After I preached the message this past Sunday on the church being the Bride of Christ, a pastor friend notified me of Pastor Johnny Hunt's message on April 15, 2012 at First Baptist Church, Woodstock, GA on "The Effects of the Gospel on Marriage" For the next two days, I want to share insights from Pastor Hunt on the subject of marriage and the Gospel.
What God institutes, He also regulates. Marriage was instituted by God, regulated by His Word, blessed by our Lord Jesus.
Main enemy of marriage: sinful self-centeredness. Marriage is designed to refine our character and "is to create a stable human community for the birth and nurture of children."
Number one factor concerning marriage - compatibility, above all meant someone who shared a "willingness to take them as they are and not change them."
Today, marriage is too idealistic, based not on self-denial but on self-fulfillment. Each wants to fulfill their own emotional, sexual and spiritual desires.
For this reason, may choose to remain single or cohabitate. To avoid marriage simply because you don't want to lose your freedom is one of the worse things you can do to your heart.
"We look to sex and romance to give us what we used to get from faith in God." - Ernest Becker
It is the illusion that if we find our true soul-mate, everything wrong with us will be healed; but that makes the lover into God and no human being can live up to that.
More tomorrow.....
