Sermon Extras

SERMON NOTES

New Year New Family Part 4 Marriage Gen 1-3 

Review> In our series New Year New Family. The goal of this series is to breakdown old foundations and build up new foundations for our family. Our theme verse is found in Joshua 24:14. Today we arrive at the topic of marriage one of which I am inadequate. Tell Ruth Graham story. “I am just another beggar pointing to where the bread is at.” Martin Luther. 

INTRO> We traveled this past week to ATL for Summit. Was there early with the board ad found myself in a predicament. We were going to walk downtown and see somethings and it started to rain… and I was wearing my Jordans! Didn’t have a rain coat plus the GPS couldn’t find where we where at so it couldn’t tell us where to go! When I left PB it was like 67* one day! 

APP> I say that to say, my environment changed and I wasn’t prepared for it. I was trying to figure out where to go and I couldn’t find where I was. When we talk about marriage today, I want to approach it with this big idea: 

 Big Idea > A key to a good marriage is knowing the season that you are in. 

CONTEXT> The word “season” is chosen purposefully because that is a word that the Bible uses over and over again: The word itself literally means, “an appointed time” 

• He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.- Psalm 1:3 
• To make an apt answer is a joy to a man, and a word in season, how good it is!- Proverbs 15:23
• For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:” – Ecc 3:1 

APP> We all know this to be true, yes? But we fail to often times to see the season that we are in. There are so many variables that happen that can change the season of marriage that you are in: 

• Relocation
• Job Change 
• Children 
• Sickness 
• Bankruptcy 
• Death 
• Empty Nest 

CONTEXT> Here is what I want to do. I want to walk through the creation account of the first marriage and I want to look at 4 main seasons that I believe every marriage will experience. With these 4 seasons there are 4 other things that come with that: 4 Seasons, 4 Roles, 4 Outcomes 4 Obstacles: 

1. Face-to-Face 

• 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” 24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.And the man and his wife were both naked and not ashamed” – Genesis 2:22-25 Notice the language “brought her to the man….” and verse 24 is the definition of marriage. It is also where the NT get’s it’s theology of marriage from! “God’s original plan was that one man and one woman be one flesh for one lifetime.” – Warren Weirsbe 

1. Roles- Lovers/Friends “… this reveals man as a social being, made for fellowship, not power: he will not live until he loves, giving himself away to another on his own level. So the woman is presented wholly as his partner and counterpart; nothing is yet said of her as child bearer. She is values for herself alone.” Derek Kinder, Genesis Commentary, pg65

2. Outcome- Intimacy (this word means “inmost, familiar”

3. Obstacles– Sustainability “It is not the love that makes the marriage but the marriage that makes the love.” Bonhoffer 

2) Side -by – Side

• 27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

1. Role- Co-Labors 
2. Outcome- Advancemnt 
3. Obstacle- Apathy This is how soul mates become roommates, mid life crisis. 

APP> This might be the most dangerous because on the outside everything looks great… The key is to get back to Face-to-Face “ this is my lover and my friend…” Song Of Solomon 5:16

3) Back-to-Back 

• “6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise,[b] she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.” Genesis 3:6
• Roles: Defenders/Protectors (Spiritual warfare- family conflict, each other etc) 
• Outcomes: Stationary (You can’t advance while defending)
• Obstacle: Exhaustion 

APP> One of the best ways the enemy can destroy your marriage is to simply wear you down. 

4) Toe-to-Toe

• “The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” Genesis 3:12-14 
• Roles– Fighters 
• Outcomes- Conflict 
• Obstacles– Seperation 

Big Idea > A key to a good marriage is knowing the season that you are in. 

Application: 

• What season are you in? 
• What is the Spirit saying to you?
• What are you going to do about it? 

“Within this Christian vision of marriage, here’s what it means to fall in love. It is to look at another person and get a glimpse of what God is creating, and to say, I see who God is making you, and it excites me! I want to be part of that. I want to partner with you and God in the journey you are taking to his throne. And when we get there, I will look at your magnificence and say, ‘I always knew you could be like this. I got glimpses of it on earth, but now look at you!”” – Tim Keller, Meaning of Marriage 

**Portions of this sermon are adapted from the book Real Marriage: The Truth About Sex, Friendship, & Life Together by Mark and Grace Driscoll