So today, once again, I talk about this important matter. The marriage relationship is the most important earthly relationship we have. The most important relationship is our connection with God through Christ. Right after that is whom we choose and how we live as a mate. Marriage matters to God. There are over 50 million husband and wife teams in the United States of America. Ninety-four percent of us will marry at least once in our lifetime. Seventy-five percent of those who are divorced remarry within the first two years of their divorce. And even though marriages are busting up in record numbers, millions pursue it every single year. Marriage is the anchor of the family. It communicates volumes to the children. Good marriages can change our communities, our cities, our states and so on. So that is why I am doing another series on marriage.
The title of this series is 4KEEPS KEEPING CREATIVITY IN YOUR MARRIAGE. Why creativity, you might ask? Over the last several years I have done a whole lot of study on the subject of creativity. This past June I did a message from this stage when I went through the theology of creativity. All of us are creative. We are creative because we are made in the image of our creative Creator. Thus, creativity should transcend every area of our lives, especially in the marital equation. We need marital creativity because God invented marriage. Genesis 2:24. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and they will become one flesh. God thought marriage up. It was His idea.
He started the program. I need marital creativity, you need marital creativity because God invented it. We also need it because Jesus modeled it. The New Testament calls Christ the bridegroom and refers to the church as the bride. Christ gave His life for the bride. A self-sacrificing love, a holy love, a pursuing love. The Bibles tells husbands to love their wives like Christ loved the church. Well, how much did Christ love the church? He gave His life for her. We didnt deserve it. There is nothing I can do, you can do to merit what Jesus did for us.
Husbands, if you loved your wife like Christ loved the church, you would have a great marriage. You are going to have it going on. You are going to have something special. Ephesians 5:25. Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her. Marital creativity. Why? God invented it. Jesus modeled it.
Also we need marital creativity because marriages need it. People like you and people like me need it. Most marriages are either moving in one direction or another. That is just the way it is.
This past summer I took my family to California on a vacation. I was driving one night at 11pm in a suburban. The car was packed with our four kids and some friends we had with us. I was talking. I talk a lot. I was driving and Lisa was giving me directions since I am directionally challenged. Suddenly I saw in my rear view mirror that sight that causes some people to say bad words under their breath which I will not utter from the platform.
Oh, Lisa, I am being pulled. I slowed down and pulled off the raod. Remember, I had led the Beach Retreats in Gulf Shores, AL for our youth and I had dyed my hair platinum blond. It was still blond. The patrolman came over, leaned in and said, Sir, you were swerving a little bit, huh. Had a couple of drinks tonight, I see. I said, Officer, I dont drink. I am a pastor in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. He looked at me, specifically at the platinum blond hair and said, Right. I need to see your license, sir. I was rummaging around trying to find my license.
Lisa picked up a bottle of water and said, Look we are drinking bottled water. He looked at my drivers license, then at the car and said, A lot of drunk drivers are on this stretch.
Ed Young Ministries tells us that I see you are on your vacation and have not been drinking. Just keep your car within the lines, OK. I said, Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. And when the highway patrolman turned and walked off, Lisa turned to me and said, Boy, he was good looking. Then she said, I wish he had stayed longer.
In a real sense, God is patrolling the highways of our lives, isnt He? A lot of marriages here are swerving. They are going in this direction and that direction. And I truly believe that in this series God is going to pull us over, check our marriages out and then send us on our way.
