PreachIndex 410 podcasts updated 3 minutes ago

Sermon

#1187. God’s word on marriage is unchanging (13/11/24)

Community Church Putney Sermons

Open publisher episode ↗

Publisher transcript

Transcript

View source ↗

  1. #1187. God’s word on marriage is unchanging (13/11/24)

  2. Welcome to this Come to Jesus Daily Devotional as we continue in our Luke, Exploring Who Jesus is series.

  3. Today, from Luke 16:18, we reflect on how radical devotion to Jesus involves listening to Him regarding our human relationships.

    Luke 16:18

  4. ‘“Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”’ (Luke 16:18)

    Luke 16:18

  5. To watch this devotional, select the link below

  6. https://youtu.be/cibgTQjrczw

  7. 1. We are being called to follow Jesus wholeheartedly

  8. How does this fit with what we’ve read in the previous verses of this chapter? Let’s remember what Jesus said regarding those who enter the Kingdom: ‘“…the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing their way into it.”’ (16b) There, we saw that to become a Christian - to follow Jesus - requires radical (forceful) repentance and faith. Here, in verse 18, Jesus is giving us an example of what it means to listen to Him and follow Him in our lives.

  9. 2. Listening to Jesus involves listening to Him on our relationships

  10. In the Kingdom of God, relationships are a massive and important subject (and we can only touch on it here). This world has a variety of views regarding how to conduct relationships and we must be very careful to listen to God. Whether is about singleness, marriage or divorce, we must listen to Jesus and, as we saw in the previous verse, not let the ‘…least stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law.’ In other words, we must not allow the world, the flesh and the devil to pressure us into obeying its ‘word’ on relationships; rather, we must obey Jesus’ Word on relationships!

  11. Regarding today’s text, Christians are to, like God, ‘hate divorce’ (Malachi 2:16) and do all that they can to avoid it and, better than that, do all that they can to invest in healthy marriages. In response people who taught that divorce was and easy option, Jesus taught:

    Malachi 2:16

  12. ‘“Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’  and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’?  So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”’ (Matthew 19:4-6)

    Matthew 19:4–6

  13. Here we see that Christian marriage is between men and women - one of each! Secondly, marriage is God’s design. Thirdly, there is sexual and spiritual union that’s not to be broken. We are to do all that we can, not to separate what God has joined.

  14. Let’s pray together

  15. “Lord Jesus, help me to honour you in the relationships that I have. Help me to invest in healthy relationships. Forgive me where I’ve failed to listen to your Word and give me wisdom on how to repent and put things right. Amen.”