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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

The God-Arranged and Blessed Marriage

Dan Augsburger

The God-Arranged Match

Let Her Be the One

Principles of the God-Blessed Marriage

I'd like to read a word of scripture before Rose and I pray together from Isaiah 55, 8 and 9.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

And verse 11, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth.

It shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish what I please.

It shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

Father in heaven, rose kneel before you this evening out of our awareness that Unless you're present and blessing, much time will have been wasted.

Lord, you know the plans you have this evening, and I just wanna ask that your spirit will move freely among us.

I really believe that it's for such a time as this you have a message for at least somebody here tonight.

And I pray that every person will receive your message for them.

It's a privilege to be here this evening.

I've heard much about Advent Hope, and you play, I think, quite a ministry from right here at Loma Linda to all the rest of us in the rest of the country.

And I'm not here to suggest that we have any secrets in and of ourselves.

We're just going to share what God seems to have done in our own experience that is quite instructive.

And then look at what the scripture says on the same subject.

And then share some other things that we feel will be helpful.

And so in terms of the schedule, and you notice the title, finding God's needle in God's haystack.

For those of you that are single and looking, would you like to believe that God can find you that person who is truly suited to whatever you've been called to?

And that you'd have a really good marriage.

I think good marriages should be the rule, not the exception in the Adventist church.

Now, I will freely confess, I've been married and it didn't work out.

That's not a negative, that's not throwing stone, not dispersions.

But the second time around, I literally remember meeting 2 students of mine.

And I said, I'm getting married in August.

And I responded and said, actually, I just found out myself.

I know that seems surreal, crazy, and it is.

And I do not necessarily recommend what happened for us as the norm for anyone else.

But we're going to show you some substance to help you understand how I can make that kind of statement.

But what I will tell you is we've had an amazing marriage.

And God was merciful to me in that Dan was clueless most of the time.

So this evening we want to talk about finding God's needle in God's haystack, because you do not know who is that needle, nor do you necessarily know where to find that individual.

You're looking for the person that God has prepared for you.

God knows who that person is and where you will find that person.

Many in seeking to find something on their own, discover later they really needed God's wisdom instead of their own because from the hour of marriage, many date their success or failure.

But marriage is that strange thing which is either the best or the worst.

And if you're not going to be happily married, trust me, you'd rather be single.

So, tonight we're talking about finding God's needle and God's haystack.

Sabbath morning, it's a study from the Bible on guidance.

Let her be the 1 from the story of Eliezer searching for a wife for Isaac.

And finally, principles for a God-blessed marriage.

And I don't know if you realize how much Ellen White speaks of principles.

If you look in her writings, there's around 19, 000 quotations where she speaks of principles.

And she makes a statement that is dramatic, where she says, men scheme, but God plants a principle.

I don't know if you understand the profundity of that, but but we scheme we devise But God plans certain principles, and if we follow his principles we will succeed So we're talking about the God arranged marriage look at the Bible the spirit of prophecy We have a handout that I believe has been handed out to you folks or will be That's for you to study in your own and then we have a website called the cybel heart And there is a QR code Which I will show you right there, And you can take a picture of that because there are more resources there that would be very helpful.

And so we want to talk about finding God's needle in a haystack.

And just to give you some background, Rose was a Bible worker before, living 14 hours away from me, and I had a ministry that took me many places, and I didn't think anyone would want to marry me with what I did.

So there's the verse, but here's the statement that we want you to think about as well.

Marriage is something that will influence and affect your life both in this world and in the world to come.

A sincere Christian will not advance his plan in this direction without the knowledge that God approves his course.

You will not want to advance your plans without knowing that God approves your course.

He will not want to choose for himself or herself, but will feel that God must choose for him or her.

You know, there are some things we're willing to let God make a choice on, but when it comes to that, most of us say, hold on, hold on.

And it's a really big question, to what degree do you trust God?

I suspect that in some areas of our lives we don't really trust him very much.

And so tonight, we're going to challenge you.

She says, we are not to please ourselves for Christ pleased not himself.

I would not be understood to mean that anyone is to marry 1 whom he does not love, this would be sin, but fancy and the emotional nature must not be allowed to lead on to ruin.

God requires the whole heart, the supreme affections.

So I won't say any more than that tonight.

I was gonna share a story about some missionaries of South Africa, But I think I will turn the time over to Rose.

But if you wonder if God can intervene in specific, mind-boggling ways, you're going to hear a story tonight that you will never forget.

And I hope you have the courage to say, God, I've been looking.

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Series

The God-Arranged and Blessed Marriage

The God-Arranged Match

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

United

To Have and to Hold

1h 22m

The 7 Secrets of a Successful Love Story

49m

Brian Hindman Weekend

Give Glory to Him

1h 10m

How to Know God's Will for My Life

How to Know God’s Will for My Relationships

48m

Advising Love: From Attraction to Anniversaries

2. Advising Love’s Growth: A Holy vs. An Unholy Courtship

1h

The God-Arranged and Blessed Marriage

Principles of the God-Blessed Marriage

57m

Blessed are the Pure in Heart

How to Choose a Good Mate

52m

Two Peas In a Pod

Part 2: Steps To a Godly Marriage

1h

Relationships – Ambassadors

Processing the ONE

1h 25m

True Love: Mission or Myth?

Real Talk: The Morning After

1h 7m

I Will Not Leave You

57m

Sound Doctrine