Ephesians 5:25-28 Part 1

chapter 5 and verse number 25, "Men, it's our

turn and just like I delivered from the

word of God the biblical gold standard for

Christian wives in the last two

sermons, today I will deliver the first of two

biblical gold standard sermons

from the word of God for all Christian

husbands." Men, you didn't think you were

just going to get one if they got two, right?

And right out of the gate, let me

say that I often and regularly miss the mark

of the gold standard that I am

fixing to deliver to you. You need

verification of that. There's a beautiful

lady sitting here on the front row that can

second that motion. Just exactly like

the Christian life, we live between peaks and

valleys. Peaks and valleys, right?

Difficulties, failures, victories. But the

main thing is this, that we are

continually striving to be obedient to God's

biblical gold standard that you're

fixing to hear for today. And it never fails.

When I am at a peak and I'm doing

well at this, that is when life is the best.

And then having that self-awareness

and yet still descending into the valleys

should make us all realize the

fierceness of this struggle that we have as

Christians with the world, the flesh,

and the devil every single day. It's like, how

do you go there? But that's our

plight in sanctification. Now, the world's

understanding of marriage and a

Christian biblical understanding of marriage

are for sure, as we've been

learning, two very different things. Most

people from the world's perspective

believe that a great marriage is really

guaranteed by just being in love, right?

The bliss of romance as defined by the world.

But just how do we define bliss?

There was a survey once done among children

about love. Children looking

at the adult world were asked a series of

questions and their answers were both

enlightening and entertaining. They were asked

, how do people in love typically

behave? Wendy, age eight, said, well, when a

person gets kissed for the first time,

they fall down and they don't get up for at

least an hour. Then they were asked

another question, why does love happen between

certain people? Andrew, age six,

said, well, one of the people has freckles so

he finds somebody else who has

freckles too. May, age nine, said, no one is

really sure why it happens but I heard

it has something to do with how you smell and

that's why perfume and deodorant

are so popular. Manual, age eight, said, I

think you're supposed to get shot with

an arrow or something but the rest of it isn't

to be too painful. Then they were

asked, what falling in love is like? John, age

nine, said, it's like an avalanche,

you ought to run for your life. Glenn, age

seven, said, if falling in love is

anything like learning how to spell, I don't

want to do it, it takes too long. Then

they were asked, how important are your looks

when it comes to falling in love?

Anita, age eight, said, if you want to be

loved by somebody who isn't already in

your family it doesn't hurt to be beautiful.

Brian, age seven, said, it isn't

always just how you look. I mean, look at me,

I'm handsome like anything and I

haven't gotten anybody to marry me yet.

Christine, said, while beauty is skin

deep but how rich you are can last a long time

. Then there were some

confidential general opinions about love.

David, age eight, said, love will find you

even if you're trying to hide from it. I've

been trying to hide from it since I

was five but the girls keep finding me. Regina

, age ten, said, I'm not rushing

into love. I'm finding fourth grade hard

enough. Then they were asked to make

suggestions about surefire ways to really fall

in love. Camille, said, shake your

hips and hope for the best. Bart, age nine,

said, take her out to eat and make sure

it's something she likes to eat. French fries

always really works for me. Now,

those are great, right? But really, if you

really stop and think about it, how

much better would adults do with those same

questions? Figuring out how to make

romance last permanently, that's quite a

challenge. And in spite of the difficulty

of doing that and making marriage work, in

spite of all the divorces that we have

in our country, we still have over 80% of men

and women in our nation saying I do.

But then, sooner or later, as I said before,

over 40% of them wind up saying I

don't. Why is this? Well, I think a trip to

Second Timothy can at least, in part,

give us what the issues are. Look at Second

Timothy with me, chapter 3 verse 1.

But realize this, that in the last days,

difficult times will come. And you need

it important to understand the last days here

in context refers to the reality

that the last days started when Jesus came and

was crucified, died, and was

buried and went back to heaven. So in that

sense, we're in the last days right

now. That's distinct from the last of the last

days, okay? Make sure you understand

that. But keep reading, verse 2, "For men will

be lovers of self, lovers of money,

boastful, arrogant." And you could stop right

there and understand that lovers of

self and money, boastful and arrogant, are

going to have a pretty hard time with

any kind of sustained relationship, right? Not

only that, keep reading.

Revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful,

unholy. Verse 3, "Unloving,

irreconcilable." And by the way, unloving in

the Greek here means they lack

normal family love. And that's a problem if

you're gonna stay married. Keep going.

Malicious gossips without self-control. Brutal

. Haters of good. Verse 4, treacherous,

reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure,

rather than lovers of God. Now, I've never

lived in any other time period, but this

particular time period, but this sure

hits the bullseye in our day, don't you think?

And again, they lack the normal

family love, and they are completely self-abs

orbed in their own self and their

own self-fulfillment. So, I want you to just

for a minute put together all what

we've studied so far in the last few sermons,

actually the last four sermons

about the subject of marriage. Is there any

hope for marriage when it's

assaulted by these kind of last day's

mentality that we find here in 2nd

Timothy 3, when it's absolutely insulted,

assaulted on the outside by this

godless immoral culture that we're living in,

and when it's assaulted naturally

on the inside, remember as we study from

Genesis by the battle of the sexes

that started after the fall in the garden,

where women naturally seek to

control and dominate men, and men naturally

seek to suppress and

dominate women. That's natural in all of us as

we study from Genesis. Can

marriage be rescued in any of this? Is there

any hope here? Well, it's my

position that there is, and it exists in Ephes

ians chapter 5, starting in verse

22. God's plan for the family is clearly laid

out. The husbands, then next come the

children, then next come the parents. It's all

there. The question is, this, are you

going to do things God's way, according to God

's word, or are you going to do

things your way? That's what it comes down to.

The baseline requirement, if you

remember, is found in verses 18 to 21 of

chapter 5, being filled with the spirit.

Remember, that's a command. That's not

something that you pray for. For starters,

the only hope for marriage to be what God

wants it to be, that is the primary

prerequisite. You must be saved and filled

with the spirit, and then Paul goes

on to the specifics, and he starts with the

wives, which we took two messages to

cover in verse 22 through 24. Let's remind

ourselves of those by reading them.

Wives be subject, remember, submit to your own

husbands as to the Lord. For the

husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is

also the head of the church, he

himself being the savior of the body. But as

the church is subject to Christ, so

also wives ought to be to their husbands in

everything. Now, we covered all that

ground if you missed either of those two

messages and the prior two foundational

messages before that for a total of four. I

commend you to go back and listen to

those or watch them on our Facebook page,

because we got to move on now to the

husbands. Starting in verse 25, let's read

together verses 25 through 28, our

text for today. "Husbands, love your wives,

just as Christ also loved the church, and

gave himself up for her, so that he might

sanctify her, having cleansed her by the

washing of water with the word, that he might

present to himself the church in

all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or

any such thing, but that she would be

holy and blameless, so husbands ought also to

love their own wives as their own

bodies, he who loves his own wife loves

himself." Now, let's start with this very

clear principle at the outset. Go back to

verse 25, "Husbands love your wives." That's

not the only place it's found. Look at Coloss

ians 319. "Husbands love your wives,

and do not be embittered against them." So, we

can see here that love is the

key ingredient. According to God's way, for

men in particular, as the head of the

household, it's the headship of love. It's the

leadership of love, and when love is

not the context of the marriage relationship,

at some point war is what

results. But for us, Christian men, the how we

are to love our wives is what we

most need to focus on this morning. Look again

at verse 25, "Husbands love your

wives, how? Just as Christ also loved the

church and gave himself up for her." Now,

that's pretty clear, isn't it? And just in

that wording, you don't have to have a

PhD to understand that this love that Paul is

speaking about is a sacrificial

love. You are to love her men, just as Christ

also loves the church and gave

himself up what? Sacrificially for the church.

This is the highest standard. This

is the manner of love that Christian men are

to have for their wives. The same kind

of love, think of it, that Christ extended to

the church. Men, this is not a

suggestion for you. This is a command for you.

At the end of Acts chapter 20, verse

28, describes this love that Jesus had for,

look at it, at the end of Acts 20

28, "The church of God, which he purchased

with his own blood." That's the

intensity. Romans 5a, "But God demonstrates

his own love toward us in

that while we were yet sinners, Christ died

for us." That's the intensity of this

love. That's the way men, we are to love our

own wives. The early church father,

John Chrysostom said this, "Hear the measure

of love. If it be needful that thou

shouldest give it thy life for her, or to be

cut to pieces a thousand times, or

endure anything whatever, refuse it not.

Christ brought his church to his feet

by his great care, not by threats or any such

thing. So do thou conduct thyself

toward thy wife." Totally sacrificial. Now,

remember our historical survey at the

time that Paul wrote this letter. In the Roman

and Greek world at this time,

remember he's writing to this church at Eph

esus and it's a secular letter that

goes around to the different churches in that

area. This idea here of how we are

to love our wives, let me tell you, it was

completely unheard of. Listen to

Cato, a Roman writer from that time, he said

this, "If you are to catch your

wife in an act of infidelity, kill her without

a trial. But if she catches you,

she would not venture to touch you with her

finger. She has no right." As we

learned, men in this day had total and

complete control over women at every

level in those days, every legal level even.

They really had zero rights. So for

the men in the church, originally reading this

letter, "This love your wives," as

Christ loved the church sacrificially, it was

shocking to them. In our day, when

many men basically say, "As long as you

fulfill what I want, you can be my

wife." But when you cease to do that, "I'm

going to go get somebody else," it's the

same thing. This kind of husband love your

wife sacrificially. It's just as

shocking for men in our day to hear this. It's

counter-cultural in every way. Now,

as I did with the ladies, I want to give you a

comparative text to illustrate

this kind of self-sacrificing love. Biblical

illustrations are always the

best. Look over at 1 Peter 3:7. "A few

husbands in the same way. Live with your

wives in an understanding way, as with someone

weaker since she is a woman and

show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace

of life so that your prayers will

not be hindered." Now, man, out of this text,

I want to give you three C's to

remember. Number one, consideration. Live with

your wives in an understanding way.

Men, husbands, can we all agree we need work

here? Huh? I mean, come on. This is the

opposite of the self-serving world's idea of

macho mentality. That's not true

manhood at all, by the way. This is trying to

understand your wife, her

sensitivities. I'm not saying this is easy.

Why is this not easy for us? Because

we are so wired differently, men and women,

right? This is really dealing with

meeting her needs no matter how you might

evaluate the importance of those

needs from your own estimation. You feel what

I'm saying? Understanding her

feelings, her fears, her anxieties, her

concerns, her dreams, her goals. Living

with your wife in an understanding way. And I

have no problem standing here

admitting to you that when it comes to dealing

with feelings, I have a very low

batting average, okay? I mean, I'm geared to

practical reasoning, action, solving

problems and let's move on. Not sharing my

feelings about whatever the deal is. So

I have to work really hard at this. And I have

a feeling some of you do too. But

one thing that I think I have learned in

getting close to 30 years of marriage,

and you can check with Chrissy after this to

see if she gives the thumbs up or

thumbs down to this. One thing I have learned

is sometimes it all just boils

down men to listening, listening. My wife will

tell you I have a saying in our

household since my kids were little, to say

less is best. In order to understand

our love, in order to love sacrificially, you

have to understand what the

needs are. And men, you may have to listen for

a while to actually grasp what's

going on with your wife. I mean, I'm often

slow at grasping exactly what's

going on, right? I'm learning to be patient in

my listening. But my main

point is this, guys, you have to be working at

this intentionally. This

is not something that's just going to happen,

osmosis. You have to be working

at this because, again, most men are just not

automatically wired to behave like

this. But as I've told the ladies, through the

power of the Spirit and a

Christian man, this is possible. Now, let me

give you my second C, and this is a

very old word, chivalry. Look again at verse 7

, "Live with your wives in an

understanding way as with someone who is

weaker since she is a woman." Now, ladies,

before you get all riled up at that verse, and

some of you might be right now,

what? This does not mean weaker spiritually,

okay? This does not mean

weaker intellectually. This simply means what

you all know, and we know, to be

true, weaker physically. Among the many

reasons, this is why we don't ever need

the pure insanity of men, grown men,

participating in women's sports. You see

how that works out? The guy always wins, right

? It's funny how you almost never

see the reverse where, you know, the woman who

's mentally insane decides to go,

"I'm gonna go run track against the men." I

haven't seen that yet. I mean, I'm not

ever gonna say to Kristie, "Hey, look, after

you go out there and change that

flat tire on my Dodge 2500, then I'll take you

to the store." You're gone out

there. I'm never gonna say that. There is a

reason for why in the 63-year history of

the Navy SEALs, the most elite Special Forces

unit in our military, there has

never been a woman who has ever successfully

completed Buds, which is the

basic underwater demolition SEAL training.

They've had women try. Why? Because

the standards are for men. Men are stronger

physically than women. This

shouldn't insult you, women. This is how God

has designed us. It's His design. If

you're mad about that, you're mad at Him. You

're not mad at me. God has clearly

designed women to be under the strength and

protection of a man. If me and

Kristie are in a Walmart parking lot and some

not-head comes, walks and up to us

to give us some business with them, I'm gonna

take her and put her in front of me

and say, "Go hand on that dude." She's getting

behind me and I'm dealing with it,

right? So we're to be our wives strength on

the physical side. That's what this

verse means. And then our third C is communion

. Look next in verse 7. "And show

her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of

life." And again, though we are

unequal physically, we are equal spiritually.

Remember, I tell you that

saying all the time, the ground is level at

the foot of the cross. So treat your

wife as your spiritual equal because she is.

Honor her as a fellow equal heir of

the grace of life. So Peter just gives us some

pretty straightforward things to

work on, man, if we are to be the husbands

that God wants us to be. We will

follow the words instructions. We are to love

our wives. Again, that is a command.

Well, I don't love her anymore, brother Philip

. Well, that's a sin. If you come

back here and sit down with me and having

trouble and you tell me that, that's

what I'm going to tell you back. That is a sin

. Well, you don't know how she

treated me. Well, that's not the issue. How

she's acting is not the issue. Do you

see anything here in that text? Huffins love

your wives unless she's acting out

of her mind. Does it say that? It doesn't.

Jesus loves sinners when they hated him,

right? We are following his lead. Now, let's

get back to Ephesians 5/25.

Man, when we, when we really dig down into

husbands love your wives just as

Christ also loved the church and gave himself

up, we have to understand

something of the depth of this command. And I

think that starts by understanding

that the spirit-filled husband has to have

this mindset. We love our wife not

for what she can do for us, but instead what

we can do for her. This is, think of

it. This is how the love of Christ works in

the lives of all believers. Think about

it. Jesus doesn't love us because there is

something about us or in us that

attracts him to love us, right? In fact, it's

quite the opposite action. While we

were yet rebellious sinners, Christ died for

us, the ultimate expression of love.

The love of Christ for his people, it doesn't

seek to tyrannize us. It actually

seeks to meet our needs, to understand us, and

to provide strength for us. It has

nothing to do whatsoever with our deserving

his love, does it? Because none of

us deserve Christ's love, none of us do. And

we certainly didn't do anything to

earn the love of Christ, do you think? And if

you are a believer, you better

understand that it wasn't because we were more

desirable than other people that

Christ set his love upon us from those who don

't believe. Jesus loves his church

even before they are his church. You

understand that? And even after they are

his church, in this process of sanctification

that we're all going

through, while we are going through the peaks

and the valleys of the battling

our flesh, guess what? He still loves us

because once you and I are recipients of

the love of Christ, you have to understand

that is a love that never dies. It

never lessens in its intensity. It is a love

from Christ that is utterly and

completely self-sacrificing on his part. And

men for sure, the Bible is clear.

This is the kind of love that the Spirit of

God gives us the capacity to have for

our wives. Not imperfection, of course not. We

don't get that till heaven, but in

direction. Romans 5/5 says this, "For all

Christians and hope does not disappoint,

because the love of God has been poured out

within our hearts through the Holy

Spirit who was given to us." What was the

first in the list of the fruits of the

Spirit? Anybody know? Love. That's the first

fruit of the Spirit. Look at

1 Peter chapter 1, 22 to 23, "Since you have

an obedience to the truth, purify

your souls for a sincere love of the brethren

fervently love one another from

the heart, for you have been born again, not

of seed which is perishable, but

imperishable, that is through the living and

enduring Word of God." This is the

kind of love that belongs only to people who

have been born again. And if this is

the kind of love that we are to have for all

other believers, how much more men

are we to love our wives fervently from the

heart, as Peter is saying here. The

world tries to hang on to worldly romantic

love, Hollywood love, if you

will, as long as possible. But eventually, as

I said before, those butterflies fly

away. Them fireworks, they quit popping, right

? If you don't have a new nature, I'm

telling you it's nigh impossible to sustain

that love. But if you've been

born again, you have the capacity for a

sincere, fervent love for your wife,

because you are a new creation in Christ Jesus

. God so loved us that He gave us

His Son, right? Christ so loved us that He

gave His life for us and we are to love

our wives in the same way, self-sacrificing ag

ape love. Think of the

love chapter that's often read at weddings in

1 Corinthians 13. I don't

have the time to break it down, but just

listen, just listen to the main points

of biblical love. It's a love that acts. It's

a verb. It's patient. It's kind. It's

not jealous. It does not brag. It is not

arrogant. It does not seek its own. It is

not provoked and does not take into account a

wrong suffered. How you doing

with that one, man? Also, it does not rejoice

in unrighteousness, but rejoices

in the truth. What else does it do? It bears

all things. It believes all things.

It hopes all things, endures all things. This

is the kind of love that never

fails. That's the biblical character of love,

men, and that is how we are to love

our lives. This kind of love is not dependent

on the object of love. It is

dependent on the one who loves the object. In

other words, men, I'm telling you it's

on you, is what I'm saying. It's on you. Her

behavior is not the issue. Look in

this text. Do you see anything about her

behavior in this text? And as with

the women, let me make this little side note.

There are all kinds of

situations and circumstances that we could go

through here where maybe

she doesn't choose to receive your love. Maybe

she rolls out. Maybe she commits

adultery. I don't have time to go through all

the different scenarios that are

possible in this situation where we would

apply different biblical verses to

this. I'm just giving you the gold standard

here. I'm just exegeting these

scriptures right here. Those things are a

whole nother issue for a whole nother

time. I'm talking about in every place where

she is at least there in your home

to receive your love. This is how you are to

love your wife. It's what this Bible

is saying. For example, when Paul says love

does not seek its own, that means it

never wants revenge. It never wants retali

ation. Men, and if you ever had to

get revenge, an argument, mhm, retaliate in

that argument, you want to be right,

even if you're not. Aside from selfishness,

selfishness is always right at the top

number one problem in all marriages that have

problems. A sub-point connected to

that problem of selfishness is another issue

that also destroys marriages. And

let me tell you what that is. It is unforg

iveness. Even a Christian married

couple. What you have there is two centers

saved by grace, but centers still

bumping into one another on a regular basis in

the closest way possible, right?

And biblical love doesn't keep a record of

wrongs. Anybody in here ever kept that

record? Again, it never wants revenge. It

never wants retaliation when it's wrong.

If you have two people who are regularly, they

have a healthy pattern of forgiving

one another. When they screw up, then there's

no records of wrongs kept. If

you're regularly forgiving one another, there

's no retaliation to be carried out.

And for both parties, even though I'm

specifically zeroing in here with the

men, let me tell you what this comes down to.

In order men for us to carry these

things out, to not want revenge, to not want

to retaliate, let me tell you what

it all really comes down to. It comes down to

us having debt to sell. That's

it. Dying to yourself is the real issue here.

And learning to do that on a

regular, continual basis, esteeming her better

than yourself. Setting aside your

desires for her. Putting her first in what she

wants. This saves you. This

saves you from being defensive and revengeful

and retaliatory and hostile.

And then accumulating all these things said

and done against you and you just,

they just boil up and one day they just boil

out all over the place and you have

a knock down drag out. You can save yourself

from all of that if you die to

yourself. And she's more important than you.

This is a principle that really is

for all of life, but really especially married

life. When you're forgotten,

when you're neglected, when you're purposely

set aside, whenever you're

insulted, or whenever this sin against you,

whatever it is in that situation,

when you know how to die to self, you remain

joyful. Because you have union

with Christ. That is dying to self. It's not

easy. Now say it was easy. Not easy,

but possible Christian man in the power of the

Spirit. When she misunderstands you.

When what you want is not interesting to her.

When your opinions are ridiculed and

you refuse to let anger rise up in your heart

and you don't retaliate. Men, that

is dying to self. When you lovingly, patiently

bear with any disruption, any

annoyance, and you practice at enduring things

like this as Jesus did, that is

dying to self. And the big picture which

filters down to marriage. Listen, when you

can be content with any food, any clothes, any

climate, any society that God has

ordained for you to live in, and you're

content, that's dying to self. When you

never cared to make yourself constantly the

subject of conversation, or the good

that you may do, especially when you're not

recognized for it, that is dying to

self. In the big picture, when you see

somebody else prosper and reach the goals

that you want to, and you can honestly rejoice

with that person, and you don't

feel any envy and not question God. When your

name might be greater despite the

circumstances, let me tell you, when you can

honestly be like that, is dying to

self. If you can reach men, that level of

spiritual maturity you will make for a

godly spouse in many other areas of life. D

ying to self. And here is a real tough

one, guys. When she is right, and you know it,

and you receive her correction humbly,

inwardly and outwardly, without resentment,

without fighting back. It's a tough one,

right? But when you can do that, is dying to

self. When self dies, that, man, is what

makes you the leader that God wants you to be

in your home. Which, of course, is

our responsibility to be the spiritual leaders

of our household, to love our

wives as Christ, love the church sacrificially

, daily dying to self. Not

easy. Okay? I had to deal with this all week.

You're just having to deal with it

for 45 minutes. You understand? Never done

perfectly. But listen to me.

Possible in the power of the Holy Spirit. Now,

spend a lot of time on this first

point. How we love our wives, sacrificially.

So we're just going to

quickly touch on the second part in point in

verse 26. And I'll add some more to

this next time. Second, after loving our wives

sacrificially, secondly, our love

is to be a purifying love. We are to love our

wives as Christ loved the church.

Look next in verses 26 to 27. Here's the

illustration. So that he might

sanctify her, talking about the church, having

cleansed her by the washing of

water by the word that he might present to

himself, the church, and all her

glory, having no spotter wrinkle or any such

thing, but that she would be holy

and blameless. Now first, this is further

demonstrating the love that Christ has

for the church, right? And then here, our

responsibility and the biblical standard,

I hate to tell you, it's ramped up even

further here in these verses than in

verse 25. We are to have the same kind of pur

ifying love for our wives that

Christ Jesus has for his church. Christ seeks

the purity of the church. That is

why all believers, all of us in here who

believe savingly, we are all going

through the same process of sanctification. We

are all going through

the same process, Romans 8, of being conformed

to the image of Christ in

our life. We have Christ's righteousness imp

uted to us, put on our account when

we believe we are justified by grace alone,

through faith alone, in Christ

alone, done deal, all sins are forgiven, but

he is also taking us through a daily

process of growing impractical righteousness

throughout our lives, not

perfection, but direction of our lives. And

when we see this extraordinary picture

in the Bible of Christ taking his church to be

his bride, giving his life for the

church, and then seeking the purity of the

church, that is the same way Paul is

saying we are to be towards our wives. That's

a tall order, man. When we say it is our

responsibility to be the spiritual leaders of

our household, part of what this

means is that, man, we are to lead our wives

in the same quest that we have in

our own lives, and that is spiritual growth

and spiritual maturity in our

sanctification. Notice again verse 26, so that

he might sanctify her, having

cleansed her by the washing of water with the

what? With the word, as believers, all

of us. All of us had that one time cleansing

when we repented, believe the

gospel, that comes from the word of God. But

then, again, as we enter into the

Christian life, day by day, we collect dust on

our feet, if you will, and we

need a daily, continual washing. This is all

of life. There's a one-time

repentance unto salvation. There's a daily

repentance that we need to do as we

battle the world flesh and the devil. And that

doesn't happen apart. Look at verse

26 again, from the washing of water, from the

word and sanctification, just like

in justification. So, men, it's as simple as

you expose yourself to the word of

God, lead your wife in this process, just as

Jesus does with all of us. We are to

seek for her what Christ is seeking. We, what

we are seeking for ourselves, to

grow into grace and to spiritual maturity. And

look at the outcome. Look at the

outcome, finally being this in verse 27, that

he might present to himself the

church in all her glory, having no spot or wr

inkle or any such thing, but that she

would be holy and blameless. That's the goal

for the church. That doesn't happen

in this life, but that's going to happen one

day when we're all in glory. Men,

what I'm telling you is what is best for your

wife is the same thing as what is

best for you. As 1st Thessalonians chapter 4

verse 3 starts out, people want to know,

what's the will of God for my life? What's the

will of God for my life? It's right here.

For this is the will of God, your sanct

ification, your spiritual growth.

Now, there's really a whole lot I left out of

more practical stuff that could be

said about this, but man, you're gonna have to

come back next time to get the full dose.

And Christian men, I'm with you. It may not

feel good right now to get this kind of

hammering conviction for 45 minutes or however

long I preach. But let me tell you

something. This is exactly what we all need

starting with me. We need this. So,

gird up your loins like a man and be a man and

come back next time so you can

take your licks like a man so that you can

learn how to be the husband that God wants

you to be. Let's pray. Father, we thank you

Lord. Very convicting,

just as it was with the wife, so it is with

the husbands. There's two ways really to go

about

marriage and family. There's your way and

there's the world's way.

And it's very clear for Christians that you

have laid out your way very clearly

in the pages of Scripture. Father, I pray you

'd help every husband in here or husband to one

day be.

I pray you'd help us all. Convict us. Forgive

us where we failed and help us, Lord, to learn

from

this so that we can be the kind of husbands

you have designed and it is your will for us

to

be so that you will receive all the glory from

it. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.