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 .

In this episode, we continue our series on the covenant home by focusing on the role of men in the home. In Ephesians 5:25, we see how a husband is the representative before God of his family. He is not only responsible for the state of his home, but also for the sins of his wife and children.

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.