A Happy and Successful Marriage
Part 3
Matthew 19:5-8
Introduction:
Today we come to the third and final element for a happy and successful marriage. We have looked at how the wife is to be a Christian Helper, and how the husband should be a Christian Lover. I must warn each of you, unless this third ingredient is added to the mixture – you will never have a happy marriage and it sure won’t be successful.
So now we turn our attention on the two of them (husband and wife) working together to promote the Kingdom of God.
I. You are United!
A. To be united, they must leave their families behind.
1. God did not design it for in-laws to have a say in the marriage relationship.
a) My marriage is between my wife, my God and myself.
(1) My mother has no say in what happens in the relationship between my wife and me.
(2) My wife’s father has no say in the relationship either.
b) My wife no longer goes by her father’s family name.
(1) It isn’t because she is no longer a part of his family.
(2) But that now she draws her identity from me.
c) There are more marriages in trouble today because husbands have not left their mother’s and daughters have not left their father’s.
(1) God designed it for you to be married to her spouse, not mama and daddy.
(2) The time at home “in the nest” is over.
(a) You must realize that mama and daddy do not complete you.
(b) Your spouse does that when you get married
d) This relationship should be the greatest in your life.
(1) Ahead of your parents.
(2) Ahead of your friends
(3) Even ahead of your children.
(4) No one or nothing should come between you and your spouse.
2. The two have become one flesh.
a) Divorce is NEVER an option.
(1) Jesus said that man should never separate the marriage that God has joined.
b) Divorce is always the human destruction of God’s divine creation – Marriage.
II. Together you promote the Kingdom of God.
A. Through your children.
1. Proverbs tells us that if we will train up our children in the way they should go, when they are old they will not depart from it.
a) This is a promise from God.
b) However, proper training is hard to do when one of the parents is pulling in the opposite direction.
(1) When his or her influence is not what it should be.
2. I have about come to the conclusion that parents don’t parent anymore.
a) You want to have a Godly influence on your children.
(1) Yet your husband is teaching them that work is more important that God.
(2) Yet your wife is teaching them that it is O.K. to fake being sick so you don’t have to go too church, but make sure you are at work the next day.
(a) Too many parents, who call themselves “Christians”, catch the 12 hour flu every Sunday and Wednesday night.
(b) What you are teaching is that everything else is more important than God.
3. Parent’s want to be their child’s “best-friend”.
a) That is not what God has called you to be.
(1) Your Job is not to “pal around” with your child, but to give your child direction.
(a) Through discipline.
(b) Through love
(c) Through teaching God’s word in your home.
4. Many hearts are broken over a wayward child, only because mama and daddy didn’t provide proper training in the home.
5. How well are the two of you promoting the Kingdom of God through your children?
B. Through the Church.
1. There is no greater thrill as a pastor than to see a family on fire in the local church.
a) Husband and wife working together to do what needs to be done.
(1) Others complain about the grass needing mowing.
(a) They say “I will do it”.
(2) Others fuss about visitation.
(a) They say, “I am ready to go”.
(3) Need a volunteer to fill-in in a class
(a) Here I am.
b) A couple, joined together as one, doing whatever they can to promote a visible sign of God’s work in the community.
2. So many of us say, “That is us, we will do whatever it takes”.
a) Don’t flatter yourself.
(1) It is all some of you can do to make it to one service a month.
b) Stop bragging on what you will do and just do something.
(1) Too many couples like to talk the talk.
(a) Yet they never walk the walk
(2) You may say you will do something, yet it never gets done.
3. How well are the two of you promoting the Kingdom of God in this church?
Conclusion:
I believe that God’s design for a happy and successful marriage is one man and one woman united together to serve our Lord. I think that God wants the world to see our marriages and wonder what we are doing to be so happy. I think this gives us an opportunity to tell the world that happy and successful marriages come by following God’s design and not our own desires.
Where do you stand?
