The author of Hebrews (Authorship Debate: Paul, Luke, Barnabas, Apollos, Priscilla, ???) told the early Christian to guard their precious marriage.
D ESS: Marriage is not a joke.
a Objective: I hope you will treat your marriage with the honor it deserves.
b Probing Question: What are you doing that shows your honoring your marriage?
T.S. Let’s look at two steps that we can take to give our marriages the honor they deserve.
I The first step we can take to honor our marriages is to . . .SEE YOUR MARRIAGE AS PRECIOUS. "Marriage is to be held in honor among all..." v.4a Honor your marriage and its vows, Heb 13:4 (TLB)
A A biblical marriage was to be viewed as an extremely expensive.
a A biblical marriage was divinely designed to be a union of one one man and one woman.
*24 For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. Gen 2:24 (NASB)
*2 But because of immoralities, each man is to have his own wife, and each woman is to have her own husband. 1 Cor 7:2 (NASB)
Our President is not okay with Gay Marriages:
February 4, 2004 STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT
Today’s ruling of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court is deeply troubling. Marriage is a sacred institution between a man and a woman. If activist judges insist on re-defining marriage by court order, the only alternative will be the constitutional process. We must do what is legally necessary to defend the sanctity of marriage.
The Supreme Court of Massachusetts is okay with Gay. (In fact, according to an AP article on 2/5/4 "The soonest a constitutional amendment could end up on the ballot would be 2006, meaning that the nation’s first gay marriage could take place in Massachusetts as soon as May."
God is not okay with Gay!
(cf. Gen. 19.1-8, Judges 19.16-30, Lev. 18.22, 20.13, Romans 1.25-28, 1 Cor. 6.9-10, 1 Tim. 1.10, 2 Pet. 2.6-7, Jude 7)
b Honor: (gk. time) Price paid, sum, the cost, precious.
19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. 1 Pet 1.19 (NASB)
*Jesus blood was ‘held in honor’, precious, expensive, price paid.
*The writer is saying to treat and view marriage as something sacred and precious. DON’T TREAT YOUR MARRIAGE (ANYONE’S) CHEAP!!
B Britney’s representative released this statement to Entertainment Tonight shortly after her wedding on 1/3/04 "On January 3rd, Britney Spears and a friend took a joke too far by getting married."
a Marriage is a precious jewel, not a practical joke.
*Marriage is be honored by who? ALL. (The most important ALL is BOTH!! The husband & the wife)
b My spouse is irreplaceable. (No one can take her place.)
*Treat your spouse as a precious, irreplaceable jewel that they are.
*Maybe you don’t have a precious Jewell, maybe you have a precious Pam, Connie, Donna, Linda, Dwain, Jason, Paul, Mike, Don.
C Maybe you heard about the guy who fell in love with an opera singer. He hardly knew her, since his only view of the singer was through binoculars - from the third balcony. He was convinced he could live "happily ever after" married to a voice like that. He scarcely noticed that she was considerably older than he. Nor did he care that she walked with a limp. Her mezzo-soprano voice would take them through whatever might come. After a whirlwind romance and a hurry-up ceremony, they were off for their honeymoon.
She began to prepare for their first night together. As he watched, his chin dropped to his chest. She plucked out her glass eye and plopped it into a container on the night-stand. She pulled off her wig, ripped off her false eyelashes, yanked out her dentures, unstrapped her artificial leg, and smiled at him as she slipped off her glasses that hid her hearing aid. Stunned and horrified, he gasped, "For goodness sake, woman, sing, sing, SING!" (Swindoll - Strike the Original Match 68)
a It was easy for the man to think and say that her voice would take them through whatever might come. But he didn’t realize what he was getting into. It’s easy to say, "I love you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you."
b Words come easy. Any of you who work under a difficult boss, with a spouse, or with children - know how difficult the actions are to follow through on. That’s what Paul was trying to illustrate with the next verse. Agape love doesn’t stop with an attitude. It CONTINUES with ACTION - sometimes DIFFICULT action.
The first step we can take to honor our marriages is to . . .SEE YOUR MARRIAGE AS PRECIOUS.
The writer of Hebrews tells us how we are supposed to honor our marriages in the second half of our verse.
". . .and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge. Heb13:4 (NASB)
II The second step we can take to honor our marriages is to . . . PROTECT THE PURITY OF YOUR MARRIAGE.
A There was an insistence to sexual exclusitivity/faithfulness to ones spouse.
a marriage bed is a euphemism for sex. (Not between a man & a woman, but between a husband & wife.)
b When adultery happens the purity of the marriage is compromised.
There are two reasons that divorce was permissible in the NT.
aa 1 Cor 7.12-15
15 Yet if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave; the brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us to peace.
Abandonment by an unbelieving spouse.
bb Matt 5.32, 19.9
32 but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
Marital unfaithfulness (In ancient times, Jewish & Roman law REQUIRED you to divorce your spouse if they committed adultery.)
B God will come down on those who mess up sexually.
a The world may not judge sex outside of marriage as a bad thing . . .God does.
*In v.4, the last word in this greek is God. Which is to say, "Do what you will sexually, but God, in the end, will judge you/punish you."
b Adultery causes such damage and dishonor to the purity of marriage, that sometimes the damage can not be undone.
C Do everything you can to prevent divorce. (Divorce is not present)
a Divorced life is not being there when your little girl
is crying from a bad dream and wants her daddy but
you’re not there because that night was not your
parenting night. (And you won’t even know she had a
bad dream because no one will tell you.)
Divorced life is not having any idea what your children
are doing right now because they are at their dad’s.
Divorced life is waking up at 10am on Christmas morning
because your children were not there to wake you up
early because this year they are spending Christmas
morning at dad’s and you will not see them until noon.
Divorced life is sitting having dinner at a table of
four but only having one place setting.
Divorced life is saying to yourself why..oh,why did I
not say "I"m sorry" or "I forgive you" when God asked
me but instead I allowed my fear or pride to get in the
way and chose my own way.
Divorced life is saying "Can we have a second chance?"
and there is no one to hear you.
Divorced life is watching your children drive off in
dad’s car and knowing that you will not see or hear
from them until weekend after next.
Divorced life is explaining to your children why you
don’t live together anymore when they ask you why
mommy and daddy can’t be married.
Divorce is hearing your children call you by their
step-dad’s name instead of calling you daddy because
they spend more time with their step-dad than you.
b Sexual sin will bring dishonor & cheapen your marriage faster than you can fornication.
Conclusion:
ETS: The author of Hebrews told the early Christian to guard their precious marriage. ESS: Marriage is not a joke.
We’ve look at two steps that we can take to give our marriages the honor they deserve.
a See your marriage as precious.
b Protect the purity of your marriage.
Objective: I hope you will treat your marriage with the honor it deserves.
a Choices: You can see your marriage as something so precious that you’ll do anything, give everything, to ensure your marriage is honored . . .or, treat your marriage as something cheap & common.
b Choices: You can stay sexual faithful in your marriage by protecting against sexual sin . . .or, have a false sense of "It could never happen to me" attitude.
Probing Question: What are you doing that shows your honoring your marriage?
