FOUR MISTAKES MANY MARRIAGES MAKE (PART 1)

Mistake #1: Fading Fire

MARRIAGE IS DESIGNED BY GOD TO BE GOOD!

Genesis 1:10 God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.

Genesis 2:18 The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

Genesis 1:31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

Matthew 19:4-6 “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ ⁵ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? ⁶ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

MARRIAGE IS GOOD FOR YOU.

WHAT CAN CAUSE THE FIRE TO FADE?

Time can cause the fire to fade.

Tension can cause the fire to fade.

Trust can cause the fire to fade.

Ephesians 5:21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Mistake #2: Keeping Score

IT IS A MISTAKE TO KEEP SCORE OF BEING SERVED.

THE S-WORD: SUBMISSION

Ephesians 5:22-24 For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. ²³ For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. ²⁴ As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything.

The wife’s submission is but another aspect of love… .
What does it mean to “submit”? It is to give oneself up TO somebody.
What does it mean to “love”? It is to give oneself up FOR somebody. —John Stott

Ephesians 5:25-30 For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her ²⁶ to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. ²⁷ He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. ²⁸ In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. ²⁹ No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church. ³⁰ And we are members of his body.

Ephesians 5:31-33 As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.” ³² This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. ³³ So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

In marriage, the wife and husband set aside themselves and mutually submit to each other in respect and sacrificial love.

MARRIAGE BECOMES A BATTLEGROUND WHEN WE ARE BUSY KEEPING SCORE.

Nothing derails a marriage like selfishness.

No team wins when they are busy playing against each other.

Ephesians 5:21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

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