Dec.15th 2013-Life in the Kingdom-Valuing Marriage

What can make your marriage great and overcome the threat of divorce?

If you want a study tool to go along with the podcast, see Lift Notes here:

Life in the Kingdom: Valuing Marriage

December 15th, 2013  by Kasey Crawford

Today’s Passages:

Matthew 5:31-32, Matthew 19:3-8, Eph 4:15, 1 John 1:5-9

“It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery. And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Matthew 5:31-32

 Some context…(Religious leaders) were looking for ____________ to justify __________ a marriage.

The direction humanity goes on its own strength is that marriage becomes  ____________, divorce becomes a ___________ vicious cycle.

The U.S. now has the __________ divorce rate in the developed world.

 

Jesus steps on to the scene where people are asking what the various excuses are they can use to get out of marriage and he basically says, “_______________.”

Jesus wants to shock the status quo and say they are asking the __________ _______________.

 

To a culture that had greatly devalued marriage and was experiencing the vicious cycle of divorce, he puts forth a transforming practice that says: ____________ as marriage God does and ______________ in it accordingly.

“At the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason….”                  Matt 19:3-8

God has divine _____________ in marriage. Knowing those can help us value marriage as God does and invest accordingly.  Today we are going to look at just 1 of them:

 

God Designed Marriage to Make Us _________ More Than to Make Us ____________.

 As consumers we are taught it’s all about what makes me ________ __________ in the moment…That is a _________________ expectation to bring into marriage. What if you changed your expectations and went into marriage knowing it is going to be the _______________ thing you ever do?

So they are no longer two, but one….Matthew 19:8

We are made for relationship with God and others (community). Marriage is a _______________ of community.  Our community is going to be a primary means through which we grow and are transformed to _____________ more like Jesus (made holy).  That’s why the bible has so many stories and verses that talk about the power of doing life with “one another”.  For example,

….speaking the truth [to one another] in love, we will ______ Eph 4:15

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.1 John 1:9

 Marriage is meant to be one of if not the most intimate and ______________ expressions of these truths.

To live ______________ with one another, and be humble before the Lord-expecting that we have a lot to ________ and grow, (not change the other person), invites the Holy Spirit to make you holy through marriage.

 

*Answers: excuses, ending, cheap, normal, highest, nothing, wrong, question, value, invest, purpose, holy, happy, feel, good, devastating, hardest, microcosm, become, grow, powerful, honestly, learn

Kasey Crawford