TEACHING
Marriage: Surrender and
Discipline of Self
The biggest problem in marriage, they say, right now centers around
money. How do you spend your money and what do you do with your money?
The money represents what you earn. And it is, in a sense, a token
of your accomplishment. If you handle it properly, it leads to blessing.
It is that simple.
If you handle it poorly, it is a problem.
What is terrible is to find one person responsible about money and
the other one wasting it all of the time. It could be the husband or
the wife, and it will tear you apart. It can destroy the financial fabric
of your marriage and lead to bankruptcy.
If money is the major problem, lust is wanting it now. Whatever pleasure
it is. And obviously before marriage or during marriage, it can be sex.
But somebody sees something they want. They want a big house and want
it now. They don't want to wait for it or build for it. They want it
now.
They can't get it for the income they have so they take on enormous
debt. There is a lender that will let you have a mortgage at high interest
rates or let you buy a car.
I ran across somebody who bought a car and the car company charged
this poor woman, a single mother with a child, 24 percent interest on
a car loan on some junker that was overpriced to begin with. People
get taken advantage of. Sometimes it is something they need and sometimes
it is not.
Now the Bible says the debtor is the slave to the lender. So this is
bondage. Debt is bondage. You go into debt and you go into slavery.
And people come out of college owing more than $50,000 or $60,000. It
is terrible. It is a terrible burden. What is needed is discipline.
And that is sometimes a hard thing.
Many people, young people, haven't been taught discipline. Their parents
haven't taught them discipline.
.
There is a budget they have to agree on. This is what we take in and
this is what we are going to spend. And along with that, there has to
be the thought of saving in the budget. There has to be giving. You
have to give unto the Lord. And there has to be something built in it
for saving.
When you begin to do that, you are building up something. You have
hopes and dreams and save toward the home or college education. Money
begins to accumulate and you let money work for you.
In marriage, the most important thing that we deal with is surrender
of self. You surrender yourself to Jesus. And then you surrender yourself
to one another.
The problem is that we decide we want it our way. I want this. This
is the life style that I want. This is the pleasure that I want. This
is what is good for me, instead of what is good for us.
The only way you are going to find that love is when you have the love
of Jesus Christ that fills both of you and draws you together. And so
each one surrenders to Jesus. And out of that, the love of Jesus brings
you together. It is God's love. It is love from God that will permeate
a marriage.
That is surrender. I am going to surrender my life to Jesus Christ
and surrender my life to my spouse.
The apostle Paul said the husband's body doesn't belong to him, but
the spouse.
And the wife's body doesn't belong to her. It belongs to the husband.
They are one. They are joined together as one.
If we have this concept, we love each other. We are part of the same
body.
Jesus Christ provides the glue.
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