The C ovenant of Marriage

image: mafleen~Gensis 1:26-28; 2:18-25~

“Whether intended or not, Hollywood has a formula for love, sex, and lasting

relationships.”

1. Find the right person. Hollywood’s Formula

1. Find the right person. Hollywood’s Formula

2. Fall in love.

1. Find the right person. Hollywood’s Formula

2. Fall in love.3. Fix your hopes and

dreams on this person for your future fulfill-ment.

1. Find the right person. Hollywood’s Formula

2. Fall in love.3. Fix your hopes and

dreams on this person for your future fulfill-ment.

4. If failure occurs, repeat steps 1, 2, & 3.

“It may sound harsh and burst a few romantic bubbles, but

this Hollywood four-step formula is what most of us now unconsciously believe

about how relationships work…. I find the Hollywood

formula just as prevalent among Christians as among

non-Christians. And the results are equally

disastrous.”

? Is it possible that we have unconsciously bought into

the Hollywood formula about how relationships work and what relationships are for?

Marriage is a covenantal relationship established by God in which

he joins together a man and a woman into a one flesh union where the

husband and wife can also be father and mother to any children their one

flesh union produces.

What is marriage acc. to Jesus?

What is the covenant of

marriage ?

”~ Jesus of Nazareth in the Gospel of Matthew, 19:4“…from the beginning….

“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over

the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over

every other creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them…. ~ Genesis 1:26-28

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth

and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that

moves on the earth.”

~ Genesis 1:26-28

Make love. Make babies.

Raise children.

The Mandate

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone;

I will make him a helper fit for him.…”

~ Genesis 2:18-25

Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man

to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every

beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him….

~ Genesis 2:18-25

So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one

of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had

taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.

~ Genesis 2:18-25

Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones

    and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman,

    because she was taken out of Man.”

~ Genesis 2:18-25

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they

shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

~ Genesis 2:18-25

Leaving1 “Therefore a man

shall leave his father and his mother…”

2Cleaving

“…and hold fast to his wife…”

“…the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth…she is your

companion and your wife by covenant. Did not he make

them one…? ~ Malachi 2:14-15

“…the adulteress…who forsakes the partner of her youth and ignored the covenant she made

before God.”~ Proverbs 2:16-17, NIV

Covenant Promises

“…those who are in love have a natural inclination to bind

themselves by promises. Love songs all over the world are

full of vows of eternal constancy. The Christian law

is not forcing upon the passion of love something

that is foreign to that passion's own nature; it is

demanding that lovers should take seriously something that

their passion itself impels them to do.

~ CS Lewis, Oxford Scholar Mere Christianity

~ CS Lewis, Oxford Scholar Mere Christianity

“And of course, the promise, made when I am in love and because I am in love, to be

true to the beloved as long as I live, commits me to being true even if I cease to be in

love. A promise must be about things that I can do, about

actions: no one can promise to go on feeling in a certain

way. He might as well promise never to have a headache or

always to feel hungry.”

“Wedding vows are not a declaration of present love but a mutually binding promise of future love. A wedding should not be primarily a celebration of how loving you feel now—that can safely be assumed. Rather, in a wedding you stand up before God, your family, and all the main institutions of society, and you promise to be loving, faithful, and true to the other person in the future, regardless of undulating internal feelings or external circumstances.”

~ Tim Keller, The Meaning of Marriage

“What therefore God has joined together,

let no man separate.”

~ Jesus of Nazareth in The Gospel of Matthew, 19:6

“Ulysses and the Sirens” by John William Waterhouse

“What can keep marriages together during the rough

patches? The vows. A public oath, made to the world, keeps you ‘tied to the mast’ until your mind clears and you begin to understand things better. It

keeps you in the relationship when your feelings flag, and flag they will. By contrast, consumer

relationships cannot possibly endure these inevitable tests of

life, because neither party is ‘tied to the mast.’”

~ Tim Keller, Pastor Redeemer NYC The Meaning of Marriage

3Weaving

“…and the two shall become one flesh.”

“Eat, friends, drink, and be

drunk with love.” ~ The Song of Solomon, 5:1

“Don’t you know that when you sleep with someone, your body makes a promise whether you do or not!”

Marriage is a sacred bond between a man and a woman

instituted by God and entered into before God.

What is the Covenant of Marriage?

Marriage is a sacred bond that involves

leaving, cleaving, & weaving.

Elevate marriage to its rightful place as a sacred bond…

…of leaving, cleaving, & weavingimage: Mike_tn

image credit: mafleen https://www.flickr.com/photos/beginasyouare/9525499889/https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/

flickr images courtesy of:

image credit: Mark_tnhttps://www.flickr.com/photos/morrowless/3003380784/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/

image credit: Erinhttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_William_Waterhouse_-_Ulysses_and_the_Sirens_(1891).jpg

other images:

Theen Moy: https://www.flickr.com/photos/theenmoy/14138348137

contemplative imagining: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomas-merton/8686694887/

flickr images courtesy of:

other images:thinkstock: tem number:86483395

other info:Madeline Arakawa Gins, Visionary Architect, Is Dead at 72 - http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/13/arts/design/madeline-arakawa-gins-visionary-architect-dies-at-72.html

Christopher Brown: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7853490@N07/3531948937/

Will Foster: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mazakar/2777932633/

Fruity Monkey: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gilesrcook/5346737067 Used by permission: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

flik: http://www.flickr.com/photos/flik/2533996623

Theen Moy: https://www.flickr.com/photos/theenmoy/14138348137

contemplative imagining: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomas-merton/8686694887/

flickr images courtesy of:

other images:thinkstock: tem number:86483395

other info:Madeline Arakawa Gins, Visionary Architect, Is Dead at 72 - http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/13/arts/design/madeline-arakawa-gins-visionary-architect-dies-at-72.html

Christopher Brown: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7853490@N07/3531948937/

Will Foster: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mazakar/2777932633/