Waiting, Dating, And Mating Series

one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not

separate.”

2. I heard a story about a couple that went visit to some friends. The friends had a daughter that had

recently gotten married. The phone rang and the wife got up to answer it. She came back onto the

living room and asked her husband to pick up the extension.

When the husband returned to the living room a few minutes later, he reported to the waiting

friends that it was their daughter on the phone. She and her new husband were having their first “big-

time” argument. He told them that she had asked to come home.

The wife of the visiting couple asked, “What did you tell her?” The man replied, “I said, ‘You are

home.’”

B. Sexual relationships are intended for married couples

1. The apostle Paul takes a good deal of time in 1 Corinthians 7 explaining the scriptural stance on

sexual behavior.

--Those who engage in sex outside of marriage are violating the intention for which God created

sexual relationships

2. Heb. 13:4 – “Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge

the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.”

C. Divorce was never intended for any reason

1. Mal. 2:16 – “‘I hate divorce,’ says the LORD God of Israel…”

2. Back in Mk. 10, Jesus said that divorce was allowed because of the hardening of human hearts and

then explains that God’s intention was for marriages to last a lifetime

3. In another discussion on divorce, Jesus does state that it is allowable under the circumstance of

unfaithfulness

4. In this passage, Paul says that divorce is also allowable when a non-Christian leaves a Christian spouse

a. However, the Christian spouse should not leave their non-Christian spouse just because they’re not

Christians

b. Just a note: If you’re non-Christian spouse is physically abusing you and/or your children, I would

never advocate that you remain with them

--You don’t have to file for divorce but you can leave the house and live elsewhere

D. It is best that some people never marry

1. Some people have the gift to stay single

2. Staying single provides some opportunities

a. Don’t have to worry about providing for family needs – either financially or emotionally

--should free up more time to serve the Lord and others without having to balance family time with

service to others

b. Allows a freedom to follow a schedule that doesn’t fit the norm

3. Staying single also has a huge responsibility

--to avoid sexual immorality

CONCLUSION: A. Eph. 5:21-33 – “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. 22Wives, submit to

your husbands as to the Lord. 23For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the

head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24Now as the church submits to

Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25Husbands, love

your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26to make her

holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27and to present her to