Ephesians 5:22-33

February 26, 2017

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

Download the bulletin.

Download the Kids’ Korner.

The sermon starts at 14:39 in the audio file.

Or, The Relationship of Liturgy to Marriage

At the beginning of every calendar year I preach on the subject of worship. We become like what we behold and in the life of a church her corporate meeting with God on the Lord’s Day inevitably shapes both the assembly and each member in it.

Since the day that the elders decided to focus on marriage for this year’s seminar I knew that I wanted to talk about the relationship between corporate liturgy and marriage. I preached on the subject of kids and worship at the beginning of January, and this morning, in keeping with the theme for the day, my message is about spouses and worship.

One quick qualifier: it often happens that when I identify a target group for a sermon, many who consider themselves to be outside that net wonder (even out loud to me) what this has to do with them. For this morning, if you’re a child, if you’re a single young adult, or if you are older and without a spouse, do you need to listen to or do anything with this? Well, no. Feel free to check out.

I’m being facetious in saying that, for sure. If you are older then you’re responsible to teach the younger. If you’re not yet married, regardless of how close you may be to wedding bells in your mind, you should know why the worship of the church is not optional for the sake of a happy and healthy relationship and family in the future. Some of the things I’m going to say in a bit I never heard from a pastor or parent or Bible college professor. Some of it may be obvious, some of it is likely to be a kick in the pants, and hopefully the man is wearing them.

Walking Down the Liturgy Aisle

Call to Worship

Only one relationship on earth overshadows that between a husband and wife, and that is the relationship between God and worshipper. Because human beings are made in a particular way we must worship someone or something just like a fountain must spurt; fountains spurt by definition and humans worship without fail. If the true God is not worshipped, then it is easy for the object of a man’s worship to become a woman (and visa versa), and this will frustrate, because lateral worship is always futile.

I’ve met with unbelieving couples who desired to be married, and I usually start by asking what attracted one to the other. The list of reasons usually overlaps with a list made by believers, and the list is typically tenable. But then I follow that by asking, What happens when the other person changes? People don’t stay the same in every way when time runs an ordinary course, let alone if there is an accident or other severe providences. I don’t know why people stay together without a fixed, actually glorious, external-to-the-couple standard.

When God made worshippers He made a husband and a wife before He made a priest or pastor or theologian. He made a garden rather than a church for them to meet in. Genesis 1 and 2 put spouses at the center of God’s creative work. In order for them to reflect Him accurately they both need to be able to see the original.

The call to worship steeps all of our horizontal responsibilities and relationships in context. Horizontal is never ultimate, whether it’s going great or going awful, whether it is a joy or a grief. Since God accepts no rivals it is a sin not to treat Him as the highest value. God does not call us to put off our earthy roles when we assemble but He does call us to assemble for the sake of maturing in our various roles.

Confession of Sin

Sin ruins fellowship, both vertical and horizontal. The gospel of salvation offers forgiveness and reconciliation to the humble and repentant. This begins in conversion but must be our conduct every time we sin.

I’ve mentioned this before, but our time of weekly, corporate c[...]