Dale Partridge - May 17, 2024


Covenant Home Part 4: The Marital Duties of Husbands with Dale Partridge


Episode Stats


Length

35 minutes

Words per minute

132.51317

Word count

4,707

Sentence count

185

Harmful content

Misogyny

12

sentences flagged

Toxicity

1

sentences flagged

Hate speech

26

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Well, in God's providence, we have a funny situation today, because I'm the guy that is
00:00:07.960 often critical of churches who on Father's Day hound the men, and then on Mother's Day say,
00:00:15.600 oh, the women are so great. And today, in providence, I am giving a message that's harsh
00:00:22.560 for the men on Mother's Day. And so it was not part of my plan. But we are talking to the men
00:00:28.860 And last week, we had a pretty heavy discussion with the ladies, and I think because we have 0.99
00:00:34.860 glorious, godly women in this church, we had no problems because women that are submitted
00:00:40.580 to the Lordship of Christ love His Word.
00:00:44.140 Well, if you believe wrong, you'll never live strong.
00:00:49.500 If you believe wrong, you'll never live strong.
00:00:54.040 And that is the problem with biblical and theological illiteracy.
00:00:59.680 You can't take people to a place that you've never been yourself.
00:01:05.580 If we want fruitful, thriving, potent, covenant households, we need men to believe rightly
00:01:15.320 around the gospel, around the family, around the church, and around the city.
00:01:21.320 We need men who slaughter their own ignorance with the actual study of God's word.
00:01:28.760 Today we begin part four of a six part series on the covenant home.
00:01:37.000 I'm going to offer you a brief recap and I want to allocate as much time as I possibly
00:01:44.720 can to the text.
00:01:48.440 Last week we did the marital duties of wives, today we are going to be doing the marital
00:01:52.920 duties of husbands.
00:01:57.640 So we've learned about covenant theology over the past several weeks, how it pertains to
00:02:02.940 male representation and responsibility.
00:02:06.700 We saw the covenant of works with Adam and the covenant of grace with Christ.
00:02:11.620 More than that, we learned that the principle of representation and responsibility extends
00:02:15.580 to the covenant of marriage.
00:02:16.780 If you want to learn more about that, you can go back and listen to those sermons.
00:02:21.100 But a husband is the representative before God of his family.
00:02:27.100 He is responsible for the state of his home. 0.94
00:02:32.380 He is not guilty of the sins of his wife and children, but he is responsible for the sins of his wife and children.
00:02:38.880 In the same way that Christ was not guilty of the sins of the church, he took responsibility 0.69
00:02:44.960 for the sins of the church by paying for them on the cross.
00:02:50.140 We learn that husbands must learn to shift their perspective from those are their problems
00:02:57.600 or her problems to their problems are my problems.
00:03:05.120 That is responsible manhood.
00:03:08.880 we see, when we see a man or a husband or a father
00:03:16.260 take responsibility for the state of his home,
00:03:21.240 what does that do in his house?
00:03:23.640 Well, it gives him authority.
00:03:24.880 It gives him influence.
00:03:26.460 If you want to be a man that's respected in your home,
00:03:28.860 take responsibility for the state of your wife and children.
00:03:34.140 In part two, we defined marriage. 0.74
00:03:39.560 We know that a generation that is all about perverting marriage, we learn that you cannot 0.55
00:03:47.160 redefine what God has defined.
00:03:50.900 We show that husbands and wives are the earthly representation of Christ in the church.
00:03:55.640 We saw that our imitation of the heavenly marriage either is going to uphold or deny 0.94
00:04:04.620 truths about Christ in the church.
00:04:06.960 For example, if a man does not love his wife as Christ loved the church,
00:04:10.700 he tells a lie to himself, to his community, and to the church about who Christ is.
00:04:18.880 And if a woman or a wife does not joyfully submit to her husband,
00:04:25.200 she tells herself, her family, her community a lie about the church's submission to Christ.
00:04:31.480 in part three which was last week we talked about Ephesians 5 22 to 24 regarding the commands to
00:04:42.580 wives we learned about the command for a wife to be submissive and obedient to her own husband and
00:04:48.320 everything we learned that there was limits to that authority that if her obedience to her
00:04:52.360 husband causes her to be disobedient to God then that command is nullified nevertheless the vast
00:04:58.880 majority of commands in a wife's life are not requiring her to be disobedient to her husband's
00:05:04.740 authority or to God's authority, and therefore she should submit to the rule of her husband. 0.67
00:05:12.720 We learn that, generally speaking, women have two commands in marriage, 0.97
00:05:17.380 submission and respect, submission and respect.
00:05:25.120 We learn that these two duties need to be carried out from the heart.
00:05:28.880 because resentful submission and respect is not submission and respect.
00:05:36.620 And then lastly, we learned about how a wife of biblical feminine order,
00:05:42.880 a wife of biblical feminine order in a world of feminine chaos is a very powerful thing.
00:05:51.580 It's a very powerful thing. 0.99
00:05:53.900 Women can bless their children, their family, their community 0.92
00:05:56.160 by embracing the glorious state of being a godly woman.
00:06:04.400 Today, we're going to be talking through Ephesians 5, 25 through 33.
00:06:11.100 Verse 25 says,
00:06:13.420 Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.
00:06:20.620 So God always calls His people beyond natural fleshly instincts that require dependence upon
00:06:31.180 the Holy Spirit. For example, it's common for wives to love their husbands. It's a natural
00:06:36.040 disposition of a wife to love her husband. It's not natural and requires the reliance of the Holy 1.00
00:06:41.120 Spirit for her to submit and respect a husband, especially if he's not respectable. Likewise,
00:06:47.440 it's common for men to fulfill their roles as protectors and providers, but it is supernatural
00:06:54.740 for a husband and a wife or a husband to express regular and extraordinary acts of love to his
00:07:03.900 wife. It requires reliance upon the Holy Spirit. Doug Wilson once said about this passage of
00:07:12.560 scripture. Fallen man cannot duplicate the degree of Christ, love for the church, but we can imitate
00:07:19.780 it. We're going to fall short as men. We can't duplicate it, but we can imitate it. And this
00:07:30.060 passage is an impossibly high command, but it's not an impossibly high command to imitate. Paul is
00:07:38.820 saying in the same degree that a wife is to submit to her husband as she submits
00:07:42.380 to the Lord a husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church so I 0.94
00:07:49.540 want to just qualify love for a second okay because we have a perverted culture
00:07:53.700 that has made love anything we want it to be okay this is not speaking of
00:07:58.200 worldly love it's speaking of otherworldly love it's speaking to love
00:08:03.080 with a an eternal perspective first I wanted to say that no man can love his
00:08:09.580 wife like Christ until he's experienced the love of Christ himself foundation
00:08:15.020 right we're not going to expect men to love their wives like Christ of the
00:08:18.800 church if they have yet to come to Christ you cannot express what you have
00:08:24.920 not experienced so the first step in being a Christ like husband is being
00:08:32.540 submitted to the loving rule of Christ himself. A man who has not submitted to Christ cannot show
00:08:40.700 Christ-like love. He cannot exemplify sacrifice if he has not experienced the sacrifice of Christ
00:08:48.480 on his behalf. Now, you might be wondering, Dale, why are we talking about this? We got a bunch of
00:08:55.220 saved men in here. Why are you telling me that I need to be saved before I can do these things? I
00:08:58.320 am saved. Well, even if you are saved, we're a forgetful
00:09:02.920 people. Men are forgetful people. Our flame by God's grace for
00:09:10.760 Christ, even if you are saved, it will not go out. I do not
00:09:14.380 believe that if you're saved, that you can lose your
00:09:16.240 salvation. We know that Christ says that my sheep, they know
00:09:19.700 me, they follow me, they hear my voice, I give them eternal
00:09:22.380 life and they will never perish but our love for Christ can grow dull it can grow dull without
00:09:33.240 regular devotion without commitment to a local church where you have the ordinary means of
00:09:40.620 grace we can lose sight of the greatness of the gospel men struggle to show love when their
00:09:49.220 awareness of God's love is weak this is why based on my experience a husband's
00:09:56.560 ability to love his wife is dependent upon the sobriety of God's love for
00:10:01.060 himself now seriously when men need to get to a place on a regular basis where
00:10:07.020 they can see the absolute depth and magnitude of the gospel because out of
00:10:16.840 that realization flows kindness and forgiveness and mercy and gentleness and
00:10:25.960 love to everybody around us the solution for an unloving husband isn't
00:10:34.300 just try harder it's often run to Christ that's the foundation prioritize the
00:10:42.260 study of God's Word pursue the Lord in prayer become a member at a local
00:10:46.240 biblical church. Submit yourself to the teaching of elders. Embrace discipleship from other men.
00:10:52.000 Get engaged. Now, we have a generation where many men don't come to the church because we've
00:10:58.020 made the church so effeminate that many men have abandoned the church. A woman comes
00:11:04.080 back from church and she says, oh, it was so great. I cried. And a man's like, great,
00:11:09.520 I will not be going. And so we need to bring back a masculine church. This is a part of this whole 1.00
00:11:18.400 discussion. I often tell people that church historically used to be a line where men and
00:11:26.540 women would come stand side by side, marching into the culture like an army with the gospel
00:11:33.520 in hand today the church has become more like a circle where it's some sort of therapeutic
00:11:42.480 emotional how are you doing and how did that make you feel and sway your hips to jesus and
00:11:49.280 create a very effeminate experience which one out of those two models the line or the circle
00:11:54.160 do you believe will attract more men well the line of course and so we need to get back to
00:12:01.120 a church that is aligned marching into culture with the gospel in hand now apart from addressing
00:12:11.760 motive there is just a flat responsibility in this passage husbands are instructed to
00:12:18.800 love their wives this should manifest itself in various ways but at the very least it should be
00:12:24.800 evident in the regular and daily actions that make your wife feel cherished now i know this
00:12:35.200 can be difficult when we have kids when we have career when we have community we have distractions
00:12:41.840 if you're a godly man and you're taking the lead there's a lot on your plate to find the time for
00:12:48.400 ordinary and extraordinary acts of expressions of love can be difficult it
00:12:55.120 can be difficult but this passage is a command against the misprioritization of
00:13:00.620 that reality husbands must express love to their wives it is a command of the
00:13:09.560 Lord now Paul describes this love as a sacrificial love love your wives as
00:13:16.780 Christ loved the church, and he gave himself up for her.
00:13:22.400 Okay, many of you have heard this term, servant leader.
00:13:27.740 This term has been abused, punched in the face,
00:13:31.580 kicked in the back, and perverted and distorted.
00:13:35.620 We have made servant leadership into something 0.57
00:13:38.340 it was never intended to be.
00:13:41.020 It has become this gateway for male passivity
00:13:43.880 and feminine exaltation.
00:13:46.780 Okay, I remember actually hearing a story, I can't remember the exact details, but I
00:13:55.380 remember that it was a stay-at-home dad, he was using this term servant leader as the
00:14:01.300 justification why he was going to lay down his career objectives and his career goals
00:14:06.600 so that his wife could pursue her dreams as being a doctor, right?
00:14:12.880 Honestly, that's pretty common in our culture. 0.95
00:14:15.400 I'm going to love my wife by laying down my desires so that she can pursue her desires.
00:14:21.820 I'll stay home with the kids.
00:14:23.880 I'll be mom.
00:14:26.640 Here's the problem.
00:14:28.600 He interpreted the term servant leader as lead by serving.
00:14:37.120 But the exact opposite is meant by this word and this term.
00:14:41.360 okay the divine order is exactly contrary to that husbands are not to lead by serving they are to
00:14:50.480 serve by leading okay and I want to say this with the utmost clarity the greatest way to love your
00:14:57.180 wife is to lead your wife it's the greatest way you want to love your wife well lead your wife
00:15:02.780 Now, you must lead her lovingly, like Christ leads, but lead.
00:15:09.040 No godly woman wants a passive man-boy who can act as her fifth child, 0.99
00:15:14.260 who she has to direct because of his indecisive and absent leadership. 0.99
00:15:19.440 No one wants that. 0.99
00:15:22.620 A godly woman wants a strong, Christ-following, responsibility-taking, 0.99
00:15:27.080 wise decision-making, fully committed leader.
00:15:32.780 She wants a man who can demonstrate his love for her by leading the home in a variety of ways, in holiness, in Christ-likeness, in order, in vision, in political views, in finances, in education, in legacy, and of course, in affection and showing love relationally.
00:15:56.760 Every time a husband fails to lead in necessary areas, a wife assumes that duty. 0.63
00:16:06.020 And I always say this, in our culture, Satan's plan is that men will be boys, that women 0.96
00:16:14.320 will be men, and as a result, children will be unwanted.
00:16:20.860 That is exactly what we're seeing today, a perversion of divine order. 0.80
00:16:26.760 When this happens, and a wife is forced to lead, she's going to grow in resentment and bitterness 1.00
00:16:33.560 because she's pushed to operate in a way that she's not designed to. 0.83
00:16:37.300 And she loses respect for her husband because the order of the home is misprioritized,
00:16:43.480 and the home starts to degenerate in respect and glory.
00:16:50.020 I recently saw a quote on social media that said, quote,
00:16:54.320 why women want male superiority, not equality. Marriage is a hierarchy, and the man must lead.
00:17:05.160 If he doesn't, the woman will, and she'll resent him for it, because he'll be following her like 0.90
00:17:10.800 a little boy follows his mother. In the end, she'll come to see him as her dependent, rather
00:17:17.520 than her champion that she truly desires he'll activate her maternal instinct rather than her
00:17:24.800 sexual instinct and the burden of having to make decisions will masculinize her mindset stress and 0.82
00:17:31.920 anxiety anxiety will dampen her sex drive she will dream of a man who can lead her and it won't be 0.93
00:17:38.160 about her husband. I can't tell you how many affairs have started because husbands and
00:17:47.500 wives have flip-flopped positions. You think that not leading has no consequences? The
00:17:59.660 number of men driven to adultery because of an insubordinate wife, you couldn't count
00:18:04.700 the number. The number of women driven to adultery because of limp-wristed passive husbands,
00:18:11.300 you can't count the number. It's everywhere.
00:18:18.380 Walking out your biblical role is not just a positive support. It actually guards against
00:18:24.760 temptation. Men are made to lead. It's in our very being. Look at us. We're taller. We're
00:18:31.740 stronger, we're wider, we're designed for dominion, leadership. Look at women. They're designed as the 1.00
00:18:37.100 weaker vessel to help, to support, to be beautiful, to organize, to glorify. When you flip-flop that
00:18:43.660 reality, you get chaos, you get temptation, you get frustration, you get bitterness, you get
00:18:50.000 resentment, and you get broken marriages. If you want to see glorious covenant households,
00:18:56.420 take responsibility for your home put order in place walk out into your 0.60
00:19:06.980 office and say Lord I'm sorry for the state of my home I will take
00:19:14.360 responsibility and bring back order to this place now I do want to be clear
00:19:21.980 there's nothing wrong with a man helping her helping his wife you're going to do
00:19:28.000 this because you love your wife there's nothing wrong with taking the kids when
00:19:33.280 she needs a break there's nothing wrong with picking up the house to help her to
00:19:38.580 do the dishes whatever it may be there's nothing wrong with those realities
00:19:41.100 what's wrong is when serving your wife compromises your ability to lead when
00:19:48.220 when serving her so much becomes the priority that you actually abdicate your
00:19:55.300 role as leading the family okay your job as a husband is not to save your wife
00:20:01.720 from the natural hardship of womanhood or motherhood when a wife and mother is
00:20:07.420 tired at the end of a day you need a reminder that she's not tired because
00:20:13.240 she did something wrong she's tired because she did something right
00:20:18.220 You're not trying to save her from the reality of what it means to be a
00:20:24.500 glorious woman. You're trying to assist when things overwhelm her. You're trying
00:20:33.940 to shepherd her so that those hardships are seen in the light of sanctification
00:20:40.100 and holiness to encourage her to show her that if she breaks you won't and the
00:20:50.820 next verse Paul tells us why Jesus served by leading look down to verse 26
00:21:00.320 it says that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by
00:21:04.580 word that he might present her to himself a glorious church not having
00:21:11.720 spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that she should be holy and without
00:21:18.380 blemish okay so first I want you to note the exclusive nature of Christ's
00:21:23.480 sacrifice and the bride's benefit this is not for anyone else this is for the
00:21:29.580 bride. Your love is to be prioritized to your wife. The focus of Christ's work was God's glory
00:21:37.020 and his wife's holiness, which I think really simplifies the priorities for men. What is your
00:21:43.280 role in this world? Well, it's as a married man, it's to glorify God. And a great way to glorify
00:21:50.400 god is to lead your wife second husbands should model christ's willingness to do whatever it 0.83
00:22:00.320 takes to secure the holiness of his bride your wife's holiness is a priority in a man's life
00:22:08.160 demonstrating love honestly it can be inconvenient it's difficult it's frustrating for men at times
00:22:15.280 because love is costly it's expensive but the cost should never prohibit you
00:22:25.480 from displaying love for your wife cost is what assigns value to love if the
00:22:38.020 love costs little then it conveys less value if the love cost is substantial then it conveys
00:22:46.660 extraordinary value it's what makes christ's love so valuable is the cost that he was willing to pay
00:22:53.220 for it it's extraordinary in the same way husbands are to communicate their love in both ordinary
00:22:59.940 extraordinary means Paul says that the result of that kind of love will be a
00:23:07.180 glorious bride not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that she
00:23:13.200 would be holy and without blemish so over the years I want you to think
00:23:19.120 about this first over the years under your headship under your leadership has
00:23:24.700 your wife become increasingly lovely and holy Richard Baxter once wrote a
00:23:34.200 husband will either make a good wife or endure a bad one I want you to look at
00:23:42.440 your life have you add under your leadership made a good wife led her and
00:23:51.660 shepherded her towards Christ has she become more holy and more lovely under
00:23:58.800 your care is her love for Christ greater under your headship is her conviction of
00:24:04.740 sin greater under your leadership is she more glorious of a woman under your
00:24:11.900 leadership is she free of worry and fear and anger under your leadership if you
00:24:18.120 look back to your wedding day and you look to now, is your wife more holy and more lovely or is she
00:24:24.560 more bitter and more angry? That is a clear picture of your status as a husband. If your wife has
00:24:34.400 divorced you, if she has left you, these are moments to realize in the mirror, I'm going to
00:24:42.960 take responsibility for that. I'm not guilty of her sin. I'm not guilty of her adultery. I'm not
00:24:49.620 guilty of what she said, but I'm going to take responsibility for the fact that under my
00:24:54.020 leadership, my wife left. Hard words. That's the heart of this passage. In the same way that Christ
00:25:07.860 will present to himself a glorious church that is a church who reflects her
00:25:14.160 divine purpose and being to be holy a husband is to present his wife a
00:25:18.460 glorious woman a reflection of her divine and designed being verse 28 to
00:25:29.880 31 follow along with me in the same way husbands should love their wives as
00:25:34.680 their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself, for no one has ever hated his own
00:25:39.240 flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are
00:25:43.840 members of his body. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast
00:25:48.720 to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So the passage to men here in Ephesians
00:25:56.500 five really gives two ways to express a husband's love to their wives first it's being a sacrificial
00:26:05.940 leader and second it is loving your wife as your own body okay paul is not calling if you look down
00:26:15.620 to the text paul's not calling for a shift in perspective he's not saying love your wives as
00:26:21.860 if they are your body he's saying love your wives because they are your body they are your body
00:26:33.780 now in our individualized culture
00:26:39.060 we have autonomy and individualization we struggle we struggle even in the church with
00:26:45.060 the idea of oneness and marriage unity in marriage we have millions of married couples
00:26:51.460 some of them in the church with separate bank accounts political beliefs philosophies on
00:26:55.860 parenting dreams even religions very strange there's even a book on marriage called boundaries
00:27:08.180 what there are no boundaries in a one flesh union that doesn't make any sense
00:27:14.180 autonomy is lost at the door of covenant it is put away
00:27:22.460 in fact even the authority of our over our own bodies is given up in marriage first corinthians
00:27:30.580 chapter 7 verse 3 through 4 says let the husband render to his wife the affection do her and
00:27:35.820 likewise also the wife to her husband the wife does not have authority over her own body but
00:27:40.500 the husband does. And likewise, the husband does not have authority over his own body,
00:27:44.400 but the wife does. Oneness. Autonomy is lost at the door of covenant. Paul is trying to
00:27:55.400 make it clear that husbands cannot neglect their wives without damaging themselves. You
00:28:07.040 You want to fail to lead your wife, shepherd your wife, you're actually hurting yourself.
00:28:12.520 And actually in the same way, the good that you do to your wife, the good you do to yourself.
00:28:19.280 The most likely masculine cause of physical separation of oneness between a husband and
00:28:25.400 wife is around work.
00:28:29.160 It's around work for men. 1.00
00:28:31.520 around the world compete for presence with their husbands with their work.
00:28:37.580 And there's a balance here. 0.50
00:28:40.500 A husband can work too much, and a wife can also desire more presence than is necessary.
00:28:46.540 There is a balance here, and it's our job to find that balance.
00:28:53.200 But oneness in marriage, this desire of being one flesh, makes me incredibly hesitant, as
00:29:00.780 as well as my experience as a pastor in ministry to endorse any career that requires a husband
00:29:07.020 to be absent from his wife more than a few days per month there are jobs yeah that you're only
00:29:13.340 gone a few days per month i'm not talking about that men are often driven by career goals and by
00:29:18.620 financial security and they accept positions that pay more but require them to be home less
00:29:24.140 I want to make it perfectly clear embracing a career that interferes with
00:29:31.320 physical oneness and unity it leaves your wife to lead the home to protect
00:29:40.280 the children hunger for physical affection and become comfortable in her
00:29:46.460 own independence. And there is a cost there. You think that the financial benefit outweighs
00:29:57.300 the marital cost, it doesn't. Take the $50,000 hit. I've spent so many times with marriages
00:30:07.760 that struggle because a husband is in the oil fields or the night shift or he's the
00:30:15.320 traveling salesman, or he's overseas on that contract, whatever it may be. A great way to
00:30:23.580 break the oneness of your home is to be gone. Again, men are going to travel. They need to
00:30:31.400 travel. They need to work. I'm not talking about the guy that goes out of town once or twice a
00:30:35.860 week or once or twice. I'm talking about the guy that's gone for three weeks at a time,
00:30:39.340 maybe for a month at a time two weeks on two weeks off two weeks on two weeks off five days on 0.54
00:30:46.540 two days off these are these are very dangerous structures for married men
00:30:53.740 when you got married you gave up the opportunity to take on that role
00:30:57.400 you became one with another person
00:31:01.420 so in the end every husband must work to find the balance that permits them to
00:31:12.160 serve by leading and by leading in spiritual and material provision to lead
00:31:21.280 by protection spiritual and physical protection to have a margin in their
00:31:27.460 life for ordinary and extraordinary expressions of love and to permit a sense of physical oneness
00:31:37.660 and availability. We often think as men that quality time is what matters. But honestly,
00:31:46.300 if you've been married for any significant amount of time and you have children, you realize that
00:31:51.080 it's not just quality time, it's also quantity time. You actually need to be available.
00:32:00.020 You need to be present. Try to engage in a church community and have relationships with other men
00:32:10.160 if you're gone all the time. Now again, if you actually need to provide for your family,
00:32:17.500 and that's the only way you can do it, praise God.
00:32:22.800 Unfortunately, that's not the case for most families.
00:32:26.200 I've actually found that men that take on these roles
00:32:29.340 learn to love them.
00:32:31.980 They actually learn to enjoy their own independence again.
00:32:35.720 They get to come home and have the beautiful wife
00:32:37.900 and children and then leave all that responsibility
00:32:41.440 at the door.
00:32:44.120 It creates a world of temptation
00:32:45.960 that's incredibly dangerous for a marriage.
00:32:50.980 So presence is vital as a man.
00:32:55.500 How do you rule and take leadership
00:32:57.820 over that which you are absent from?
00:33:03.180 Oh, we have FaceTime.
00:33:05.800 No, that is not a substitute for presence.
00:33:09.520 We learned that with the COVID thing in the church.
00:33:12.060 No, we need to be with one another.
00:33:15.960 interdependent on one another.
00:33:20.080 That's what it means to be a Christ-like husband.
00:33:24.140 I'll close with a quote from the late theologian J. Adams, who said,
00:33:28.040 quote,
00:33:28.940 If love has grown cold in your family, dear husband,
00:33:34.120 you must do something about it.
00:33:36.620 If you are going to emulate the love of Jesus Christ for his church,
00:33:40.540 it is up to you to initiate that love.
00:33:43.160 Jesus loved us when we had no love for him
00:33:47.320 He was near to us when we were lost
00:33:51.200 Husband, you are the head of your home
00:33:54.540 If there is little or no love in that home, the fault lays at your feet
00:34:00.280 God holds you responsible to introduce love into that household
00:34:05.000 That will not occur without a decisive commitment to do so
00:34:09.760 Amen? Let's pray
00:34:12.180 Father, we thank you, Lord, that you have given us your word.
00:34:21.080 Lord, we pray that by your spirit and by your word that you would raise up a generation of men that are better than the previous generation of men.
00:34:29.860 Lord, that has left this country and this culture in a state of disorder and chaos.
00:34:35.800 Lord, we ask and we take responsibility as the men in this generation that we would not leave that same legacy.
00:34:42.180 Father, we pray that you would raise up conviction of sin and righteousness, that you would help
00:34:48.680 us to lead our homes.
00:34:50.540 Lord, that first you would help us to lead locally, that we would not aim for changing
00:34:56.000 cities and changing states before we would change our own homes.
00:35:00.580 Give us the insight and the wisdom, the understanding.
00:35:06.020 Help us in your spirit.
00:35:08.360 remind us of moments that we might
00:35:10.460 go and love our wives, that we might express
00:35:12.760 that our children might see
00:35:14.580 a little piece of the gospel
00:35:16.500 in our home.
00:35:20.300 We thank you for this congregation, Lord. We ask
00:35:22.420 that these words would land
00:35:23.980 upon the hearts
00:35:25.140 with humility. In Jesus'
00:35:28.700 name, amen.
00:35:30.880 Amen.