Father God we thank you so much Lord for every every breath that is here Lord We know that you have given us life. You have given us every good thing Father We know every good and perfect gift is from you Lord in the perfect gift that you have given us is that every promise that you have made Find it's yes, and it's amen in Jesus Christ your son Father, we thank you for sending your son so that on our behalf Lord He would receive the penalty due to us on the cross God that in his body the wounds that he was stricken with we are healed by Father and by his resurrection we are guaranteed a sure salvation Father, we thank you for the inheritance that we have in him as children of you Lord We thank you God that this gospel now saves and continues to save us Lord, I pray for Vodi as he comes up to to bring the word to us that you would speak in and through him and through your word father I pray that it would teach your people it would equip your people as we know your word is able to do Father we praise you in all these things we ask that you Which is blessed this body today? We continue to bless these people as they go out to their homes and their families and their local bodies But again, we thank you that we are gathered here today in your name Father, we praise you and ask all these things through Christ our Savior and King amen
Well, good morning. I'm having one of those moments right now because I just I realized that came up here with my gum and my mouth
What to do? What to do?
Thank you. Thank you Thank you. Thank you No, we were So busy trying to figure out what to do out there that I wasn't really thinking about that But um, it's good to be here. It's good to be back You you guys have grown So that was since I was here last Um, if you have your Bibles with you open them to Ephesians 5 open them to Ephesians 5 And I want us to look at a Very familiar passenger scripture, but beyond that I want us to look at the this section of scripture That is broader than the familiar passage of scripture Because I believe it's important
There is no doubt That marriage is under attack in our day Um, and it has been under attack for a while and it's been under attack from you know from multiple different angles um You know a lot of people look for example at the whole uh, same-sex marriage debate and movement burger field decision Lawrence v. Texas right we look at this progression That sort of got us so to to where we are Really changing the definition of marriage um, you know when you talk about Going beyond um one man and one woman marriage You're changing the definition that is existed for for thousands of years So we can call that marriage equality if we want to But essentially what we're doing is changing the definition of marriage and There were warnings that came when we changed the definition for example in the over uh, birdafelt case Warnings that came from the Decenters in the Supreme Court that basically said this opens the door for polyamory um, and it does it opens the door for polyamory um If we can redefine marriage and say You know the the the the man woman Definitional requirement is gone then Then on what basis and by what standard Do we enforce the numerosity requirement which One of each right if it's not man woman then
Then there's no standard for how we define it if there's no standard for how we define it Then the number of people is wide open It's a case in New York that is now calling that into question um, there was a polyamorous triad Um, you know anyway long story short one of them died his name was on the lease Um at the apartment they tried to put the others out because they weren't legal partners to the one who died um, and the judge essentially argued that you know These relationships need to be recognized too And ironically pointed to the Decent And a birdafeld saying they Even these guys recognize Um with that that that this is you know, this is the case that this opens the door and that's that's where we are Um, that's not where we'll end by the way I'm because now Just like in 73 when when the the the DSM right and and in the social sciences and psychology and psychiatry, you know The DSM is kind of their their Bible, right? This is the manual of of of disorders that they look at and how they you know define everything well and in 73 and we had a decision to reclassify homosexuality and now They've been several softenings on the issue of pedophilia and now we don't talk about pedophiles anymore. We talk about minor attracted persons And one of the things that the alphabet mafia has wanted to do for a while um Yeah, you know the LGBTQ AI to s plus whatever they just keep adding so I just caught me off of that mafia right um But one of the things that that this whole movement has wanted to do for a long time is remove age of consent laws
Just marinate on that for a few seconds and so We obliterate the definition of marriage by having so-called same sex marriage We over the door to polyamory We're redefining pedophilia and pedophiles as minor attracted persons And there's a long standing movement To remove age of consent laws
And and we haven't even begun to address The whole transgender issue and how we're telling babies Like little kids That they are whatever they think they are
So again the idea that marriage is under effect that is a massive understatement And interestingly enough I think all of this stuff is addressed right here in Ephesians chapter 5 Now we're familiar with the Ephesians chapter 5 we usually start down there around verse 22 right And we look at you know wives submit to your own husbands and then we go 25 husbands love your wives Um and and and it's like yes, that's you know, this is this is that that marriage passage Um, but this is not really that marriage passage Um, this is the most full-orbed expression of the household codes that we find in the New Testament Um, the household codes, you know, we find them here. We find collotions in elsewhere And in the household codes you always have now the apostles addressing Husbands and wives like we do here And then they address parents and children like to do in six horn And then slaves and masters like they do beginning in six five And they're called the household codes because this is what's being addressed What's being addressed is the entire household and what's being said is this is how You practice your Christianity. This is how you exercise your Christianity within the context of the Christian household And Again, you talk about For example in the Asia Minor where Ephesians would have circulated you know in in Asia Minor households would have included Parents children slaves masters in fact in some parts of Asia Asia Minor there were more people that were slaves than weren't Um The different kind of slavery than you and I Think about when when we say slave But it would have been a kind of indentured server to none the less And it's interesting um because in much of the world Households still look more like this in the part of the world where we live Households still look more like this Where they're still for example a servant culture Um, they're parts of the world where you know if you move I remember we had a This family in our church And yeah, he was a pilot in Houston. He was by the continental and get recruited by Emirates and they moved to Dubai and so they they called and they said listen We don't know what to do. Well, why because you know this house like all houses here comes with servants quarters And everybody knows that you know, we don't have Um, the majoring thing so every day there's somebody knocking at the gate wanting to apply for that job And and we're just we're just uncomfortable with that right? I mean we're Americans We have this history of you know slavery and we're like no, we don't do that. We don't have service And they had some some Christian friends there who've been living there for a while Who just said to them That's an important job in this economy get over yourself and hire somebody Who will be living in that place And supporting their family And they did and then all of a sudden They start looking at passages of scripture like this And they're like wait a minute the Bible is instructing us on how to treat this person Wait a minute. So they started seeing people come to faith They started having Christian friends Convicted by the way that they treated the people who lived and worked in their home and it's like a whole part of the Bible I just opened up we had the same experience moving to Zambia whole part of the Bible that just opened up
why do I say that because The Bible doesn't look at marriage As this isolated relationship between a man and a woman the Bible looks at marriage has more of an institution that has far greater impact than that of the man And the woman And so in that context let's look here at this passage of scripture But I want us to back up some Usually we look at beginning 522 and we're saying you know wives submit your own husbands and it's interesting because In the English Bible we have to add that verb to submit that who Patasso has to be added there because in the original it's wives to husbands and so We add that verb though because you see verse 21 right So many to one another out of reverence for Christ and in verse 22 wives to your own husbands as to the Lord Now what's interesting about that is that there are a lot of people who Basically want to make this argument They want to make an argument for for mutual submission That the Bible calls husbands and wives to submit mutually to one another Um, and the reason that we make that argument is because of another area Where marriages under attack And that is marriages under attack from The radical feminists The radical feminists have always hated marriage Amen They've always hated marriage since their statement on feminism in 1971 Um, they've argued for women not to live with men in marriage There was a huge debate within the feminist movement in the 1970s Um, about the inclusion of the lesbian movement within the feminist movement Some of the leaders of the feminist movement Uh, we're basically saying listen that that's That's going to hinder our movement and the leaders of the lesbian movement were saying no lesbianism Is where feminism ends up if it's honest Now eventually there was a merger of these these movements um You hear about it but you hear about it in terms of the patriarchy Not just patriarchy the patriarchy right we hear this this terminology um patriarchy has been redefined Uh, patriarchy is now defined as an oppressive institution and institution that oppresses women An institution that elevates men for the purpose of oppressing women Um, which is hugely problematic because the Bible is very clear On the idea of patriarchy The the the Bible sees the patriarchy as very important people amen A ram is it Jacob the choice of right so i mean he's he's the patriarchy in the Old Testament in the New Testament We have this reference to the patriarchs um, so essentially the new definition of patriarchy um Automatically dismisses and disqualifies the Bible as a whole Because if patriarchy is this evil oppressive system Designed to oppress and dominate and abuse women And if the Bible openly supports the concept of patriarchy Like i mean That's not calculus or trigonometry Right That right there is simple arithmetic Okay, you got one and then you got another one and you put that one and that one together and you get two
And so what people are trying to do is they've tried to serve as gods, you know PR firm And and make the argument that no no no no no no that patriarchy stuff That that's actually not that's actually not what the Bible teaches And so they go back to Genesis chapter three and they say you see here in Genesis chapter three Your desire will be for your husband, but he will rule over you That's a product of the fall within the New Testament that curses reversed because of Christ And so now because that curses reversed because of Christ We don't have that kind of hierarchy within marriage anymore And the proof of that is right here in Ephesians 521 where it says submit to one another
And people just kind of go Oh well Okay, not so fast There's several problems with that number one The problem with that is that you have male headship before the fall
Amen The woman is made for the man It's not good for the man to be alone I will make him a helper suitable for him The woman is made for the man male headship the woman is made from the man male headship The woman is brought to the man male headship The woman is named by the man twice male headship
Before the fall Here's the second problem with that line of argumentation And arguing that there in Genesis chapter three right You know you you know your desire will be for your husband or be contrary to your husband He will rule over you they're saying that that's when this whole male headship was instituted and that you know now In Christ that curse has been reversed. We no longer have male headship Um a y'all remember what comes before that
That's not the only part of the curse for Eve The first part is you will have pain in child bearing Now if Jesus reverses the curse Then I should be able to go to the maternity ward and know the difference between the Christian mothers giving birth And the non Christian mothers giving birth Because the ones who've had the curse reversed ought to be looking at the other ones going what are you screaming about
So in other words that dog won't hunt right But what about this verse 21? Well Glad you asked The problem with yeah because this is what we want to do. They want to say. Okay. Here we go. You know verse 22 um You know wives to husbands taken the verb from verse 21 So verse 21 is where you have to go to start the problem is that verse 21 is the end of a paragraph
right I mean verse 21 is the end of a paragraph It's not even a full statement. It's just you know, it's just it's just a clause there Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ So that that connects to something even before it So if we're going to look at this we have to go back to the beginning of the paragraph if you go back to the beginning of the paragraph As an amazing thing that happens If we go back to the beginning of the paragraph First we have three contrasts On the third contrast You get three commands And on the third command you get three contexts So it sort of opens up like a telescope here. Let's look at it first one Look carefully then how you walk Not as unwise but as wise making the best use of the time because the days are evil. So there's one contrast Not as unwise but as wise Right so far so good For 17 Therefore do not be foolish but understand what the will of the Lord is there's a second contrast Now be foolish when I stand with the will of the Lord is first one not unwise but wise second one Not foolish when I'm standing with the Lord Verse 18 Do not get drunk with wine for that is debauchery but be filled with the spirit There's your third contrast Okay Now on the third contrast again just just like a telescope This is going to open up and we're going to get three commands Now the three commands are related to the third contrast Watch this verse 19 Because so we're talking about being filled with spirit. What does that look like? Number one addressing one another with Psalms hymns and spiritual songs singing making melody to the Lord with all your heart Right you imagine somebody saying I'm a spirit-filled believer and you say okay fine Spirit-filled believer wonderful glad to meet you. Let's go worship. No, no, no, no, no. No. I'm not I'm not doing that worship stuff Spirit-filled but I'm not doing that worship so Okay No, on verse 20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father and the name of the Lord Jesus Christ I'm a spirit-filled believer. Okay, this is this let's go pray and give thanks to God No, I'm not much on that praying and thanks giving stuff and in the third command Verse 21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ
I'm filled with the spirit Excellent submit to the authority that The spirit of God puts in your life. Nope I'm not much on submitting to authority Then you're not filled with the spirit Okay So there's the third command now remember on the third contrast You get three commands related to the third contrast Now on the third command we're going to get three contexts Related to the third command okay submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ Verse 22 wives to your own husbands Chapter 6 verse 1 Children of your parents Chapter 6 verse 5 slaves of your masters three contexts Where you live out the third command Right Well You smell the one seven in okay all right so That puts this whole thing in context but but don't miss this Because again, I believe It says something about the day in which we live Look back again at verse 15 before we get into You got the parts of this Look carefully then how you walk not as unwise but as wise Think about those things that we started off with right think about what's happening to marriage in our day
Think think about what's happening to the family in our day think about what's that think about what's going on Right We need to be wise and not unwise Making the best use of the time because the days are evil Amen somebody The days are evil these times in which we live and then don't be foolish but understand what the will of the Lord is There is a need for this today There's a lot of foolishness in the body of Christ There are a lot of people Going along with foolishness A lot of people who are identifying themselves with Christ and yet going right along with this foolishness
It's interesting. I've been Y'all know Jay and Jay who you always comes with me Jayla's in Georgia and I've been I've been busted his chops Being from Georgia Because lately we're seeing some of the Greatest Folly Coming out of that state The Senate race The Reverend Raphael Warnock
The gubernatorial race Stacey Abrams Both of them Identifying themselves as Christians both of them All up in churches up and down Georgia and both of them Rapidly promoting the destruction of human life in the womb And justifying it based on their version of Christianity
pure foolishness Stacey Abrams had the audacity to say a couple of weeks ago That that heartbeat you hear on an ultrasound that's manufactured to deceive women
She's trying to be the governor of the state of Georgia
Again, this is where we are and we're seeing a great deal of this
Since the overturn of Roe v. Wade there are a lot of
Christians Who've come out of the woodworks and and either they're saying things like oh, let's not celebrate too much Because you don't want to hurt you by his feelings Wait a minute Wait a minute Over 3,000 babies a day have been slaughtered In state sanctioned murder For 50 years And you mean to tell me that I can't have a praise break right now
What is that? I mean, what is that? Put this in a different context Okay Let's let's take this back to you know 1865 And let's talk about the 13th amendment Right not the emancipation proclamation Okay, y'all do your history do better Okay, the emancipation proclamation didn't free a single slave That's why we had to have the 13th amendment because the emancipation proclamation wasn't binding law And the emancipation proclamation was only directed and slaves in states That were in rebellion against the union There were also union states that had slaves So mr. Lincoln freed slaves in states where he didn't have the authority to do so and didn't freedom in states where he did That was extra but the 13th amendment that's why we needed the 13th amendment. Amen So let's go back to the 13th amendment now the 13th amendment has passed And and and and Christian people who wanted the end of slavery decided that they're gonna celebrate and imagine somebody saying the wait a minute now You know Don't celebrate too much Because there's some people who don't see this decision the same way that you are you crazy
But then there are others Who are looking at this decision and they're not just saying don't celebrate too much. They're saying This is wrong because we're interfering with women's reproductive right
pastors from the pulpit saying this Don't be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is
Don't get drunk with wine but be filled with the spirit
It boy if we ever needed that right We need that in this day and age and then coming right off of this right We get those three commands and then we get these three context and and we go to the household Why is this significant listen to this this is significant Because There is no place Where you will live out your Christianity More consistently and more honestly than in your household
You can be all kind of holy at church on Sunday Hey, man But you ain't fooling nobody at home Right some of y'all you know are like these these people that I've heard about I don't know any of them and I've never been One of them but these people that I heard about that a drive to church Have an argument on the way to church Say things that Christians are not saying to people that they're married to on the way to church all the way up to the parking lot Put the car in park and then get out and hey how you do it?
Not saying that I know anybody who's ever had that experience before But I heard that it happens, right But you can you can do that we've all seen it Most times when marriages fall apart in the church Most times People in church aren't going oh, yeah, we've seen that one coming for years. Most times people say wait what
Then you get the story right As pastors this happens with us as pastors people come in and their marriages fall in the park people are falling for divorce And we're going wait what's going on and then they begin to tell you what's been happening for five 10 15 years That they haven't said a mumbling word about But acting like everything was all right until the wheels fall off and there's no more Marriage to fix that that's why we get this first paragraph And then we go to the place where it matters most We go to the home we go to your household That's where your Christianity is tested. That's where your Christianity is manifest
That's where you are who you really are That's where you can't stake it if you're married you're spouse No If you got kids Who are older than a few years old? They know And you hate it You hate the fact that they know Didn't they get to be teenagers? They don't just know they'll call you on it
Can't say man you know say out really you don't want me to use those words, but you use them
You and I say not that I do right Really you want me to respect mom You don't really mom you want me to submit to your authority that in the Bible call you to submit to dad
y'all You know I'll tell me if you don't have any neighbors like this But most of us have neighbors who are at least at some point Something like this right and so that's that's why we have This paragraph here all about the you know the way that we live our lives the way that we the way that we even You know think and operate as Christians and then right after that we go into the household codes The husband wife relationship the parent child relationship And then if you want the employer employee relationship Which would be the closest thing to what we have here At least in this cultural context Okay, I'm gonna tell you it's really interesting to preach on this within the context of a culture where everybody everybody has Help at home most of them have Help that lives on site You know made gardener, but did that kind of you know It's amazing the application of this in that cultural context But it works it works even in the employer employee context, okay And so in light of that what do we do what does it look like when we live this out verse 22 Why submit your own husbands asked to the Lord For the husband is ahead of the wife even as Christ is ahead of church his body And it's himself it's savior now as the church submits to Christ so also wives submit She should submit and everything to their husbands. I want you to notice something here. I want you to notice that The Bible is not calling all women to submit to all men Hey, man This is this is not about women and men per se But the Bible is calling wives to submit to their husbands If I put another little aside here I was also not calling Young women to submit to their boyfriends Especially since the boyfriend girl from relationship is not something remotely acknowledged in the scriptures I just extra
And I know the next question because the next question that I always get is well then you know How do we see how are we going to know if if a young woman is going to be a Submissive wife if she's not supposed to submit to me as a boyfriend Does she submit to her father? Well, I mean her father is that yes, stop right there. I don't need to know anything about Who her father is or how her father is I'm going to take that as a note So what you're saying is She's found justification for not being submissive to her father because of his imperfections Her father who gave her life Her father who gives her food and shelter Her her her her father right she doesn't submit to him But you think she's going to leave his house and submit to you because you cute
Yeah, that's a no Where father's not in her home or she submit to her mother And in other words, does she submit to the authority that God has placed in her life if she does it You've got your answer So the other thing is Again wives submitting to their own husbands. This is not about value. This is about order Wives submit to your husbands as the Lord for the husband is the head of the wife even at Christ is the head of the church is body Is it not about value? This is about order is not saying that you know husbands are more valuable than wives This is saying that there is an order within the home Headship and authority anything with two heads is a monster men Either kill it or put it behind glass and make people pay to come see it, but is
One one one head and again back to Genesis before the fall there's male headship And by the way if I haven't convinced you of that yet You just go look at Romans chapter 5 Beginning around verse 12 because of one man sin in the end of the world Right not because of one couple because of one man now Yeah, let's review the story She ain't first I don't write the mail. I just deliver it right She ain't first and yet the Bible says because of one man sin in the world why male headship accountability and responsibility that follows headship okay The other thing I want you to see is this why submit your own husbands as to the Lord
This is about order and not value This is not about women and men This is about wives and husbands And this is about the Lord Show me a woman who has a problem so many to her husband. I'll show you a woman who has a worship disorder
Because this is about Christ. This is about Christ
Yes, but if I do that then Hmm Yes, but if he was the kind of man who
I wish I wish there was like I don't know maybe even some kind of verse in the Bible It's talked about what a woman should do if her husband wasn't perfectly godly Maybe maybe even if he wasn't was even obeying the word Maybe if there was a verse that would say something like he could be one without a word by the submission of wait a minute
I think there is I think it's in first Peter chapter three
Wives aren't called to submit to their husbands if and when their husbands have become worthy of submission Especially since your husband will never be worthy of submission And since your submission to your husband is not based on his worthiness but based on Christ's worthiness
Okay So this much on wives is much on husbands Why submit your husbands as to the Lord husbands love your wives As Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her That he might sanct for having plinstered by the washing of water with the word So that he might present the church to himself and splendor without spot or wrinkle or any sex thing That he might that she might be holy and without blimished in the same way Husband should love their wives as their own bodies He loves his wife loves himself for no one ever hated his own flesh But nourishes and cherishes it just as Christ does the church Because we are members of his body Therefore I mentioned leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one fledge again all that All that And for the sake of time I'm going to simplify this And here's how you here's how you simplify it number one. I want you to see Verse 25 as Christ loved the church Right first 21 in the same way the same way what as what Christ does in those verses before Verse 29 just as Christ does the church Just as Christ does the church We may are submitting to their husbands as to the Lord Husbands are loving their wives as Christ does the church This is about Christ and his bride the church There's this living breathing picture and example to the world Of the love that Christ has for his bride the church And if I can summarize all that we have here I'd summarize it this way That husbands ought to love their wives with a sanctifying kind of love And what I mean by that is Loving your wife in this way would result in this reality That she would be more like Christ as a result of being married to you that she would have been had she not
Young women that'll change who you consider worthy of Saying I do too right Now now let's put this into the context of it again. It's always young women Never in all my years of past room ministry have I had a young man come to me who's about to marry an unbelieving woman Not a committed young Christian man who's about to marry an un-Christian woman. I've just never had it But I cannot count the times that there have been committed godly young Christian women Who are about to marry a non-Christian man? I can't even I can't even count them I can't even count and there's a couple of things that I go to on this number one There's a clear unambiguous command and scripture do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers So number one you're violating clear command and scripture number two If this is true here in Ephesians 5 And at your husbands love for you is to have that kind of sanctifying influence impact in your life What does it say that you're willing to marry a man who's not even a belief
Which is why at some point in that discussion we're going to talk about whether or not you've ever really been converted
Is that serious? Okay Next paragraph we're supposed to have a lot more time today uh Apparently People Children to be your parents in the Lord again, right? wives smitten your husbands as to the Lord husbands of your wives as Christ loved the church Children to be your parents in the Lord In the Lord but this is right what this is about this is about Christ Children to be your parents in the Lord for this is right then on your father and your mother This is the first amendment with a promise Okay, it's the fifth amendment first amendment with the promise only one with the promise That it may go well with you and you may live long in the land Fathers did not provoke your children to anger but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord Notice that they're both sides of the equation right In the husband-wife relationship Right here are instructions for you as a Christian wife here are in reciprocal instructions for you as a Christian husband Here here are instructions for you as Christian children Um or children in a Christian home and here are reciprocal instructions for you As Christian parents raising children in a Christian home and note that this is About the Lord and note that this is also about the gospel right Oh, but your parents in the Lord for this is right and then he goes to the command Why does he go to the command the reason he goes to the command is because Again children are going to come into our home And when they come into our home when children are born into our home And I say yet I know you think that That's a little angel that you that you gave that you gave birth to bless your heart
It's not Not That yeah as a biper in a diaper right? Yeah, no
And so They just what they desperately need is the gospel more than anything else They desperately need the gospel, but they don't know that they don't understand that right So what God points them to is the law He points them to the law Notice that in the section before we're not pointing to the law we're pointing to the gospel Because we're assuming that we're dealing with Christian women Christian men who are marrying one another so we're pointing to the gospel Okay This is the fruit of that gospel relationship with our children The assumption is that they're going to come into this world and into our family And they're not Christians and so we're going to start with the law Why well because number one the law exposes sin And in exposing sin the law points us to our need for Christ
God right So that's where that starts and that's why he goes back to the commandments And then Father's now provoked you true in the anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord right Children Children obey your parents you don't get it But you don't get it. That's okay that you don't get it But the law says do it do it because the law says do it by the way you won't be able to do it But that's okay because the law says do it because it's righteous And it's yeah, and there's there's a promise there so do it because the law says do it But in doing it because the law says do it eventually you're going to recognize that the law is insufficient to make you righteous And that you you're going to recognize as you need something else And that's okay because Your parents are going to be instructed to raise you in the something else
You see how that works? Slaves about your earthly masters with fear and trembling Will this sincere heart as you would Christ? Not by the way of I service again notice as you would Christ Not by the way of I service as people pleases But as slaves of Christ Doing a little God from the heart rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man Knowing that whatever good anyone does This he will receive back from the Lord Whether he is a slave or is free Again if this is true in that context how much more true is it in the context you as an employee
amen And then masters do the same to them Stop your threatening Knowing that he who was both their master and yours is in heaven And that there is no partiality with him That's just good. He says here by the way. This is not about value It's about order which is exactly where we start with husbands and wives He says this even within the context of a culture that has slaves and masters people who are in indentured servitude He says to these Christians that there's no partiality with God you're not worth more to God
So to the owner of the company You're not worth more to God than the people who work for you To the employees in the company you're not worth more to God you're not worth less to God Okay Now here I want to point this out as our our time has has fled But isn't it interesting you know where do we start? We start with this whole idea of us needing to be aware and to be wise Because the days are evil You know, we fill with the spirit and then this living out of our Christianity within this most critical context Do you know what comes right after this
instruction on spiritual warfare?
Wow Because that's where we are right If if the Christian household Is this beautiful manifestation of the gospel at work And people's lives right if marriage is this picture This illustration of the love relationship between Christ and his private church If the fruit of marriage is children Who are brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord with a view toward him coming to faith If the marriage produces a home That is a home of production and not consumption About by the way that's another thing here Right the Christian home is mean it's meant to be a place of production not just consumption Right That's a whole nother sermon for a whole nother day Right But now a Christian homes that we're just we're just consumers We don't even think about Anyway, um But if this is the case and if that's the way that we're operating and if all of it is connected to Christ and his glory in the world
Then then the response to that is going to be Attack from the enemy Spiritual warfare if God says there's an illustration Of the love relationship between the sun and his bride Then the enemy says Thank you for identifying my target
If God says There's a fruitful place Where children are going to come into the world and hear the gospel and become adopted sons and daughters of God Again the adversary says Thank you for identifying my target welcome to the revolution
Let's pray Father Thank you so much Pretty goodness in your kindness and your mercy toward us Thank you for The glorious truth and grace of the gospel thank you for the person and work of Christ Thank you for his work