loved your wife because you only care about your pleasure. And if, in sex, if all you care about in sex, no matter who you are, if all you care about in sex is your pleasure, you are a dangerous person. It is really true that a marriage of unity, and understanding, and love is rooted in the worship of God. Sadly, there are probably men in this room who, this week, went to websites you have no business looking at. And you got personal pleasure there, and your wife is in the sad position where she can’t compete with the machine because it’s never been about love of God, and it’s never been about love of her. Sex for you has been about the pursuit of personal pleasure. And it’s destroying your soul, and it’s a cancer in your marriage, and what’s missing is the worship of God. You see, the bottom line, marriage is not a battle between you and your husband or you and your wife. Marriage is a war of worship. Will I worship myself and be demanding, and entitled, and critical? Or, will I worship God and love you as He has loved me? Old kingdom--New Kingdom. Little kingdom--Big Kingdom. Self-kingdom-- God’s Kingdom. “Fear not little flock, your heavenly Father has graciously chosen to give you the kingdom.” That Kingdom is not just the kingdom for your kitchen or your family room, it’s also the Kingdom for your marriage bed; because there, when that King rules--unity and understanding, and true love can be found. Well, you can close your notes. I want to talk to you a bit personally, if that wasn’t personal enough. Maybe some of you, right now, are just filled with regret. You’re thinking, “If only I would have heard this six weeks ago, or six months ago, or six years ago or whatever.” Listen! You can always trust God’s timing. God’s timing is always right. When Jesus was getting ready to leave the earth, He said to His disciples, “There are many more things I would like to tell you but you’re not able to bear them.” God’s timing is always right. You are in this room, whether you realize it or not, by divine appointment. This is your moment to hear these things--grab a hold of this moment, and know this--that the God who chose this moment for you is also ready to forgive all the mistakes of your past. And the God who chose this moment for you is the Ultimate Restorer. He is able to restore every broken thing. There will be a day when everything will be made new! Isn’t that wonderful? He’s able to bring restoration to a marriage that you thought wasn’t restorable. Maybe some of you are just overwhelmed; you’re thinking, “There’s no way I’m going to remember all of these things. I’m just going to be hurt in my marriage.” Well, hear this. Your Savior is not so unfaithful, unloving, unwise, or unkind to ever, ever, ever call you to a task without enabling you to do it. I think we need to talk more of God’s enabling grace. We talk a lot about His forgiving grace, and we should. But we don’t talk enough about His enabling grace. Think of the people that God chose to be leaders. Who would have chosen Moses--The exile murderer? Who would have chosen Gideon--scared to death? Who would have chosen Peter--the denier? You see, there aren’t any heroes in the Bible. There’s only One Hero in the Bible--it’s Jesus. And God empowers weak people to do amazing things by His grace; that’s what grace is about. Look, if that God puts a Red Sea in front of you, and He means for you to cross it--He’s going to build a bridge; He’s going to send a boat; He’s going to give you the ability to swim, or He’s going to part the waters. Get up, and follow Him by faith, and watch what He’ll do. That grace is yours in motion. God doesn’t give you a pile of grace so that you can see it in front of you, so get up and move. It’s as you move in weakness that He meets you in His grace. Your weakness is where His grace is made perfect. My mom, as a young believer, was watching these older believers die with such grace, and she said to her pastor, “Pastor, I don’t think I have dying grace.” Do you know what he said to her? He said, “Faye, that’s because you’re alive. You don’t need that grace right now.” When my mom needed that grace in her final days, she had grace. This lady sang her way into eternity. And we would think she was comatose; we’d be singing a hymn, and we’d look down, and her lips were mouthing the words of the hymn--dying grace. You get that grace in motion. Get up and follow God by grace. What have we been thinking about? Here’s a summary. God is in the business of painting His grace on the canvas of human souls. There’ll be a day when that canvas is assembled, the souls of every culture, every language group, every place on the globe, every ethnic group, men, women, boys, and girls from every period of history. When we see the canvas of the glory of God’s grace, we won’t be able to do anything but worship.
Transcript: Session 10
WHAT DID YOU EXPECT?
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