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Sermon By:

Pastor Bob Paquet

FOR WHOM ARE YOU LIVING?


MARRIAGE - A COVENANT OR A CONTRACT

Josh. 24:14   “Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.  15  But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”
 
 

TWO PRIMARY INSTITUTIONS THAT BEAR THE IMAGE OF GOD ON EARTH

1. MARRIAGE       2. THE CHURCH





 JOHN 17:22b    “........., that they may be one as we are one:  23  I in them and you in me. May they be brought to
complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. “
 
 

Eph. 5:21-23   Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. 22   Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord
.  23  For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.
 
 

COVENANT                      vs                                CONTRACT

UNILATERAL                                                            BILATERAL

IRREVOCABLE                                                          REVOCABLE

INDISSOLVEABLE COMMITMENT                          DISSOLVEABLE AGREEMENT

         VALID TILL DEATH                                            VALID TILL BROKEN BY ONE
                                                                                         OF THE PARTIES

NOT DEPENDENT UPON THE                           DEPENDENT UPON PERFORMANCE OF EITHER                             PERFORMANCE
 PARTY                                                                  OF EACH PARTY

MARRIAGE

THE PRIMARY EARTHLY PICTURE OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHRIST AND THE CHURCH

Eph. 5:21-23   Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. 22   Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.  23  For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.

THE COVENANT

I ______, TAKE YOU, _______ TO BE MY WIFE
(HUSBAND),                   (WHO)
 

TO HAVE AND TO HOLD,  (WHAT)
 

FROM THIS DAY FORWARD,    (WHEN IT STARTS)
 

FOR BETTER FOR WORSE, FOR RICHER FOR POORER, IN SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH,    (UNDER WHAT CONDITIONS)
 

TO LOVE AND TO CHERISH,   (WHAT YOU AGREE TO DO)
 

UNTIL WE ARE PARTED BY DEATH;  (FOR HOW LONG)
 

AS GOD IS MY WITNESS,  (WHO IS WATCHING)
 

I GIVE YOU MY PROMISE.   (YOUR WORD)

A FOREVER COMMITTMENT
“Never will I leave you;  never will I forsake you.”


UNCONDITIONAL

Rom. 5:8   But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
 

TOTAL GIVING OF SELF

John 3:16   “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
 

COMMITTMENT TO ONE ANOTHER

Ruth 1:16   But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.  17  Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.”  18  When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.
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