sermon from September 26

Hope for Our Relationships

Jeremiah 29:4-7, Ephesians 5:20-33

Series on “Our Mission” (part 3)

Jeremiah tells the exiles, “I want you to stay there and seek the welfare of the city. Build houses, settle down. Marry and have sons and daughters. Find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage so that they too may have sons and daughters. Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you.” This applies no less to God’s people in Taipei. However, it isn’t happening much because of the huge confusion that exists about singleness and marriage. How can we find authoritative teaching and help from the Lord and His Word? :

MODERN CONFUSION ABOUT SINGLENESS AND MARRIAGE

• Failure of many parents to have good marriages.
• General sense of untrustworthiness about men.
• Male passivity
• Traditional eastern view that marriage is about preserving the status of the family.
• Romantic view (“Love is everything”)
• Feminism (“don’t trust your heart to anyone”).

THE PURPOSE OF MARRIAGE

• The purpose of marriage is not so much happiness as Christ-likeness (see Ephesians 5, Romans 8:29ff)
• If you want to serve Jesus stay single. If you want to become like Jesus get married because marriage is to be a place where we are known, but loved and learn to serve another person while seeking by His grace to be changed rather than to change the other person.

HAVING LIMITED EXPECTTIONS OF MARRIAGE

• We shouldn’t expect too much from marriage because in the end we can only get our ultimate meaning from God.
• Singles should realize being single is not to be a second-class citizen. You need to ask if you are called to singleness, or if you should be single for a season, or if you are in the right circumstances to pursue marriage. Avoid dating casually. Follow Jesus. Men should pursue a godly woman who will put up with them, but not play with their hearts.
• Married people should realize it is a great opportunity to become like Christ. Nothing is more fulfilling than a marriage where each person is not principally seeking personal fulfillment, but the flourishing of the other. Jesus gives us the model and the strength for this.

TABLE TALK: Get together with someone and discuss how you might apply this in your life.

Listen to the sermon online