All right.
Hey guys, welcome across all of our locations this weekend. I got to start in a place that I don't really want to and that is it goes against everything in me to start talking about Christmas before Thanksgiving. Okay, it really does. But we live in a fallen world. Okay, so I have to do it and and we're going to do it here.
No, but in all seriousness, guys, normally you probably have realized this. Normally by now we've already been like pumping out our, you know, Christmas. Hey, we're doing this and this is the dates and all that and we've not done that. Yeah, we've got to stay a little bit flexible this year, but we are landing on the dates. Here are the dates for our Christmas services.
They're going to be each one of these days. They'll all be the same service, but they are coming up the 19th through the 22nd starting next week. You're going to have the opportunity to register to sign up to serve and to RSVP.
Okay, and as you guys know, man, we prepare the jars as a church with how many people step into serving on those weekends and we can almost show you a direct correlation between how many people serve and how many new people come. And so as that opens up, I pray that you guys are all going to jump in at all of our campuses. Now, the big question is we know when Christmas is coming. We don't know where it's happening. Okay, and so we just got to stay flexible.
Alright, if I had to call it right now, I think we're going to be doing Christmas services at our campuses and not moving over the Ridge. I don't know that though. Okay, there is still a little bit of time left on that clock and we're going to see what happens. God's done crazy things. He may do something crazy here. We don't see coming and so you guys continue. I'm going to be praying for that. Y'all pray for that, but that's fine.
However, it works out. We are going to stay flexible. We're going to be nimble. We're going to be fast. We're going to be everything that Mike Tyson wasn't okay in that fight.
Alright, so. It is a devotional time for all of us to go through together and I mean think about this thousands of people every day for the Advent season reading the same thing, praying the same things. God is going to bless this. We're asking I'm asking for 100% participation from anybody who calls Mercy Hill home or you've been around in this. We've even got a little checkbox thing where you can say hey man that I do my days and it's just kind of a fun way to to keep up with it, but we just wanted to get this in your hands so that you would have this thought. I mean we're going to have it. Hey text it to you every day.
We'll email it to you every day. We'll do however you want to do it. We're going to do it. You're going to see that all coming next week, but I just want to give you the why behind this. Y'all you got to think about this okay.
We only get to go to heaven because Jesus came to Earth. And we cannot let the busyness of the season. You know kind of steal from us what it's all about and so we want to really try to try to drill down on that and make sure hey if you want to go ahead and text in and just say like hey man. I want those texts. I want to go ahead and do it right now.
You can text joy to 87217 now. There's other ways to do it. You can get emails or whatever, but we're going to do 25 days in a row if you wake up in the morning and boom there it is. Okay, so that's an easy way to do it.
If you guys want to jump in and do that. Alright, we are going to be in Ephesians 5 this weekend and I want to make sure that you guys hear me really clearly here. Okay, we're going to preach the most straightforward family message that I can preach. This is one of those weeks where you sort of, you know, you let the lion out of the cage and you just let the word do the work because it's very straightforward.
God has a plan for the family unit for husbands for wives for children and that plan is certainly under attack. Now. This is very important for us right now because as I mentioned we're in this series making multiply. What's this series about the series is very simple. If we finish deeper well, which I pray that we will we finish strong. We've been here for two years.
We're going to finish this. Well, I think it's going to set us up to do ministry really well. In five areas. Okay, those areas are salvation stories missions college students chosen and what we're talking about today is Ministry among families and what could be more needed the ministry among families today. I know what our different campuses you're going to understand this and and we certainly know it right here at Regional but y'all we live in Babylon. We live in Babylon right now and and you know, I mean me standing here this weekend and saying guys you are called to lead your family your wife and your children that has now become radical. It's a radical thing to say and the downstream effects of the breakdown of the design of the family are all around us fatherlessness abortion divorce broken relationships between parents and adult children and this is what happens when we don't understand. His plans for us if we would trust in them and the pattern of the family really shows off the beauty of the gospel.
And so that's what we want to try to get into this weekend right? Here's the big idea the gospel creates new families. The gospel creates new families and I know I started with like the breakdown that we see all in our society because that matters and we are called to be salt and light the guys. It matters first in the house. It matters in here first.
It matters on our campuses first. Because the reality is when I start talking about man how how we need to further conform our families to God's design. I'm not first and foremost talking about something out there that's happening at a school board or happening whatever I'm talking about in our homes because there are marriages in our church that are on the rocks. There are kids that are disobedient and disrespectful.
And wait for everybody else to go to bed. They're apathetic. There are spouses that will withhold things from one another. They will hold sex over somebody's head or they'll they'll hold finances over somebody's head that goes on in a church this large and what we need to try to do together today is realize probably something that I'm going to talk about today. I know this is true for me something that we're going to talk about today things that we're going to talk about today.
It's not out there somewhere it hit home first. It hits home first and we've got to be willing to say hey what God what do you want for me? We're going to see the teaching. We're going to hopefully feel the reproof and then we got to decide are we going to do the correction. All right, and so that's what we're going to get into today. God has given us a design and a plan and it's in Ephesians 5 and Ephesians 6 look at Ephesians 5 wives submit to your own husbands as to the Lord for the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church his body and is himself its Savior now as the church submits to Christ.
This is so good. It's a plan here. So also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
Now this is not all we're going to get into husbands and we're going to get into children but one thing I've got to say right off the bat is don't you understand that we live under the gaze of a good God who has decided to give us instruction on things like how human relationships and human families work. And so much destruction comes simply from not reading the instructions. We did this thing maybe you've done this thing where we decided to get a treadmill. Okay. I spent more time putting it together than I literally have spent on it.
Okay, that's not a joke. All right, and and why did it take me so long to put it together? Who needs the instructions? I can look at the box right.
I can figure this out all this wiring and all this stuff takes me hours to put it together. Why frustration and brokenness come when we just don't want to look at the instructions and God has given us the instructions and he starts here with wives, but really he starts here with the Gospel. Look what it says as the church submits to Christ verse 24. So wives should submit in everything to their husbands wives submit to your own husbands as to the Lord and what is he getting at if you wrap all this together? There is a pattern in Ephesians 5 that we have got to get close to home and the pattern is this marriage reflects the Gospel.
That's the idea and so here's the deal. We start with submission, but that submission is very similar. What does it say to the submission that the church gives to Christ now? Why are we joyfully and willingly now? I know not everybody's a believer, but if you are not dutifully, but joyfully, why are we excited to submit our lives when we don't submit our lives?
We wish we were we want there to be that's one of the things we look forward to heaven so much because we're going to be fully sanctified in heaven and fully glorified. Why do we get so excited about that because we want to follow him. We want to submit our lives to him. Why this is the question why because Jesus won us over. He did something in our life that won us over man. I mean he was a way toward us that makes us and I mean everybody. I'm not talking to women right now.
I'm talking to every all of us. Okay, he makes us want to joyfully follow him and the idea in marriage is that there is something that is putting on display for the world. What God has done for us when a husband is pursuing and sacrificing and laying down his life in a way where the woman that God has brought him in marriage his wife wants to as we want to follow Christ wants to say hey it is a joy for me to follow you because of the way that you pour yourself out for me and it's this loop. It's this kind of gospel loop that we see it's a reenactment. I don't know if you guys have ever been to a reenactment. Okay reenactment is a cool subculture man.
Okay. I don't know if you guys ever been to like a like a the guy I tried horse when I was young and he was a Civil War reenactor. I know we got some guys that do reenactments for like, you know, the Guilford the battle that happens right here in Greensboro, but what are they doing when they reenact?
They're basically saying hey this happened and we're putting it on display. That's a little bit like a marriage a marriage is putting on display what God has done in our life through the gospel. Okay. So now let's talk about submission for just a minute. I want to make sure you understand wives are called to submit to their husbands. But submission doesn't mean inferiority and submission is unto the Lord. All right, so submission is unto the Lord that means anything that following a husband in that would lead you to sin or brokenness is kind of out.
Okay. It's like this is unto the Lord. You remember the passage where the disciples have to say we got want to go so far, but we have to obey God rather than man. Well, that's the same thing with submission whether it's whether it's a you know, if somebody's leading you into something that's abusive or somebody is leading you into something that's that's sinful. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about submission as unto the Lord and submission does not mean inferiority.
It is a role issue. And here's how I know this. Here's how we know because children are not inferior because students and teachers are not inferior to a principal because and this is kind of crazy, you know, we have a lot of cops and police officers that they go to our church. It's like if we were in a small group, I would be seen as an authority as an authority. If I was out in you know, I'll out in the on the mean streets. Okay, and and I get and I got pulled over. It's like well now you're the authority.
We all my point is we all understand authority and submission one time we were driving to go. We were driving to go. I was going to preach in in Roanoke, Virginia to one of our church plants and Rachel and Josiah who are now sent ones for us. They were driving me up there. We were hanging out talking about missions and stuff like that. We were going to go up there with us and so they were driving. Well, I now refer to Josiah Josiah the lead foot. Okay because we're going about 100 miles an hour through the mountains of Virginia and this cop pulls us over and the cop the cops like you know license registration all that and then he's like hey just just so I'm what are you guys going to do?
I mean it's kind of an odd pairing. You know it's like 8 o'clock on a Sunday morning and we're driving up and I'm like well, man. I know you probably get weird stories, but this is I'm I'm a pastor for church. They're going to be missionaries and I'm going to preach and oh here's my sermon. He was like it was so funny. The guy was like, oh man. How can I give a ticket to a preacher on the way to the servant? You know, he's like what's God going to do to me? You know, he's like give me a second.
He walks away. Of course Rachel the all pious one is saying we have to correct his theology. And I'm like not right now. We don't have to do that. Okay. We can correct that down the road. All right, we're going to get this warning, but my point is okay.
My point is right in a situation like that. Yeah, I'm the pastor. This guy seemed like maybe he was a believer or Christian.
I mean he had some reverence for us being a but but what is the deal? I'm the pastor, but I'm in his hands, right? He's the authority.
Here's the idea. We all have different roles in our life where we are ones that are under submission ones that are under authority ones that are the authority. We all have roles like that.
I just submitted our one year ministry plan for next year to our directional elder team. You know why because I'm under their authority. I'm under the Collective groups authority.
I'm one of them but there's five of us and so it's like man. That's that's that's the idea. We understand how there is a submissiveness and an authority in every one of our lives. Okay, here's the deal women when we choose this is not submitting to men.
Okay. This is not women submit to men. This is a choice that a wife makes on the front end in Christian theology to say, okay, the picture of the gospel is you pursue sacrifice for me. And I follow you like the church follows Christ because of what he has done for them and I am choosing to come under your authority. I'm I'm I'm choosing to take on that role as I choose marriage. I'm choosing to follow my husband. I'm choosing to follow him in matters of spiritual health direction of the family and and at times if there's not consensus in our home and and we have to we somebody's got to make the call somebody's got to lead in this situation and that's what we're talking about here. Now.
What's interesting here guys? Is that Paul devotes three times the amount of time to talking about how husbands should lay down their lives for their wife than he does for wives submitting to husbands and I think that matters right because why because we're trying to win them you understand guys and ladies you got to understand this too. If you're married the only authority that your husband has in your life according to this Christian doctrine is what you give him. This is not about rights.
This is about duties. It's not about rights. I mean if me and Anna if she decides I'm not going to follow you in this what am I going to do? I mean there's horrible examples of the way this looks in culture. I think people think that in Christian theology submissive is some slob of a dude sitting on the you know couch telling his wife to go get him another beer and calling her woman and all this stuff and it's like man.
That is a demonic depiction of what this is supposed to look like. All I have is the authority that she gives me. I mean newsflash all the all the authority I have as a pastor and our pastors have in your life is the authority that you give us. I mean I don't know how many times I've had counseling where somebody's just like no I'm not doing this. Well, that's where the conversation ends.
What am I supposed to do right? It's the authority given so it makes sense then that there's about nine about nine verses or so three times the amount of verses about winning them over guys and how how marriage is supposed to work. Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her that he might sanctify the washing of water with the word so that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot a wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish in the same way husband should love their wives as their own bodies. He who 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 a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. It is profound and I'm saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you.
This is the summation y'all this if you if you've if you've zoned out zone back in you need this in verse 33. Okay. Let each one of you love his wife as himself and let the wife see that she respects her husband. God's plan for marriage is equality before him, but there are distinct roles that we play. I mean your kids are equal to God.
You are husband wife. You are on the whole family unit. Nobody matters more nobody. It's there are different roles that we play and the different roles are here. I gotta tell you this one of the reasons that Mercy Hill is so staunch on and in a loving way, but we will always hold the line on God's definition of marriage is because when people let go of that and they begin to embrace gay marriage. There is a confusion of roles and that is profound. When people begin to choose what role that no no, we are embodied people our spirit our flesh. You can't just start separating stuff out the role comes as a husband or the role comes as a wife and it is bound up in the way that God has made you and you can't just start slicing and dicing and choosing who is going to do what and that's something when churches turn loose of that in their theology don't realize how much they are giving away. Verse 33 tells us this it kind of gets all the way to the bottom of the matter.
Okay, let each one of you is talking to guys basically you say like this man love your wives as you love yourself sacrifice for her love her like Christ loves the church and wives respect your husband. I gotta tell you this today. I've been in this game now. I've been at lead pastor now for 12 years. I was in pastoral ministry for five or eight years before that.
I've got a lot of buddies that do this. Okay, this is kind of my life and I'm going to tell you something the number one crisis that churches all across America are facing is divorce and marital problems. And I don't know how close number two would be. It's all around us and here's what you gotta know while there is a lot that you bring in and I understand counseling and trauma and therapies and all that I get okay. I get all that right. There's a lot we bring in I fully understand it, but at the end of the day it really ain't that complicated. At the end of the day what we see right here is that when there are significant marital problems. I can go I can tell you exactly what it is one or both people have decided they're not going to play the role that God is assigned to them. It's really that simple and I know there's people that don't like that they don't like it, but it's true divorce domestic violence general apathy yelling screaming in the home.
I get it man. There's family history and there's all this kind of stuff, but here's what it comes down to is there a commitment in the marriage to play your part. And if there is no commitment, what is it love her respect him love her respect him and if we're not going to do that then we will have significant problems and I get it man. People are like man it's more complicated than that and we want to get into trauma informed this and therapy and counseling and all that kind of stuff, but I'm going to tell you something. You know we are we're living in a fun in a crazy time. I mean what has happened in the last 30 years therapy culture has exploded it has exploded but you know what else has exploded listen to me the need for it.
If it was working you wouldn't have more need you would have less. Okay, so I'm trying to get you to see what we want to make it all complex and I'm not saying there's not a different intricacies and stuff, but generally speaking when it comes down to major marital problems. What you have is somebody that says that it's the doom loop man.
I told you this before it's the doom loop. I will love her when she begins to respect me. And she says when you begin to love me, I will respect you and down the spiral we go that always and will forever and in either ice cold isolation in a marriage that you just don't have the energy to finally split from or an absolute divorce. There's only one way out and somebody has got to break that cycle and somebody has got to say I will go first now husbands. Listen up and let's talk about this for just a minute. All right, and I know not everybody's married. I get that man.
We got a lot of college students in this church, but I think for some of y'all you bought into the height of culture some of our college students of like, you know, you got your parents telling you need to be 37 years old and have two Masters and have bought into the law firm before you get married and that ain't healthy. You know, I don't you know, you don't need it. I mean, I don't I mean, I mean ladies.
He probably needs to have some type of job. Okay, I would I would imagine all right, but you know, but I'm just I'm just saying this stuff. I mean, maybe closer than you think is my point. Okay. I was married at 21.
I still had a year of college to go. I mean I was you know, we were we were we I told you the story. I mean I called my dad and I said, hey, what do you think about me asking Anna to marry me? He said, what do you think she'll say?
I'm like man. I I think she's say yes. He's like you think she would say yes. I'm like, yeah, he's like well, you better go for it. You know so I mean I told you that but I just think about that. I think about it. I don't know what's coming out of marriage.
I don't know but but here's the store this up if you need to but but here's the deal headship is about duties. It's not about rights. That's not what it is. What does it say? Verse 25 husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. What way does Jesus love the church? He loves in a sacrificial way.
He loves in a lay his life down kind of way husbands went over a wife in a similar way. Jesus wins over the church. It becomes so evident in our life that Jesus would sacrifice himself because of his great love for us that we then want to follow. We don't always follow perfectly the church doesn't right.
I know I don't but we want to I mean we're like when I see what he has done for me when I see what he's when I see the blessings when I see how he wants to set my life up for fullness and abundance and he wants to set me up to grow and he wants to disciple me. And that's the that's the idea for marriage. You know guys we should want their we should want their preferences. This is what's funny. I think the culture thinks about this like well man always gets his way actually when this is done.
Well, it's sort of the opposite. It's like I don't want to be passive and say hey, we'll go wherever you want, but I kind of like I really want to go wherever you want. I'm fine. I can go to Subway or Chop House doesn't matter to me at all. Okay.
I can find some type of protein wherever we go, but I want to make sure hey is she you know guys. Are you setting your wife up where she can have space to connect with Godly women where she can exercise where she doesn't feel overwhelmed now. None of us do this perfectly, but I do think this is what the Bible is setting up. Is she called to submit and follow our church? Absolutely. Yes.
What no full stop. Yes. Are we called to win her over? And we do that by setting her up verse 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish blemish.
You gotta understand this. I am called to disciple Anna in a way that she is not called to disciple me. I'm responsible for her in a way that she is not responsible for me. I think that's the reason why when Christian men begin to understand what it looks like to lead at this, you don't have this like oh men are men are supposed to lead and women are supposed to submit.
You don't have this like clicking of the heels with like this is going to be awesome. What you have a little more is a little bit of a tremble and a reverence man. I got a big responsibility in front of me. I got two boys in my house and I'm raising. I got a big responsibility to transfer to them about what it means to take a woman into your home and to lead her and to have her wash her with the water of the word as this says where she has to understand guys. We don't do this perfectly.
I sure don't do this perfectly. We gotta understand she matters more than the career. She matters more than the house. She matters more than the toys.
I mean a lot of guys. Yeah, we love toys. We're little and then we get older. We get more money. We got the kids.
Where they understand how how countercultural is that? That's what we're called to do that. She is the one that we have taken in. She is the one that we image the gospel one flesh all of this and I and I've I've told you guys this before and you know Anna and I and I met and I was 19 years old when I met Anna. I call her the wife of my youth. Okay and and she was and and we were twenty-one. We got married and and by today's standards. I mean my dad got married on his 19th birthday. A lot of you guys got you know married a lot younger than that and I and I know in different parts of the country people still get a lot married a lot younger but in generally you get married at twenty-one.
It's kind of young now and. There's a lot of good that came with that. There's there was some bad that came with that. Here's the bad that came with that that I didn't have the maturity to understand see what I did was I just we I kind of just acted as if me and her just kind of joined up to be life partners. Fifty fifty we're going to carry. We're going to build a life together.
We're going to carry this load together and that put a lot of pressure on her in different ways that I don't think are meant for her. and guys what I would tell you right now. I would just say this to you very boldly today.
Look at your physical body or your shoulders literally bigger physically. That's a picture of what God wants you to carry spiritually. It's a picture of what God wants you to carry in terms of leadership in your home and and that's what we're called to do and and and here's the thing I know we gotta move, but I know I know what we're all thinking here. We're like man. We gotta do that. Alright, but here's what we gotta do.
We gotta understand man. The point is not to go back and see all of our failures. The point is not to feel kind of ice cold because we know how we failed in this stuff even this week or even today. The idea here is to go back to the pattern that we see in Christ.
That's why it keeps jumbling all this up. It's like Paul can't talk about marriage without talking about the gospel and he can't talk about the gospel in this passage without talking about marriage. He's showing you how closely they're linked and so I just want you to think about this for a minute I want you to think about the people who are not following. Y'all in the doom loop in marriage and somebody's gotta break that cycle and we see that clearly in the gospel. We weren't following we weren't submitting ourselves to him, but what he do and he came for us anyway and he came in and loved us in a way and sacrificed himself for us anyway, washing away all of our sin man washing away every time that we had a crossword every time we had a bad motivation every lie that we've ever told to a spouse things all the way and he's given us not only the pattern but the motivation and I mean I when he looks at you if you're married, he looks at you as a perfect husband and a perfect wife that is mind blowing to me because I know my failures, but this is how God looks at me because I'm found in Christ.
I want to live into that identity man. I want to I want to be called up and let that match my everyday life and even when I fail, I understand that he has already washed away all the penalty and the wrath that comes from my failure. He did this for us on the cross.
We can have the newness of life in his resurrection, but it's not just husbands and wives y'all children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right honor your father and mother. This is the first commandment with a promise that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land fathers do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and the instruction of the Lord y'all children have to be told to obey because it is not natural to them and that does not mean that every one of them is as bad as they could possibly be, but every one of them is a fallen Sinner. I mean if you need any proof of that just go to the chick-fil-a play place for like five minutes and you will see it. There are sweet kids. I understand that there are little mean kids too. Okay, but they all are sinners. They all have foolishness that is bound in the heart of a child. And what Paul actually says I mean you think about this Romans 1 2nd Timothy 3 Paul list things that are like you know sort of marks of decaying culture and you know what's in every single one of them disobedient kids. Disobedient to parents listen.
I'm gonna talk to kids for a minute whether you are 7 or you are 17 and you're in our campuses today. You need to understand what the Bible says here because this is very important for your life. What it says here is that this is the command that was attached to a promise.
That promise was it will go well for you in the land when the children of Israel crossed over into Canaan, and so I think it's very important for you to understand this today y'all. There is a general blessing in your life that comes with having a posture of obedience to your parents. Are you gonna obey every single time?
You're not. I mean I don't to the Lord right like no I mean we're not gonna get it right all the time. A posture of obedience. A posture that says man I don't I don't want to sit in rebellion towards my parents. I want to be in a posture of obedience to my parents and I would say this to our fathers in the room. Fathers what does the Bible say? Don't provoke your children anger.
Listen this is very important. Dads you will naturally provoke them to something. It's part of who you are. I mean it's ingrained in you and the way that it was ingrained in Adam to protect and serve and look out for and work and I mean it's just it's gonna be part of who you are to provoke to push them to want to see the best come out of them to want to see them rise up. My question is what are you provoking them towards? What are you pushing them to?
And I would call you to this today dads. Drive them to connection with relationships in the church. Drive them to a love for the Bible. Drive them to a love for their mom. And don't I mean our culture worships kids. The worst thing in the world is for little Johnny and the little Susie to hear us tell them we worship God when they actually know we really worship them. We do everything they want to do.
We go everywhere they want to go. Why can't we serve on the weekend? Well because little Johnny don't like being back there for two services. He'll be alright okay?
He'll be fine. You know it might do little Susie good to kind of realize she's not the center of the world. What are you gonna push them to? There is a bit and I think about high school students. You know this is very tough okay?
This is this is hard but I'm just shooting you straight today. I know that with our high schoolers what we want to say to we want to say to them hey go try out the student ministry and then we'll see if you like it. You know how much different it is to frame it to say hey we're going to students so it's gonna be really good when we start liking it.
You see the difference in those two things? Hey we're gonna do this as a family. Now look if there's six months from now it's not working we'll figure out a plan. But there are two that's two different ways of thinking about the way we're provoking our kids. Provoke children to love and good deeds by setting the trajectory of how they relate to the church. Daz provoke them to that. Children take on a posture of obedience.
Alright here's the application for this weekend and the conclusion. Pattern your family after the gospel. Families are in crisis. We see it all around us. No fault divorce. The absolute grotesque celebration of abortion. Welfare policies that discourage marriage. Generational poverty. Addiction crime and fatherlessness.
Follow all of this breakdown. You know it's not just out there somewhere. You know that less than half the kids in our country right now are being raised in a home where it's their biological mom and their biological dad and those two people are married.
I say that. The church has an opportunity to be a light. Maybe like hey man the light shines brightest in the darkness. We have an opportunity to be a light to the world in terms of the way that we raise our kids. The way that we relate to each other in marriage. This should be a place that holds the line that continues to preach God's good plans for the family. And that we go out and we model those things.
But also think about it like this man. We want to see marriage is healed. We believe God wants to restore marriages. We believe he wants us to find joy and expressing the way he's made us and our manhood and in our womanhood.
We believe that children flourish when they are raised with discipline and the admonition of the Lord where they're being shaped and formed. Man this is where we've got to kind of hold the line and I'll close with this. Here's the whole point. Why did I bring this up right now? Guys as we finish deeper we're going to continue to have more and more influence. As we hold the line in these areas and we preach God's good intentions for the family.
All right. Now that's the that's kind of the deeper push. Man I pray that we'll give generously to that. But I can't end the sermon there today because it's so personal. We need to end by thinking about God where are you putting the Holy Spirit. Where's the Spirit's finger going on my heart today. One of the things in our life that we need to confess change. You know. Let me close your heads for just a minute. I mean what are the areas of your life in your marriage and your kids that we're not seeing a patterning of the gospel.
Marriages are you on the doom loop. I will when he does. I will when she does.
Can somebody commit to break that down today? Is there children? Maybe you're fifteen sixteen years old and your posture is not obedience. Father we come before you we pray that the truth of the gospel that you have pursued us loved us and won us over. That our obedience to you is obedience to a good father. When I pray that those things will permeate us now. God will give us the motivation we need. To repent of sin to confess sin and just to pray for your blessing in our life in Christ's name. Amen.
Well hey guys at all of our campuses you can stand here with me today. And I mean I just want to call you to come forward and pray today. Man husbands bring your wives forward. Bring your kids forward. You don't have to be in a crisis to come pray today. Pray for somebody else's marriage. Pray for your protection of your marriage. I know I'm going to do that with our family. And so I pray that you guys will take this opportunity today to do that.
