Sunday Flyer

Ephesians 5:31-33
“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

Your marriage is meant to be a "Sign and Wonder" 

How do we cultivate a marriage that is a "Sign and Wonder"?

We always marry the wrong person.

We never know whom we marry, we just think we do. Or even if we first marry the right person, just give it a little while, and he or she will change. For marriage, being (the enormous thing it is) means that we are not the same person after we have entered it. 
The primary problem is . . . learning how to love and care for the stranger to whom you find yourself married. 

- Stanley Hauerwas.

It is easy to love people from far away. 
It is not always easy to love those close to us. It's easier to give a cup of rice to relieve hunger than to relieve the loneliness and pain of someone unloved in our own home. Bring love into your home for this is where our love for each other must start.

- Mother Teresa

1. Marriage is Your First Ambition

My primary ambition is to demonstrate, in word and deed, that my spouse is loved and loveable.

2. Make What Is Important to You, Important to Me

Ephesians 5:21
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Submit: to place oneself under

Ephesians 5:25
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 

3. Create and Protect a Safe "Sacred Space" Around Our Oneness.

Threats to "Oneness" in Marriage:

- Excessive Stress
- Depression
- Work/Ministry
- Children
- Parents/In-Laws
- Friends
- Unresolved FOO issues 
- Addiction

Questions to Consider:
1. If my marriage is my primary ambition, is it getting my best energy?
2. Am I making what's important to you important to me?
3. Am I emotionally entering your world?

Table Talk Questions:

• How does Paul’s call to “submit to one another out of reverence for Christ” shape the way we think about power, love, and service in marriage?

• In what ways does marriage serve as a living picture of Christ’s love for the Church? Where do you see that picture reflected or distorted in your own marriage?

• Paul writes that husbands are to love their wives “as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her.” What might this look like in everyday decisions, communication, and conflict?

• How can married couples keep Christ at the center of their relationship? What does it look like for you to make your marriage your first ambition?

• For those who are single, what aspects of Christlike love and covenant faithfulness can still be lived out and modeled in community and friendship?