First Comes Love - Week 4
Sharable notes for the February 20, 2022 message. You can post these notes on your social platform!
Scriptures used: Ephesians 5:15-33; Mark 10:42-45; Matthew 19:3-12; Genesis 2:24-3:1
Passages referenced: Deuteronomy 24:1-4; 1 Corinthians 7:10-15
Leadership is not about a position to lord your authority over others, it is about an opportunity to leverage your influence for others.
Jesus gave his life for us, and the church gives her life in response. This is what the husband and wife do for one another. They give their life for the other.
As a married couple, you join into a spiritual union helping each other grow into who Christ is calling you to be, and you do this together.
In marriage, when you "leave and cleave", you are leaving what you know and creating something new.
Where you invest is where your heart is, so if you invest over and over and over in your marriage, and that relationship, your heart will be in it.
What starts as romance will end in despair unless you make a decision to invest.
“Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance.” C.S. Lewis
“King David started his relationship with Bathsheba in the worst of possibilities. David fell in love, had an affair, and then had her husband killed. Talk about being knee deep in sin. But when he confessed and repented God cleansed and blessed his new marriage to Bathsheba to the point that from that marriage came Solomon, and from Solomon came Jesus. Unbelievable. What does that mean other than God is trying to say to all of us, ‘I can redeem the worst situations.” Tim Keller
God’s heart is always repentance and reconciliation.
When two become one, and they lose themselves into a forgiving, freeing, loving, gracious relationship, it produces a powerful testimony.
Reflect or meet with someone to discuss:
How have you typically defined the roles in marriage? Does thinking about it in regards to how Jesus loved the church and the church responds to Christ challenge your thinking in any way?
How important is the Holy Spirit in your marriage? How can you allow the Holy Spirit to help you be more selfless in your marriage?
Jesus quotes Genesis that the man and wife are to leave and cleave in regards to their marriage, which means you begin a new covenant relationship, leaving what you know and creating something new with each other. How do you feel your marriage relationship has done in this regard? If you are single, how easy do you think this would be?
Click the image to start a new 5 day devotion in YouVersion:
Marriage comes with great joys and great challenges. One of the reasons for the challenges is because we have lost sight of the Biblical purpose of marriage. We have removed God and defined marriage in terms of happiness. But marriage exists to glorify God by expanding His reach throughout the world. In this five-day reading plan, Dr. Tony Evans takes you on a journey of kingdom marriage