Session Two: The Perspective for Marriage

Summary

This video by Cedars Church delves into the spiritual perspective of marriage, emphasizing the eternal connection between earthly marriages and one's relationship with God. It draws from biblical references and teachings to highlight that earthly marriages serve a greater purpose tied to God's promises. The discussion explores how believers should view marriage not as a primary goal of their Christian life but as part of a broader spiritual journey towards eternal life with God, reflecting on one's identity and destiny as a child of God.

Highlights

• Paul talks about marriage as a profound mystery tied to Christ and the church 🤔.
• Earthly marriages should reflect our relationship with God, not be the sole focus 👐.
• Christians are encouraged to embrace their identity as children of God 👶.
• The idea of eternity should reshape how we view and live our marriages 🔄.
• Resurrected life promises eternal unity with God, surpassing earthly marriages 🌌.

Key Takeaways

• Marriage is not the end goal of Christianity; it's about living for God's mission 🌟.
• Understanding your identity and destiny in Christ fuels a fulfilling Christian life 🌈.
• A happy marriage should serve God's eternal purpose rather than being an idol 🎯.
• Christians are encouraged to see marriage as a reflection of their relationship with God 💑.
• Scripture suggests a life beyond earthly relationships, focusing on eternal life with God 🚀.

Overview

In a thought-provoking session, Cedars Church explores how marriage should be perceived within the vast scope of God's plan. The talk emphasizes that earthly marriages are not just partnerships but reflections of believers' relationships with God. By understanding their role in the divine mission, couples can find a greater purpose that transcends mere happiness.

The sermon draws lessons from scripture, guiding believers away from making marriage an ultimate goal. Instead, it illustrates how a marriage should serve God's mission, framing it as part of the Christian journey towards eternity. It highlights the importance of aligning earthly existence with eternal priorities.

By focusing on identity and destiny, believers can transform their lives and marriages. The notion of being children of God, destined for eternal life, should free couples from legalistic views and inspire a life driven by divine hope and purpose. This fresh perspective can enrich both marriages and personal faith.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 05:00: Introduction and Eternal Perspective of Marriage The introduction emphasizes the profound mystery of marriage, as highlighted in Ephesians 5:32. Paul draws a parallel between marriage and the relationship between Christ and the church, underscoring the spiritual and eternal perspective of marital union.
• 05:00 - 10:00: The Temporal and Eternal Marriage The chapter titled 'The Temporal and Eternal Marriage' discusses the importance of having an eternal perspective on marriage. It suggests that marriage is less about the relationship between spouses and more about their relationship with the Lord. By viewing marriage through the lens of eternity, couples can appreciate the lifelong commitment of potentially 50-60 years in this life, leading to a marriage that lasts for all eternity.
• 10:00 - 15:00: Resurrected Bodies and Eternal Life The chapter discusses the concept of two different types of marriages: temporal and eternal. It references a biblical passage from Mark 12 where the Sadducees present Jesus with a hypothetical situation about a man, his brother, and the widow, in order to explore the beliefs about resurrection and eternal life. The key focus is on understanding how temporal marriage finds its context and meaning within the concept of eternal marriage, as taught in religious scripture.
• 15:00 - 20:00: The Hope in Identity and Destiny The chapter titled 'The Hope in Identity and Destiny' explores a biblical story that questions the resurrection and marriage after life. It begins with a hypothetical scenario where seven brothers, who consecutively marry the same woman and die without leaving children, raise a theological query. The question posed is about whose wife this woman would be in the afterlife, given all were married to her. Jesus addresses this attempt to discredit the resurrection by pointing out the error in their understanding and reasoning, emphasizing caution when challenging divine insights.
• 20:00 - 25:00: Christian Walk and Salvation Stages The focus is on the concept of the afterlife, specifically in the view of Christian salvation. It begins by stating that earthly constructs such as marriage will not exist in the afterlife, as those who have risen will be like angels, signifying an immortal and imperishable nature.
• 25:00 - 30:00: Marital Purpose in God's Mission The chapter "Marital Purpose in God's Mission" discusses the idea of God's everlasting connection with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It highlights that God refers to Himself as the God of these patriarchs in the present tense, "I am," rather than "I was," signifying the ongoing, eternal relationship. This indicates that God is the God of the living, not the dead, suggesting that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, while having died over 2000 years ago, are still alive in God's presence, emphasizing the eternal aspect of God's promise and mission.
• 30:00 - 35:00: Marriage's Place and Eternal Reality This chapter discusses the concept of eternal life and the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It emphasizes that these figures must still be alive in some sense, as they did not receive the promise during their earthly lives. The chapter references Hebrews 11 to support the idea that the promise is not confined to temporal life but extends into eternity.
• 35:00 - 39:00: Future Perfection and Conclusion This chapter discusses the concept of eternity for Born Again Believers, specifically focusing on the belief in resurrected bodies. It highlights the teachings of Paul, who explains that when believers die, their souls are united with the Lord while their bodies are buried. At the second coming, they will be granted resurrected bodies, signifying their eternal future.

Session Two: The Perspective for Marriage Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 [Music] in uh verse 32 of our Ephesians 5 text it says this is a profound mystery understatement of the year but I am talking about Christ and the church so Paul's like I'm talking about marriage but I'm talking about Christ and the church it's mysterious I know but I'm talking about Christ and the church and um
• 00:30 - 01:00 we we need an eternal perspective for our marriages when we realize that our marriages are less about our relationship with our spouse than it is about our relationship with our Lord we start to view our marriages in light of Eternity I mean let's just get this straight we're talking like potentially 50 60 years worth of marriage in this life and then a marriage that LS for all eternity
• 01:00 - 01:30 there's two different marriages so this this temporal marriage needs to find its context within the Eternal Marriage in Mark 12 the sagues come at Jesus and uh they put this hypothetical case to him they say Moses taught us the following that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife but no children the man must marry the Widow this is now the brother must marry the Widow and and raise up off
• 01:30 - 02:00 ospring for his brother and then that guy dies and another one dies eventually they say seven seven brothers married this woman and none of them had any kids but here's the question CU they want to discredit the resurrection they say at the resurrection whose wife will she be since the seven were married to her Jesus replied are you not in error you got to be so careful when you take on Jesus wait he just sorry but you are wrong um are you not in error because
• 02:00 - 02:30 you do not know the scriptures or the power of God when the dead rise they will neither marry nor be given in marriage they will be like the angels in heaven which doesn't mean we'll have wings sitting on a cloud with what looks like a nappon like get that out of your mind it's that's not heaven okay just meaning we're going to be immortal imperishable so like that okay um now about the Dead Rising have you not read in the book of Moses in the
• 02:30 - 03:00 account of the burning bush how God said to him I am the god of Abraham not I was I am I I still am Abraham's dead but I still am the god of Abraham the god of Isaac and the god of Jacob he is not the god of the dead but of the living so Abraham Isaac and Jacob are living and I'm their God now they they died like 2,000 ago 2,000 years ago but I'm their Godard now
• 03:00 - 03:30 they're living you are badly mistaken so in order for God to be faithful to the promise that he gave to Abraham Isaac and Jacob they would still need to be alive they didn't inherit the promise while they were still on this Earth read Hebrews 11 you it says it there explicitly they did not inherit the promise not in not in the the temporal life but the the promise still
• 03:30 - 04:00 stands and they got they are going to inherit it and and it's talking about this eternity that they will find their way in and the truth of that for us as Born Again Believers is that we have an eternity to look forward to in our resurrected bodies so when we die now our souls go to be with the Lord Paul tells us our bodies are buried but at his second coming we will all be given resurrected bodies
• 04:00 - 04:30 we will have bodies we won't be little fluffy Angels okay so yet says in 1 Corinthians 15 but Christ has indeed been raised from the dead the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep he was the first one which means he's the only man in heaven right now with a body he's the first fruit
• 04:30 - 05:00 and and we are all going to be like him now scripture gives us a couple of hints as to what that looks like what he looks like what he is like they recognized his voice so if you don't like your voice you're going to have the same voice they recognize Jesus by his voice after his resurrection they recognized him he ate they had a fish bra on the shore
• 05:00 - 05:30 it's like like putting food in and then like seeing it just drop onto the ground he had a body resurrected I think there was almost like a bit of an Extreme Makeover vibe that took place have you ever watched Extreme Makeover does you know the program where someone walks in and they look a certain way and then they do a whole makeover of the person and make them look younger they go on an exercise program and then they come out the other side there's a grand real they walk out like oh can't
• 05:30 - 06:00 believe it it's like you can see it's them but man they look different you know when when Jesus was arguing with the well Pharisees were arguing with him and they referred to Abraham he said before Abraham was I am they're like what what are you talking about you know what they then say you're not even 50 you ever thought about about that
• 06:00 - 06:30 surely if he was early 50s it would have strengthened their argument to say you're not even 40 you're saying you were you were around when Abraham was around you were you you before Abraham you're not even 15 I think we draw from there The Logical conclusion is Jesus looked older than what he actually was you're not even 50
• 06:30 - 07:00 and you you read the text in Isaiah 52 about how it describes she there's nothing about him that would attract men to him we've got this like Hollywood Vision CU we we watch these movies about Jesus and the crucifixion they always choose the best looking guy to be Jesus I think they get a completely wrong but in his resurrected body you could see it was him but it's like wow
• 07:00 - 07:30 but he ate there was something different about him but he was still a man a resurrected body and he's the first fruit and the Bible makes it very plain for those who have put their faith in him and who are born again that promise of a resurrected body is true for us that that's what job says and after my skin has been destroyed he's not talking about like some skin condition like eczema he's referring to his death after
• 07:30 - 08:00 my skin has been what when I've been buried and and all of me has been eaten away yet in my flesh I will see God he had an understanding of what the resurrection would be and then this passage of scripture 1 John 2 sorry 1 John 3: 2 it's one of my favorite and I think it's a thing that's got to frame most of our Lives including marriage it's got to frame how we approach our walk with God
• 08:00 - 08:30 because it says this dear friends now we are children of God and what we will be has not yet been made known but we know that when Christ appears we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is and all who have this hope in him purify themselves just as he is pure so there's three things being um emphasized here three things that the that that um John as an
• 08:30 - 09:00 incredible Shepherd of people is touching on the one is our standing we are children of God he talking about our identity so we are adopted into his family when we put our faith in Jesus and as a result of that faith we are children of God and that is something that has happened it's a it's a past reality it's the past reality of our Salvation we have come to that faith we are now children of God it's as a result
• 09:00 - 09:30 of us being made children of God when we put our faith in Jesus then he's talking about we don't know what we will be like but we know that we will be like him when he comes back so it's talking about a future reality and that future reality is that when Jesus comes back we will be in perfect Glory with him and that is our Eternal hope in our hearts we will be like
• 09:30 - 10:00 him that's the destiny so identity and Destiny and then it says this the key phrase in this text says all who have this hope all who have what hope the hope of a an identity in Christ because we are born again Believers and the destiny that's to come because we will be like him all who have this hope of identity and Des
• 10:00 - 10:30 as an inevitable consequence of that hope purify themselves which is the life that we live now as Born Again Believers so we come to Faith we have this Destiny but in between we walking with God and we are growing in God and there is this present reality of our Christian walk that's why the Bible speaks about having been saved past tense having or being saved present tense and will be saved
• 10:30 - 11:00 future tense you got to know when you read the Bible and you see those three different tenses they're talking about three different aspects of our Salvation if you read it as the same thing you can get very confused and you can start doubting like what is it am I saved will I be saved like where am I it's talking about three different stages of Salvation we have been saved we are being saved and we will be saved but what John is saying here is you don't you don't come in the fullness of the are being saved by focusing on
• 11:00 - 11:30 the are being saved aspect or stage that's called legalism that's called religion in the negative sense because it's like that's our Focus so we need to do this we need to live our lives in a certain way this is how we need to be as Christians he's saying no no no you don't become you don't grow in Holiness you don't become like Jesus this sanctification process is the the iCal word is not something
• 11:30 - 12:00 that you attain by focusing on that you attain that by focusing on your justification you have been saved you are a child of God and on the glorification aspect of our Salvation that we will be like him so what John is saying is let that be your hope because if you focus on this is how I need to walk with God and it's and the emphasis is there and that's what I'm highlighting the whole time then you're
• 12:00 - 12:30 not doing it with the motivation of the Gospel you're doing it because someone's told you where you kind of feel like that's what I need to do but that's where you become legalistic in your ways so we don't go to church every Sunday and we don't wake up every morning with our devotional time because that's the focus we do it because we've got a hope in what God has done in us that we believed like Abra and it was credited
• 12:30 - 13:00 to us as righteousness and we have a future hope of glory and that's what fuels us to live differently you can't get me to have a devotional life and every day wake up with the feeling of that being well that's what a Christian does and the reason why I can say that is because I've tried it those Bible reading plans St in January January 1 2 3 4 5 6
• 13:00 - 13:30 17 whoops skipped 18 don't worry 19 we'll just do both got to catch up because you see there's a legalistic like I got to I've now have to live like this I got to read my Bible through the whole thing because if I haven't I'm not quite a Christian rubbish that's not the gospel the gospel is Jesus has done it all for us he is our savior he's the the one that purchased the price he's the one that
• 13:30 - 14:00 demonstrated this covenantal love of God and as a result of the love of the father who sends his son we have this Incredible Gift of Grace and we receive forgiveness and we receive righteousness it's not something you achieve you receive it and as a result we are Justified we are made right with God and this reality makes us a child of God and when you have this hope and you have the hope that as a result of what happened there you have a future hope of Glory that you have been brought back you are
• 14:00 - 14:30 reconciled to God you are not separate from him you're not an enemy of God anymore you I in the Kingdom of Light and as a result of that reality I now look forward to a future that I will be with him forever and ever and ever and when I when I focus on my identity and I focus on my destiny the way in which I live is an inevitable consequence I just purify myself iow grow in this reality
• 14:30 - 15:00 of what God has for me and I grow in his likeness because that's the thing that fuels me so the reason why I'm emphasizing this scripture is that we are called to be good husbands and good wives and uphold this beautiful reality called marriage but we don't get it right by constantly saying well I have to be I have to be it we we we get fueled we get
• 15:00 - 15:30 transformed by a hope that is resting in my identity in Christ and my destiny in Christ and this future Eternal perspective changes how we live our lives we got what 70 80 years if we're lucky I wean we can't compare that to Forever like we we don't know like how do you there's no way but there's an
• 15:30 - 16:00 everlasting reality in a resurrected body in a restored new Earth because God is bringing everything back to his original plan you know he had an original plan and then because of the Fall it's not like he discarded that plan he didn't say oh that didn't work so now I'm going to just bring in this Plan of Salvation and it's Jesus and as a result of that there's now a new plan the Plan of Salvation is to get us back to the original plan God do not let go of that original plan he's going to
• 16:00 - 16:30 restore all things to what he originally had in mind absolute perfection absence of sin perfect resurrected bodies and in perfect fellowship with him forever and ever and ever let that fuel something of how you live your life that's why John's such a great Shepherd because he takes us away from the legalistic ways of you must do this and this is how you must behave as a Christian he says your hope has got to
• 16:30 - 17:00 be in the past reality of what God has done and in the future reality of what he will do because you can't resurrect yourself but he has promised he will raise you to a new life and you will have this restored resurrected body in a new Heaven and a new Earth let that fuel you so we need to bring what does what does eternity mean what does this perspective in reality to my marriage mean so how does it how how we to view
• 17:00 - 17:30 marriage we need to view marriage as having a place marriage has a place like let's put it in its rightful place it's beautiful and it's glorious but it has a place I want you to complete these two sentences and then while we complet it I want you to honestly
• 17:30 - 18:00 assess just in the quietness of your own heart and your own thoughts which of these two sentences best describes my marriage oh sorry there's a blank before that the goal of Christianity is not to have a happy marriage now obviously God wants us to have happy marriages right he wants us to have marriages that sing that that there's an ease and he wants our marriage to be a witness and a testimony to his goodness and his love but we
• 18:00 - 18:30 can't make marriage the goal of our Christian lives and and the reason why it's a point you in terms of my exposure certainly where I come from Marriage becomes this thing it's like if you have a happy marriage you're a great Christian like that's what defines a great Christian is when you have a happy marriage and your family's all together and everyone is just singing kumama Lord
• 18:30 - 19:00 so complete these two sentences my relationship with God is what serves my marriage or my marriage is what serves my relationship with God you see when marriage a happy marriage is the goal then God becomes the means to that goal because we've made that the ultimate thing that that's the thing that we are wanting that's the outcome a
• 19:00 - 19:30 happy marriage is the thing that defines me as a good Christian as a great Christian family well I don't know it it doesn't make sense to me when we read scripture and we look at this relationship that we have with God and we put it in the context of Eternity surely we must have heavy marriages but surely not that that's the goal of Christianity tell you what the goal of Christianity is it's the mission of
• 19:30 - 20:00 Jesus his mission becomes our mission whatever he wants us to do that's what we do that's why he's called lord and he has a mission and his means with which that mission will be accomplished is the church it's us so the amount of people that we've counseled we we met recently with a couple that's going through a divorce we met with a lady she said to us the one thing the one
• 20:00 - 20:30 good thing that has come out of all of this is that I've reconnected with my savior so like in this trying time my relationship with him is in the best place ever now that's great great that that's happened but I think I think it's incredibly sad that a struggling marriage and the pursuit of a happy marriage and a constant wrestle for this has distracted her so much that
• 20:30 - 21:00 her relationship with Jesus suffers so like he becomes like somewhere in the mix but I'm working on this happy marriage and and my happy marriage is the ultimate goal and I'm looking for God to serve this goal and for him to make sure and help me in this pursuit of having a happy marriage we in actual fact we should be sa saying when our marriages serves the
• 21:00 - 21:30 goal of Jesus the mission of Jesus then our marriage or marriages find its rightful place and we got to make sure that we on the right side of that distinction because we can very quickly move into it's all about my marriage and that's what defines me that's what measures me as a Christian and I want Jesus to help me in that and whether
• 21:30 - 22:00 that's with your husband or wife or other relationships we got to know there is a mission of Jesus he is restoring all things to himself his kingdom is advancing and there is going to come a day where that advancing will stop because it will reach its fullness it will be complete that's why we pray Your Kingdom Come This is Progressive your kingdom
• 22:00 - 22:30 come in the lives of of my in my life in my heart I want to surrender to your lordship but in the lives of other people and then from a Salvation point of view more and more people being reconciled to yourself where you are king and your righteous Dominion will reach its absolute fullness that's what we look forward to your kingdom come I think Rob actually referred to the Lord's prayer this morning but that's why we pray Our Father
• 22:30 - 23:00 I'm a Child of God I I heard a a thing of dallis Willard where he I mean delis Willow is one of the top guys used to be um passed away recently but when it came to spiritual disciplines and Walking with God in a devotional life what a lot of his material and what he would write on so he was asked the question how do you approach your devotional life so he said well read a bit here read a bit there but then when it comes to praying I say the Lord's
• 23:00 - 23:30 Prayer you know that that's what Jesus gave us as a daily prayer right sometimes we just lose sight of that he says and I start with our father and then I just stay there just just soak it in soak it our father you're my father I've been made your child you're my father what you have done through Jesus when you have opened my eyes to my
• 23:30 - 24:00 desperate need of Salvation my sinful State my separation from you and how you've brought me to yourself you have drawn me to yourself you've reconciled me and that I can call you father you are the almighty God who has created everything you're in heaven I'm not you're the Creator I'm the created but in this space I can just stay and say father that I can call you father father
• 24:00 - 24:30 identity and then your kingdom come you see that even in the Lord's Prayer Jesus has given us just frame every day with who you are in me and what's going on in the world what is God on about what is he busy doing he's restoring all things his kingdom is advancing your kingdom come in this Progressive reality may it come more may it come more there's a partial Kingdom coming it's a growing reality but
• 24:30 - 25:00 there's a day there is a day where your kingdom will reach its absolute fullness and your righteous Dominion will be perfect and whole and complete and everything will be restored back to your original plan when you first created Adam and Eve and we will live in this fullness of a relationship with God fellowship with him and to just have that for all
• 25:00 - 25:30 eternity the mission of Jesus is to draw people to himself the mission of Jesus is to restore all things make all things new and our marriage should serve that purpose not let me have a great marriage and I'm going to ask God to serve my purpose so it's got a place the next thing is that Mary marage has a purpose and that is that we are given
• 25:30 - 26:00 friendship we produce fruit the joy of having kids and we experience God's forming he shapes us and he molds us and he makes us more like him through this beautiful relationship of marriage I'm going to get to the purpose of marriage in the um next part but do do you see that those three things so we have this incredible friendship in
• 26:00 - 26:30 our marriage but when we when we look at eternity there is a a friendship with God an absolute perfect I mean our minds can't conceive it but in our hearts we believe and we look at this future perfect fellowship with the almighty God that we get to go father and we will still W know one another but not as M like anth and I we'll know
• 26:30 - 27:00 one another in our resurrected bodies we'll know that there was this life that we had but we won't be married in heaven cuz this temporal marriage will be replaced with a new marriage and I mean there's this kind of almost joking between the two was like oh I'd love to be married you know with you for all eternity it's like it's so cool if we just continue it but we just keep reminding ourselves actually what we will have there cuz this Earthly
• 27:00 - 27:30 marriage is just a shadow of the marriage to come that marriage will be so amazing it will supersede overshadow I don't even know what the right words is this temporal marriage that we now have and we'll be married to the king the banquet of the Lamb that's what we got to keep looking at so the need for friendship so the purpose of marriage in this life y friendship but that friendship goes to a
• 27:30 - 28:00 whole new level with our friendship with God and friendship with one another so that friendship aspect of marriage that purpose that it serves yeah won't be needed there cuz things will just be at a whole new level fruit think about that no need for children no one's dying no need to replace anyone there's no no need for kids being born temporal it's part of this life not part
• 28:00 - 28:30 of that life and the forming the shaping the sanctifying reality of us growing in likeness well when we get to heaven and we are with them we will be perfect there won't be need for shaping and molding and forming because God will make us in his likeness so all the purposes of marriage that we have in this temporal State there's no need for that there but it does have a purpose yet we're going to look at purpose just now before I get
• 28:30 - 29:00 there I want to say how should we respond knowing that we're going to have a perspective for our marriage and that it falls in the the the great story of God's redeeming work and The Eternity that we have with him don't let a God thing capital G become a God thing lowercase G where marriage becomes an idol it becomes the thing that we we put before our
• 29:00 - 29:30 relationship with God don't allow that which was intended to be sacred and by sacred I mean the thing that connects you to God to be the thing that disconnects you from God that's what happened with that lady that I was sharing just now like her marriage became so much about the marriage the sacred element of being drawn into a closer walk with God the complete opposite happened because she
• 29:30 - 30:00 had made a God thing a god-given reality the beauty of marriage that comes from him she turned it into a God thing it's like that's what my life is about I want a happy marriage this is what we're working on and and every time I'm opening my Bible I'm praying and I'm asking God to help me in my marriage and to save my marriage and it was all about my marriage marriage has got a place got to make sure that we're serving his purpose and as a result result of that allow him that's all that scripture says
• 30:00 - 30:30 seek first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you don't worry about all these things all the time seek his kingdom allow that Eternal perspective the very thing that he's on about this Kingdom advancing the reality of a renewed Earth and a new Heaven and him restoring all things to himself let that thing be the thing that fuels us while we live while we have great marriages cuz it's serving that
• 30:30 - 31:00 purpose our Earthly marriage is just a shadow of our marriage in heaven and let's let it always be that [Music]