Ephesians 5:25-33 | A Husband's Love in Action

Cornerstone Church

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When we start out in the story of creation, we have so much that is created.

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And eventually, God said, let us make man in our own image. We know that that has to do with his attributes.

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We are designed to have fellowship with him. And so then God sent

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Adam into the garden to work it. And then he realized there was no suitable help meet.

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And so he sends Adam into a deep sleep, takes a rib and forms women and brings

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Eve. And he goes, whoa, man. He primed ribbed. I had not heard that one.

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God's design is for one man and one woman. We firmly hold to that truth of Scripture, one man and one woman.

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But God does create man and woman with different intents of purpose, if you would.

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Last week, Jeff gave a very thorough description of the complementarianism of man and woman.

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We are both equal in the eyes of God as far as his love, his provision, the bloodshed, we are no longer man, woman, slave,

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Greek. The power of God is the same. But within his economy, we have different purposes.

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And we are made, our personality traits deal in perhaps different ways.

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Part of the proclamation is that Eve was told that her desire would be for her husband.

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And the reality is that the sexes have different, not in all cases, but predominantly, different ways that they are drawn.

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And women, while their heart's desire down deep is to have a good, godly man, they are so ready to overturn that authority.

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And men, while they are so desirous of a relationship with their wife, are so quickly drawn into other ways that perhaps destroy our ability to show the true love that we're supposed to show for our wives.

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And so it started out in Matthew 5, wives be subject to your husbands, and it starts out, husbands, love your wives, speaking directly to these emotional tendencies.

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Ephesians 5, 25 to 33 is going to talk about a husband's love in action.

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And I'm going to be looking at this from five different ways, because agape love starts out the passage, and we need to understand how that looks, sanctifying love.

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That's actually in the passage. Honoring love is in that passage. And nourishing love and surrendering love.

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When a man is able to exhibit and to be respectful of his wife and to live in these ways,

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I believe it makes it that much more likely for the woman to desire to submit to the husband's lead.

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But when the husband abdicates his responsibilities for love, he's basically setting up a relationship that is going to have conflict, and it's going to have difficulties.

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Gentlemen, we are given a calling on what it means to actually love our wives.

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That's something that is God -given, and it's something that if you look at so many shows on TV today, the husbands are shown just to be buffoons.

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And there's no doubt why the woman would have to stand up and to save the day.

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But in God's economy, we're supposed to be strong leaders. Supposed to be strong leaders.

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And there are ways that that manifests itself. We're going to talk about many of those today. Would you open us in a prayer?

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Sure. Father, we thank you so much for your word. Without your word, we would just be lost.

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We would be clueless. And yet you've given us your word. You've given us light and truth to live by. So Lord, we pray that we would not just see the words written on the page, but we would hear and understand,

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Lord, and then most importantly, put into practice the things that we see. So change us by your word today.

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Help us all to understand your design and your plan, and that we would live by these very words.

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In Jesus' name, amen. John 2 .24, man shall leave his mother and father and cleave to his wife.

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Two shall be one. There are many things that we can teach out of that.

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We can get into the gay pride situation in there. We can get into adultery.

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We can get into fornication, which is sex before marriage. We can get into many things. But here's the thing about this command is when we look at it, a man shall leave his father and mother.

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Marriage establishes a new family. And the husband is going to be exhorted to recognize that this new family is his priority of attention.

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Sandy and I are aware of a family situation, a married situation, where the husband is unfortunately prone to talk to his mother about some of the things he doesn't like about his wife.

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No, no. No, no, no, yeah, right. Or, honey, you just don't make the chili the way my mom used to make it.

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That's not a good comment. Thank goodness. Uh -oh. I have two questions.

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You started out talking about Matthew 5 as the women's chapter.

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I'm sorry, Ephesians. Okay. Did I misspeak already? Yeah, and then you just talked about John 5.

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No, it's Genesis. Oh, it's Genesis. Okay, sorry. Just wanted to make sure you were up on getting us the right information at the right time.

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My wife is taking notes on what I'm teaching and she's good, too. This will be my day.

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You should help me. Thank you, Sadie, because I looked up Matthew 5 and I couldn't find it.

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I did, too, and I'm thinking, okay. Where's Matthew 5? Where's the wives in this one?

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Sorry about that, Josh. Just keeping you honest there, buddy. Thank you. Thank you, dear.

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And your chili is best. I don't do that well.

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Chili today, hot tomatoes tomorrow. I'm losing control. So, how many times is it where the husband has activities, the man has activities that are a big part of life for him when they're courting, those activities get put, perhaps, into the back burner so that the intention of the spouse -to -be is positive and everything else.

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But once the I do's are said, the old activities resume. Leaving and pleading is part of it.

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Give me the whole passage, if you would, 25 to 33. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 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.

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In the same way, husbands 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.

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Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

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This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

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Very famous dialogue between Jesus and Peter. Peter, Peter, do you love me, agape? Peter said,

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Lord, you know that I love you, phileo, a lesser kind of love. Peter, do you love me, agape?

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Lord, you know that I love you, phileo. Peter, do you even phileo me?

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And Peter was distressed because the third time, Jesus asked if he had phileo love for his father.

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The husband who is in a marriage and a marriage has lost something to where that agape love has somewhat diminished, but yet there still is a bond of relationship.

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It's almost lost the agape and it's become phileo. We are commanded, husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church.

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And we know that Christ's love was totally, totally giving. Jesus, with Jesus as an example, husbands are to love their wives in a manner that is unconditional, is self -sacrificing, and has no limits to it.

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This is the very first command that we are given here. John 15, 13,

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Jesus basically proclaimed, no greater love has anyone than to lay down his life for another.

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This is the love that Jesus had for us. Laying down our lives for our wife may not be something that we are ever called to do, but it may eventually come to that, it could.

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Are you willing to sacrifice your life for your wives? It almost is easier to say, yeah,

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I would sacrifice my life for her life, meaning life or death.

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But the question is, are you willing to sacrifice your life for your wife's life?

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That meaning, what are the things that define who you are as you live? Are you willing to sacrifice a position?

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Are you willing to sacrifice activities? Are you willing to sacrifice prestige?

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Are you willing to sacrifice multiple ministries at the church where people are seeing what you do?

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My wife is taking notes right about now. When you know that your wife needs you to be at home and to be spending time with her, this is laying down.

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He says, no greater love has anybody than that he who lays down his life for us. I need us to understand that it's more than just saying, when the police come or there's a kidnapper,

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I'm willing to sacrifice my life and die so that my wife can live. Am I willing to sacrifice the things that I call and identify my life so that I can be furthering the life of my wife?

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John 10, 17. Rick, if you would get that. The idea of courting a lady and establishing a relationship that blossoms and you now become betrothed and then comes the wedding day.

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How do you challenge? Do you say love, honor, obey you?

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What kind of things do you throw in there? In the wedding ceremony. Oh, in the wedding ceremony?

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I can't remember the vowel that we often use. Yeah, love, honor, and cherish? Love, honor, and cherish.

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The wife's side might be love, honor, and obey. It depends on how the women are willing to do that.

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Till death do you part. So then from then on, who's holding you accountable for exactly how are you carrying through with the promise?

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Well, God is, definitely. There's no denying that. But whose eyeballs are on you looking at you, you know, holding you accountable?

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And does somebody have to have their eyeballs on you for you to be holding true to that?

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What do you have in that passage there? For this reason the Father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.

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No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again.

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This charge I have received from my Father. As men, we are given so many opportunities to take our attention, to set our priorities.

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And many of them can seem really, really good. But many of them can be so time consuming and so consuming of our attention that our attention is lost to our wife.

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And I believe the challenge there has to be that we are willingly laying aside some of these things that we think define who we are, give us the pat on the back.

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We willingly lay those aside for the better of our wife. I believe that's agape love.

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Now, this is not dependent on the fact that your wife is a good, submissive wife, is always giving you the props that you think you deserve, wife.

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This is unconditional. Romans 5, 8, but God demonstrated his love toward us and while we were yet sinners,

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Christ died for us. And if we're to follow the example of Christ, it does not, the degree to which we show agape love is not driven by our perceived level that our wife deserves it.

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Your wife deserves it. She's your wife and you've made that promise. And we are told to give agape love as Christ loved the church.

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Scripture has some examples of where things have gone wrong. And each of them,

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I think, exhibits a weakness within man's tendencies. Genesis 20, verses one and two is one of two passages where Abraham did the same thing.

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He said, tell him here, my sister, why did he do that?

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He was afraid. Yeah. Sorry. There's no other way to put it.

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Don't soft -soap it. He was afraid for himself. Right. He don't have to.

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Thank you. He did tell a truth. I have. He is, she is his sister, half -sister.

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We're not gonna get into that kind of marriage relation, but he was married to her and he was unwilling to put himself at risk by proclaiming that.

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Did it twice. He did it twice. And his son did. And then his son did. Yeah, the apple doesn't fall far, does it?

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In 2 Samuel, we now see the propensity for ignoring the sanctity of marriage for the pursuit of lust.

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When David goes, when he was supposed to be in war with the fighting men, he stayed behind.

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And he went upstairs and saw a wife bathing on a rooftop.

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He said, I want her. Well, a wife that was one of his soldiers.

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You can't go, this is so bad, it's terribly bad. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then he lied all about it, but denying the sanctity of God for his own lust.

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So we see fear, we see lust coming to play. And then

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John 4 is Jesus talking to the woman at the well.

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And he says, yeah, you've spoken well. You've had many husbands, and the one you're with right now is not your own.

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She was being used by a man for sexual gratification.

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These are things that cannot be. So our devotion to our wives are supposed to be unconditional, self -sacrificing, and never ending without limits.

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That's the agape love. I think men are prone to self -gratification. And I think men desire acclaim.

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And men are thoughtless. She's writing notes again right now. Why so many amens?

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I just can't hear you. You're filling your acquittal. But God demands a relationship where the man denies these tendencies.

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And he sees that his role now is to promote the better of his wife.

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That's agape love. Give me 26 and 27 again. That he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the

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Word, 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.

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Oh boy, this one's tough. The role of a husband is to establish a home where the wife follows

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God. The courage to submit to God, such that she achieves holiness without blemish.

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How can a husband do this? I'm gonna say, first of all, by example.

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I'm gonna say, first of all, by example. And to pray with her regularly and read Scripture together.

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We're gonna get to that one too. Sandy, I'm gonna let you read to me. Matthew 10, 37. And John 17, 17.

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Barb, I'll let you get that. But give me Matthew 10, 37, please, when you get there.

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Our opportunity, God -given responsibility, is to have our house in such accord that God is honored.

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And in so doing, encourage our wives to live in that same lifestyle.

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That is the sanctifying effect of a godly husband. We do not take the role of the

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Holy Spirit. We don't do that because all individuals are accountable to God for how they behave and how they respond to God.

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And all individuals that are saved have the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit giving them and encouraging them and instructing them and exhorting them.

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And they have the Word of God to read and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for instruction and right. All of that is good.

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But the husband has a role to be played. When a couple comes before the altar, what

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I like to do in counseling, when I talk with them, we're gonna ask a question, who gives this woman in holy matrimony?

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And I like to encourage the couple to recognize that there is about to be a transfer of accountability from the father to the husband.

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And the family that she is coming from, the father has an accountability before God for the spiritual well -being of his family.

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And after the marriage takes place, the husband now has accountability for the spiritual welfare of the wife.

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I believe the right answer is, who gives this woman in holy matrimony is for the father to say,

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I do. Man up and say, I do. Not her mother and I, and I won't object to that because the wife does play a role in teaching the children.

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I do get that, I do get that. But man up and understand that the role of the father is uniquely to be involved in, and it says here that he might sanctify her, having her cleansed, present her without spot or wrinkle, that she might be holy without blemish.

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This is a calling upon the husband. Do you have Matthew 10, 37? He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.

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Go ahead. And he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

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The father needs to exhibit unwavering devotion to God, that there is nothing else, even the wife, even the child is not above your devotion to God.

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And if the husband shows that unwavering devotion to God, it's an encouragement to the wife that my husband has aligned himself with Yahweh.

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We need to do this unwaveringly. In fact, 1 Timothy 3, one of the tests for Deacon is that he manages his household well.

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There needs to be an acceptance of this role of what I am supposed to do.

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Now, one of the other ways, other than example, and Rick, I think you said it, the word.

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John 17, 17, Mark? Sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth.

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Having the time spent in the word, letting your wife know that the word of God is your unwavering guide in life, and that just because you heard somebody else say it, being a

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Berean, going back to the word, thy word is truth, that is a way to sanctify.

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If your wife sees, I do a lot of officiating, and I get paid for the services that I render.

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And some of the organizations that I support send a tax form at the end of the year for the money that I've made.

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Some don't. Do I put that under the table? No. You're not supposed, you shouldn't.

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You shouldn't put it under the table. Your wife, your children will see where are you willing to cut corners?

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Where are you always going to stay true to truth? And then letting the word speak without deviation.

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This is sanctifying to your family because they are brought into the presence of true truth.

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That is our opportunity. In fact, First Peter is gonna tell us to teach our family to be girded for action, to hope in Christ, to be obedient, and to not be conformed to this world.

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These are actions that we take. Gentlemen, we are to lead by example.

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We are to be devoted to God and lead by example, and to be willing to be that spiritual guide.

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Paul is so sold out to God that he would say, I wish that you would follow my example.

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Gentlemen, we should be so sold out to God that we say, I wish you could follow my example. Not because I'm that great, but because I want your life.

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But you're married, and Peter, Paul wasn't. Good point. I could take that so many ways right now.

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Well, that's why Peter says you need to listen to Paul. Because Peter had a wife.

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Yes, I think perhaps he's having an affair at the time. Okay, gentlemen. He says he didn't take a long -believing wife like Peter did.

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Gentlemen, I think that we need to acknowledge that we fall short. And so I think that we need to acknowledge that I think we need to live our life to help sanctifying our wives so that we are transparent in our shortcomings.

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And they see us, acknowledge our shortcomings, confess and repent our shortcomings.

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And that encourages the wives to the same pattern. And then love your wives enough to challenge them if you're seeing something and they're perhaps not seeing it.

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But guys, if you're the kind of guy that always points the finger at the wife and forgetting the three are pointing back at you, you know that story.

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But I think sanctifying has to do with transparency of the fact that I am a sinner.

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And only by the grace of God do I get from here to there. I am one bad day away from being

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David. And see a wife, see us praying in that way.

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And then be that example. Give me verse 28, please. In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies.

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He who loves his wife loves himself. All right, there are things here.

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First of all, the things that I experience for myself I should want to give to my wife.

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But what kind of things do I experience for myself that I should want to give to my wife? I should be able to experience the fact that I am his workmanship created under good works, which

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God foreordained that I should walk in them. That blessing that I have,

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I should jealously want for my wife. Now we can go down the path that says as much as you're willing to spend time in the gym, keeping your abs tight and your biceps strong, you should love your wife more than that.

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We definitely can go down that path. Yeah, and if you're experiencing the fruit of the spirit, you want her to experience it as well.

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Thank you, because the fruit of the spirit, man, the way that the fruit of the spirit just blesses our body is love, joy, peace, long -suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.

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Patience. Patience. Romans 12 .1, Carol, I'm going to ask you to get that. I forgot my reading glasses.

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Then I will ask John if you would get me Romans 12 .1. You don't know that by heart? I'm sure

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Rick does. Go ahead, John. Go for it. I appeal to you, meaningful brothers, by the mercy of God to present me fully and acceptable to God, which is you.

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By testing, you may discern what is the will of God, what is good, acceptable, and perfect.

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You ought to be continually being transformed on a daily basis, on a continual basis, into the image and likeness of God, not conforming to this world.

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That's what you desire for yourself, for your own body, for your own life. Desire it for your wife as well.

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Find ways to do it for her. 1 Timothy 4 .8 says that godliness is greater than bodily training.

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Spending time in the gym, I have a neighbor that I see out and about running the neighborhood every now and then.

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That's a good thing. Who could that be? Your wife should be so important to you that whatever you're willing to do for your own body, whether it's spiritual health, whether it's physical health, you ought to be desiring her.

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People, men, find time for the physical activities, for satisfying themselves, for pursuing this, that, and the other thing, but you gotta have the priority of your wife at the priority of your wife.

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And gentlemen, to the extent that you're willing to avoid activities that are harmful to your body, avoid activities that are harmful to your wife or to your marriage.

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Keep her well -being at a high level. Honor your wife because she was given to you as the helpmeet by God.

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We are to honor her in that way. 21 and 30 days. 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.

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A healthy marriage is one that's nourished and cherished. A husband needs to know that he needs to provide for the spiritual, emotional, and physical needs of his wife.

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A husband should know his wife so well that he understands how to meet the spiritual, the emotional, and the physical needs of his wife.

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Now, we've talked about the spiritual side, so what I wanna emphasize here is how a husband displays agape love by emphasizing and supporting the emotional and physical needs of his wife.

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We are given this one life, that's all we get, is one life to share with our wives, to help build them up and to nourish them in this way.

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We cannot presume that our wives think the way that we do.

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Men, I think, are guilty of that. I understand how things should be. I can fix things the way

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I should be, and men cannot presume that just because we have an understanding of the universe that that's the same understanding our wives have.

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First Peter 3 .7, it's gonna, yeah, go ahead. Oh, no, I thought you were asking me to read it. Go ahead, you got it right there.

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Yeah, okay, could I have your permission to put it in context a little bit? Absolutely. Okay, so if we're gonna read

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First Peter, I wanna include verse six in this. Just as Sarah obeyed

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Abraham, calling him Lord, and you have become her children if you do what is right without being frustrated by any fear.

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You husbands, in the same way, verse seven, live with your wives in an understanding way as with someone weaker, since she is a woman, and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life so that your prayers will not be hindered.

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Live your life understanding your wives. That's a good one. Somebody oughta make a T -shirt out of it.

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Wow, yeah, that's a good one. Probably not the weaker

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Russell. Would be, to be honest. I was thinking that too.

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I think so, I'm already getting ready. You make her wear that T -shirt? Honey, here's a

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Mother's Day gift, Peter Vessel. Your idea,

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John, you gotta make it. Understanding what that means does not mean that your wife is less capable.

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It does not mean that your wife is lesser in the eyes of God, less valuable.

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It does not mean that at all. But what it does mean is that God has given us

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God has given us a requirement to protect our wives. That is the role of a man, is to protect his wife and to provide for her.

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It's not to say she's not capable of doing things, but we have a role. We should be living as if we understand.

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Our role is to be the protector. Our role is to care for the needs. Our role is to do all of this kind of stuff and to understand them in the first place.

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A husband that thinks because I believe, I believe

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I feel so good when my wife compliments me that my wife is gonna feel good when

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I compliment her. There are five different ways of love language that are exhibited and only one of them is words of affirmation.

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Others are touch, others are quality time. There are five of them. You gotta know what your wife, how your wife is wired.

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Yeah, I think she'd rather have you wash the dishes. Acts of service is one of them, to be sure.

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Gifts is another. I happen to know a woman who is very, very encouraged when her husband, for no reason, brings flowers home.

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That would be me. Don't do my dishes, just bring me lunch.

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And you realize it, that's good. And you do it, right? You have to do that. There's another realization that as we live life, we expend capital out of our love bank in situations that are stressful or whatever.

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And that love bank eventually gets depleted. And gentlemen, guess who is the number one depositor in your wife's love bank?

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You. So being willing to understand your wife, her needs, her desires, and to fulfill them and to fulfill those needs and desires.

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Philippians 2, 3 says, consider everyone else as more important than yourself. Husbands, consider everyone else as more important than yourself.

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Yes, sir. But God did make our brains function differently. Women are different mentally than men.

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And the important thing is that instead of questioning, what's behind her wanting flowers?

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Why is this important? Instead of getting into all of that, you learn that she loves it and you accept that as being part of who she is.

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That's understanding. That is so well said. And I wonder if a lot of times in a relationship,

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I don't know that, I think men are constantly chinking up in their brain how they should respond or say something.

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But they're not really listening to what the female is actually saying. And so they totally, that's why a lot of fights happen and arguments because they totally, the guy missed the boat.

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He wasn't cluing in. And so that's when the bat comes in and you've got to hit him inside a couple of times.

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Or they always think you have to fix him. Yes. Fix him, fix him. Oh, yes. That's the bad one.

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We have a need to emotionally nourish our wives.

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You got to spend time knowing your wives, understanding your wives, and then accepting the fact that your wife's emotional needs are the valid emotional needs.

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You can't tell your wife what is important in her life. Understand her. Philippians 2, consider one another as more important than yourself.

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Gentlemen, it is not your goal in life to have your wife make you happy.

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Now that can be an offshoot of you making her happy. But that's not what this is all about.

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We are to fill their emotional needs. But physically, gentlemen, we are to be the provider.

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I'm not going to get into the question of women out in the workplace. That's not my intent right now.

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But guys, do you know in Genesis 2, verse 15, God had created

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Adam and put him in the garden and said, do you have a job to do?

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He hadn't made Eve yet. The man was put in the garden with a job to do before God said,

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I think I need to give him a suitable helpmate. We have a job to do. Yeah. Yeah, that's very true.

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And in the garden, it doesn't say he told Eve, not Eve the tree, he told

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Adam that. And so it's important, because sometimes people will read that thing and will say that Eve, when she was approached, she said,

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I should not touch it. Adam probably told her that as a thing. Didn't say

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God told her that. That's a good point. So it's just something to really keep in our minds to look at that. And I love the fact that the

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New Testament tells us clearly that the woman was deceived. Adam sinned.

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He was the head. So when something happens like that, he was charged with it. And Adam all died, not

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Eve. Woman was deceived. The man sinned because he took David, because God told

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Adam. And he took that name in. Do you ever play the suppose game? The what?

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Suppose game. Suppose this happened. Suppose? Yes, that's the thing, suppose Adam. Suppose.

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Suppose Adam, when Eve said, suppose Adam said, no, I'm not gonna do that.

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He should have. He should have, he should have. First Timothy 5 .8. Stan, if you would get

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First Timothy 5 .8, read that for me, please. If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he is denied the faith, and it's worse than not believing.

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I wanted to do some research on that to find out, is this a gender -specific passage?

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And it is. And it is. When it talks about his household, oikos is house or household.

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In the Greek, we're looking at a gender, male, gender -possessive form of that word.

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The command is for the man to take care of his household. We are to provide for our wives.

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We are to be protectors. And houses get upside down when you have

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Mr. Mom, and the wife has a high -paying job.

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Houses are upside down because of that. Gentlemen, be ready and willing and desiring to fulfill the emotional needs of your wife, and that requires knowing it and accepting, and basically rejoicing in who they are, and then man up, man up and be the man of the house.

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31 and 32, please. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

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This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. This is a surrendering love.

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I'm telling you that a man must choose his wife above all other priorities.

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Let me say that again. A man's got to choose his wife above all other priorities, with one exception.

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Your first priority is God. Okay, now what I mean by this is your family, your friends, your activities, even your mom's cooking, everything is put on the back burner, and your wife is put up front.

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Philippians 2, five to seven. Ivan, I'm gonna ask you if you would read that. We are told in so many ways that our relationship is, the example of our relationship is

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Christ, and it says here, in talking about Christ and the church, the relationship about what Christ does and did for the church and does for the church is a powerful template for what we are to be.

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Five, two, five to seven. Yes. It says, have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in a form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, out emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of man.

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And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross.

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Whatever life held for you, gentlemen, before you were married, as fulfilling as it was, and as so much of an ability to be given adoration by people, whatever your life was before you were married is emptied.

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As Christ emptied himself, what did he, what did he surrender when he became man?

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We can't even start to count. But he saw the necessity of that and he establishes his relationship with the church.

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Find ways, guys, to honor your wife and make that, but she's not the woman

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I thought she was gonna be when I got married. She said the same thing about you.

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True. True. True. I really didn't know what

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I was getting into. And you didn't. Well, that's right, but you're glad you did.

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I remind him of that quite often. Christ willingly, knowingly took on all of the burdens of mankind without reservation.

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And in fact, John 10, 18 says, I lay down my life willingly, nobody takes it from me.

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She gets mad when I don't put the toilet seat down. She squeezes the toothpaste from the middle of the tube.

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Stop. Stop. Christ emptied himself by becoming a man and took on the burdens of sinful man.

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A husband's identity is now with his wife because she was given to you by God.

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He didn't make a mistake. Surrender all of your past for the betterment of your wife and for your marriage.

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Give me verse 33. It closes off your last week and this week's together. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

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Marriage is a complementarian relationship and to believe that a wife can ascend above the husband, it doesn't work according to God.

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To think that the husband could abdicate his responsibilities and I should be able to go out with the guys after work and knock down a couple of cold ones before I go home because that's what

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I always used to do. It doesn't work to think that the husband can abdicate raising the children.

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That's the wife's job. All of this doesn't work. We are different but we are in this together.

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It's a complementarian relationship that must... We have tendencies.

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Guys, we have tendencies. Women, you have tendencies and when you get married by the help of the

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Holy Spirit, you've got to deny whatever tendencies are not honoring to this complementarian relationship and I think the exhortation from what you taught last week and what this passage is, place the other above yourself.

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You wanna close this in prayer? Our Father, what can we say to these things but amen.

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It is true. Lord, help us now to live by the truth that you have revealed to us.

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Give us grace this day through the hearing of your word to put into practice the things that we have heard.

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In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. I'll get my report card when we get home. Amen. Amen.