“My marriage is struggling”

“You know, love is costly. Love is never convenient, never expedient. True love is something that requires strength and it requires patience and it requires waiting. Maybe some of you are in a difficult marriage and you're struggling. Maybe you're just in an average marriage and you're struggling.”

“where to go some of you are dealing with a tribulation in your family your marriage is in trouble your marriage is struggling there's tribulation a child has walked away from the Lord and you're struggling with that tribulation tribulation is a reality and tribulation is an experience that we all know in life and it's a part of living in this Fallen World in the broken Brokenness of this world and the disappointment of this world as it is”

“Claire compassion and care but also great clarity from God's word as we need to know what does the bible tell us about marriages I think one of the reason our marriages and our families are struggling today is because we're so easily indwelling and believing lies of our culture John Mark Comer in his book live no lies he's also written ruthless elimination of hurry to my probably top five books we use live no lies when we preached our second Corinthians series and in that book he said this I think we”

“or a girlfriend, and I don't yet have one, and so I wish I had what they have. You see others' relationships and think their marriage is filled with ease and blessing, and you look at your own marriage, and it's filled with struggle and fight and conflict. I think this happens in our hearts when we see others praised more than we believe we should be praised. This could be a co-worker, the side-by-side with you that gets promoted over you or before you. We see this with Joseph”

“have the diagnosis that you were given. They may not have the loss to the extent that you have experienced life. But none of us in the Christian life are immune to the suffering, the grief, and the hardship that life brings. Some of these are financial hardships or job losses. Some of these are relational difficulties of estranged marriage or family members. Some of these are emotional struggles of depression and anxiety. Some of these are physical. Their diagnosis and”

“forgive find your enjoyment and being someone who ministers Mercy to others and that's especially true in the home Dan allender and tremper Longman said we must never be naive enough to think of marriage as a Safe Harbor from the fall the deepest struggles of life will occur in the most primary relationship affected by the Fall that's marriage it was Ruth Graham who said every marriage needs two good givers and two good for givers and to be merciful”

“known the things that I've done, like, man, you wouldn't love me. You wouldn't accept me. You wouldn't sit across from me. You would just judge me. You see, guilt looks at the behavior, but shames puts an emphasis on the person. You don't just feel like you failed, you feel like you're a failure. There's a lot of people in the room who struggle with shame. How about the supposed to bees? I mean, my marriage is supposed to be better than this. My husband's supposed to be like this. My”

“and marries another commits adultery so is there biblical precedent and means for divorce yes but what God has joined together he doesn't desire for any man including husband or wife to separate and just think about this from a second for for a second from God's point of view of his Covenant commitment to us you see when you become a Believer and you repent of your sin and you put your life and your trust and your hope in”

“relationships in life respect and when respect is gone when respect is lost relationships suffer and struggle for survival it was Gary Thomas an author who has written over 15 books on marriage who wrote this in one of his books we are obsessed with being respected but rarely consider our own obligation to respect”

“sexual liberalization the sexual Liberation revolution of the 1960s set in motion a Cascade effect the reversal of the long-standing moral consensus around promiscuity separating sex from Marriage worked in tandem with the Advent of birth control and the legalization of abortion separating sex from procreation which moved on to the legalization of no fault divorce turning a covenant into a contract and separated sex from intimacy infidelity then to Tender and hook up culture separating”

“If the dying Savior reconciled us to God, surely the living Savior can and will keep us reconciled. Man, all the blessings of being reconciled to God. So finally, where I want to end the message today, the third R and third point today, Reconciliation becomes our business. Reconciliation becomes our business. I want you to look at this two ways today.”

“we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more than now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice or we have joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. Received reconciliation. A couple of things I want you to see there is that reconciliation isn't like a ceasefire truce.”

“That is, Christ Jesus was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors of Christ, God making his appeal through us. And then he says this amazing thing that I would say to anybody in the room today. We implore you then, on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. And I'll end today with this verse out of Titus as we lead into a time of response.”

“But the positive side of this is that reconciliation, the second point I want you to get today, is that reconciliation leads to blessedness. It leads to blessedness. That's what it says in verse nine through 11 again. The result of his reconciling work is this. Since therefore we've been justified or made right by his blood, how much more then are we gonna be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if we were enemies, when we were enemies,”

“deserved to overcome a grave in order that we could have access to a holy God. And he doesn't just invite you in the fields with the peasants. He invites you to the table to eat and to dine with him because you're a child of God. That's the truth of what his reconciliation does. And then finally, the fourth A in the middle kind of sermon within a sermon that I want you to understand today is assurance. Assurance. It says in verse 10, for while we were enemies, we were reconciled”

“to God by the death of his son, much more, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. It's the idea that we're guaranteed a future with him. You can't screw this up. When you're invited and you're reconciled with God and you're a part of his family, there's no screwing it up because his spirit comes and he seals us. That means he's utterly ruthless and relentless to sanctify you day by day by day to be more like Jesus.”

“still sinners Christ died for us since therefore we have now been justified by his blood much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God for if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life More than that, we also rejoice”

“and all of our relationships were broken. We became enemies of God seeking our own way and living in open hostility to him. The whole of scripture then is the record of God's reconciling us to himself. We ran away and he pursued us. We were scattered like sheep and he sent the good shepherd. We hid in darkness and he sent the true light. We were dying in a self-made drought and he sent the living water. Reconciliation always implies brokenness.”

“Goes on, it says this, all this is from God, who through Christ reconciles us to himself. So that's an amazing truth. That's what he's done through his cross and his resurrection and through your repentance and faith. You're now right with a holy God. You have access. You have unity. You have power. You have all of the benefits given in the kingdom. But then it says you've been given the ministry of reconciliation.”

“consensus around promiscuity that separated sex from Marriage it worked in tandem with the Advent of birth control and the legalization of abortion separating sex from procreation which moved on to the legalization of no fault divorce divorce turning a covenant into a contract and separating sex from intimacy and fidelity then it turned to Tinder and hook up culture”

“Y'all know what a ceasefire truce is in war times? It's like if you go back to World War I, World War II, Cold War, a lot of times during like a holiday, like Christmas, they would show respect and reverence for the holiday and they would cease firing at one another just to kind of give a pause, to kind of give a respect for the day so that they could celebrate together so there was no war. But the ceasefire wasn't reconciling a relationship.”

“to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers or aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. Second thing I want you to see today is acceptance. Not only access, but acceptance. Colossians puts it this way, and you who were once alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death. And here's the result, in order to present you or to put on display for you holy and”

“Calvary is the proof and the provision of God's reconciling love. This is the perfect display of a father with a prodigal son. You remember the story of the prodigal son, right? In Luke chapter 15, you remember the story. He wants the inheritance of the father before the father is dead. The father, I don't know why, gives it to him, gives him his half. He takes it, swindles it, gives it into every single pleasure he could possibly give into”

“adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts. That same language that we read in Romans 5, verse 5, being poured out the very spirit into our inner beings, whom we cry, Abba, Father. So you are no longer a slave, but you're a son. And if a son, then an heir through God. So God doesn't reconcile you. He doesn't make things right with you just to give you access or just to give you acceptance.”