don’t you, as husbands and wives, tonight, stop pointing the finger, grab hands, open your heart, and run where mercy and grace can be found? There’s no marriage in this room that is populated by grace graduates because there are no grace graduates in the room including this man. And that means that every heart, in this room, is still in need of change; and every marriage, in this room, is still in need of change. And there’s a faithful, loving Redeemer who unfolds the mysteries of the universe to you like that are there in Luke 6, not to crush you, but to open up for you a doorway to a much newer and much better way. The question is, “Will you sit there and fight His truth? Will you excite your inner lawyer and rise to your defense? Will you think that you know yourself better than the Messiah? Do you think you're smarter than Him, or will you open your heart?” My prayer is that you’d open your heart and watch what He will do. Let’s Pray. Lord, we are blown away by the specificity and practicality and wisdom of your Word. It really does describe us; it really does scratch us where we itch. Yet even more than that, we are so thankful for the Savior, the Lamb, the Lord Jesus, who, in our marriage, is with us, and for us, and in us, and in Him there is hope. May we run to You and not from You. May we look back on this time together and say, “God has done a good thing in our marriages.” In Jesus’s name, Amen. SESSION 3 Well, here’s our next assignment. If the heart is the problem in a marriage, what’s the problem with the heart? What is it that goes on in the heart that makes these relationships of life difficult? Well again, here’s one of these passages that I just think is power-packed with relational diagnosis, relational wisdom, and actually, relational hope. Let me read, “For Christ’s love compels us because we are convinced that one died for all and therefore all died. And he died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.” Now, that went by very fast. Let me read (verse) 15 again, “And he died for all that those who live (Hear this!) should no longer live for themselves.” Here’s what sin does to all of us. Sin causes us to shrink our lives down to the size of our lives. Sin causes me to narrow my personal field of concern down to the claustrophobic confines of my wants, my needs, my feelings. Sin inserts me in the center of my little universe, the one place I must never be, because it’s the place for God and God alone. Sin really does make it all about me--my wants, my needs, my feelings! Now, hear this, because the power of sin has been broken, that’s justification; but the presence of sin still remains and is being progressively eradicated, that’s sanctification; what this verse is saying is applicable to ten out of ten people in this room. We all still have sin in us, and we all struggle with that inertia of sin, that motivation of sin--my wants, my needs, my feelings. I want chocolate at ready reach all the time. I’m quite serious. Just coat the world in it so that at any point, I can take a bite. I want to drive on roads paid for by other citizens who choose not to use them. I want a wife who says to me, “Of course, Paul, l agree with you. I’ve lived with the glory that is you.” I want children who say, “Yes father, I will forthwith go and obey because, you sir, are wise.” I want neighbors who move into the neighborhood just because I live there. I want, I want, I want, I want, I want, I want, I want, I want, I want, I want, I want, I want, I want, I want, I want, I want, I want, I want, I want, I want, I want, I want, I want, I want –are you uncomfortable yet?—I want, I want, I want! Welcome to your world! Now let’s think about the logic of what Paul is saying, the theology that’s imbedded in this passage, very practical theology. Here’s the first thing. Paul is actually arguing that the DNA of sin is selfishness; the DNA of sin is selfishness. Selfishness is what sin is about. You don’t sin for somebody else; you do it for you! It’s, I want what I want, when I want it, how I want it, where I want it, with whom I want it, and I don’t want rules put on me! Imagine the shocking selfishness of Adam and Eve who were in a perfect world; they had everything! It wasn’t enough. My wants, my needs, my feelings! Sin is fundamentally meistic-me!
Transcript: Session 3
WHAT DID YOU EXPECT?
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