Promise Making

I PROMISE 

(Song of Solomon 8:6-7) Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal (purchasing power) on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters (problems) cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away. If one were to give all the wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly scorned." 


Promise: from the Latin promittere 

Pro: Forward Mittere: Send 

Promise: A declaration I make now that will be needed for the future.


Things that destroy many marriages aren't bad things, but good things not prioritized correctly.  We make a promise for when our feelings change.    


Divorcing your spouse because love is gone is like getting rid of your car because the gas is gone.   


(Luke 22:20) In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.”


A promise is speaking of future events as if it's already happened (M. H. Dennis). 


Promise Making 


(Genesis 2:24-25 NKJV) Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. 


1. The promise of priority. 


(Matthew 6:33) But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 


(Ephesians 5:25) Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.


For a relationship to work, you've got to put it first.  I promise God will be my first priority, and my spouse will be my second. 


God wants us to be strengthened by our differences.  


2. The promise of pursuit. 


(Proverbs 14:23) All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty. 

(Revelation 2:5) Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.  

I promise that I will continue to pursue you even after I have you.  

Pursue her with affection.  Pursue him with affirmation.


3. The promise of partnership. 

(Matthew 19:5-6) “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate. 


(Ephesians 5:21) Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. 

I promise to make our relationship about we not me. I send a promise into our future to protect it. 


 4. The promise of purity. 


(Ephesians 5:8-11) For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light… Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 


(Proverbs 28:13) Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy. 

I promise to confide in you not hide from you.  Secrecy is the enemy of intimacy. 



In order for relationships to work, let the One who designed them define them.

Video
https://www.churchofthehighlands.com/media/message/promise-making

Discussion Guide
https://www.churchofthehighlands.com/files/groups/guides/02-10-2019.pdf

Chris Hodges, Church of the Highlands