Sermon Summary Today, Pastor Doug began a new series on marriage entitled, “Take a Vow.” For the next four weeks, we are going to look at four vows that serve as the foundation for a great marriage. In snapshot fashion, Genesis 2:24- 25 gives us God’s blueprint for marriage. Among other things, we learn here that when you get married, you take a vow to radically rearrange your priorities. No longer is your devotion to be centered on your family of origin, or any other human relationship—it becomes centered upon your wife or husband. When you get married, God sees you as one unit. You belong together. When you said “I do” to one another, God super-glued you together, and He intends for that union to last a lifetime. And that means that next to your relationship with God, your commitment to your spouse becomes your lifelong top priority. Jesus added: “So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.” (Matthew 19:6).

To have the kind of marriage that we all hope for, and that God desires for us to have, the first vow we must take is the vow of priority. It is the vow that says to our spouse, “Next to Christ, you are my top priority.” Now it is one thing to say that, but it is another thing to practice it. Good intentions are admirable, but you can’t build a strong marriage on good intentions alone. To see the benefits of the vow of priority in our marriages, we have to practice it. For the next 40 days, Pastor Doug challenged us who are married to diligently apply the Biblical principles that we hear in this series. We need to apply Biblical truth to our marriages. Here are some steps you can take:

Application / Challenge

1. Practice the vow of priority. Begin each day with this commitment: “Today, my spouse will be my top priority.” As a reminder, you may want to write this vow somewhere you will see it every morning—maybe on your mirror where you put on your makeup, or where you shave. Look back at the list of priority robbers that you identified during today’s sermon. What one step can you take this week to assure that that priority robber won’t invade your marriage this week? Is it something that you need to give up, or something that you need to begin doing? Take that step as a love gift to your spouse.
2. Protect the priority. Not only do we need to practice the vow of priority, we need to protect our priority, because our marriages are under spiritual attack. They always have been. In Ephesians 6:10-13 the Apostle Paul gives wise Biblical council concerning how husbands and wives and parents and children should relate to one another. He concludes his council by warning us about the reality of the spiritual battle that confronts our marriage and family life. Your spouse isn’t your enemy. But Satan would love to make it appear that way. He wants to destroy your marriage. He wants to rip apart your family. You see, marriage and the family is designed by God to be the principle place where Biblical truth is passed on from generation to generation. Satan will do whatever he can to disrupt that generational transmission of truth. And so you need to be on the alert. You need to be like a sentinel, diligently guarding the walls of your marriage, because next to your relationship with Jesus Christ, your commitment to your spouse should be your lifelong top priority.

Will you begin to practice the Vow of Priority this week?