Speaker: Peter Mockett 

Series: Building Better Marriages (Relationships)

Duration: 44 minutes

Building a Better Marriage (3)
Surviving the Storms

Surviving the Storms

Matthew 7:24-25
Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the floods rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.

1. Be Prepared for the Culture we Live In: Rains

• 4 forces in today’s culture that erode marriage
  
• Alternative life-styles
• Radical feminism
• Materialism
• The Sexual revolution

2 Timothy 3:1-3
But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.

• Lovers of Self: Humanism
• Lovers of Money: Materialism
• Lovers of Pleasure: Hedonism
  
• Romans 12:2
  Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

2. Be Prepared for the Crises we Live Through: Floods

Psalm 69:1-3
Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold. I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me. I am worn out calling for help; my throat is parched. My eyes fail, looking for my God.

Isaiah 43:1-3
But now, this is what the Lord says— he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;

Isaiah 43:1-3

1. Relax in God’s Plan - (Fear not)
2. Recognise God’s Presence - (I will be with you)
3. Rely on God’s Protection   (they will not sweep over you)

3. Be Prepared for the Changes we Live tWith: Winds

Ecclesiastes 3:1
To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven

Proverbs 20:30 (GN)
Sometimes it takes a painful situation to make us change our ways

• When Changes Come: several options
  
• 1. Reject it – pretend it’s not there
• 2. Resist it – fight it all the way
• 3. Resent it – become more bitter
• 4. Relish it – make the most of it

Coping with Change: Philippians 4:11&13
I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances….I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

1. Contentment
2. Flexibility
3. Faith

How to make Your Marriage Last

Matthew 7:24-25
Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the floods rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.

The Secret is to Build on the Right Foundation

1 Corinthians 3:11
God has placed Jesus Christ as the one and only foundation, and no other foundation can be laid