Serious About Marriage: Resources for a Christ-Centered Marriage

I wanted to write a post about Christ-centered marriages that would complement the sermon on Mark 10:1-12, “Serious About Marriage”.My thinking is that this sermon could very well shake some things up in marriages in our church and I wanted to provide some resources that might be helpful for those wanting to read or listen to more about the aforementioned topic.As I was thinking about what to share, I was curious what a Google search on the subject would reveal. So, out of that curiosity I did a search on just the word marriage. Here is what was returned in my Google results bar:Marriage yielded about 591,000,000 results (0.46 seconds)Wow! That’s a lot of information on the topic of marriage. My curiosity then lead me to think about what the results would be for a search entitled Christ-centered marriage:Christ-centered marriage yielded about 49,900 results (1.14 seconds)For all of you statistics dropouts (like me), Matthew Braselton (one of our staff math nerds) tells me that means that about .008% of the information regarding marriage is dedicated to how to live out a Christ-centered marriage. Eight one thousandths of a percent seems like a ridiculous number considering that marriage is at the very core of how Jesus identifies with his church (Eph 5) and the fact that it was the first God-ordained institution incorporated on earth. But, if you think about it with any depth at all, the number isn’t all that surprising.Marriage in our culture has been under attack for the past few decades, especially the biblical ideas that support what a Christ-centered marriage looks like. In short, few marriages exist with the premise that self-sacrifice should be the DNA that makes up the life of marriage. The mind-set of ‘what’s in it for me’ has so invaded our culture that it has become the core of what makes up the vast number of marriages in today’s world.So, that got me thinking; ‘I wonder what the result would be for the search-term, divorce?Divorce yielded about 162,000,000 results (0.55 seconds)What about Christ-centered divorce?Christ-centered divorce yielded about 3,860 results (0.69 seconds)I know, I know... Some people will throw the yellow-flag on that last search term. I get that. But the point I’m trying to make is that when we are focused on Christ in our marriages, both husband and wife, living out their marriages with sacrificial mindsets and focused obedience and worship to Jesus, statistically speaking, divorce would be rare.A large part of my ministry is to work with couples who are struggling in their marriage or who have the preventive desires not to struggle in their marriage. I have compiled a list of resources that I have used and shared with these countless couples and I wanted to share some of them in this post:RESORCES FOR A CHRIST-CENTERED MARRIAGE:BOOKS:

1. What Did You Expect – Paul David Tripp
2. The Meaning of Marriage – Tim Keller and Kathy Keller
3. When Sinners Say I Do – Dave Harvey
4. This Momentary Marriage – John Piper
5. Marriage Matters – Winston Smith

ONLINE RESOURCES:

1. Creating a Gospel-Centered Marriage (Videos) – Brad Hambrick
2. The Gospel Coalition (Christian Living) – Various
3. The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood – Various

SERMONS:

1. Husbands Who Love Like Christ and the Wives Who Submit to Them – John Piper
2. I Still Do – Luke Simmons
3. Marriage in Gospel Focus – Tim Keller

If after listening to this sermon, “Serious About Marriage” or reading or listening to any of these resources, you would like to sit down and talk with me or another pastor, please don’t hesitate to call the church office and ask to schedule an appointment.