IDEA: A covenant relationship is dynamic, not static.

PURPOSE: To help listeners understand how a covenant relationship can grow and develop.

Have you ever done much premarital counseling?

Did you go through premarital counseling before you were married?

What subjects are usually covered in these sessions? Issues of money, sex, in-laws, communication, etc.

Do we think much about the vows each will make at a marriage altar?

A couple can swear to all kinds of things with no realization what they are saying.

I. In the vows in Christian marriage, each person in the couple enters into a covenant relationship with the other person.

They make enormous promises to one another.

They are swearing, “When no one else is there for you, I’ll be there.”

They are swearing, “I am giving myself to you unconditionally and am throwing my date book away.”

They are swearing, “This commitment is not going to depend on circumstances–sickness or health, poverty or wealth.”

If a couple takes seriously those vows that they make in the presence of God and before witnesses, what effect should that have in the marriage?