Committed to a Healthy Family

VICTORY AT HOME: Committed to a Healthy Family Pastor Johnson Bowie September 16-17, 2017 Genesis 15:18 NIV On that day the Lord made a COVENANT with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land…” “The covenant of marriage is the single most important human bond that holds all of God’s work on the planet together.” — Jack Hayford How to Be Committed to a Healthy Family: 1. Understand the power of the marriage covenant. Covenant: BERIT — vow; binding; unbreakable God-promise Malachi 2:13-16 NLT …You cover the Lord’s altar with tears, weeping and groaning because he pays no attention to your offerings and doesn’t accept them with pleasure. You cry out, “Why doesn’t the Lord accept my worship?” I’ll tell you why! Because the Lord witnessed the vows you and your wife made when you were young. But you have been unfaithful to her, though she remained your faithful partner, the wife of your marriage vows. Didn’t the Lord make you one with your wife? In body and spirit you are his. And what does he want? Godly children from your union. So guard your heart; remain loyal to the wife of your youth. “For I hate divorce!” says the Lord, the God of Israel. “To divorce your wife is to overwhelm her with cruelty,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “So guard your heart; do not be unfaithful to your wife.” Luke 16:18 NIV “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” Matthew 19:4-10 NIV “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ 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’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” “Why then,” they asked, “did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?” Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.” The disciple said to him, “If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry.” “It is not your worldly love that sustains marriage, but from now on the marriage covenant sustains your love.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer 2. Understand that we can only give what we’ve received. John 15:9 NIV “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you…” 3. Understand that this is a marathon and not a sprint. Some of us made a marathon commitment, but we’re running a sprint marriage. 2 Timothy 4:7 NLT I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful.