Marriage: "What Must We Do?"

As a link I provided on my headlines above (on the same date of this piece) makes note, Rick Warren, Russell Moore and others were present at Humanum 2014 this week discussing and defending the biblical truths on marriage. The gathering is a conference convened by Pope Francis and held at the Vatican. Pastor Warren, it seems, was one of the last, if not the last, of over two dozen who spoke. His message is well worth sharing.

The video is below and is about 40 minutes long. I've summarized his main points below as well.

(Prelude: Hebrew’s 13:4 tells us that marriage is to be honored by all.)

Pastor Warren’s “action plan” for what to do on marriage:

• · Affirm the Authority of God’s Word
• Truth is still truth no matter how many people doubt it
• We don’t break God’s laws, they break us
• Believe what Jesus taught about marriage
• Mark 10:6-9 is the “owner’s manual” on marriage
• Jesus 5 convictions about marriage (unchangeable, incontrovertible, unmovable)
• Gender is God’s idea; He made us either male or female—our identity is either a man or a woman 
• Marriage is God’s idea—He defines it
• Sex was created for marriage; male and female body parts were made to fit together; sex was not created for recreation; there’s no such thing as “safe-sex”—there is no condom that can prevent a broken heart
• Marriage is a union of a man and a woman
• Marriage is for life
• Celebrate healthy marriages (especially churches): don’t simply be an opponent of what’s wrong, be a proponent of what’s right; incorporate celebrations of marriage into church services, etc.; 
• Develop small-group courses to support marriage
• Engage every media to promote marriage
• To engage the next generation, we must use social media 
• The church is being out-marketed by the opponents of marriage (a significant minority)
• Whichever side tells the best stories wins
• More entertainment that promotes healthy marriage
• Use media to question the cultural lies
• Teach the difference between love and lust: love can always wait to give, lust can never wait to take
• Face attackers with joy and winsomeness
• Are we more interested in winning an argument or making friends? 
• Our opponents in these debates are not our enemies, they’re our mission field
• Don’t be afraid to be unpopular
• The only way to always be relevant is to be eternal
• It isn’t necessary to be on the “right side of history,” we just need to be on the right side
• What we’re debating is a question of leadership: is the church going to lead or follow
•  Give people confidence (hope) that their marriage can make it; preach for faith
• Teach (he skips to “T” for lack of time) the purposes of marriage; to value something, we must understand its purpose (time, money, sexuality, marriage, etc.)
• 6 purposes of marriage:
• Elimination of loneliness
• Expression of sex
• Multiplication of the human race
• Protection and education of children
• Perfection of our character (marriage is the laboratory for learning how to love)
• Reflection of our union with Christ

I left out many interesting details. Enjoy.

In light of this, don't forget the Marriage Commitment Challenge.