Sermon Nuggets
Mon Jan 23
Verses- Mal 2:10-16
Troubled
Marriages
Phillip Yancey awhile back wrote an article
regarding Midlife Crisis. He said, "If I heard that term one more time, I
may have one." The phrase commonly refers to the inner emotional struggles
of those between 35-55. However many people rationalize their sin where no longer
do they commit adultery and break up their marriages they "go through
midlife crises." Arguments are almost by script.
"I have changed. I am different man
today than when I married her. I must be true to myself, and follow who I
really am as far as that leads me. I have spent all my time concerned for
others, now I must take care of me for awhile."
What that often means is another woman who
truly understands (which incidentally usually is 10 years younger and 15 pounds
lighter than his wife, and not often bound with the same responsibilities of
motherhood.) Yancey asks this question "Can a person who is actively lusting
objectively examine himself and make a judgment about the future direction of
his life without being affected by the lust itself?”
The
Bible simply says there is no temptation which is taken you that is not common
to man But God is faithful and will provide an escape that you may be able to
endure it." What is he saying?
Don't make yourself an exception to God's rule. He will be with you to
work out your struggle if you are willing to obey and trust Him.
Marriage is vitally important in many ways.
For followers of Christ this is a spiritual commitment that affects
relationships to God.
There were many sins of the people which
Malachi pointed out. The most important was to think they were honoring God
with actions, while their hearts were complacent. Spiritual leaders were in
need of revival themselves. They were doing a job, not a ministry. They were not
instructing the people in the revealed word of truth, they were not correcting
the people in disobedience. Commitment to Christ means a life change of heart
and body and soul. Lack of commitment to God affects all the other areas of our
lives. Perhaps the closest of all relationships next to the Lord is that of a
marriage partner. God's intent for marriage has never been that it be a
privately arranged affair for one's own personal conveniences. Marriage is a
very solemn covenant entered into in the presence of God. The obligations of marriage
are not to be taken lightly. This week
we will look at some things regarding marriage and divorce.
Pastor Dale
Sermon Nuggets
Tues Jan 24
Verses Mal
2:10-13 -Have we not all one Father? Did not one God create us? Why do we
profane the covenant of our fathers by breaking faith with one another?
11 Judah
has broken faith. A detestable thing has been committed in Israel and in
Jerusalem: Judah has desecrated the sanctuary the LORD loves, by marrying the
daughter of a foreign god. 12 As for the man who
does this, whoever he may be, may the LORD cut him off from the tents of
Jacob—even though he brings offerings to the LORD Almighty.
13 Another
thing you do: You flood the LORD’s altar with tears. You weep and wail because
he no longer pays attention to your offerings or accepts them with pleasure
from your hands.
Unequally yoked
affects our Relationship to God.
There are three marital problems being addressed in the larger passage: the
marrying of people who are not of the faith, adultery, and divorce. These
are spiritual matters for the all involved the breaking of God's laws. They
hold spiritual consequences. How is that? Because when we marry we are making a
spiritual commitment to God. To break that commitment affects our own
relationship to God. Look at verse 13.
People were complaining and crying that the Lord was not hearing their prayers and
they are wondering why? Yet they don't come to him in confession and
repentance, but in thinking that going through religious acts of sacrifice and
temple worship God is not keeping his part of the bargain of answering their
prayers and blessing their lives.
If
your spiritual life is in the pits, perhaps you need to re-evaluate your
relationship with your spouse. If your relationship with your mate is having
great difficulty perhaps it's time to do spiritual evaluation.
Now
let me explain again the problem with marrying foreign wives. People of
various nationalities then believed each group of people had their own god. I
understand some of the Native American tribes worshiped a different god or part
of nature. They believed they got powers from that god- a crow, a buffalo, the
moon, the eagle and so forth. When a member of one tribe married a member from
another the problem wasn't racial, it was religious and cultural. Whose god is
to be worshiped? This was more pronounced in Israel when they married
foreign wives. They would bring in family idols and that was an offense to God.
The was the problem with Solomon whose heart grow cold to Jehovah-God in his
later years.
The issue of the Israelites marrying women of a different race involved the introduction
of the false gods being worshipped. It was perverting the faith. Indeed, if
people worshiped the true God there was no problem, as evidenced in the book of
Ruth. She was a Moabite and was blessed for she accepted the true God. Rahab
was a gentile prostitute. But she changed allegiances and believed in the God
of Israel and all was forgiven.
So the matter is not a racial problem it is a spiritual problem.
Questions of differing cultures may have a tremendous affect on how people
communicate and act and think, but spiritually there is a big gulf if the
Spirit of God resides in one and not the other. They don't even see things the
same way. That is why Christians are instructed not to marry non Christians. (2
Cor 6:14) When you marry non-Christians your own faith will be challenged to
grow colder or your marriage will, for the most important thing is seeking
God’s will in all of your life and if the spouse does not there is a major
difference in priorities.
The problem, of course, is a spiritual problem. It is a symptom not only a
cause. There is no question that adultery and divorce will also affect
Christians in their spiritual relationship. Two people who love God with all
their hearts will commit themselves to seeking solutions to resolved
differences and work out together alternatives whereby they might support, love
and remain faithful to each other. I also know many try with all their hearts
to make a marriage work, but have a mate who is not willing to work in the
relationship any longer.
Many couples have no sense of the Biblical concept of marriage as a covenant
established before God and man. On the one hand there is lot of premarital sex
play based on the physical excitement. On the other hand, there is no genuine
sense of pledge of spiritual fidelity on the part of the husband and wife to
each other. Marriage is a spiritual commitment.
Pastor Dale
Sermon Nuggets
Weds Jan 25
Verses Mal 2:
13 Another thing you do: You flood the LORD’s altar with tears.
You weep and wail because he no longer pays attention to your offerings or
accepts them with pleasure from your hands. 14 You
ask, “Why?” It is because the LORD is acting as the witness between you and the
wife of your youth, because you have broken faith with her, though she is your
partner, the wife of your marriage covenant.
Adultery affects
our Relationship to God.
There is no one who affects me more than
Judi and vice versa. When there is no a spiritual link between the husband and
wife then there is a vast limited communication and understanding. God calls people
into a relationship as husband and wife to fulfill a spiritual task. Did you
know that? We are to affect one another but mostly to encourage one another in
the faith. God gives each different gifts and abilities to complement one
another.
What
a joy when one prays for the other, and can discuss spiritual things together
and teach one another characteristics that God uses in our own growth.
I am spiritually blessed because of Judi. I
trust that same is true. Almost all the fruit of the Spirit are the results of relationships
which we learn in marriage: love, long suffering, patience, goodness, kindness,
gentleness, self-control. She is God's tool to help me and I am God's tool to
help her.
How can that happen if one isn't a
believer? How can that happen if the marriage vows are broken? If a husband or wife cheats on their spouse
it affects them and it affects their mate. Infidelity causes many marriages to
crumble. Why does it happen?
Some marriage partners are unfaithful only
mentally for a time, but then it yields to physical. Some people practice
extramarital sex to boost their own ego, or convince themselves they are still
attractive and important and appreciated by someone. Sometimes affairs are a
tool of vengeance to get back at their mate. Obviously there are more
complicated reasons but unless it is a safety issue it usually is a selfish
one. All of these reasons are still show a lack of commitment to their marriage
vows to God and each other.
We
are not created sexual animals to run about doing what feels natural. God created
male and female to enable two people to become one in the fullest and most
complete sense, of which sex is only a part.
God hates divorce. There is no such thing
as anyone who isn't sadly affected. What does the Bible say v.16 "I hate divorce
and I hate a man's covering himself with violence as well as with his
garment." Some pastors will say in no uncertain terms that wives your job
is submission even if you are being beat every night.
I never advise divorce. I would do
everything I can to seek the parties to correct the sin so God can work in
people’s lives. But to advise someone to stay in an abusive relationship is
wrong? God hates violence. Do you think God honors one person beating up on
another? Get protection and if the
person is unable to get help then your first obligation is to protect you and
your children, for God hates violence. He hates divorce.
Divorce had become so prevalent in
Malachi's day that he focused on it as a major evil. It was breaking the
marriage vow before God and the Jewish community. It was used for man to please
himself and his desires out of selfishness. Men would be enamored by a pagan
women, or seduced by a younger and more attractive woman. His pride would
supersede his spiritual vow to God and to his wife.
There is no question that when we sin
against God we also sin against our mate. If we are committed to Christ and
desire to honor him we will do right to take God's commands seriously. It is another
thing according to 1 Corinthians 7 if we marry and then come to Christ and our
mate does not. We are to remain a witness so God can work on your spouse,
unless the spouse chooses to leave for religious purposes.
Pastor Dale
Sermon Nuggets
Thurs Jan 26
Verses- Mal 2: 15 Has
not the LORD made them one? In flesh and spirit they are his. And why one?
Because he was seeking godly offspring. So guard yourself in
your spirit, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth.
Marriage affects
our Children’s' Relationship to God.
Just like marriage is a tool of God's to
affect our spiritual lives and the spiritual lives of our spouses, even more so
marriage and parenthood is used of God to
influence children for God. The job of
the parent is to be God's servants for preparing them for this life and the
next. It is more than seeing they learn
math, reading, and science. It is more than providing food and clothes, and
housing. It is love and nurture, and
acceptance, and discipline, and learning to work together, and values and
morals and principles. We as parent can make a kid get baptized, or even join a
church, but that doesn't make him a Christian.
We are to show the reality of Christ in us
and in our love for Jesus then the Holy Spirit uses that to convict each child
of their own sin and need for personally accepting Christ and following Him with
all their heart.
Modern Christians are often tempted to think
that what happens in the church building comprises the sum of their religious
experience. Most of the religious learning in Malachi's day took place in the Jewish
home. The majority of the worship occurred in the home. Scripture memorization
was not in the temple it was in the home. So a woman as a wife and mother who
knew nothing about the worship of the one true God would basically be a
corruption, a distortion, and the worship of God in the home was destroyed.
That same woman would also successfully seek to inject into the Jewish home the
worship of her pagan god. Our marriage
to non Christians sadly affects the attitude that many children have toward the
faith. Young people remember now before you even date, what type of father or
mother would your boy friend or girl friend make to your kids. Would they have
a spiritual concern for them; would you have unity in your convictions?
How do you think an affair might influence
your children? I cannot begin to describe the tremendous influence divorce has
on kids. It isn't just their own emotional health that is important it is their
spiritual health and issues of trust, and prayer, and faith, and security.
God's grace is often seen when re-commitments and dedications are made
following recovery from divorce, but it is not without a great deal of scars.
If you think being a single parent is an easy job, ask them. If you think you
get out of responsibilities by leaving your family, the consequences are
numerous, not to mention the Spiritual consequences to which God holds us
responsible.
We need to help, encourage and pray for
those who are victims of broken marriages and especially the children.
Pastor Dale
Sermon Nuggets
Fri Jan 27 – Divorce
Verse Mal 2: 16 “I
hate divorce,” says the LORD God of Israel, “and I hate a man’s covering
himself with violence as well as with his garment,” says the LORD Almighty.
So
guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith.
Divorce affects
our Community’s Relationship to God.
We do not live unto ourselves. As I was
reading Malachi these commandment are for individuals, but they are for the
people of God too. The Lord called Jacob unto himself. He is referring to
fellow Jews. I believe the nation of Judah does represent the people God calls
unto himself. They are like a bride to Him.
In the New Testament the church is the
body of Christ. When the people of God continue in unfaithfulness, in divorce,
and in disobedience how is the church not affected? The cause of Christ is compromised. The more
Christians ignore their vows and pledges to God, the whole body of Christ is
negatively affected. Malachi asserted the every offense against the brotherhood
was also against His sacred covenant that bound them together as a people.
Given the set of circumstances, divorce may
seem to be the only way to salvage anything of two lives, much less a family
that has broken in two. Divorce is always failure, and since we are human, divorce
will always be with us. It is not an unpardonable sin. Still we should not
approach marriage or be in marriage expecting divorce as the alternative to
unhappy trials.
When sin abounds then it must be dealt
with. We not only bear one another's
burdens but also are affected when someone falls. As one is hurt so is the body hurt. When they
joined themselves in marriage to heathen women or to put away by divorce their
own wives in defiance of their obligations to one another, it affected the fellowship.
Sin is not just personal. The larger
communities also experience the consequences. With the rise of divorce, living
outside of marriage, adultery, and broken families come the increase of the affects
on children and finances, and increases the need for welfare for those who cannot
make ends meet. Most jails and prisons are filled with people who do not have
fathers or mothers are not around because they work two jobs to make ends meet.
Drug problems, welfare, crime, alcoholism was so much higher among broken
families. One mayor said when values are
taught at home it affects the city.
To be a witness to the Lord as Christians, first
we must get our own life in order, then we must make things right with our
mate, then our children, then our church, and beyond that our communities.
Many people in our nation have a rather casual
attitude toward marriage. Increasingly I am hearing among church people that
when their kids start living together with people of the opposite sex the rationale
is well, that's the society we live in. Yes it is, but it is still sin against
God. We never judge our actions based on what society is doing or even what
other's who claim to be Christians are doing. We based our actions on the word
of God. You cannot change the rules just become you love the players. You don't
stop loving the players either. You love them pray for them, witness to them. And
when their lives fall apart, for they will, then be there to pick them up and
show them the path to confession, repentance and forgiveness and acceptance of
God.
There is an increasing movement to redefine
families. We have an opportunity in Minnesota to vote on the marriage amendment
this November. It is foolish to think it is just affects consenting parties.
The relationships, even same sex relationships, affect the communities,
churches, and nation.
The call of Malachi is to have God renew
our relationships and see them as something more than just between two people,
or what our family does is our own business. It is a call to give yourselves to
God as vessels and let God use your marriage as another illustration of grace,
forgiveness and love.
Although this passage doesn’t deal with the
all the teachings of divorce and remarriage it is pointing out the results of marriage
failures due to sin. Realize that your spiritual life affects your marriage and
your marriage affects your spiritual life. It affects your relationship with
God, your mate, your children, your church, and your community. Let God know
that there are people who will stop the trend and be examples and lights to those
around us. Be God's people! Begin in
your homes.
Pastor Dale
