God Uses Your Spouse to Build Your Character

CURRENT TEACHING SERIES Awesome Relationships

God Uses Your Spouse to Build Your Character By Rick Warren — May 6, 2016 “Love sincerely .... Hold on to what is good. Be devoted to each other like a loving family. Excel in showing respect for each other” (Romans 12:9-10 GW). God created marriage for the perfection of our character. It is in relationships that we learn to be unselfish and loving. And no relationship has greater impact on your life than marriage if you get married. The purpose of life is to grow up and realize it’s not all about you. In fact real happiness comes in giving your life away and being unselfish and serving and loving. This is called maturity. Life is a laboratory of learning how to love. It’s the most important thing in life because God is love, and he wants you to become like him. He wants to make you like Jesus Christ. He wants you to build character. If you’re married, the number one tool that God uses in your life to build Christ-like character is your spouse. Because every day you get hundreds of opportunities to not think about yourself but instead about the other person. The Bible says, “Love sincerely .... Hold on to what is good. Be devoted to each other like a loving family. Excel in showing respect for each other” (Romans 12:9-10 GW). Do you do that in your marriage? Do you have a competition of who can show the most respect? Before I got married so many years ago I really thought I knew how to love a woman. But I knew nothing about love! Now, after 40 years of marriage, I know that love washes the dishes. I know that love takes out the garbage. I know that love puts the other person first. Excel in showing respect for each other so that you grow to be more like Christ. PLAY today’s audio teaching from Pastor Rick >> Talk It Over Think of the most successful marriage you know of. How would you describe the couple’s relationship? How do they treat each other? If you are not married, what relationships is God using to build your character? What are you learning about how to love and show respect? Try today to outdo your spouse in showing love and respect. What is the effect? Our Gift: Awesome Relationships Study Kit If you’d like to improve all of your relationships then you’ll want to experience Pastor Rick’s new four week DVD study called, Awesome Relationships. In this amazing study Pastor Rick shows you how to be intentional about building up your relationships so you can experience the awesome relationships that you desire. LEARN MORE Complete Audio Series (Purchase) Includes all complete sermons from the Rick Warren Awesome Relationships teaching series. LEARN MORE Series Summary Message 1: Fighting for an Awesome Marriage Message 2: ​​​​​​​​Fighting for an Awesome Family Message 3: ​Making Friends for Eternity Message 4: What ​Destroys Relationships and What Builds Them Message 5: Finding the Love of Your Life Message 6: ​Becoming Best Friends with God PLAY TODAY'S BROADCAST

Pastor Rick Warren

Enjoy today's Devotional? Listen instantly to the full radio message at Daily Hope Radio. Did someone forward this devotional to you? Subscribe to Pastor Rick Warren's Daily Devotional. This devotional is based on the current Daily Hope radio series at rickwarren.org. Rick Warren has helped people live with hope and on purpose for more than 40 years. He’s the founding pastor of Saddleback Church in Southern California and author of several books, including "The Purpose Driven Church" and "The Purpose Driven Life," read by more than 100 million people in 137 languages. He created the PEACE Plan (plant churches of reconciliation, equip servant leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, educate the next generation), which is used by churches in 196 countries. His radio teaching and daily devotional, Daily Hope, is offered across America. This devotional © 2016 by Rick Warren. All rights reserved. Used by permission. You can unsubscribe at any time by changing your e-mail preferences. Update your preferences  |  Unsubscribe