Missions Mobilization
Ultimate Love, Extreme Missions
Ephesians 5:24-32
Paul J. Bucknell
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Missions & Marriage
A) Picture of Marriage (Ephesians 5:31-32) |
B) Choosing of the Bride (Ephesians 5:25, 29) |
C) Preparing of the Bride (Ephesians 5:26-27)
Purpose
God's glorious mission plan for His people, seen in the marriage covenant in Ephesians 5:31-32, reveals the glorious mission of God and how those plans can be trusted and joined in not only without fear but with great anticipation!
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Everything God does is great because He is great. There is simply nothing so awesome as the Lord and the things He does.
| Please note that we have several articles on Ephesians 5:31-32. This one focuses on missions and uses marriage as an illustration. Others include Biblical Concepts for A Great Marriage which focuses on principles to having a good marriage and Building a Great Marriage, chapter 2 of our book, entitled Building a Great Marriage. The last has much more detail than this message. |
Instead of excitement, however, many of us have fear over God's plans.
Our sins are compiled by the doubt over what God is like, what He does, and why He does things. We are foiled by the insidious doubts that the evil one implants in our minds as he passes by. It is time we open our eyes, mouths, pockets, and lives to our great God and what He is doing.
We have nothing to be ashamed of when we share the love of God with our neighbor. We should not be intimidated but bold. "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek" (Romans 1:16 Study Questions).
I confess that having just spoken at two full 3-day seminars on marriage (close to 25 hours of speaking). My mind is full of ideas for marriage. I just returned from speaking to a select group of urban pastors and wives in a fast-growing city of Nairobi, as well as in a field 20 minutes from the main road out in nowhere. 500 people sat under tents and listened to the 'Building a Great Marriage' series. Though believers, they often told me they had never heard what God's Word says about marriage (see the above picture).
It is time we wed, so to speak, marriage and missions. Only until we get this greater view of God and His plans can we more boldly embrace His purpose and call for our participation.
There are many models of God's mission program, each having its unique contributions. This one of marriage is one of the most powerful as it strips away fear and enables us to trust Him with this plan.
Since some of you are totally puzzled, let me use words to show you pictures of this wedding between marriage and missions. Each of the three main points builds on the prior.
- A.) The Picture of Marriage (Ephesians 5:31-32)
- B.) The Choosing of the Bride (Ephesians 5:25, 29)
- C.) The Preparing of the Bride (Ephesians 5:26-27)
Next -> A.) The Picture of Marriage (Ephesians 5:31-32)