Good evening brethren and happy Sabbath!  Tomorrow we will be honoring our high school graduates in Charlotte.  We have three this year!  In addition, we have a potluck in all three congregations tomorrow.

Marriage and Family

As you are aware, we started a three part series on Marriage and Family a couple of weeks ago.  Tomorrow, we'll be going more in depth on the topic of roles of husbands and wives.  If you missed the first part in this series, you can get it here.

Roles in marriage

If you were to interview for a job, you'd probably be given a job description that would explain what role you are expected to play in a particular company.  It might say something like, "Responsible for the creation of work instructions for employees working in the kitchen" or "maintain financial data for a Fortune 500 company" or some such thing.

Knowing what your role is in a job will help make your more successful.  The same is true for marriage.  But unlike a job where success might be defined by money or authority, marital success is shown in a unity that brings honor and glory to God.

Challenges and triumphs

Of course, all marriage have challenges at times.  Although being united is the goal, occasionally, there are times we differ.  When do we compromise? When do we stand firm?  As we'll see in the sermon tomorrow, a key factor in answering this questions is whether our actions lead us closer to or farther away from God.

While we might not find exact answers to every specific question about marriage that arises, the Bible does give us some very helpful guidelines.  When we adhere to these, we can have a happy and fruitful marriage that reflects the coming union of Jesus Christ and His bride, the church!