Happily Ever After - Security

Chris Williams
Pastor Matt continued the series Happily Ever After this week with Security, gotta admit, it’s a touch intimidating following that message.
If you weren’t there, you’ll definitely want to go back and catch up.
 During the service, I thought about a chair and how sometimes, when I go to a restaurant or a meeting, I seem to get the luck of the draw and sit in a very wobbly chair and seems like it could give out on me at any time. The chair doesn’t seem to be giving me a lot of security.
 A lot of times, it will affect my conversation or focus because it’s constantly in the back of my mind that this chair is gonna break and I’m gonna be flat on my back on the floor. So I’m not real invested in the conversation or whatever, and I’m just thinking of ways to hurry up and get out of there.
But I think about the chair in my living room. I know that one is sturdy and has me 100% and if I’m not careful and I sit still too long at any given time, it won’t be long, and I’ll be asleep and drool running down my face. So, where am I going with this?
Eph 2:4-10
 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,  even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”
Verse 6 tells us we’ve been raised up in Him and seated with Him in heavenly places IN Christ Jesus. We’ve been seated with Him; that’s our rest, our Security. The chair He has us seated in is 100% sturdy and secure. We don’t have that worry in the back of our mind that keeps us distracted, constantly wondering if we are being good enough or doing enough to make God happy, and just like the song we sang Sunday morning, Lean Back, we can lean back in the loving arms of our beautiful father, breathe deep and know that He is good.

I believe until you have the security issue settled, you’ll never fully be able to move forward in your spiritual growth. So it’s something that is most important to deal with. It took me a lot of years to get a grasp on this, but once I did, it completely changed my life, and I know without a doubt my chair can never be shaken.
 Guys, how do we relate this to our marriage? If we are to love our wives, as Eph 5:25 says, she will need to feel that same security. She needs to know she’s loved and that we have her best interest at heart, and there are no conditions on that.
I wish I could tell you I’ve always done this, but I haven’t. I was pretty good at the financial security part, but the chair was wobbly on the spiritual, emotional, and physical parts. For me, it started with my security in my faith, then that bled over into my marriage. Once the spiritual part gets handled, then I’m a firm believer the financial, emotional, and physical parts naturally line up.