Friday, 03 July 2009

  • IN UNION WE STAND - SERMON PREVIEW 070509

    In every wedding that I’ve officiated and nearly every wedding that I’ve attended I’ve heard some sort of language about the husband and the wife being in union with one another.  You will here the pastor say something like this:  “Today, we are gathered together in the presence of God and these witnesses for the union of this man to this woman.”  Now the basis of this language comes from Ephesians 5:3:  “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”  The reality of a marriage between a man and woman according to God is that the two become one:  not one symbolically, hypothetically.  The two become one in union.

     

    That explains why the risks are so high in marriage.  The highest of highs occur when both share in the joys, and the lowest of lows occur when they share in the sorrow.  One of the intentions in marriage is that you can tell your spouse about something exciting that has happened to you like a promotion, a graduation, an achievement, and your spouse will enjoy those things as if it is their own because the two are one.  Of course, if one spouse is hurt and sad, the other spouse is hurt and sad with them because the two are one.  These things are part of the incredible blessings of marriage in God’s intention.

     

    Now why is that?  Why do the two share in such joy and sadness to each other’s joy and comfort?  Because marriage requires the trust that the other person is not just seeking the best for themselves but seeking the best for the spouse.  Because of that, your joy can be your spouse’s joy, and your sorrow can be your spouse’s sorrow.

     

    I’m afraid things work the other way as well.  If one spouse willfully does something that is hurtful or violates trust, then both spouses are hurt.  If one spouse is not seeking the best for the other, then trust is broken and because of the union, the pain is great.  In light of that, you can see why concepts and commands about purity and remaining chaste and virginal until marriage are not just God’s way of killing your buzz.  The physical union of a man and a woman is part of the intention of and the reflection of the spiritual union of marriage.  Violating that by pre-marital sex and the other related activities close to it violates the intention of God’s will for marriage and therefore causes great pain when indulged outside of God’s plan.

     

    So many couples have to work through prior sexual relationships and the physical union of their spouses with someone else. So much of marriage counseling is about helping one spouse work through the hurt that the other spouse has inflicted when one spouse places their interests above another.  Or sometimes, one spouse’s achievements don’t cause the other spouse to join in celebration but actually causes them to be jealous.  When that happens, the union is damaged.

     

    I remember speaking to one couple one day.  They are not part of the Sovereign King family.  Her husband was succeeding in most ever area of his life (professionally, spiritually), and the family was thriving.  Yet over time, the wife grew more and more depressed because she could no longer enjoy the success of her husband vicariously.  The accomplishments of her husband were not a joy to her.  They caused her to begin to resent her husband and take advantage of him ultimately leading to an affair.   She could no longer see that her husband’s thriving and succeeding was hers.

     

    This idea of being united and in union is exactly what Paul is going to talk about this week in Romans.  Paul is going to expand the idea of being in union to discuss the believer’s union with Christ and the idea of having grace reign over you because of that union.  Paul is going to explain how we live in this union with Jesus and what practically the life of being ruled by grace looks like. 

     

    Sadly however, just like the spouse who can no longer take joy in the achievement and work of the other spouse, you sometime no longer take joy in the fact that grace reigns over us and that you are united to Christ.  When that happens, you begin to abuse grace and begin to live a life of wanton disobedience thinking, “Why should I obey when grace reigns anyway?”

     

    In light of that, this is our Big Picture Question for this week:

     

    Big Picture Question:  If grace reigns, if it is the pouring out of God’s affection, if it abounds with sin, if I am united with Christ, what motivation would I have to quit sinning?

     

    If you would like to join Sovereign King for worship, we gather at 10:30am each Sunday, and you can find directions to our space at http://www.sovereignkingpca.net/1.2.html.

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