Genesis 2:18 (NLT) Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.”
Genesis 2:21-25 (NLT) 21 So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the LORD God took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the opening. 22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man. 23 “At last!” the man exclaimed. “This one is bone from my bone, and flesh from my flesh! She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken from ‘man.’” 24 This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one. 25 Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.
Fight For Three Things:
1. Fight for the TEAM
- There is a natural desire for WE to turn back into ME.
- The Selfish Mindset:
- What do I want?
- What’s best for me?
- My time, my money, my friends. My trip. My pattern. My preference.
- The more you build your private world, the less you build your shared life.
- Fight for ONE MIND:
- Our Decisions
- Our Dreams
- Our Plans
- Our Time
- Our Stuff
- We SHARE.
2. Fight for PURSUIT
- There’s nothing more passionate than a young man pursuing a bride.
- Most marriages stop pursuing one another at certain points:
- After the honeymoon
- After a baby
- After life gets crazy
- What we once pursued, we now presume.
- We pursue what we want and neglect what we won.
- We must make commitments to PURSUE PERPETUALLY:
- Posture of pursuit
- Attitude of pursuit
- Action of pursuit
3. Fight for ALIGNMENT
- Ephesians 5:21-26 (NLT) 21 And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. 22 For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. 24 As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything. 25 For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her 26 to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word.
- Submit to one another - Before we see anything, we see this joint submission to one another.
- Submit to your husbands.
- Let’s talk about the importance of Honor in the marriage
- Ladies, the language of men is respect. A man that’s not respected becomes a shadow of a man, a deflated person, defeated, and unable to lead with confidence.
- The way a man perceives respect is WORDS and ATTITUDES.
- Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church.
- How did Christ love the church? HE DIED!
- The way you love is to SERVE.
- The way you love is SACRIFICE.
- When a man loves a woman, he is actually loving himself.
- Ephesians 5:28-29 (NLT) 28 In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. 29 No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church.