Sermon Tone Analysis

Marriage Joke

My wife told me recently that I have two major faults.

I don’t listen and…something else.

Supposedly, 64,454,957 people got married last year.

That’s a lot of people.

I don’t want to start any problems, but I feel like that should be an even number…haha

Just some fun to wake us up this morning.

today we are closing out our series on the beliefs that shape us as a unique people.

each doctrine shapes us in unique ways and the whole collection is interconnected to form us as an uncommon people in this world.

so as we look at a topic today that is hotly debated in our culture, we cannot forget where we have been.

Preface to a Challenging Topic

Before we dive in today, I want to acknowledge a couple of things.

One, the topics of marriage, family, gender, and sexuality are hot button topics in our world, which have the tendency to prompt strong and emotional responses either in favor of what is being said or in opposition to what is being said.

This message is not intended to promote any particular political agenda or worldview, but, as we have established from the beginning of this series, we as a believers in Jesus and as a church family believe first and foremost that the Word of God is the authority for our lives in ALL areas.

So my goal today is, through the Holy Spirit’s power, to present what God’s Word says about His creation and how we are to understand marriage, family, gender, and sexuality accordingly.

Secondly, one sermon isn’t going to answer every question you have about these topics, but my goal is to help us frame our understanding so that we can seek God’s answer’s to our questions.

Our culture is speaking loudly and diversely on these topics, but what does God say and is His voice the loudest in our ears?

My prayer is that we can all listen with open hearts and open ears, humbly willing to hear from our creator about His glorious design.

Pray for this.

Marriage and Family

Jesus is asked a question about divorce.

A group of Pharisees come to Jesus trying to catch Jesus in a trap based off the differing Jewish teachings on divorce in Deuteronomy.

but Jesus doesn't go to deut.

He goes to Genesis 1 and 2.

"Have you not read..." Jesus points to the authority of the genesis account for the roots and substance of marriage, gender, and sexuality.

His answers aren't human ideas or interpretation, but created order and deliberate intentionality.

Jesus’s response to the Pharisee’s question is deeply significant.

He directs them to one of the most wellknown passages in all of the the Scriptures, Genesis 1:27, the creation of mankind.

Though the Pharisees weren’t questioning gender identities or sexual preferences, what we see in Jesus’s response is the validity and superiority of God’s account of creation.

Jesus not only believed the Genesis account of creation, HE WROTE IT.

Remember was John 1 says, everything that was created was created through Him and BY Him.

Jesus was the one who formed Adam from the dirt.

And He was the one who performed surgery to remove Adam’s rib in order to create Eve.

Jesus points to Genesis as the origin story of mankind, and where we must look for answers to the questions of who we are and how we relate with one another, especially in regards to marriage and sexuality.

And from His response we can see three clear truths that help us to discern truth in a culture of confusion.

1) We are DESIGNED with DIVINE INTENTIONALITY.

What we learn then is that God designed for there to be 2 genders with a shared NATURE and VALUE (image of God), but DISTINCT DESIGN.

God created both genders with perfect intentionality.

When each person is shaped in the womb of our mothers, God has determined the shape and substance of our bodies.

He intentionally crafted each of us, purposefully shaping us according to His will, and He knows us more intimately that we even know ourselves.

So for someone to feel the body they were born with doesn’t match the gender they feel is not a consequence of faulty creation, but confusion and brokenness that is a result of a sin that permeates our world and us.

I know that statement sounds judgmental and insensitive to many, maybe even to some in the room today.

We Christians have done a poor job with in regards to those experiencing Gender Dysphoria and same-sex attraction, treating them as outcasts and freaks.

Listen to Andrew Walker’s appeal:

It’s important for Christians to understand that people who experience distress, anguish, and conflict over their perceived gender identity really do exist.

They’re not freaks.

They’re not simply cross-dressers or people desiring to “gender-bend.”

In most cases, their experience cannot be reduced to simply “living a lie” since most don’t feel they’re lying to themselves.

In fact, just the opposite is true.

People with genuine cases of dysphoria believe it’s their biological body that is lying.

A person in this situation truly believes he or she is a member of the opposite sex.

— Andrew T. Walker

I understand the struggle many have with the stereotypical ideas about gender norms:

Men don’t cry or show emotions

Women take care of the kids

Men should be confident, aggressive, and assertive.

Women should be polite, accommodating, and nurturing.

There are cultural ideas about men and women that are flawed and harmful.

But the answer our culture is giving to these flawed ideas and these struggles with identity is to redefine gender at it’s very core.

What makes no sense biologically/scientifically has, in our current culture, become natural and medically advisable.

We are telling kids, teens, and adults who are going through a crisis of identity that the answer is to take drugs or go through surgeries that are often irreversible and have long-term harmful physical and psychological consequences.

We are persisting in them the idea that they were mistakenly created, broken from birth.

And though we are all born in sin, God tells us that each and everyone of us was “fearfully and wonderfully made,” Knit together in our mothers’ wombs by a God who loves us as we were created to be.

God didn’t make a mistake when he created you to be:

Short or tall

thick or thin

red-haired or blond

tan or pale

Male or female

We live in a world of confusion about what it means to be a man or a woman, but God’s Word is clear.

May we graciously and confidently speak, live, and teach what God has divinely revealed.

Let us pray for compassion and humility as we seek to love, serve, and care for anyone and everyone God puts in our path, broken and wayward sinners just like we were.

2) We are designed PURPOSELY COMPLIMENTARY .

This is not to say we are designed just to say nice things about one another, but rather men and women were designed differently in order to compliment one another.

After quoting Genesis 1 in verse 4, Jesus quotes Genesis 2:24 in verse 5.

Genesis 2 is the focused account of God’s creation of humanity in Adam and Eve.

God creates Adam first, gives him dominion over creation and responsibility to care for and maintain it.

But God Adam as incomplete by himself, and so He put Adam to sleep, took out a rib, and from it made woman, whom we know as Eve.

Before sin ever entered the world and corrupted God’s good creation, there existed a man and a woman, who were equally created in the image of God, who were equally valuable in the eyes of God and one another, and yet, who were different in design.

But the unity of God’s diverse design in man and woman is seen in verse 24 as Jesus quoted it in Matthew 19:5.

These two uniquely designed people are to become 1 deeply connected partnership.

The physical, emotional, and spiritual makeup of men and women are not the result of random chance through natural selection.

They were designed to compliment one another, to fit together in a purposeful union.

When God says the two shall become one, there is a definition marriage imbedded in that.

Two people with differing physical make up, differing emotional dispositions, and differing motivations and drives come together to form a bond that is unlike any relationship in all of creation.

That might sound idealized as we look at how challenging and frustrating marriage can be.

But the book title by Dave Harvey, “When Sinners say ‘I Do’”, helps explain why we struggle to see the beauty of God’s design.

Though what God has made is broken and stained by sin, underneath the dirt and rubble is a beautiful design that has a glorious purpose.

God imbedded His purposeful design into man and woman, that these two, and only these two should come together in the holy and purposeful union of marriage.

Though love is a deeply important aspect of any relationship, the emotional and/or physical attraction two people share isn’t the grounds for us determining the goodness or acceptability of a relationship.

Unless our understanding of love is grounded in the person and work of God himself, whatever form of love we think will be left to guide us will turn out to be empty, hollow and –– ultimately –– counterfeit.

C.S. Lewis once wrote that love “begins to be a demon the moment he begins to be a god.

“God is love” means that God knows far more about love than we do, and that we must therefore listen to him if we are to love each other as we truly should and in the right way.” — Sam Allberry

3) We are designed for GOSPEL REFLECTIVITY.

That is God's purpose for marriage, lasting union, unwavering commitment, and unyielding faithfulness.

this is the same relationship God has established with those of us who have trusted in him for salvation.

it is God's model for the gospel.

Don’t let the words distract you.

What Paul is presenting here is a beautiful picture of sacrificial, selfless love, and is modeled after the most important relationship in all of creation, the relationship between Christ and His Church.

Husbands are to love like Jesus,