"You shall not commit adultery" (Exodus 20:14).
IDEA: A covenant relationship is dynamic, not static.
PURPOSE: To help listeners understand how a covenant relationship can grow and develop.
Have you ever done much premarital counseling?
Did you go through premarital counseling before you were married?
What subjects are usually covered in these sessions? Issues of money, sex, in-laws, communication, etc.
Do we think much about the vows each will make at a marriage altar?
A couple can swear to all kinds of things with no realization what they are saying.
I. In the vows in Christian marriage, each person in the couple enters into a covenant relationship with the other person.
They make enormous promises to one another.
They are swearing, “When no one else is there for you, I’ll be there.”
They are swearing, “I am giving myself to you unconditionally and am throwing my date book away.”
They are swearing, “This commitment is not going to depend on circumstances–sickness or health, poverty or wealth.”
If a couple takes seriously those vows that they make in the presence of God and before witnesses, what effect should that have in the marriage?
The marriage itself is not nearly as satisfying as the marriage ceremony.
There’s a way in which this covenant is both the spark that starts the engine and the fuel that keeps the engine running.
The initial commitment, if it is understood, is the beginning of a relationship, and as the relationship develops, the covenant is made deeper and more satisfying.
Would you agree that a couple after 25 years of marriage can have a rich relationship that they could not have dreamed of when they first married? All the elements of the original covenant have been made rich through the giving and receiving in the relationship.