Main Idea

What happens when the feeling fades? Because it will. For every couple, it does. This week we explore what the Bible says the real foundation of marriage is and it’s not a feeling. It’s something far stronger.

Scripture

Ephesians 5:25-31

25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”

Malachi 2:14

You ask, “Why?” It is because the Lord is the witness between you and the wife of your youth. You have been unfaithful to her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant.

Genesis 15:17

When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces.

Discussion Questions

• When the feeling fades in your marriage or a close relationship, what is your first instinct push through, pull away, or look for an exit? What does that instinct reveal about what you actually believe love is?
• The sermon drew a line between a promise and a covenant. Honestly, when you said “I do” which one were you really making? And what would it look like to move from one to the other starting this week?
• Tim Keller said “we never know whom we marry” that the person you committed to will change and so will you. Where have you seen that to be true? Has the change brought you closer together or pushed you further apart?
• Paul says Christ didn’t love the church because she was radiant he loved her until she was radiant. Where in your marriage are you waiting for your spouse to change before you love them more fully? What would it look like to reverse that?
• The sermon ended with this: you can cover your spouse’s sin with forgiveness because Jesus covered yours. What is one specific thing you need to forgive your spouse for right now and what is one thing you need to ask them to forgive you for?