Key Truth: Our worship shapes our marriages, and our marriages shape our service to the Lord and the coming generations.  

Introduction:

What are/were your key criteria for choosing to marry?  

“When the spiritual and religious leaders of God’s people do not comply  with the elevated demands of their calling, a moral decline takes place, generally manifesting itself in, among other things, various malpractices concerning the marriage life of the people.”

Pieter A. Verhoef,The Books of Haggai and Malachi

A Question of Being Equally Yoked in Marriage:

Malachi 2:10-12

“We may be inclined to think that what goes on in our homes doesn’t have any bearing on the rest of life, but it does. Here in Malachi’s day we find men going to meet the Lord at the temple, and the Lord points them back to their homes. Family life colors and influences every other part of life.’”

Roger Ellsworth,Opening Up Malachi

How is worship shaping your views of marriage, and how you live it out? What impact would being unequally yoked in marriage have on one’s worship and the raising of children?

A Question of the Purpose of Marriage and the Violence of Divorce:

Malachi 2:13-16

“Marriage is intended to be much more than merely having someone to come home to and sit beside the fire with at night. Marriage is intended to be a spiritual union, in which we share the deepest longings and aspirations of our hearts with our spouse. It is supposed to be a context in which we share our spiritual struggles and pray with and for one another. It involves sharpening one another, rebuking one another when necessary, edifying one another spiritually, and encouraging one another in Christ. It is designed to be a deep and lasting friendship, in which a couple serve the Lord together, building one another up in mutual faith.’”

Iain M. Duguid & Matthew P. Harmon,
Zephaniah, Haggai, Malachi: Reformed Expository Commentary

What role should marriage play in people using their gifts in service to the Lord in His kingdom and in raising up the coming generations to know of God’s love for them?

Malachi 2:10-16 teaches us that:
-our worship shapes our marriages
-our marriages shape our service to the Lord and the coming generations

Benediction:

2 Peter 3:8-13