Tuesday, July 24, 2007, Part 2
"You shall not commit adultery" (Exodus 20:14).
IDEA: Intimacy results from grace and forgiveness expressed in serving the other person.
PURPOSE: To help listeners see how intimacy in a marriage may be achieved.
Have you ever been in an airport or other public place far from home and been startled that someone knew who you were?
Have you ever been startled to discover that a friend sees through you and likes you anyway?
Have you ever had the experience of someone that you thought knew you very well that you discover really doesn’t know you at all?
I. Why do you think it is both an attractive experience and a frightening one to discover that someone knows you, really knows you?
Years ago I read a quote from Bill Russell, the great basketball player, that I’ve never really forgotten: “Our whole lives, it seems, we are only deciding how often and to whom we should expose ourselves. We learn to make a shell for ourselves when we are young, then spend the rest of our lives hoping that someone will reach inside and touch us–just touch us. Anything more than that would be too much to bear.” [from Sports Illustrated, June 8, 1970]
Intimacy is attractive because we have the desire to be known and accepted as we are.
Intimacy is frightening because another human being knows us as we really are.
II. How does intimacy grow out of serving one another?
In the covenant marriage, love leads to grace and forgiveness, that leads to service.
When we talk about service to another person in order to empower that person, what exactly are we talking about?
We are not talking about contract arrangements.
We’re talking about those actions that are done for the benefit of others to help them become all that they can be.
Sometimes when I picture standing before the Lord, I imagine him pointing to Bonnie and asking her, “Are you a better person because you married Haddon?” When I think about colleagues who know me well, I imagine the Lord asking them the same question.
It is when two people give themselves to the other person that intimacy is made possible.