Blood is in the water, and the sharks are on the way. If you are Tiger Woods, the blood is yours, and it was only a matter of time…
Tiger was involved in a one car accident last week leaving his driveway at 2:30am. Police say that alcohol was not a factor, but discovered that his wife used a golf club to smash two windows on his luxury SUV. The Woods family is not talking, but ugly, blood-thirsty details are beginning to immerge in a feeding-frenzied fashion. Most seem to focus on Tiger’s fidelity… or lack thereof.
It would be ungodly for me to pile on Tiger with harmful gossip or slander, so I am left to only grieve over the all too predictable outcome. As I write, numerous women are coming out of the nooks and crannies of Tiger’s past, claiming lurid rendezvous with arguably the most recognizable athlete in the world.
I continue to grieve at our world’s deepening dive into soiling God’s beautiful gift of intimacy, set aside and ble
ssed for husbands and wives.
Grieving over men who treat women as if they are disposable objects, using them only for their own selfish desires, genuinely believing that the sexual conquest of a woman is a strength (see the “Alpha Male”), when in reality it is a powerful manifestation of man’s greatest weakness: The inability to be dedicated and sacrificial in his relationship with his wife (see Genesis 3:6, Ephesians 5:25).
Grieving over women who are genuinely confused in thinking that the only way to experience a man’s dedicated and sacrificial love is to offer him whatever he wants. Adam was the first guy to get it wrong. King David wasn’t much of a stalwart either.
The point is… this isn’t a new problem. From the foundation of the earth, men have been abandoning the strength of their God-given responsibilities in exchange for their frail vulnerabilities.
Today, however, men are masking these weaknesses as strengths, turning the truth into a lie (Rom 1:25), while the real victims in this BIG LIE are the women left behind. They are the ones staggering dazed and confused, deeply desiring the intimate connection as God desired in a sacrificial and dedicated, lifelong, monogamous commitment, but now- not only feeling the effects of loveless lovemaking- are actually buying into and accepting a man’s weakness as his strength.
It doesn’t work that way! Sex is God’s idea. “Being fruitful and multiplying” is God’s instruction. And the further we drift from His one-flesh design, the more twisted the end result. What is supposed to be a beautifully fulfilling, climactically rewarding oneness becomes a warped and distorted replica of God’s intended masterpiece.
Empty. Hollow. Meaningless.
Men of God… be faithful. Be strong.
Women of God… recognize the difference. Accept nothing less.
Comments
Yes, I second that sentiment . . . right on, Pastor A!
I also "continue to grieve" for those who "soil God's beautiful gift of intimacy, set aside and blessed for [ONLY] HUSBANDS AND WIVES."
I think it's still true that the Sixth Commandment . . . is not optional!
The Sixth Commandment is important not only because God Himself wrote it, but because people will have happy and fulfilled lives if they don't break it.
Sexual intercourse is a unique and forever-bonding act that God Himself has commanded us to reserve for only our marriage partner. That means being faithful to your spouse BEFORE you're married (that is, don't fornicate) as well as AFTER you're married (that is, don't commit adultery).
As St. Paul wrote in I Corinthians 6:18: "Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body." And in I Thessalonians 4:2-3, he writes: "Ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, that ye should abstain from fornication."
God's “one-flesh design” that you talk about, Pastor A, couldn't be clearer in the Bible itself. As most of us know very well, in Ephesians 5:31-32, St. Paul writes that, "for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery." And in I Corinthians 6:16, he writes that sexual intercourse--even with a prostitute--creates (squanders) this holy, mysterious, one-flesh spousal relationship.
As you say, Pastor A, "the further we drift from His one-flesh design, the more twisted the end result."
I’d love to hear some sermons, especially directed to people in their twenties, about God’s “one-flesh design” and about the consequences of breaking God’s commandment to be faithful to your spouse, both before and after the marriage ceremony. Because if those people in their twenties today choose to squander their "one flesh" union with anyone other than their spouse, someday, and for the rest of their lives, they will have to live with the burden and shame and regret and loss that will inevitably come to them because of it.
Of course there is forgiveness for sins, but with this particular sin, fornication/adultery, the painful and destructive effects never really “disappear” and are inflicted on the very person you should love the most in this whole world, who is your own beloved spouse.
In other words, the temporary physical pleasure you get from sexual immorality just isn’t worth it.
I couldn't say it any better than you did, Pastor A:
“Men of God . . . be faithful. Be strong. Women of God . . . recognize the difference. Accept nothing less.” It would help so many of us, I think, to hear this from the pulpit.
I copied the text of your "Farah Fawcett" sermon from this website and emailed it to my as-yet unmarried adult sons and daughter and also to some of their closest friends (even though they were in church when you delivered the sermon). I hope and pray that they listen to and then follow your wise, true, and Biblical advice. If they do, they'll totally avoid so many serious (and unnecessary) problems in their marriages later in life--problems that, unfortunately, can never really "go away," because it's impossible to change what in fact happened in the past.
As you said, "the further we drift from His one-flesh design, the more twisted the end result." I've seen this happen, and the "end result" is truly as heartbreaking as it is avoidable.
I guess the unvarnished Biblical message about pre-marital sexual intercourse is a simple one: "Do yourself a big favor and, please, just don't go there."