Marriage

Yesterday our Pastor, Bill Hulse, spoke about one of my favorite things…marriage. We are doing a rich study of the book of Matthew and we are in chapter 5 where Jesus is fulfilling the law. This sermon was so great (in my opinion it was the best yet) because he communicated it well and simple, making it even more potent to the congregation. Of course, I will be paraphrasing and expressing my favorite points of the sermon, but if you are interested and wish to hear Pastor Bill’s sermon, please send me a message and I can send you a cd. I think I wanted to blog about this particular sermon because it seems to be wedding season and there is great truth that our society has lost the purpose of marriage. We as a body of Christ and as believers need to correct this lie and be examples and understand what marriage was created for.

First, we were brought to the reality that we (meaning even Christians) have made marriage a joke. Spencer and I had agreed to try to avoid sarcasm, belittling, name calling, or anything else that may seem harmless while dating. This teasing seems harmless, but in fact can creep in and cause damage. When Spencer and I were preparing to get married many people said things like, “you just wait till your honeymoon is over and you’ll wish you were single again!”…this is a huge pet peeve of mine. Those same people say those discouraging things when we were about to have our daughter…and I can’t help but try to lovingly disagree. It blows my mind. And honestly, I don’t think they would intentionally mean to be discouraging, but they have bought into ‘worldly’ teasing without realizing that it is unhealthy. See, I believe that when you joke or make fun of those wonderful blessings God gave us, we let Satan in, and subtly we fall away from God’s intentions.

We then went to Genesis to the first marriage, Adam and Eve. (Genesis 2:18-25) God says that it isn’t good for man to be alone and after he created all the animals, there still wasn’t a helper suitable for Adam. So, then out of Adam’s side God takes one of his ribs and makes Eve. When Adam wakes up from his surgery he said and understood that they were one flesh. Oh and another cool thing that I learned was a tradition that EVERYONE keeps at wedding ceremonies…also found in that chapter. It says in verse 22, “The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man and BROUGHT HER TO THE MAN.” There you go. So when our fathers walk us down the aisle and the pastor asks “who gives this woman to this man” know it’s because God did it first. More proof that marriage isn’t something we made up, God designed it and designed it to have a purpose. Cool stuff!
‘One flesh’ is an example used to not only describe our marriage on earth, but our marriage to Christ. This is the purpose of marriage and why God created it. It is a ministry. It shows a picture and lets us understand intimacy. If we didn’t have this example it would be hard to know that type of relationship with our heavenly Father.

Back in Matthew 5:31, Jesus talks about divorce and references Deuteronomy 24:1-4 where Moses talks about divorce and the right men have to leave their wives. There are two schools of thought because of how Moses communicates this and what it says in Matthew. Obviously our society has a skewed view of divorce because the statistics are staggering, but that is not what they are talking about when referring to it in the bible, there is more…and even the Pharisees tried to justify when testing Jesus in Mark 10. They start questioning Moses’ statement about just getting a certificate of divorce and still being righteous, but Jesus comes back saying in my pastors words, “it is a heart issue”, meaning just because you do the acts to get a “correct divorce” doesn’t mean you fixed anything…the problem is a hardened heart. And Jesus also states that because we are made one flesh in marriage, “What therefore God has joined together let no man separate.” This answers their question of whether or not is makes divorce ‘right’.
Now…as much as I believe that divorce is wrong, I know that there are circumstances that divorce is seemingly the best option and also that it falls within biblical parameters. I am not speaking about that. But, the last thing my pastor said was profound, true, and forgotten. God restores!