night ought to be dark; birds ought to sing; dogs ought to bark--you see design in creation. You will never see your next-door neighbor keeping his poodle in an aquarium--that leads to poodle euthanasia! You’ll never see the neighbor on the other side walking his expensive tropical fish down the street on a leash--that descales fish. But there are husbands in this room, this last week, you actually convinced yourself that you can have a decent marriage and not love. In places where you’re trying to be a husband, and you’re not loving your wife, you are a poodle in an aquarium. It can’t work. This relationship can’t work without love; it’s God’s design. If you’re a wife, and you think that your marriage can make it even though you are selfish and not loving, it won’t work. At that point, you’re a fish on a leash! You’re trying to do something that can’t work according to God’s design. Marriage only works when it’s a culture of love, a culture of grace. Enough of the demandingness, enough of the legalism, enough of the judgment--it doesn’t work! It doesn’t work! It’s an old kingdom; a better Kingdom has been given us. Now I said this was a Kingdom passage that we’re looking at; let’s go back there. (Galatians 5:19-21) The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, and envy, drunkenness and orgies and the like. I warn you as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God--yes, it is a Kingdom passage. Now, look at those ‘sin’ words; what are all those words about? (You can talk) Self! They are all about self. Here’s what Paul is saying, “Don’t you understand that selfish way is the way of another kingdom; that selfish way of living doesn’t fit inside of the Kingdom of God? It’s the lifestyle of an alien kingdom.” And then he says this, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control; against such things there is no law.” Now what is that list about? What is that list, the fruit of the Spirit, actually describing? I want you to listen very carefully here. What the fruit of the Spirit describes is God’s Kingdom purpose for every one of His children. Let me say that again. “What the fruit of the Spirit describes is God’s Kingdom purpose for every one of His children.” Here’s what’s being described. God harnessed the forces of nature; He controlled the events of human history so that at a certain point in time, His Son, the Lord Jesus, would come, and suffer, and die, and rise again so that someday, somehow, we would become this kind of people. Does that make sense? God is working right now to transform everyone in this room, every one of His children into people of the love, and joy, and peace, and patience, and kindness, and goodness, and faithfulness, and self-control. If you want to know what God is working on right now as the King of kings, this is what He is working on--that by grace, you would be transformed into this kind of person. Now are we there yet? Oh, we’re there in pieces. We’ve become more joyful; we’ve become more loving, and we’re more gentle, and we’re kinder, but God is not done with us yet because I have ungentle moments, and I have unkind moments. And I can be a war maker, not a peacemaker. So this is God’s Kingdom purpose, that by grace, we would become these kinds of people. Now, here’s the connection to your marriage. If you want to seek God’s Kingdom in your marriage, here’s what you do. You make this Kingdom purpose your purpose in your marriage. If this is what God wants for you, this is what you determine to pursue in your marriage. These are the treasures that you now pursue in your marriage, not the treasure of being right, not the treasure of being in control, not the treasure of having your way, not the treasure of certain possessions and all of those kinds of things. You say, “I’m going to make God’s purpose my purpose in my marriage. If these things are important to God, if He’s gone to this extent of murdering His Son so that I could have these things in my life, I’m going to pursue them in my marriage. I’m going to wake-up and, by grace, determine I’m going to be a person of joy, and I’m going to be a person of love, and I’m going to be a person a peace; I’m going to make God’s purpose my purpose in my marriage.” Now, you’re seeking God’s kingdom. Seeking God’s Kingdom is making God’s purpose for me, my purpose in my marriage. And so I wake up in the morning, and I say, “I want to be a person of love; I want to look for specific, concrete ways to love my husband or wife. Where, today, does my husband need encouragement? Where does he
Transcript: Session 8
WHAT DID YOU EXPECT?
6 1
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs