The Open Door Church

     Paul, quoting from Genesis 2:24, recorded a wonderful definition of marriage.  He wrote, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh” (Ephesians 5:31, NIV).  The two words, “one flesh,” describe a deeply intimate and passionate marriage relationship expressed physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

     This is the kind of marriage God wants you and your spouse to have.  It’s the kind of marriage God wants every couple to have.  No matter where your marriage is now, you can change it into this kind of marriage!  Marriages that last a lifetime are built on three essential pillars—God, Accountability, and Communication.  So in this lesson we will briefly examine each of the three.

     In keeping with our 2018 preaching theme of “Relevant Issues,” today’s sermon will address another relevant issue from a Biblical perspective.  Since the current divorce rate in the US stands at 42% and the vast majority of those divorces are endured by people who admit that for various reasons, they married the wrong person, today’s sermon will take a Biblical look at “The Surest Way to Marry the Right Person.”

     To establish how relevant this issue truly is, let’s look at a few statistical facts about divorce in the US.

• The current overall divorce rate in the US is 42%.  Just over 4 out of 10 marriages end in divorce.
• The US divorce rate for first marriages is 41%.
• The US divorce rate for second marriages is 60%.
• The US divorce rate for third marriages is 73%.
• In 1990 the overall divorce rate in the US was 50%.  But before we get too excited about the decline in the divorce rate, we need to know that the decline is due largely to the fact that there has been a significant increase in the rate of couples choosing to cohabitate rather than marry.
• In the US a couple gets a divorce every 13 seconds.

     These sad statistics clearly qualify the subject of “The Surest Way to Marry the Right Person” as a relevant issue!  “The Surest Way to Marry the Right Person” is to let God arrange the marriage.  When Moses described God’s superior match-making ability that resulted in the first marriage, he wrote, “The Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man,

and he brought her to the man” (Genesis 2:22, NIV).

     Notice, it was “a woman” that God brought “to the man.”  This simple statement clearly indicates that from God’s perspective marriage is a union of one man and one woman.  He never approves the union of two people of the same gender!

     Jesus was speaking to His church when He said, “You are the salt of the earth…You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:13a…14a, NIV).  Let’s consider what He actually meant by that statement.

     Both salt and light exert an influence on whatever they touch.  Salt influences flavor.  Light influences appearance.  So the church, as salt and light, should influence the lives of everyone it touches.  The result of a healthy church functioning as salt and light in the world is “Changed Lives!”

     So today we are going to celebrate a few “Changed Lives”—lives that have been changed by God as a result of the influence of The Open Door Church.  We will do so because we want you to know that what we are doing is making a difference!

     Since our 2018 preaching theme is “Relevant Issues,” we cannot ignore one of the most relevant health issues of our day.  It is the issue of smoking—nicotine addiction.  The following statistics reveal just how relevant this issue truly is.

    Currently 15.5% of U.S. adults are smokers.  That is a total of 37.8 million people!  Tobacco use is the single largest preventable cause of death and disease in the United States. Cigarette smoking kills more than 480,000 Americans per year.  That means that almost one out of five US deaths are smoking related deaths.  More than 41,000 of these deaths are due to exposure to secondhand smoke.  Smoking-related illness in the United States costs more than $300 billion per year.

     Based on these statistics, I am forced to conclude that helping people achieve lasting freedom from nicotine addiction is indeed a relevant issue!  So that’s what this sermon is designed to do.  The foundational premise of today’s sermon is that Jesus can set you free from any kind of enslavement—including nicotine enslavement!  That’s why John wrote, “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36, NIV).

     Some of the earliest scenes from the Bible are stories of immigrants.  The father of Abram was a man named Terah who left his homeland, Ur of the Chaldeans, and migrated to the land of Canaan.  In short, Terah and his adult son and daughter-in-law, Abram and Sarai, along with his grandson Lot were immigrants.  That’s how Moses described them when he wrote, “Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan” (Genesis 11:31a, NIV).

     They didn’t travel to their intended migrant destination.  Instead, “When they came to Harran [a village Terah named after his deceased son, Lot’s father], they settled there” (Genesis 11:31b, NIV).

      Abram and Sarai lived in Haran until after the death of Abram’s father, Terah.  Then they migrated to the land of Canaan, their original destination.  Moses wrote, “The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you’…So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there” (Genesis 12:1…4-5, NIV).  For the second time in their lives, Abram, Sarai, and Lot were immigrants.

     Due to what we might call a natural disaster, Abram, Sarai, and Lot became immigrants for yet a third time.  Moses wrote, “Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe” (Genesis 12:10, NIV).

     Statistics indicate that the adult overweight rate in the US is currently running at 32% affecting 10.5 million people; and the adult obesity rate is 38% affecting 12.4 million people.

     Overweight/obesity-related diseases include heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer—some of the leading causes of preventable death among Americans.  The estimated annual medical cost of obesity in the U.S. is $147 billion.

     The medical costs for people who have obesity is $1,429 higher than people of ideal weight.  Based on these statistics, I would conclude that “God’s Weight Reduction Strategy”—His answer to obesity—is indeed a “Relevant Issue.”

     To be overweight means that you are 20%—39% above your ideal weight.  To be obese means that you are 40% or more above your ideal body weight.

     There is only one cause of obesity or being overweight—overeating.  The Bible calls it “gluttony” and indicates that it is a very dangerous sin.  King Solomon wrote, “Put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony” (Proverbs 23:2, NIV).  It is not a sin to eat, but it is a sin to overeat.

      NEWS FLASH:  God’s solution to being obese or overweight—His strategy for weight reduction—is not a diet!  Dieting only transfers our enslavement.  You see, obeying the rules of any diet doesn’t give freedom, it only produces more bondage.  Paul wrote, “Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone [or something—like the rules of a certain diet program] as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey” (Romans 6:16a, NIV).  So dieting simply causes you to trade masters—rather than being a slave to food, you become a slave to the diet.           

     No matter what your age, no matter what your size, no matter what your current means of control is—whether it is dieting, exercising, bulimia (throwing up the food to maintain weight control), anorexia (extreme bodily deprivation as a means of weight control), or whether you have just given up on the idea of weight control altogether, this sermon is for you.

     It is based on the concept that God wants you to learn to experience authentic self-control as it relates to your consumption of food.  Paul wrote, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23a, NIV).  If we listen to the Holy Spirit, He will produce “self-control” in us.

     However, “self-control” is not the ability to control yourself!  How many of you have tried that?  You have tried controlling yourself?  How did that work out for you?  No…no…no…self- control is the ability to bring yourself under the control of the Holy Spirit.  After all it is “the fruit of the Spirit!”

     The key to learning “self-control” from the Holy Spirit is to listen to Him as He reveals “truth” to you.  Jesus said, “When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth” (John 16:13a, NIV).  Jesus also said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32, NIV).  So, let’s learn some “truth” about how we can apply “self-control” to our food consumption and as a result achieve and maintain our ideal weight!