Partnership
Partnership
Genesis 2:18-25
Theme: God is at work to give us people in partnership.
Need: We feel alone and in need of help.
Purpose: To encourage people to love and help one another.
Image: Marriage—A Garden Wedding
Introduction: A Garden Wedding
A. Think of a wedding
1. Many wedding take place in a church building or chapel
a. Many of you probably pictured this
b. The symbol here is that the marriage is before God
2. Did others of you picture a different setting?
a. A home—the symbol of family
b. Outdoors, usually in a beautiful setting
3. My wife and I were married 29 year ago next Sunday
a. We were married in a church
b. Some of the pictures I remember the most were outside
4. One year ago our oldest daughter was married
a. I played two roles, the officiating pastor and the father of the bride
b. Their reception was at a golf course clubhouse
c. The pictures I remember most are of them and I hitting golf ball in full wedding attire
B. Exploring the Garden
1. The last few weeks we have been exploring the garden of Eden
2. The first week we looked at the fruit of the Garden and God’s gifts and celebrated Jehovah Jireh, the Lord provides
3. Last week we looked at our purpose in the garden to develop its beauty
a. We are a gift to creation
b. We are here to serve the creation in God’s image
4. Today we come to the garden wedding—Genesis 2:18-25
I. Our Problem is Being Alone (2:18-20)
A. The Problem
1. Note that the creation was not complete at the beginning
a. Last week we saw that it needed humanity to help it develop
b. This week we see that we have a need
c. “It is not good for man to be alone.”
2. We know this, that it is not good to be alone
a. We know it when there are things to be done, and we wish we had someone to help
b. We know it when there is nothing to do, and there is no one around
c. Children have probably said this summer, “I’m bored. There is nothing to do and there is no one around.”
3. We know this especially when we are in need or in trouble
a. We cry out for help, but no one seems to hear
b. Too many people in the world feel this way
c. The trauma of the modern psyche is feeling alone in the universe
4. People feel alone because families are breaking, communities are falling apart, conflict and fear is dividing us
a. Sometimes we want to be alone to get away from the problems
b. This is only an escape, not a solution
B. Power
1. Things are breaking because people seek power over each other
a. They seek to get their way
b. They force others to do it their way
2. On the same golf course my daughter had her reception, one year later on their anniversary, they experienced the brokenness of power
a. They were a few minutes late for their tee time
b. They called ahead, and the clubhouse said it would be OK
c. When they got to the course, the starter was angry at them for being late and start cursing at them
d. Another golfer threaten to strike my son-in-law with a golf club
e. The place of joy and celebration had become a place of anger and danger
C. Our Pride
1. We are also alone because of our pride
a. Our pride makes us say we can make it on our own
b. It is hard to admit our need
2. American culture celebrates the individual
a. Heroes are the rugged pioneers, the lone rangers
b. The Mary Tyler Moore show celebrated “You’re going to make it on your own”
c. Catch phrases promote this approach
(1) Do your own thing
(2) Look out for number one
3. We try to fill our aloneness with the things of this world
a. Dogs become “man’s best friend”
b. Cats become the divorced woman’s companions
c. Or money and merchandise will save us
d. Yet when we hear God say, “It is not good for man to be alone,” we know it is true
4. Believers often say that only God can meet this need
a. This is in part true, but not the full truth
b. Not even a relationship with God can fill our need
(1) I am trouble by praise songs which say that God is everything we need
(2) Adam had God, and it was not enough
II. God’s Paradigm is Partnership (2:21-22)
A. God’s Gift
1. Faith in God gives more than a relationship with God
2. God gives us each other
a. Two weeks ago we looked at Jehovah Jireh, the Lord provides
(1) God provides us with a garden of blessing
(2) God provides us with forgiveness in Jesus to restore us to the garden
(3) God provides us with each other
b. Last week we looked at how we are a gift of God to the creation
(1) Each one of us is a gift of God to develop the world
(2) Each one of us is a gift to each other to help each other develop
3. God’s paradigm is partnership
a. There is partnership within the Trinity
b. God has chosen to work with us in partnership in the world
c. God gives us as partners to each other
4. This is God’s gift, God’s doing
a. Adam is passive
b. He is asleep
c. Then there is the wonderful image of God as the father of the bride bringing her to Adam as a gift
B. God’s Giving
1. God is still giving us over into each others care
2. God has not left us alone in this
a. We are given into Christ’s care as the bride
b. We are also given to each other, and we are given the Spirit of God to help each other
3. The fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, are all behavior which seek to develop partnership, to help each other
4. We should look at every one we meet as a gift of God to us
5. We should seek to be a gift of God to them
III. Our Partnership is Possible (2:23-25)
A. The Places of Partnership
1. Because we live in a broken world partnership is difficult, but the gift has not been destroyed, and it is needed all the more
a. In Christ through the Spirit human partnership is being renewed
b. Partnership is possible now, not perfect, but still possible
2. Marriage is to be a supreme expression of partnership
a. One of the purposes of marriage is to help each other
b. A Christian marriage is to be a witness of the Gospel, of renewal
c. Marriage is only one expression of partnership
3. Families should be places of partnership
4. God’s family, the church, should give expression to restoring relationships
5. God’s people, God’s partners, need to be in partnership in their communities, in the nation, in the world
6. There is an unnecessary contrast being set up between Senator Rick Santorum and Senator Hilliary Clinton
a. Senator Clinton wrote a book entitled, “It Takes a Village”
b. Senator Santorum’s book is “It Takes a Family”
c. Both are right
d. Family and community are needed places of partnership
B. Principles of Partnership
1. Our text gives us some wonderful principles of partnership
2. Partnership begins in celebration
a. The first recorded words of humanity are Adam’s celebration of Eve—verse 23
b. Celebration affirms the partners value
c. Celebrate each other
d. Thank God for each other and let the others hear it as well
3. The celebration is of community
a. In community we share, which is what the word means
b. We share as equals
c. There is no power of man over woman here
d. This mutuality is celebrated in the love poetry of Song of Songs
(1) There is a wonderful equal expressed in two parallel phrases
(2) Song 2:16
(3) Song 6:3
4. Partnership is based on commitment
a. This has too often been lost
b. The commitment makes two one in marriage
c. But all partnerships are a commitment to faithfulness
d. Dr. Suess put it simple in “Horten Hears a Who”—“I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. An elephant is faithful 100%.”
5. This ties to honest communication
a. Partnership requires openness, honesty, nakedness
b. This contrasts Genesis 3 where broken partnerships leads to hiding
c. True partners seek to be honest with each other
6. Yet because things are broken, partnership now also require compassion
a. Compassion lead us to forgive
b. Compassion leads us to love each when things are broken
Conclusion: A New Wedding Song
A. The popular song of the 60’s was right—“what the world needs now is love sweet love. That’s the only thing that there is just too little of.”
1. But our world turned love into sex
2. Love became an us/them
B. Here is a new wedding song—Revelation 19:6-9