Behold the Lamb Presents

Improve Your Marriage

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

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Series Code: BTLP

Program Code: BTLP000101A


00:38 Hello, and welcome to Behold the Lamb presents.
00:41 I'm Chris Shelton, your host.
00:42 And I'm so thankful that you have chosen to tune in
00:46 for another Bible study with myself,
00:48 and Pastor Kenny Shelton today.
00:51 Today's message is entitled, "Improve Your Marriage."
00:56 And it's number nine in this lovely study guide,
00:58 that is entitled,
01:00 "Sharing God's Love Makes You Happier,
01:02 What the Bible says?"
01:03 Brother Richard Bland, from United Prison Ministries,
01:07 put this together.
01:08 And we liked it so much,
01:10 as we've said in previous programs,
01:12 that we decided to do an hour study
01:15 on each one of these Bible lessons
01:17 that are in here.
01:18 And in the very back,
01:19 for those of you who may be tuning in
01:21 for the very first time,
01:22 there are actually, I haven't counted them,
01:26 but there's several stories
01:27 all the way from Genesis to the Book of Revelation,
01:31 with all the references so you can go and say,
01:33 "I wanna know about Lord
01:35 or I wanna know about Daniel in the lion's den."
01:38 You can look in the back,
01:39 and there's a quick reference guide right there.
01:41 So with every program that you choose to purchase,
01:44 or to donate a love gift to the ministry
01:47 'cause we really don't sell anything,
01:49 but we ask for a love gift for these programs.
01:51 We're gonna send you one of these free
01:53 every time you call and order one of these messages.
01:57 And again, I mentioned that today's title is,
02:00 "Improve Your Marriage."
02:03 Improve Your Marriage, you know, years ago
02:05 someone told me that marriage is a work.
02:08 And, of course, being young you think of work,
02:11 that doesn't make sense.
02:12 'Cause we're always thinking about marriage
02:14 as being some type of euphoria,
02:16 just real excitement, true happiness,
02:19 finding the right person, until reality sets in.
02:24 And you're married,
02:26 and things just aren't exactly the way you think.
02:28 And I remember coming to the conclusion,
02:30 you know, what?
02:32 They were right.
02:33 Marriage is a work, and, you know,
02:35 we can find guidelines in the world.
02:38 Other programs that may help to build a good marriage,
02:43 but there is only one moral absolute,
02:46 and that's the Bible.
02:47 So we're so thankful and grateful
02:49 to be able to open up God's Word,
02:51 and read some of what God has for His people.
02:55 And I truly believe that
02:57 if we would just follow God's guideline,
02:59 and we implement His guideline
03:02 in the love that He wants us to implement it with,
03:05 then our lives would be so much happier.
03:08 Our homes would be,
03:10 it would have the atmosphere of heaven.
03:12 And I know that you would want that in your home,
03:15 your children would be happy, your spouse would be happy.
03:18 I know, I'm happier
03:20 when I can feel God's presence in my home.
03:23 So I hope you'll stay tuned as we have this Bible study
03:26 entitled again, "Improve Your Marriage,"
03:28 with Pastor Kenny Shelton.
03:30 But first as always,
03:31 we're blessed to go the 3ABN Worship Center,
03:36 and we're gonna listen to a song
03:37 that is entitled "Satisfied."
03:40 And it will be sung by Donna Shurley and Jack Crosby.
03:50 All my life long I had panted
03:55 For a drink from some cool spring
04:01 That I hoped would quench the burning
04:06 Of the thirst I felt within
04:11 Hallelujah, I have found Him
04:16 Whom my soul so long has craved
04:22 Jesus satisfies my longings
04:27 Through His blood I now am saved
04:35 Feeding on the husk around me
04:40 Till my strength was almost gone
04:45 Longed my soul for something better
04:50 Only still to hunger on
04:55 Hallelujah, I have found Him
05:01 Whom my soul so long has craved
05:06 Jesus satisfies my longings
05:11 Through His blood I now am saved
05:19 Poor I was and sought for riches
05:24 Something that would satisfy
05:30 But the dust I gathered round me
05:35 Only mocked my soul's sad cry
05:40 Hallelujah, I have found Him
05:46 Whom my soul so long has craved
05:51 Jesus satisfies my longings
05:56 Through His blood I now am saved
06:04 Well of water ever springing
06:09 Bread of life so rich and free
06:15 Untold wealth that never faileth
06:20 My Redeemer is to me
06:25 Hallelujah, I have found Him
06:31 Whom my soul so long has craved
06:36 Jesus satisfies my longings
06:41 Through His blood I now am saved
06:46 Hallelujah, I have found Him
06:52 Whom my soul so long has craved
06:57 Jesus satisfies my longings
07:02 Through His blood I now am saved
07:07 Through His blood I now am saved
07:25 Thank you for joining us today here at Behold the Lamb.
07:27 We very much appreciate
07:29 all of your letters, your cards,
07:30 and you know, just sending in a letter of appreciation,
07:33 or with questions that you might have.
07:35 We do our very best to get back with you,
07:37 I've often said,
07:38 I'm pretty slow with everything that's going on.
07:40 But don't get discouraged, 'cause if you don't get,
07:42 you know, answer to your question,
07:44 you can always write again, you can always give a call.
07:46 We really need that contact.
07:48 Thank you for your love, your prayers, and your support
07:50 to help get this message around the world.
07:52 Today, we're gonna be talking about,
07:54 I think, it's a very, very interesting subject.
07:56 Some of you will say, well, I don't,
07:57 I'm not qualified for it,
07:59 or I don't know anything about it.
08:00 But after we study the Word of God,
08:01 I think, you'll understand a little better,
08:03 as I do, after all these years of marriage.
08:05 We're gonna be talking about marriage,
08:06 and "Improve Your Marriage," that's the subject today,
08:10 "Improve Your Marriage."
08:12 And I wanna make it clear before we begin,
08:15 before I have prayer.
08:16 What I'm talking about here, we're talking about marriage.
08:19 We are just talking about improving your marriage,
08:24 improving it.
08:26 We're not talking about, lot of people
08:27 who may be having some real difficult times in their lives,
08:30 that'll be a little different,
08:32 you know, subject and different material
08:33 that would be on there.
08:35 We're talking about somebody who just says,
08:36 "I have a pretty good marriage, I have a good marriage."
08:39 But regardless there are ways to improve that good marriage.
08:44 And so, if you're looking for ways to improve it,
08:46 we're gonna be studying that from Word of God.
08:47 We're glad that you joined us.
08:49 Let's pray together, shall we,
08:50 as we study the Word here before we study it.
08:54 Loving Father in heaven,
08:55 we truly thank You for the prayer
08:56 which we have to study Your Word.
08:58 We thank You for the power
08:59 of Thy Holy Spirit has promised to,
09:01 where two or three are gathered together
09:02 in my name.
09:03 Lord, we just ask for the blessing to come,
09:05 for those need to hear,
09:07 those who would be encouraged by it,
09:09 and to maybe even save a marriage today.
09:10 Lord, you know who it is,
09:12 and, you know what needs to take place,
09:13 we leave it in your care and your keeping.
09:15 Ask for forgiveness of any sin,
09:17 anything that would separate us from heaven,
09:18 we need to hear it from heaven.
09:20 We need to hear Your voice, not man's.
09:22 May we stand behind the word today,
09:23 and give you praise in Jesus' name, amen.
09:28 Always good to have your Bible, pencil, and paper,
09:30 so you can jot some things down
09:31 as we move as, you know, fast as we can.
09:33 Three or four minutes already passed by
09:34 in just kind of the opening, and there's a lot to cover.
09:37 I mean, how can you really cover topic,
09:39 subject like marriage maybe in 45 minutes or less?
09:42 How can you really do that?
09:43 There's so much in scripture
09:45 that deals with having a marriage,
09:47 and what marriage is all about.
09:49 So I think no one probably doubts
09:53 that a marriage can be confusing at times.
09:56 There are things that maybe we encountered
09:58 that we didn't intend to,
10:00 we didn't really realize we would get involved,
10:02 maybe that deeply, or we didn't realize
10:04 what we're gonna get involved with?
10:07 And it can be confusing at times.
10:08 There's this little story, I wanna just go over,
10:10 I thought was very, very interesting.
10:12 And this story is about an eight-year-old boy.
10:14 I thought as, you know, an eight-year-old,
10:17 seven, eight-year-old,
10:18 they have got things going through their mind too.
10:21 And this eight-year-old boy came to his...
10:23 We call his girlfriend.
10:24 You know, younger and younger,
10:25 when I was seven, eight years old,
10:27 if somebody said you have a girlfriend,
10:28 that was all, "Oh, man, absolutely,
10:30 there's denial every time."
10:31 Nine and ten years old, you have a girlfriend,
10:33 even though I might have, it was denial every time
10:35 because it's like, "Well, you're not supposed to have,
10:36 you know, girlfriends too young,
10:38 somebody's gonna laugh."
10:39 But this young man had a girlfriend,
10:41 and so he asked his eight-year-old girlfriend.
10:44 He said, "You know what?
10:45 I think we ought to get married."
10:47 Well, you know, two eight year olds
10:49 deciding they're going to get married.
10:50 And boy, I'm telling you,
10:52 she asked him and, you know what she just said?
10:54 She turned him down cold.
10:57 Well, he couldn't believe it, heartbroken.
11:00 "What do you mean, you turned me down?
11:01 I thought we could get married."
11:03 She said, "No, we can't get married."
11:04 "Why?"
11:06 "Well, because in my family," she said,
11:08 "Only relatives marry."
11:13 He said, "I don't understand that.
11:15 Only relatives marry in your family?
11:17 What... What does that mean?"
11:19 What does that have to do with us?
11:21 I don't understand it."
11:22 He said, "Please explain it to me.
11:25 What do you mean by that?"
11:27 She said, "Well, if me and you were relatives,
11:29 we could get married."
11:32 He thought, "I still don't understand,
11:34 I need more information."
11:35 But "Since we are not, we can't get married."
11:38 He said, "Please explain some more of what do you mean?"
11:42 She said, "Well, in my family, let's take for instance,
11:45 my family, my daddy married my mother.
11:52 My grandpa married my grandma."
11:56 He said, "What?"
11:58 And she said, "Can you believe it?
12:00 All of my uncles are,
12:01 they're all married to my aunts."
12:05 He said, "Wow."
12:06 So you see, we're not relatives,
12:08 we can't get married.
12:14 If we were relatives, we could."
12:17 Sometimes there's things that crop up
12:18 that we don't quite understand in life,
12:21 and even though someone tries to explain them to us,
12:23 we still, we haven't quite got it together.
12:27 This was the understanding of an eight-year-old.
12:31 This other little comment, a couple of lines I think,
12:35 it's very, very interesting,
12:36 and this is a wedding that took place
12:38 many, many years ago.
12:40 And I like to think in terms of,
12:41 I call myself a hillbilly, if that's all right.
12:44 Now people say, "You come from the south, evidently,
12:46 because you have this draw, you have this accent."
12:48 And so it's okay, you can call me redneck,
12:50 if you want.
12:51 Call me hillbilly if you want, it doesn't matter.
12:53 But this kind of took place way down in Kentucky
12:55 years and years ago.
12:57 And they had just a little bit of an accent,
12:58 and said the words just a little bit different,
13:00 but it was interesting.
13:01 They, there's two people who came together,
13:03 and they wanted to get married.
13:05 And they didn't want a long drawn out wedding,
13:07 they want to get to the point, I do, let's...
13:09 That's it, you know.
13:11 And so they came together, got the preacher,
13:13 and they asked the preacher, the preacher ask the bride.
13:15 He said, "Do you take this man for better or worse?"
13:19 Kind of interesting.
13:21 "Would you take this man for better or worse?"
13:23 Bride said, "I take him as he's."
13:29 Preacher said, "What?"
13:32 "I take him as he's."
13:35 He said, "What do you mean by that?"
13:37 Bride said, "Well, he couldn't be no worse.
13:42 And there's really no hope of him getting any better.
13:46 So I take him as he's."
13:54 Maybe smart.
13:57 You go a lot of different directions with that,
13:59 but sometime we take each other as we are.
14:07 "I take him as he is."
14:11 Today, we talk about, this subject
14:13 is so, so important.
14:17 Improve your marriage or really to make it better
14:20 that we talked about.
14:23 Can that really take place? A person said...
14:26 I mentioned the other night on the program,
14:27 just made a little comment.
14:30 He said, well, person once said,
14:32 "The grass is greener where you water it."
14:36 The grass is what?
14:37 Greener where you water it.
14:40 So I'm asking today,
14:41 maybe we should do some watering
14:43 in our own backyard.
14:47 And there's a lot of watering that we can do.
14:49 Your grass may be somewhat green,
14:51 and it may be okay,
14:52 as far as referring to your marriage maybe,
14:55 but it can be greener.
14:57 It can be richer.
14:59 There's things that can be done
15:01 to make it the way God would like for it to be.
15:06 And studying for this,
15:08 I thought, it was very interesting.
15:09 It's found that counseling, you know, psychoanalysis,
15:13 they call it, you know, counseling.
15:14 Counseling is good in a lot of, lot of areas.
15:16 You can gather a lot of good points.
15:18 You know, I like my counsel naturally from the Word of God.
15:20 But there's counseling, there's things,
15:22 there's points that can help if we can pick them
15:24 and they all gel with the Word of God.
15:26 But you know what? We find this.
15:28 It's good, counseling is really,
15:30 it works well sometimes
15:31 for people with personal issues.
15:35 But listen to this, but when it comes to marriage,
15:39 it's shown to be a failure.
15:42 You say, "Well, how does that...?"
15:43 Because most people go to marriage counselor,
15:45 they have problems in marriage, they go to counseling.
15:49 It's interesting, 'cause it talks about divorce.
15:52 It's interesting.
15:53 How long has marriage counseling really been around?
15:57 Well, marriage counseling as a profession
16:01 has been around for over 100 years.
16:03 That means where they might get paid for it,
16:04 or that's their job, and that's...
16:06 They're gonna help out couple of people who can't get along.
16:09 It's been around for a very long time,
16:12 but the divorce rate since that's been around,
16:14 the divorce rate has went up 300%.
16:17 Now that's my argument.
16:19 You say, "Well, counseling is good, it's got to be,"
16:20 but why is the divorce rate then went up 300%?
16:24 Maybe there's something lacking, you see,
16:26 that we're looking for today to improve our marriage,
16:30 your marriage.
16:33 How do we improve? And how could it be improved?
16:35 Can it really be improved
16:36 and does it really need to be improved?
16:38 Most people will say, it does need to be improved,
16:40 even though they are having all kind of maybe problems,
16:43 they don't want to admit that there can be some improvement.
16:47 And when you ask a man or a woman,
16:50 and they give their opinion, it's interesting,
16:53 sometimes the man sees himself completely different
16:55 than the wife sees him.
16:56 And the wife sees, you know, vice versa.
17:00 They just see things differently in their spouse,
17:04 they see it differently in their marriage
17:06 they just see things differently.
17:08 And some time, it's really completely different,
17:12 to where there seems no way out.
17:15 I always thought, and I always thought,
17:16 marriage is...
17:18 When you got married, it was a happy occasion.
17:19 Everybody seemed to be happy, everybody got dressed up.
17:22 And, you know, they had all these goodies,
17:23 and people went,
17:24 and people were taking pictures.
17:26 And people were smiling, and everybody wanted to go,
17:28 and people would dress alike.
17:29 And they spent a lot of money,
17:31 and it's supposed to be a happy time.
17:32 And so as I grew up
17:34 thinking marriage would be a happy thing.
17:35 So I wonder today, if we're thinking about,
17:37 what did you think about when you were young,
17:39 especially the girls.
17:40 I may not, really, a long time in my life
17:43 I ever thought about marriage now.
17:47 But, you know, lot of times a lot of young ladies, the girls,
17:49 they think 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, they start thinking about,
17:52 when they grow up, and when they get married,
17:55 and how the marriage is going to be,
17:57 and how many children we are going to have
17:59 and they plan a lot.
18:03 Did it really turn out the way that you planned?
18:06 Did your dream really find fulfillment?
18:11 Sometimes, marriages are in trouble.
18:15 And the average couple
18:18 wait at least six years before they go to find help.
18:23 If a marriage is in trouble
18:25 in the first year or second year,
18:27 and you're waiting six years,
18:28 there's a lot of trouble that's built up.
18:31 But this is on an average, six years before seeking help.
18:37 In six years, the honeymoon phase
18:42 is probably over.
18:44 It shouldn't be, but many times it is.
18:50 And that's where division, separation and problems begin,
18:54 because we no longer hold each other in esteem
18:56 as we did in the beginning.
19:00 We no longer feel the same way.
19:02 We get occupied
19:03 with a lot of things of this world.
19:07 So the honeymoon phase would be over for some,
19:12 and that committed relationship that you said,
19:14 "I've committed my life to this person has faded."
19:19 It's not like it was.
19:20 And it becomes very obvious that there are certain problems
19:27 about sharing your life with another person.
19:31 Your life seemed pretty simple when you were by yourself.
19:33 Now you're sharing it with someone else,
19:35 and you thought that they kind of was thinking
19:37 the way that you,
19:39 you know, the way you thought about things.
19:41 But as time goes on,
19:43 all of a sudden thoughts are different,
19:45 going down other roads,
19:49 and you begin to say, I begin to say,
19:51 she begins, somebody begins to say,
19:53 we're thinking a whole lot different
19:54 than we used to.
19:57 See, Paul speaks to the church
19:59 in this verse in 1 Corinthians 10,
20:01 if you have your Bible, 1 Corinthians 1:10,
20:05 he's speaking to the church, but I want you to know
20:07 how this can speak to your life and my life.
20:09 Remember, we have to think about the Word of God.
20:12 There's a lot of people in the world that they say,
20:14 they have a happy marriage, it's a good marriage,
20:16 they don't have God in it, you wonder how it can be?
20:19 But yet, is it how God would have that marriage to be.
20:23 Can you have a real marriage without God in it
20:25 and following God's counsel?
20:27 This is the big challenge.
20:29 We need God's Word, we need His counsel.
20:32 This is where we go for counseling,
20:34 but notice this verse that Paul talks about
20:37 in 1 Corinthians 1:10,
20:40 he says, "Now I beseech you, brethren,
20:42 by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
20:45 that ye all," what?
20:46 "Speak the same thing,
20:50 that there would be no divisions among you,
20:52 but that ye be perfectly joined together
20:56 in the same mind and in the same judgment."
21:00 We realized where his mind was going,
21:01 and he was talking as to the church as a group.
21:04 But I think individually,
21:07 if you want to improve your relationship,
21:08 or your marriage,
21:10 or relationship with one another,
21:12 or your friends,
21:13 this would be good counsel to follow right here.
21:15 Sometime we need to be speaking,
21:17 especially in the marriage,
21:18 we need to be speaking the same thing.
21:21 There needs to be no division in the home,
21:23 you can have no division
21:24 when it comes to raising children.
21:26 You can't have division
21:27 when it comes to likes and dislikes,
21:29 and where he goes and where she goes,
21:31 there has to be some kind of a unity
21:32 that comes together in this
21:34 so that things can be worked out,
21:35 that would be pleasing.
21:37 And that can happen if we have the,
21:38 if we're joined together,
21:40 and we have the same mind,
21:41 and wind up having the same judgment.
21:44 That sound like perfection, doesn't it?
21:46 We need that.
21:48 Think about in a marriage,
21:49 if we had this very same judgment
21:53 that your companion had,
21:54 if you had the same mind,
21:56 boy, it'd be easy to get along with yourself, wouldn't it?
21:59 Somebody's not getting it?
22:02 Think about it, it'd be like getting along with your likes
22:04 and your dislikes,
22:06 because we're thinking the same here.
22:12 We live in an age of change,
22:15 and we realized in this age of change,
22:18 as longer that we're single,
22:20 longer that we're not joined together,
22:22 we become more and all...
22:24 This is for... This is for all of us right here.
22:27 A change becomes more difficult.
22:29 The older I get, change becomes more difficult.
22:32 Does that sound like a fact? It is.
22:35 Because we become more established
22:37 in what we've been doing and how we've been doing it
22:38 for so long that you think
22:40 this is the normal way in which to do it.
22:42 So change becomes difficult.
22:45 That means that even sharing things
22:47 become more difficult,
22:49 because we haven't had to share.
22:53 It becomes more difficult for us.
22:56 The longer I live, sometime, and I say opinions,
22:59 and we love our opinions.
23:00 Opinion is not good of ourselves,
23:02 it's what the Bible has to say about the subject.
23:04 A lot of time we just say our opinion
23:06 based upon surely a Word of God here.
23:08 Our opinion sometime become, boy, I'm telling you, ooh,
23:11 stronger as we go along.
23:15 If we're not used to sharing those things and we simply...
23:18 Bottom line, we say, I simply want it my way.
23:24 I want it my way.
23:28 Keep in mind, people who wait, we've mentioned, keep in mind,
23:32 people who wait at least six years
23:34 before seeking help,
23:37 keep this in mind, and all notice this,
23:39 half of all marriages end in the first seven years.
23:44 Did you get it?
23:46 Half of all marriages end in the first seven years.
23:51 And what?
23:52 We are waiting six years before we try to get help,
23:56 and sometimes that's way too late.
24:00 That must be kept in mind.
24:03 God thus created us I believe as I've studied this,
24:06 He created us to be social creatures.
24:10 Is that true?
24:11 God created us to be social creatures,
24:13 because the Bible in Genesis 2:18,
24:16 the Bible is very clear.
24:18 I love this because as God had created Adam
24:21 and He put him there,
24:22 I think He noticed that there were something
24:23 like God knew that there would be.
24:26 There's no surprises with God, is there?
24:28 And the Bible simply says here, Genesis 2:18,
24:31 "It is not good that man should," what?
24:35 "Live alone.
24:36 I will make for him," what?
24:38 "I'll make a help meet." Notice that.
24:42 God said, "It's not good for man to live alone."
24:45 It's not good and that's mankind.
24:47 That's women, that's men, that's everybody.
24:49 Not to live alone, God made us social
24:51 so we could share with one another,
24:52 learn from one another.
24:56 He meant for there to be marriage,
25:00 but He said, "I'm going to make for Adam a help meet,"
25:02 and that's interesting.
25:03 That simply means, help meet there
25:05 in the original language,
25:07 I'm going to make an aid for him.
25:09 Why would a man need aid? Because men need aid.
25:14 Somebody not with me.
25:17 Well, we got an amen out there,
25:18 but we'll wait should you turn after a while.
25:23 Man needs help. That's what a helper.
25:27 God says, "I'm going to 'cause he needs help."
25:29 And man need help.
25:32 And the other part of that help meet is, God said,
25:34 "I'm going to make a something that will surround you."
25:39 See, men need to be surrounded sometime,
25:42 and surrounded by somebody who cares,
25:44 surrounded by love,
25:45 and you know, you're surrounded,
25:47 you voluntarily accept that naturally,
25:49 but I'm gonna make a surround for you, Kenny,
25:51 because you're gonna need it.
25:53 But how nice that is, how thoughtful God is to us,
25:57 to each of us.
25:59 But you know, I think down deep all of us,
26:02 have desire to find.
26:04 And we're thinking about
26:05 maybe those who are looking for a husband or wife,
26:08 down deep, I think all of us that thought about
26:10 one time or the other desire...
26:12 We want to find the one perfect person,
26:16 the one perfect person,
26:17 the one that we should have been praying
26:19 about a long time ago, right?
26:21 One wishes that God's opening the doors,
26:22 but we want that one perfect person
26:24 to spend the rest of our lives with, we just...
26:26 We'd like to have it that way.
26:28 And, you know,
26:29 on some occasions it seems though,
26:31 that some people find them,
26:35 did you notice that some people seems to find them here.
26:37 And then, you know,
26:39 they find that mate at first glance,
26:42 seems a little different in my thinking.
26:44 But they say, the first glance I went to some...
26:48 I went someplace and I looked across the room
26:50 and I saw this person
26:51 and I knew right then and there,
26:53 they were to be my husband or my wife.
26:56 Wow! Oh, man, that's first glance.
27:01 And then you meet
27:02 and you come together and all of a sudden,
27:04 you're talking about the same things
27:05 and you have the same desires.
27:07 You have the same outlook,
27:09 you know, everything seems to gel.
27:11 It seemed like you've known each other all your life.
27:14 And some people just simply say, "I found my soul mate."
27:17 I don't know if you've ever...
27:19 You've heard of that, "I found my soul mate."
27:20 It was just like, then you're thinking,
27:22 "Well, how can it be so quick, man?
27:23 It took us six years, took us five,
27:24 you know, took us a while."
27:31 But really what makes people really compatible?
27:35 Is there something in the Word of God?
27:36 Is there something out there that we say
27:38 that makes us compatible
27:39 so that we can live with each other?
27:42 We can gel with each other,
27:44 the life could be happy for each other
27:46 and all those around us.
27:52 To be compatible for marriage.
27:55 Well, I've heard this,
27:57 people say, "I'm looking for a wife.
27:58 So what are you doing?"
27:59 Well, sometimes they go to wrong places.
28:02 Others, I've heard this a lot
28:03 and an advertisement made people go to,
28:06 I call just a website.
28:08 They get on there on their computers
28:10 and they fill out little questionnaires.
28:13 And they write all their information on there
28:15 and they're hoping
28:17 that somebody on the other end will take that questionnaire
28:20 and all those questions,
28:21 and then somebody else sends one in
28:23 and they're going to look at this
28:24 and they're going to look at that and say,
28:26 these two are a match.
28:29 We're gonna match them up.
28:32 Well, matched up on what?
28:34 On things they have in common.
28:36 That's what they say, well, we have in common, we can last.
28:38 Sounds good,
28:40 but how long do these relationships really last?
28:44 How long do they really last that,
28:45 you know, they may have things that are similar,
28:48 our interests are similar,
28:50 our little quirks that everybody probably has.
28:59 Will it really last?
29:02 Well, one survey was done on a couple married for years.
29:05 Here's what they said about,
29:06 they said that the compatibility
29:08 wasn't an issue.
29:10 I always thought you need to be compatible.
29:13 So this person said,
29:16 "Compatibility was really not the issue."
29:19 They said what made their marriage work was them.
29:24 Just think, don't close it off.
29:28 They say, "We as a couple made the marriage work
29:32 when there was differences."
29:35 It was not the compatibility of their personalities,
29:40 but we worked at it.
29:43 They said their relationship...
29:45 Notice it, they said,
29:46 "Our relationship to one another
29:48 after years of marriage was,"
29:51 here's how they said it,
29:52 "sheer power of their willingness
29:55 to have a good marriage."
29:59 Now you might look at it little different.
30:01 This is their thought,
30:03 we can make it work
30:05 and we're going to make it work.
30:07 Three things they said,
30:08 "We want to have a good marriage,"
30:10 number one.
30:11 Number two,
30:13 "We want to stay in that relationship,"
30:15 number two.
30:16 Number three, they said, one way in which to do it,
30:19 number three is simply always, notice this,
30:21 and this is where division comes and separation.
30:24 "We need to be concerned,
30:25 always be concerned about the happiness
30:27 of the other more than we're concerned
30:29 about our own happiness."
30:31 Now that takes a selfless person.
30:34 Because we're born selfish,
30:36 it's hard to get selfishness out.
30:38 And like I said, longer lot of times
30:40 that we're by our self or do whatever, dido,
30:42 we become more selfish.
30:45 God wants to social, again, so we can share,
30:47 we'd be around others and we learned to share
30:48 and to do, that's why tithing,
30:50 isn't it one of the things?
30:53 That God ordained it
30:55 so that we will not become selfish,
30:57 that we will learn to give, learn to share.
31:01 So I thought that was just, it was interesting here,
31:04 always concerned.
31:05 Think about how many arguments you would have
31:07 and disagreements you would have,
31:09 if every time you were concerned
31:10 about the other one being happy instead of worrying
31:12 about you being happy.
31:16 Probably most of us wouldn't, they wouldn't be.
31:20 Because it's difficult to get self out of the way.
31:24 That's life, and we need help.
31:28 But really, if you want to improve
31:29 your marriage,
31:31 we have to think along this line.
31:32 And so what we can think about this.
31:34 One man said this,
31:36 I thought it was very interesting.
31:37 He said, how a couple, in other words, well,
31:40 his marriage has gotten...
31:41 For years they've been married
31:42 and they've had a good marriage.
31:44 He said this,
31:45 "How a couple interacts
31:47 is the single most fundamental aspect
31:51 to create a successful relationship
31:53 or marriage."
31:55 Did anybody get that?
31:56 How the couple reacts to each other?
32:02 And then someone questioned him a little bit more, and said,
32:03 "What do you mean how a couple reacts?"
32:07 And he gave six things I thought was very interesting.
32:10 Things like,
32:12 now listen to this, this is true, this is true.
32:14 I understand it well
32:17 and still fall short many times,
32:18 and maybe you might look at today and say,
32:20 "Well, I understand that too."
32:21 This man said here, he said,
32:23 "It's how you speak and react to each other."
32:30 If you want a healthy marriage, you have to be...
32:33 You have to recognize,
32:34 you have to be very careful how you speak
32:36 and how you react to the other.
32:40 I thought that's a good one.
32:43 Two,
32:44 just simply how well you get along.
32:47 Do you get along or you're fussing all the time?
32:50 How well do you really get along?
32:54 Number three, he said,
32:55 "It's how you move through life together
33:00 in making adjustments."
33:02 See, marriage is what?
33:04 It's moving through life together.
33:06 You're changing, she's changing,
33:08 you know, the marriage, life is changing, the children,
33:11 grandchildren, things, everything is changing.
33:14 And it's how you make adjustments
33:15 to those changes to whether your marriage
33:17 will be improved or maybe it won't be
33:19 what it should be.
33:21 I think that just makes good sense.
33:24 We have to make adjustments
33:27 and we're not ought to and we should not
33:29 as husband and wife
33:30 try to worry about pleasing somebody else
33:33 rather than your mate.
33:34 God first and then your mate, and then it works down.
33:38 That's the way that the Bible says
33:40 very clearly how it's supposed to be put in.
33:42 Because when you leave your mate out
33:44 and you're making other decisions
33:45 and choices over here, it's not a good thing.
33:48 It's not a good healthy marriage at all.
33:52 Four, he said, this is interesting too.
33:54 "In a marriage, if you want to improve it,
33:56 really how have you been supporting each other?"
34:00 Do you support each other
34:01 in the things that they're doing?
34:07 Or is it that you might feel, as I just mentioned,
34:09 that maybe you're caught
34:10 in the middle of something sometime,
34:12 and you're almost forced to make another decision.
34:15 The husband and the wife must first of all
34:17 consider among themselves,
34:20 what decision needs to be made for their marriage.
34:24 And what is best?
34:27 How well do you support that?
34:28 How well do you move through life together?
34:30 And a couple of others I thought was very, very good.
34:32 He said, "We need to admire each other."
34:37 Two words I look at, he said, "We need to admire each other."
34:40 And number three, R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
34:44 Somebody's not with me.
34:46 I'll tell you what it is, respect.
34:49 You have to have respect.
34:51 I said admire,
34:52 what do you mean in relationship
34:53 you need to admire the other, the others.
34:55 That means you have to have high regard for that person.
34:57 If you don't have high regard for that person
34:59 that you're going with
35:00 and thinking about getting married to that person,
35:02 you need to think again.
35:04 Hope that makes sense,
35:06 if you don't have high regard for them.
35:10 And really he is talking about, admire her,
35:11 means, simply to like.
35:14 You can't say you love someone and you don't like them.
35:17 I've heard people say that.
35:20 It's reverse,
35:22 you have to be able to hold that person in high esteem,
35:25 not cutting them down all the time,
35:26 not beating and banging on them,
35:28 but simply hold them in high esteem.
35:31 That's admire.
35:32 And then the word respect, that means to show honor,
35:37 show honor or esteem.
35:39 Show some consideration for.
35:43 And then the thought came up with one individual said,
35:45 "Yeah, but you know, you don't just respect a person
35:47 because you're told to respect them.
35:51 You respect them
35:52 because they're worthy of that respect."
35:56 And I think, well, how far does that go?
36:01 They said,
36:03 in a survey that these things fit into respect.
36:09 Number one, good reputation.
36:12 A good reputation.
36:14 Does your spouse, does the one you're looking at,
36:15 they have a good reputation?
36:18 Maybe depends on how you talk to.
36:20 And the second one I thought I was interested,
36:23 you need to look at this part here as,
36:26 is he or she decent.
36:28 I thought I used to hear that growing up all the time,
36:30 "Well, are they decent?"
36:34 I have heard people say, when they knock on the door,
36:35 they say, "You decent?
36:36 Can I come in?"
36:38 Somebody didn't get that.
36:42 Are you decent?
36:43 Yeah, you close on so and so,
36:45 kind of come on in the house or whatever,
36:46 you decent.
36:49 So your spouse
36:50 that when you're thinking about or getting married,
36:51 well, they need to be a decent person,
36:54 that means reasonable.
36:58 And it's interesting one word he said,
36:59 just adequate.
37:01 I mean, that's not giving much credit,
37:02 but are they adequate?
37:05 Are they fair?
37:07 Number three, he said, "Are they honest?"
37:08 Number four, "Are they good?"
37:12 Five, "Are they presentable?"
37:15 Are they somebody that you can present
37:17 to mom and dad?
37:19 Are you ashamed and embarrassed
37:22 that you still want to spend your life with them?
37:24 You might want to think again.
37:26 Six, "Are they responsible person?"
37:29 Somebody you want to get married,
37:31 they need to be responsible.
37:32 They need to take responsibility
37:34 for what's getting ready to take place,
37:35 or if it is already taken place,
37:38 you still have that responsibility.
37:40 Even though you've been married for 40 years,
37:41 you still need to be presentable,
37:44 you still need to be responsible,
37:45 you still need to be good.
37:47 You need to be good, have a good reputation.
37:49 You need to be decent, you need to be honest.
37:51 And number seven, you need to be dependable.
37:54 Nothing's worse than, mate,
37:55 trying to deal with somebody who's not dependable.
37:58 Hello.
37:59 Isn't that true?
38:01 Pretty frustrating.
38:05 I've heard, they said, "In order to love someone,
38:08 you must first basically admire and respect them."
38:13 Did you get it?
38:15 In order to love someone the way we should,
38:16 you first must admire and respect that person.
38:21 You know, like that person as it were.
38:23 If you can't admire, if you can't respect,
38:26 if you can't trust a person,
38:29 you know, can you really love them enough
38:31 to spend all your life with, or are you asking for trouble?
38:35 How does the Word of God
38:37 really fit into improving your marriage here?
38:41 Can a marriage really be what it should be without God?
38:45 Turn with me, if you will, in 1 Corinthians Chapter 13.
38:48 1 Corinthians Chapter 13,
38:50 we'll read just a couple of quick verses down here.
38:52 You know this chapter well,
38:54 I'm sure you read it all the time.
38:55 We've been encouraged to read it every day,
38:57 and there's reason for that.
39:00 1 Corinthians Chapter 13, I'm gonna read verse 4 quickly,
39:04 13:4.
39:05 Here's what the Bible says,
39:08 "Charity suffereth long,
39:09 and is kind, charity envieth not,
39:13 charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up..."
39:17 Then we know charity is what?
39:19 Certainly as charity is love.
39:20 First eight, skip on down.
39:21 They're all good, you can read them all,
39:23 but it says, "Charity never faileth,
39:24 but whether there be prophecies,
39:27 they shall fail,
39:28 whether there be tongues, they shall cease,
39:31 whether there be knowledge, it shall," what?
39:34 "Vanish away."
39:35 And verse 13 down quickly, "And now abideth," what?
39:38 "Faith, hope, charity, these three,
39:41 but the greatest of these is charity or love."
39:45 Just remember, you read that from the earliest time
39:47 I'm sure, but this is very heavy duty right here.
39:51 Think about it, this gives as we read...
39:54 If you read 1 Corinthians 13,
39:56 it gives to me a true definition of real love,
40:00 of lasting love.
40:01 A love that will improve your marriage
40:04 beyond maybe what you thought it could be.
40:07 If we read that as we counsel every day of our life
40:10 and apply it to us and not your mate.
40:13 Apply it to self.
40:15 See, Paul in 1 Corinthians 13, he analyzes this.
40:19 I like the way he analyzes things,
40:20 sometimes it gets a little deep,
40:21 may be hard to understand.
40:23 But it begins to analyze what love is.
40:26 It's the characteristics that's found in everyone
40:28 who truly loves.
40:30 The word love in this world is so out of proportion,
40:35 it's nowhere near being right.
40:37 When they say love, they say they love everyone,
40:38 we love... Well, we love you, brother.
40:40 We love you...
40:41 First opportunity they get,
40:43 they're stabbing you in the back,
40:44 they're saying, gossiping, backbiting,
40:45 doing all kind of thing.
40:47 Paul here is doing the characteristics
40:48 of what true love is and he points it out
40:50 in a beautiful way.
40:51 He said, "One who loves, a person who loves,
40:54 see if you qualify, see if I qualify,
40:57 or if there's room for me to grow in this area.
41:00 Person who loves is always seeking to reveal,
41:03 feel..."
41:04 Notice this, "Reveal it in word and deed."
41:07 When you say you love someone,
41:08 you're always seeking to do what?
41:11 To reveal that love and what?
41:13 Not just, oh, I love, I love, I love, I love.
41:15 Sometimes people need to be like, grab up
41:17 and shake just a little bit
41:19 and say quit talking about it and do something about it.
41:24 Think about it.
41:26 Love, they're saying it is cheap,
41:28 but when we really love we're gonna be doing
41:30 little things all the time, it says we, it tells we love.
41:37 They always care when you really love,
41:38 you care about the feelings of others,
41:42 you try to promote happiness, not sadness.
41:45 1 Peter 3:8 points it out.
41:47 We can't read it all, the time is just going down,
41:48 13 minutes or so.
41:50 1 Peter 3:8, points out our need,
41:52 "Once again, to be of one mind."
41:54 Notice that what?
41:56 "One mind, have compassion and have love,"
41:59 notice that the Bible says, "And be pitiful and courteous."
42:03 Pitiful here means to be tenderhearted.
42:06 You can't have a hardhearted individual in a marriage
42:10 and make it work.
42:11 It has to be tender,
42:13 it has to be able to be reached and touched.
42:15 And it's not by griping and complaining
42:16 but it's by love that's shown that melts an individual.
42:20 Often said, growing up at home I was very sassy mouth
42:23 and so on and so forth.
42:25 It wasn't the whippings and corrections
42:28 that I got that did it.
42:30 You see, but it was the love that was shown back to me,
42:34 that will break your heart,
42:36 and cause you to want to do the right thing.
42:41 One mind, compassion.
42:44 See Jesus gives that,
42:45 you remember how Jesus gave this,
42:47 you know, He talks about,
42:49 He's writing a new commandment to them.
42:50 You remember a new commandment I give you.
42:52 You remember in John 15:12, John 15:12, Jesus said,
42:56 "I'm gonna give you a new commandment
42:57 that you do," what?
43:00 "That you love one another," this is what was lacking.
43:03 Everything that they were doing,
43:04 they were lacking this thing called love, we have to love.
43:08 Also in Matthew or is it John 17:22,
43:12 Jesus was praying here,
43:14 "That they may be one as we are one,"
43:16 that we need to be one.
43:18 We need to quit worrying about trying to be one.
43:20 Somebody listen.
43:23 We need to quit worrying about being one
43:25 with somebody else out there,
43:26 but we need to worry about being one with God
43:28 and one with our mate.
43:31 This is so, so important.
43:34 Jesus said, that they may be one,
43:36 they become married, they said,
43:38 the Bible said, they become what?
43:40 One flesh,
43:41 didn't say that about any other thing,
43:43 any other individual, didn't say it about children,
43:45 didn't say grandchildren.
43:46 It says, the husband and wife
43:48 become one flesh.
43:50 It must be taken into consideration.
43:53 Many will throw that out
43:54 because they don't want to hear it.
43:56 Many people say, let's not talk about it,
43:57 let's talk about something more.
43:59 That's what the Bible says,
44:00 so we need to look at it in that light.
44:02 1 John 3:23, The Bible said, "We must believe on,"
44:06 you want a happy marriage,
44:07 you want your marriage to improve, it says,
44:09 "We must believe on Jesus Christ,"
44:11 and then it goes on to say "Love," what?
44:13 "Love one another."
44:14 Believe on Jesus and love one another.
44:19 Love never produces,
44:20 I want you to know is love never produces
44:22 the idea of self importance.
44:26 Love never produces, right, it does not seek for flattery.
44:30 Real love never seeks for flattery,
44:32 you always gonna have to flatter him all the time,
44:33 you gonna have to say something.
44:35 True love never seeks for anything.
44:38 Jot that down,
44:39 if you don't get anything out of true love,
44:41 love for your spouse or your children,
44:42 it never seeks and if you really love it,
44:44 you're not seeking anything,
44:49 but their happiness.
44:51 Man, that's a lot of dying self there, isn't it?
44:53 Love gives, real love gives.
44:58 Well, you didn't, you didn't, and you didn't,
45:01 and he didn't and you...
45:02 Love gives, not receive.
45:05 It's more blessed to give than to receive.
45:12 The verses goes on and it says what I said,
45:13 love is never uncivil.
45:16 I think I've been uncivil sometime.
45:21 I don't think if anybody's ever been uncivil.
45:25 That means, uncivil means not civil.
45:31 Love is never rude. I've been rude.
45:36 And you may be never intended to be rude.
45:39 But you got rude.
45:41 Circumstances, situations made you rude,
45:44 still not right.
45:46 Love is never unmannerly, love never offends anybody.
45:51 I don't care if you've been offended or not,
45:52 don't care if you've been hurt, beat, knocked, banged, thumped,
45:55 it does not matter.
45:56 You're never to try to go back and hurt the other person.
45:59 Isn't that interesting?
46:02 That's called true love, isn't it?
46:05 You could say they deserve it, look what they just did,
46:07 look what they said, look how they've acted,
46:08 look what they did.
46:09 Bible doesn't teach you that.
46:11 And that's why our marriage is getting into mess they do,
46:13 because no one wants to turn that...
46:14 return that unconditional love.
46:19 Love always seeks the happiness of others.
46:23 And so doing, notice this, another key here.
46:26 We may have to,
46:27 Spirit of Prophecy brings out clear.
46:29 We may have to, we may have to avoid,
46:33 we may have to avoid anything
46:36 that might upset someone else's joy.
46:41 We might have to, what? What was the word?
46:44 Avoid anything that might upset someone else's joy.
46:49 We're not saying, God doing anything
46:50 that's not scripted or anything that's wrong,
46:52 but there're just certain things sometime
46:55 that you have maybe in marriages and relationships.
47:00 That may be in itself it's not bad,
47:02 but it's cutting the joy, it's...
47:05 the other, is cutting the cord,
47:08 it's causing problems and it doesn't have to be.
47:12 And sometime we just have to avoid that situation
47:15 like all the other things in life that causes trouble.
47:18 We may have to avoid a lot of things in life.
47:23 The I want all the time must go,
47:26 thy need, I, me, my.
47:30 I mean, that's tough for everybody.
47:32 Only Jesus help can that take place.
47:36 Do you realize true love never finds,
47:38 you know, and I've griped and complained a lot of time,
47:40 true love never find fault with anyone.
47:45 How many times that maybe we found fault with someone.
47:51 True love doesn't find fault with anyone.
47:55 Never tries to judge another person's motives,
47:57 never.
48:00 True love can never find happiness in sin
48:05 of any kind.
48:06 Are you still with me?
48:09 Verse 8, it said, "Love never fails."
48:12 I think it's interesting.
48:14 And that means love never fails,
48:15 that means love never falls off,
48:16 'cause to us in our human mind,
48:18 we're getting so dark,
48:19 so far away from the cross of Calvary,
48:21 from the real love of Jesus Christ,
48:22 we just look at and say, "Yeah, they did and that's why I did."
48:28 He said, love never falls off, illustration, 1 Peter 1:24, 25.
48:32 Six, seven minutes left, come on,
48:34 1 Peter 1:24, 25, gives the illustration.
48:37 Now let's go there.
48:39 It says, "The grass withereth, and the flower," what?
48:41 "Fades away."
48:43 Yeah, that means it falls off, doesn't it?
48:46 But notice this,
48:47 "But the word of the Lord endureth," how?
48:48 Verse 25, "Forever..."
48:50 Notice it, "So real love does not fall off
48:53 like a leaf or a flower."
48:56 A flower gives beauty and good smelling
48:59 and they look beautiful beside the road
49:00 when you're going to work.
49:02 And you look and say,
49:03 "Man, this is a beautiful thing."
49:05 They come in to being and you see that
49:06 and they do their work,
49:08 they do what they're appointed to do,
49:09 but the winter comes and the rain comes
49:11 and they die.
49:14 They're no longer that way,
49:15 that's why you see the smell is gone,
49:17 the plant withers and it falls to the ground.
49:21 This does not happen
49:23 when two people are really in love,
49:24 the way God meant for them to love.
49:27 The winter time comes, the blast,
49:29 the Arctic blast
49:30 will hit you sometime, isn't it?
49:31 The rain is going to come and sometime it's a flood,
49:34 and we don't understand why things are happening
49:35 the way they are.
49:37 Sometime a drought will come,
49:38 you know, that there seemed like to be nothing.
49:40 There's not even... Maybe no talking.
49:41 There's no action.
49:43 There's not anything that's going on
49:44 that may happen.
49:45 Stress and strain will come.
49:48 But along with that there's some stuff that's sweet
49:50 and stuff that's good.
49:52 There's some real love maintains.
49:55 Real love never falls off.
50:01 A survey was taken talking about husband and wife
50:04 and spending their time together.
50:05 And it says, this is just a recent one,
50:07 that says a husband and wife both live longer.
50:12 Less strain naturally, when they're married,
50:13 they live longer,
50:15 when they take at least three weeks of vacation
50:17 together a year.
50:19 They actually live longer,
50:22 and they have a happier marriage.
50:23 Why?
50:25 Because they can leave the stress
50:26 and the strain where it belongs and not take it with them.
50:32 You know, in some ministries and work sometime,
50:34 it's seemed like 24/7, things go on.
50:37 There's times you have to put it down
50:39 for just a little bit.
50:40 Its necessity is to put it down,
50:43 because if you don't you get too wrapped up in that,
50:45 you forget that you have a spouse.
50:48 You forget what was normal,
50:50 you forgot the way that started out,
50:53 you forgot to show that affection,
50:54 you forgot to show how it once was.
50:57 True love can be relied on at all the times,
51:00 I love that.
51:01 All the time.
51:06 True love solves all problems, it can solve all problems.
51:10 Solomon said,
51:11 it's something like this in Solomon,
51:12 Song of Solomon 8:6, 7, just paraphrasing here.
51:17 He said, "Love is strong as death,"
51:18 I like that.
51:20 Love is what?
51:21 "Is strong as death,
51:22 jealousy is cruel as the grave..."
51:24 Interesting.
51:26 He said, "Many waters cannot quench love."
51:30 Solomon tells us that pure love
51:32 cannot be destroyed.
51:34 Pure love is invincible.
51:37 We want our marriage to be better,
51:39 we want to be more enduring.
51:41 Proverbs 12:10 says this, Proverbs 10:12,
51:46 "Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins."
51:52 Did you get that? So, so, so, so very important.
51:54 Hatred does what? "Stirreth up strife."
51:58 And that means simply dislike, you dislike someone,
52:00 you don't like being around them.
52:02 I'll say, it's just stirring everything they did,
52:04 they can't do anything right.
52:07 And then there's real problems.
52:10 Hatred motivates a person to cause trouble,
52:14 while love forgives and forgets,
52:18 regardless the way that you've been treated
52:21 and you didn't deserve it.
52:24 We still have to forgive and forget.
52:27 Jesus said and know what it says to husband,
52:29 love your enemies,
52:31 do good to them who despitefully use you,
52:34 and say what?
52:36 False things against you.
52:39 Insult you, slander you.
52:42 Matthew 5:9 says, "Blessed are the peacemakers,
52:47 for they shall be called the children of God."
52:51 We won't have time,
52:53 I wish we did Ephesians 5:22-33,
52:57 because here is the husband and wife relationship.
53:00 Paul hits on three areas with relationship
53:02 between husband and wife, between masters and servants.
53:06 To have a happy home, last two minutes,
53:09 good marriage and improve marriage.
53:12 We must follow God's plan.
53:13 There's no doubt about it in my mind.
53:15 It's not gonna work the way God wants it if we don't.
53:17 Verse 22, this is interesting here,
53:20 and I should have brought up my one testimony,
53:22 someone else can read from that.
53:23 Verse 22, "Wives,
53:25 submit yourselves unto your own husbands."
53:28 We know that in the job that you go to,
53:32 in the church that you attend,
53:34 wherever you go in the government
53:35 and the service, there's always some,
53:37 in the community what?
53:39 There must be a head.
53:41 The reason there had to be a head we'd add
53:43 and put over the woman is because well,
53:46 the woman's sinned.
53:47 If when they were created,
53:49 they were equal in the beginning,
53:50 you know why?
53:52 Because there was no sin.
53:53 There was no selfishness.
53:54 There was no desire to be on top.
53:56 Their mind was one together with God,
53:57 you didn't need it but when sin came,
53:58 God realized that you can't have two heads in the family.
54:03 And God said to the man in Genesis 3:16,
54:07 that the woman would serve the man.
54:09 And we realized that's in the right way.
54:10 And just don't have time to talk about
54:12 all of that for sure.
54:14 But the principle is permanent here.
54:16 And when there is,
54:17 I'll bring this up here and you can read it
54:19 for yourself some time.
54:20 Ellen White simply makes a comment.
54:22 He says,
54:23 "When there's a difference in the home,
54:25 both of you are Christian."
54:27 Not talking about somebody that's God.
54:29 I'm talking about Christians this whole time.
54:31 It is, when there's a difference
54:33 and a decision has to be made,
54:34 the man is the head of the house,
54:36 his wife is to submit
54:37 and to respect his choice and decision.
54:39 They can talk about it, they can discuss it,
54:41 but as the end result,
54:43 we had to follow what God says in His Word.
54:45 And that's not always easy to do.
54:47 But the man will love his wife as Christ loved the church
54:50 and gave Himself for it.
54:51 Let's pray. Shall we, together?
54:54 Loving Father in heaven, thank You for Your Word.
54:56 Thank You, that straightness is pointed helped us to follow
54:58 that Word today.
55:00 Lord, we would be careful to give You praise, honor,
55:01 and glory for those who made right choices
55:03 and decisions today in Jesus' name.
55:04 Amen.
55:06 Thank you very much for joining us
55:07 and we'll see you next week.
55:11 Hello, and welcome back, friends, improve your marriage.
55:14 I truly hope that you've been blessed as you've studied along
55:17 with Pastor Kenny Shelton on how to do just that.
55:21 In closing,
55:22 I want to share just a few verses
55:24 from 1 Corinthians Chapter 13.
55:26 You can follow along with me on your screen.
55:29 It reads,
55:31 "Charity suffereth long, and is kind..."
55:34 And remember always that the word charity
55:36 can be translated as love.
55:38 So if you like the word love better,
55:41 if you can relate to that, just substitute it.
55:43 "Love suffereth long, and is kind, love envieth not,
55:49 love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
55:54 Doth not behave itself unseemly,
55:56 seeketh not her own,
55:58 and is not easily provoked,
56:00 think about that true heavenly love
56:02 is not easily provoked,
56:05 thinketh no evil.
56:06 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth.
56:11 Beareth all things, believeth all things,
56:14 hopeth all things,"
56:16 brothers and sisters, love "endureth all things."
56:20 And I realize, as a Christian on our own,
56:24 we cannot have this type of heart change.
56:27 We cannot have these types of reactions and actions
56:32 if it were not for the Holy Spirit
56:34 coming into our heart,
56:35 and performing a heart surgery that only God can do.
56:39 He wants to do that for you.
56:42 And if you allow Him, you can implement,
56:44 you can claim these verses in your life,
56:47 your home will change.
56:49 It'll be a little bit of heaven on earth.
56:51 Your children will thank you, your spouse will thank you.
56:55 I pray that you're both working together
56:57 because that's how we truly improve our marriage.
57:00 It's not just one in the marriage.
57:02 It's both working together with our Heavenly Father.
57:06 So if you would like to have this study
57:09 and share it with a friend
57:10 or just go over it time and time again,
57:13 we pray that you'll call us here
57:15 at Behold the Lamb Ministries and it's Central Time.
57:18 And the number here is (618) 942-5044.
57:24 You may also email us at
57:26 BeholdTheLambMinistries @Yahoo.com
57:29 or view us on our website that's
57:31 www.BeholdTheLambMinistries. com.
57:35 We're offering this single message
57:38 for a love gift of just $8 or more,
57:41 or if you'd like all 25 Bible studies,
57:44 you may also order those as well for a love gift
57:47 of just $175.
57:50 Friends, until next time, may our precious Lord
57:54 continue to richly bless you and yours.


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Revised 2019-02-28