Transcript for:
Ephesians 5:25,33 -Spirit Filled Husbands- Pastor Rick Beaudry 2026-05-03
Found the transcript but need the audio? View Episode
Ephesians chapter five verse 25 through 33. Would you please stand with me as we now I noticed a lot of you men showed up. I mean, you knew that today's your day. Last week, we laid into the women. Right? And the spirit filled wives. Today, we have the spirit filled men, I'll bet your wives grabbed you by the ear and brought you in. You're gonna hear this. Right? And on a beautiful, gorgeous day like this, Ephesians chapter five verse 25. Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loves himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it even as the Lord the church. For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joined unto his wife and they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife, even as himself, and the wife see that she reverence her husband. Father, we take this real serious, Lord. We love the intimacy that you've designed, that you've engineered, the intimacy of a husband and wife, of family, of son and daughter, and grandma and grandpa. Lord, the family is your idea, and the family is under attack. And Lord, we pray evermore that you would equip and strengthen us, that we, Lord, would represent you properly, that marriage depicts. Marriage is a symbol, Lord. It's a it's a picture of your desire for intimacy with with humanity. And we, the church, the bride of Christ, the nation of Israel, the wife of Jehovah, Lord, it's your idea. The two coming together as one, and that oneness, that intimacy that you desire. And Lord, pray today that you this would sink down deep within each of us. And Lord, we'd see our role, we'd see our relationship with one another, and with you, and and with your word. And Lord, we need the empowering. We need to be being filled with the Holy Spirit. We can't do this apart from your help day by day, Lord, as we depend upon you. Help us to be spirit filled wives, spirit filled husbands, having spirit filled children, and spirit filled families, Lord. Because this world is so incredibly wicked. The world, the flesh, the devil, Lord, they're just they're on steroids anymore. But Lord, we have a greater power in you. Lord, you're all powerful. And Lord, we ask that you would help us to tap in, that we would that we would yield, that we'd surrender afresh to the empowering of your holy spirit. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Would you please be seated? You could hear the cry of my heart. This isn't an easy thing. This thing that we call marriage. Being a husband, being a wife, being a a child of God in this age in which we're living is like Sodom and Gomorrah. It's like Lot with his family, you know, very very difficult for Lot. And the only way that I'd know that Lot is saved that Peter lets me know, and righteous Lot, you know, because to me, he's the father of the year, giving his two virgin daughters to the, you know, wanting to give them to the men that were trying to bang down the door after the two angels that came in. But there's hope for you and I. There's hope for all of us in that our righteousness is is in Jesus Christ. And so you see Abraham and Sarah, and we we see that they were pilgrims and sojourners. They were looking for a city whose builder, maker is God. And then we see Lot. He points his tent towards Sodom, and then pretty soon he's in Sodom, and he's at the gate in Sodom. And Peter reminds us that his soul was vexed day by day. I don't think he had a very good marriage. I don't think he had much influence with his son in laws and his other daughters that that chose to stay in Sodom and Gomorrah when the angels came to let him know that time's up. And Abraham had previously tried to pray and to intercede on behalf. If there's 10 righteous, you know, there weren't even 10 righteous. And so we see a lot in his difficulty, his, you know, failure as a father, as a husband, in that he had no influence for the things of God. His wife looking back yearning for Sodom and Gomorrah and her turning into a pillar of salt. Then his two daughters, the two daughters that came with him, who were virgins, you know, and then they they, misconstrued that there was no other males alive after the, fire and brimstone came down and destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities of Zoar and all. So they went up into the hills and then the incestuous relationship that they had with their dad and getting them drunk and all, and we look at that insidious incestuous just filthiness, you know, the whole thing. And yet, we look at the lineage in Matthew chapter one and the lineage of Jesus goes through that filthy, filthy pedigree. Where Ruth is a Moabite, a Gentile bride, and Ruth comes under Boaz, a Jewish man, and Ruth being a type of the church, the Gentile bride, and Boaz, a kinsman and redeemer like Jesus, you know. And so they get married, and Ruth and Boaz begat Obed, and Obed begets Jesse, and Jesse begets David. And David is the root and the offspring of Jesus, you know? And so the the line that Jesus comes through comes through that that sordid, crazy, you know, and and what where would Jesus find a good pedigree? Where would he find one? You know? So he he he allows himself to come by way of Nathan rather than through Solomon because the the the line of Koniah, Jeconiah was cursed and all. And and so we look at this and we're just so humbled. We're just humbled of what it means to be a husband, what it means to be, you know, a father. And I probably would have written a book years ago on parenting and being a husband because I'm such a magnanimous good husband and father, know. But the Lord has greatly humbled me in that my daughter Jessica chose to go her own way. I don't know anything about parenting. I know very little about being a husband. It's all been by the grace of God. It's all been because Jesus has been faithful unto Cathy and I for almost forty five years. And and what we're about to touch on today, what we're about to look at today is God's exhortation to me as a husband. God's trying to teach me, trying to teach us husbands of the ideal of what our role is. Where I came from, my mom blew the family up many many times, seven times. And so all I ever wanted was a family. All I ever wanted was to be married and have a family, and I'm incapable of doing that. I don't have the skill the skill set of many of you guys. You're so loving, magnanimous, you're just so your wife just loves you more today than when she first met you. I'm I'm I rely upon the Lord every day. I rely upon him to help us to finish well. And I don't just want a marriage. I don't just don't wanna endure in a marriage. I want my marriage to be hot. I want my marriage to be fervent. I want the love to be fervent. I wanna have a good marriage, you know, in the last ten, fifteen years, whatever it may be. I asked Kathy the other day, how much time do we have left? And she started calculating how old we were and then I cut her off and and I don't wanna hear it, you know? But but in any event, we we after forty five years, we've we've come a long way, baby. And but it doesn't do any good if we fail now, if we were to trash it and ruin the testimony. The testimony is God is using your marriage. He's using your family to picture to people that don't know him the desire that he has to know them. That he wants them to know him. And he's created each and every person with a God shaped hole in their heart. All creation was subject according to Romans eight verse 20, unto a vanity or a God shaped hole in their heart. And that by reason of him who subjected the same in hope. And so as a little guy, as I'm growing up, and I'm watching mom and dad and everything, there's a hope within me that I can experience a family life. That I can have a wife. That I can love somebody the way I'm supposed to. But I don't have the I don't have the ability. And then it goes from there with an evangelistic persuasion that God showed me, that's the relationship I wanna have with you, Rick. I want you and I to be one. And when you and I are one, then on the human level, in the vertical on the human level, then you're gonna be able to love somebody the way that I've intended as you rely upon me. So intro wives. Submit. Real simple. What are wives to do? Submit. Oh, that's a wrong tone. That's a wrong tone. I better get my toothbrush out if I talk like that. Husbands, love your wives. Verse 28 and verse 33, the word for love is not storge, that's the family love. It's not eros, the erotic love. It's not phileo, the friendship love. It's agapeo, a spiritual love that only a Christian can have. Unbelievers cannot love by design. They cannot love with agapeo. They don't have it. It's a spiritual love that God has given to each of us. Now there's four characteristics of this love that we wanna look at. Number one, this kind of love is a costly love. Guys, it's gonna cost you everything. Gonna cost you everything. There was a comedian, and don't get mad at me. He used to be a Pentecostal preacher. And he'd be on Johnny Carson when I was younger, and he'd look out of the audience and he'd say, any of you out there thinking about getting married? And there'd be some people there that thinking about getting married, and he just went through a divorce. And he'd bend over, and he'd just go, next time you think about getting married, and he'd start doing that. And he was getting through to people, the horror of a bad marriage, of a marital breakup, and how it's just devastating to people, you know. And it was it was it was hilarious. You'd have to see it, but you you gotta be careful. You gotta watch on Johnny Carson on YouTube because he is a cusser. He loves to swear also, but not on Johnny Carson. It'd be blue bleeded out. But in any event, he captured the essence of divorce. He captured the essence of a bad marriage and how a lot of people want what you and I want. My mom wanted it, but she, it was evasive. She couldn't she couldn't obtain it, you know. And so, a lot of turmoil and heartache and pain, enormous amount of pain. And just just I didn't want that. I didn't want to go through that pain. And so, a lot of guys just refrain from being married. I don't wanna go through that. I I don't wanna I don't wanna experience that. And so I know I'm supposed to love her, but is she gonna submit to me? What's first, the chicken or the egg? This is a costly love, guys. He says, verse 25, husbands, love your wives even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. So it's a Calvary love. It cost Jesus everything. He held nothing back. He gave it all. What are you holding back? You trying to hedge your bets? Got someone on the side? Got a secondary plan? What are you willing to sacrifice for this marriage, for this woman that God's brought to you? What's the limit? What did Jesus hold back? Did he hold anything back? Was he like Ananias and Sapphira holding back? Or did he bring it all? Gave it all. Jesus said in John fifteen thirteen, greater love has no man than this than a man laying down his life for his friends. His example, a sacrificial love. And that's the love that husbands are to have for their wives. It's a costly love. It's an unconditional love. For scarcely for a righteous man will one be willing to die and peradventure for a good man, you know, who would be willing to die? But God commended his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. God didn't wait for his bride to be lovable, to be worth dying for. We were enemies of him and he chose, love's a choice, not just an emotion. We hope the emotions are there. Various aspects, the myriad sides of love. We don't want a dry, stale kind of a relationship, but there's times where sickness and heartache and and that love, that honeymoon experience can kinda go out the window. And now it's a decision we make. It's a decision that that I'm gonna sacrifice and I'm gonna go through the good times and the bad times together. I'm gonna go to the end because life is unfair. Where'd you ever think you are in control and that you have some formula to make it all go according to plan? Throw that out the window. Just throw it out there. Christian marriage is obviously the best marriage because spiritual help is our vertical relationship with God, but greater love has no man than this and a man lay down his life for his friends. It's an unconditional love. In Matthew twenty twenty five, we have an example. You know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them. So the disciples are fighting over who's gonna be the greatest, who's gonna be in charge. Wives submit. I'm in charge. We have the example of Jesus. You know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them and they that are great exercise authority upon them, but it shall not be so among you. But whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister, a servant. And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant. Even as the son So here's your example. The example to follow. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. Here's your example. Even as the son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. Servanthood, washing feet, washing dishes. Rob washes more dishes than any guy I know. That's why Vicky smiles so much. Big potlucks and everybody's eating, all big old mess and Rob runs around cleaning all the dishes. That's the secret of a good marriage right there. Right there. That's the secret. Now some of you guys, you you do the shopping and the cooking. Why? Because your wife hates cooking. She hates it. Nothing wrong with that. God's made us all different. The we're to compliment each other. The areas that you're weakened, she's probably strong in. The areas she's weakened, not that she can't cook, it's just you don't like her food. Right? Right. No. Just never say that though. But it's easier to take that mantle of cooking when you see it's something she doesn't like to do. So I can do steaks, and I can do burgers and hot dogs. So I'll try something else sometimes. And, met Kathy. She's like, Rick, by this time it stinketh. It's it's bad, Rick. It's bad. This is bad. So I would never try to outshine her by becoming a great cook. I know that cooking's her thing. She's a foodie. She loves to cook. You know? Does she love to clean up? No. No. Do I help her? No. I don't. I don't. I'm not as good as Rob. Sometimes I do when the pots are real big and she's made me like ribs or she's got that big crock pot thing going on. Yeah. I'll go cook on that stuff and I'll take it over to the sugar shack, the bigger sink, and and I'll work on it, soak it, and and clean that stuff. But but that wasn't always the case. We had dishwashers, you know. You throw that stuff into the dishwasher, and and we don't have a dishwasher anymore. So so in any event, when we're first married, I never asked her to go out to work with me at night. She's a stay at home mom. And I would work in the day, and I'd come home and eat, and I'd go back out at night. She never once, that I can think of, went out there and worked with me. But that's okay. I knew her role. Her role is to be there with the children. That's what she wanted. She used to work at the telephone company and she quit and she dedicated herself to being a stay at home mom. Some of you have careers and your mom, when you get home, and you cook, and you clean, and you you do it all. You're super women. I don't know how you pull it off, but many of you do. You have a you have a a system of doing, and I don't know where your husband comes in. I mean, I do the grass, and I do all the outside stuff, and I've done a lot of cleaning of bathrooms and vacuuming and any of the heavy stuff that her back hurts and all. We've been a team, and we've learned how to how to work together. When the girls were younger, they do a lot of the dishes. I don't know why the dishes are thing, but J Vernon McGee's had said it a long time ago, husbands, if you want your wives to know that they love you, wash the dishes. Why is that such a hard thing? But why is it gained so much attention, you know? I don't know. But everybody's got a system they gotta work out. And a lot of you ladies, you'd rather be outside riding the riding lawn mower and cutting the grass and let him do the dishes. Let him do the laundry. Let him go shopping and doing the cooking. That's great. You worked it out. You have a system. But she needs to know that you're willing to lay your life down for her, and and that you're willing to serve. Kathy's on a new kick recently. This is first month of doing this, but I'm finding myself rubbing her feet every night now. It says right here that Jesus, you know, washed their feet. Well, I haven't her feet are clean. But I'm cranking on these feet, you know. And then give me the other one, you know. And then she likes her hands rubbed and her arms and stuff. She says it's good for circulation and calms her down. And don't know why she'd be so stressed with me around, but she she gets stressed, you know. And more and more as I'm driving, she's getting really old. She's a real critic of my driving. There's a pothole there. God, you're getting old. Man, you're getting old. And so we gotta work this stuff out, you know? And working it out is she's never gonna drive. I'm gonna drive because if I let her drive, oh my gosh, you know? I I I think my life's over. But she's a good driver though. She's got a CDL, the whole thing. But these are all marital things. These are things all, you know, that are strewn through and all. And you know, I saw her fit right in as a stay at home mom with our two girls and homeschool them, and take them to gymnastics and all the different things, but, you know, early on and involved and and just a great, great, great wife and dinner when I get home. Didn't eat out a whole lot. The budget wouldn't allow it, and and just a wonderful wonderful preparer and homemaker, we used to call him. Right? And phenomenal. And now today, she teaches the kids on Thursday. She homeschools the grandkids, you know. She's teaching them how to read. How special is that? That a grandma would get to watch her grandkids teach her grandkids how to how to read. So what I'm trying to say is, in first Peter chapter three verse seven, it says, husbands, take knowledge of your wives. I have to take knowledge of this woman that God's given me. In order to love her, I have to try to discover who God has made her. And you're never gonna exhaust that because there's always a different nuance or a different facet of who she is. And he's made her different than you, and so a lot of times you're not gonna understand. But if you will listen, you know, she'll kinda let you know what her what she likes and what she doesn't like. And husbands, take knowledge of your wives. Be considerate of your wife, lest your prayers be hindered. And so the Lord's gonna say, I'm not listening to you. You're not listening to your wife. And if you listen to your wife, she'll let you know what she likes and doesn't like. It's incumbent upon you to not force her into your mold, into what you want. That's domineering, that's dominance. Not to be that dominance, not to be that forcing her to be like your mom and and always telling her what your mom did or my mom this or whatever. You you you don't go there. You don't do that stuff. She's unique, and God's brought her into your life for a reason, and there's gonna be death. It's a costly love. You're gonna have to die to self. You're gonna have to die to things that that you thought were aright. The washing of the feet, the dishes, you're gonna be the chiefest. So who can find a virtuous woman for her prices far above rubies? Happy Mother's Day. She's amazing. Right? Take heed, man. This is an atonement love. She was purchased with his precious blood. So you remember when Paul is admonishing the the elders, the pastors in Acts chapter 20, and he's letting them know that for the space of three years that I've that I've night and day with tears that I've warned them, that I've given them the full counsel of God. And and then he he says, take heed to these pastors. These the these people have been purchased with his own blood. Husbands, take heed. Your wife's been purchased. It's an atonement love. It's a Calvary love. She's been purchased with the blood of Jesus. She belongs to Jesus. She's on loan to you. And, you know, you guys know that I keep asking Kathy if she'll If we can have a wedding ceremony in Jerusalem in the millennium that Jesus would officiate over. She says, no Rick, this contracts till death do us part. Sorry bud. One lifetime's enough, you know. So enjoy it now guys while you got her. She was purchased with his precious blood. It's a costly love. Secondly, it's a cleansing love. Verse 26. That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. That he might present it to himself a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. Is your wife filthy? Is she stained? Is she stained by sin? Does she feel ugly? Does she feel worthless? She feel condemned, guilty, hopeless, impoverished in spirit? Is there a power struggle going on in the home? Someone's been neglecting her. Someone's been lying to her. That's not the bride of Christ. That's a result of Revelation chapter 12 verse 10, the accuser of the brethren, the devil. When the heart, the mouth speaks. Words are powerful, both positive and negative. And if you're belittling, if you're gaslighting, if you're trying to dominate another person psychologically, that's demonic. You don't try to break her so that you can take carte blanche control. Why would you want to? Why would you want to cause the spark in her to go out? And yet, so many men are so incredibly insecure that they think they've got to dominate the dominator. And so there's this power struggle that goes on and this marital relationship gets ugly. Filthy words, filthy images, condemnation. You're a loser. I know guys that would tell their wife they're stupid because they didn't go to college. Over and over and over again, pontificating, grandstanding, that he had a college education and she's stupid. What kind of marriage do you think he had? Once the kids were raised, guess what she did? She took half his money and left. And she flaunted her affair with the man in town here. Flaunted it. Anger, stewing for years, not being loved like Christ loved the church. One time a guy said to me, yeah, the only reason Kathy stays with you is because you're poor. Because you don't have any money. I'm like, well, fat chance, man. But think about that. He's thinking he's connected with his wife because he has so much money. The money didn't keep her. She went off on her own with half the money when she had the chance and that's such a that that's such a common thing. And then the husband, he's trying so hard and then he loses his job. And then the wife begins to accuse. The wife belittles. The wife tells him he's a loser. She berates him every day. She doesn't respect him, reverence him, and treat him as a leader within the home. And the devil's causing a great wedge to come between the husband and the wife. This power struggle that the devil, the devil, the accuser of the brethren is behind. And he's using the words when he says, you're a Jezebel, and she says, you're a Judas, and you're a loser and a whiner, and all those other things. And then the cursing that comes in. These are Christian people, Christian marriages. It's filthy. The things that come in through the television and computers and and the the imagery in our culture and all, it's a filthy culture. And if you're not careful guys, your wife will struggle under the burden of the filth. It's your job to cleanse. To cleanse her. To cleanse her from the lies that she's hearing. Maybe not even from you. Maybe it's somebody else in your circle that's accusing her. She never feels like the house is clean enough when your mother comes over. Her mother has carte blanche to criticize the raising of the kids and everything, and you don't step in and protect your wife. You're afraid of your mother. All she all she needs is for you to step up. She needs to be cleansed of that guilt that's being wielded. Sense of hopelessness, impoverished in spirit. And you as a husband, you need to take her to a bible believing church. A bible teaching church so that she can be washed and cleansed from the lies of the culture. She doesn't need psychotherapy. She doesn't need the self help messages that the myriad of churches bring out today because everybody wants a better marriage. Well, why is your marriage in the tank? Because you're not in God's word. The problem's vertical. It's not horizontal. So they're always dealing on the horizontal with the latest book that's been written by some guru. Some You know, Freud and Roy and those guys hated Jesus Christ. Hated him. And boasted that they destroy Christianity in a generation or two. Prayer and the bible are taken out of the schools. An existential humanism, relativism, it runs rampant where people rely upon feelings and they they make their own truth instead of the absolute truth of God's word. You need to be a student of the word in order to be a spiritual leader within the home. You need to be the one that initiates and says that we're going to church on Sunday. You need to be the one that stays and watches the kids while mom gets some time away in a ladies bible study or something. Or some time to have a devotional or whatever. And and make sure it's bible teaching. Everything's gotta be bible teaching. You want entertainment? That's like, you go to school, you got your main classes, and then you've got the extra ones. You know, you like to weave baskets or something over here. But you keep the main thing the main thing. The extracurricular, I'm okay with Christian concerts and all. I got saved at a concert. That's not the main thing, Sunday morning. Sunday morning's gotta be get into it. Get into God's word. This is the time we have to get together and to be in God's word for God to speak to us through his word. And if your wife is drifting, she's been watching Oprah or in the old days, they'd watch the they still have them today, the soap operas. Soap operas are on at night now, and the guys are cowboys soap operas. I can't take it. It's all soap opera. Everybody fighting all the time. Just smack them in the mouth. You know? End of story. But no. They gotta talk the guy to death. You know? I like the tracker guy. He just shoots him. No talking. You mess with the kid, you're going down with him. But they got so much psychology mixed in and the bizarre and and a lot of it's vulgarity and can't even watch it, can't even go near it. It's filth. Not gonna allow that filth in our hearts and mind because as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. Someone's been neglecting her. Someone's been lying to her. You gotta build her up. You gotta edify her, strengthen her. Have family devotions. Have time in God's word together. Reading and praying and seeking the mind of the Lord. And as I said, facilitate a time where your wife can have her own private time with the Lord. Kathy was so busy during the daytime with the kids that she would wait until I go to bed and she'd have her she's a night owl, and she'd have her devotional time like 11:30, twelve at night. Her time alone with the Lord. The kids are down. Everybody's down. If she tried to do it in the morning first thing, the kids are gonna interrupt it. Everyone's gonna interrupt it. So during the day, she can have things on the television like Little House on the Prairie or some different things while they're getting breakfast ready or things like that, but but then it goes off and you you do things that are more constructive. You make little play dates with other Christian ladies that you know, and and the kids, like I said, are in gymnastics and swimming and various events like that, their interaction and all. These are things that a mom plans. And so you figure it out. And you may have to, as guys, to give up hunting for a season or surfing or the gym or whatever your interests are for a season. She needs to know that she's loved supremely. My wife has never liked the fact that I have friends. If I go to California and I I make arrangements to go see my friends, she does not like that to this day. She wants me all to herself. So in knowing that and learning that, I would set aside time that maybe I would spend with friends, go hanging out, know. You're married now. No hanging out. But I said it's a season. Later on, you might have a friend that has a wife that she likes and now you can go do things together, you know. Go camping like Andy and Tanya with Kathy and I. But she's a very private person, and and that's who the Lord gave me, and so I honored that. She liked to be with her family, do things with the family, birthdays and all that. With my family, my family was volatile. My family was get down to San Diego, go there for the Christmas. If we spent the night at my mom's house, it'd be one night, she's not getting the kids. Whereas Kathy's mom has kids all she wants. My mom, it's danger zone. The guy she's with, we don't know this this guy, this new guy. He looks pretty spooky. So we get there and the heater's all the way up to about 90 in San Diego. It's smoking. The smoke's up to the ceiling. I can't breathe. So the room that you're sleeping in, you got the window open. You just try. I can handle that one night to honor my mom. And that's it. If my wife's uncomfortable with the kids, my mom's asking to take the kids for the weekend or whatever, if my wife's uncomfortable with it, I honor my wife. Sorry, mom. And Kathy was secure. Secure in knowing that I'd lay down any relationship, anything for her. God's love is a cleansing love. His atonement has saved us from the penalty of sin. The power of sin and the very presence of sin. If you're reminding your wife of her past failures, you're in sin. Because God's forgiven us. He's cast our sins from east to west. He remembers them no more. You're being a demon. You're being demonic in leveraging and using a past sin or a past failure. We've been washed in the blood of the lamb. Atonement at onement. She's clean. We've been washed in the blood of the lamb. He sanctifies his bride. He makes her holy, no spot, no blemish, no wrinkle. She radiates his love, his glorious bride, the church. Now, being a grandpa, there's some pictures I have of Kathy where I think, hey, she's really radiant. She they say that wives will reflect their husbands. Right? If you're treating her good, there's gonna her eyes are gonna glisten. I love that when they're pregnant. When they're pregnant, they're really radiant. They're really, whoo, amazing. And now I look at little Ruthie, and I see this picture of her in her cubbies uniform, Frawanas, and she's got this radiant, beautiful and I think of the bride of Christ, That just beauty and that radiance that just emanates from from when you catch the kids in the right the right moment and all. And and our wives, they still have their moments, don't they? As husbands, we still have our moments. A lot of what we do is we're looking in the past when things were better or whatever. In the present tense, what makes us happy now? For me, it's a steak. I get radio with a steak in front of me. I like going away with Kathy. I like going on a date with her. I like the excitement. She likes the excitement of taking a little trip. Going to Cannon Beach or up to Vancouver, Canada and spending two, three days and and just kind of the, we're on a date again. Or in the summertime going to where we're from and riding on our bikes and going by and seeing my old house and her old house and the school and all those memories, all those things. And she's just in her element. She's just so excited. I never ever ever thought Kathy would be a pastor's wife. Previously, when I was self employed, you know, she's the stay at home mom, the homemaker. Now we come up here, and we're doing bible studies down there, and it's it's stretching her to be around people. And then and then we come up here and, man, she's really having to die to self, isn't she? She's gonna have to be around people. She's gonna have to open up. She's teaching a Sunday school. She's teaching ladies bible study. She's doing ladies retreats and stuff. She's way out of her element. Way out there. She never saw it coming. She said, Rick, if I had known you're gonna be a pastor, I'd have never married you. Because she loves her anonymity. She loves living under the radar. She doesn't like the scrutiny and the light upon her and everybody judging and all. So we as husbands, we gotta really build them up and we also have to be aware of when you come home, kinda like Samson. He comes home and his bride to be has got something going on. What what happened? What happened while I was at work today? You've been plowing with my heifer, you guys. Don't don't say that to her. That's what he said. What influence? Who who came to the door? One time a guy came to the door to sell her a vacuum. And I'm in the cleaning business. I must have five or six different vacuums, you know. And this guy taught her, now your husband's gonna say no. He's gonna say no. So this guy's teaching her about sales resistance and, you know, the only way you're not getting this is if your husband doesn't agree to this. And so this guy really, really did a good job of getting in her head, and she was gonna win. She was gonna win that argument how this this vacuum would change her life. Kinda like going to the chiropractor. World peace and all, you know, the first time you go. They used to do that. They used to they used to make you watch a video that it was coming upon world peace if you go with, you know, the chiropractor. And so I had to talk to Kathy, and I had to I had to talk her down from the cliff, man. She's just like so into it and all. But I knew that somebody influenced her. Or sometimes, I I am sad to say it, but early on in the marriage, I'd say, have you been talking to your mom today? Because her mom wasn't a believer yet. She wasn't strong in the Lord. So her mom had a lot of doubts about me, and a lot of seeds that she'd sow doubts within Kathy. And so now, all of a sudden, you have to answer a million questions about everything you're you're doing because there's this lack of faith and uncertainty. So a husband's gotta take time and go through it again and and make sure that we recognize where this negative influence is coming in. And and later, you know, her mom and Bill and everybody got saved and it was different. It was a different story. Although there's that personality trait of a woman that's been scorned after 25 of marriage, there's always that uncertainty that she has that maybe Rick's gonna do this to my daughter. And so, again, it comes down to faith. It comes down to people focusing on the Lord, pouring the word of God into them. We're to tell our wives how beautiful they are as the bride of Christ. In Revelation nineteen eight, as we studied last week, it was granted that she should be buried in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints. Jesus is counting on you men to help prepare his bride for that day that she sees him face to face. You're a part of that sanctification, that washing. She's already been washed in the blood. Now you're gonna wash her in God's word. And you're gonna you're gonna pull out the weeds. You're gonna pull out the stuff that's not true. That's why it's so dangerous in many cases to mix the world with Christianity. If she's gonna go to college or she's already been to college, if she's has a doctorate, be very careful that the psychology doesn't dominate the Christianity, the word of God. Because many many young people are lost to public indoctrination. You're teaching them the word of God when they're young. They are in all the youth groups. They know the verses, but they don't even know how to defend their faith before many of their teachers in college. And they throw it aside because it's not one of the ingredients to be prosperous. And everybody knows the one thing the parents want is for their kids to be prosperous. And you can be prosperous without Jesus. So they let it go. In fact, it'd be much easier to be prosperous without Jesus in the secular world, in the workplace. So you want that kid that stands up in the classroom and lets the teacher know how wrong they are. You say, oh, Rick, that's suicide. That's they'll get expelled. Well, better to get expelled than to be a chameleon, to be as wishy washy as Lot and have no backbone and no strength, and to be worthless for the kingdom of God. What's it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul, or what would a man give in exchange for his life? So, if you're in that kind of a relationship, that kind of a marriage, make sure that the word of God is dominant, that the word of God is the absolute word of God. Or or or just go all the way in the world. Don't go halfway. Don't play games with God's word. Not gonna work. You're gonna be going to Christian counselors using psychology to try and figure out your mood swings. There's no such thing as a Christian psychologist. And you're gonna pay him $75 an hour to go to these churches that have these counselors to listen to all of the problems on the horizontal level. When the problem is the pastor didn't teach the word of God. The sheep are not being fed. Your wife's not being fed. If she's not fed, then she can't be strong spiritually. If she's strong spiritually, then she can see intellectually where she's being lied to. And she'll learn more and more to not rely upon the emotions and look to the absolute truth of God's word and choose to walk by faith. How many times I've said to Kathy, Kathy, we've gotta die. We have to die and let Christ live. Kathy, we've gotta walk by faith. I don't have the answer to those questions. We started out walking by faith, we need to continue walking by faith. And God is transforming and changing us, hon. He's gonna he's gonna finish the work he's begun in us. And there's other times where I've had to look Kathy in the eye and I've had to say, honey, I can't meet that need that you're expressing. I can't meet that deepest deepest need that God's created you with. Only Jesus can. And I'll do my best to point you to Jesus and I'll do my best to model Christ in the home and in our relationship. But in my failure, in my weakness, in my humanity, you need to look beyond me to Jesus to be so enraptured, so in love with him that your heart is full. That your heart is full. That he's your husband. That he's your maker. And that's a wise woman. In John seventeen seventeen, Jesus said, sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. We're to wash them in the water of God's word. To sanctify means to make holy. We're to cultivate. We're to cultivate this relationship. You don't wanna neglect this relationship. You don't wanna put it on hold. You don't wanna be such a workaholic. I know it's hard to make ends meet, especially if she's a stay at home mom. If there aren't two incomes anymore, it's difficult. But you wanna prioritize with the time that you do have together and prioritize with the spiritual. The spiritual things. There's no way in God's green earth that I would try a marriage and the raising of kids without attending a bible teaching church. It to me, it's the epitome of arrogance and pride to act like you can do it on your own. You can't. You're gonna develop problems that are gonna fester and grow. It may not seem at first, but it's gonna spread. And there's no best life now sermon, sermonettes for christianettes that's gonna solve it. It's death to self. It's getting to know Jesus. It's allowing his word to be uppermost, to be paramount. So you cultivate this, you pull out the weeds, you pull out the lies. She's on the phone. She's on Instagram. She's watching television. She's got girlfriends on the phone, and you gotta be careful that iron is sharpening iron. That she has friends that are gonna build her up. If any lies are coming in, I mean, there's so much AI lies now. Kathy goes through a whole list of things that she learned on on Instagram, AI or whatever. And man, it's just stuff like you thought you knew, and all of a sudden everything you thought you knew is not true anymore. Cup of food you're eating, the air you're breathing, everything. And finally, said, time out. Time out. These guys are lying. They're lying. It's psychological. They're trying to get everybody worried and everybody all amped out and everything. I pray over my food, you know. I I I drink water out of a glass bottle. I don't want the plastics. I'm doing what I can. I'm getting the minerals. I'm exercising. I'm doing the best I can while he's poisoned. I I can't control the poi alright. If that food's poison, I won't buy that food. But I'm gonna pray over my food and ask the Lord to sanctify it. Because I don't know anymore if I can eat pork or chicken anymore. Bill Gates is putting the mRNA vaccines and all this stuff and everything. I mean, it's crazy loony tunes out there, but I don't want it to affect our home with this anxiety. So I gotta pluck that stuff out and I've gotta focus back on the Lord. And I love that she researches everything and all that, but but I I've gotta make sure that that that there's peace, that there's faith mixed in. Doesn't mean we put our head in the sand and not evaluate and look at how they're trying to deceive us and poison us and all that. That's wise, that's wisdom. But there's certain things that are lies from the wicked one. And then we plant the word. We've gotta keep planting the word of God in our home and in our marriage. Keep planting God's word. Like Pamela, when we went to her house, she had bible studies all the time playing in her home from the CSN. When you drive in your car, bible studies, worship music. Keep planting the word of God in the hearts and minds of your family. It's time well spent and it pays dividends because God's word doesn't come back void. It's gonna bear fruit, the right kind of fruit, a woman of faith. He says in James one twenty one, lay apart all filthiness and super fluidity of naughtiness and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. So plant God's word. Speak the things of the Lord. Remind each other of God's word. Remind each other of prophetic truth. Kathy is so cute this week. She took a picture of a donkey, and she put it on Facebook. And she's been saying for years that if ever we went back and got a house again and had a little corral or whatever, that she'd wanna buy a donkey. And I said, why do you want a donkey? I just want one, Rick. She goes, I like the cross that's on their back. It reminds me of the cross of Calvary, you know? That Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, and they have a cross there that God put a cross. And it's fascinating, she put that on on Facebook and, you know, there's a lot of folks that didn't know that, but Kathy's been telling me about that year after year after year for so long. And she loves that. She loves how God Maybe that's why she calls me her jackass, you know? She says that's King James biblical, you know. It's in the bible, Rick. Why keep waiting for her to call me lord like Sarah did Abraham? Let me tell you. She said, you'd be waiting a long time for that. And we laugh. His love, his grace, his forgiveness, his faithfulness. We'll remind our wives of God's word, of his faithfulness. We're to remind her that one day that he she's gonna hear the Lord say, well done, thou good and faithful servant. You've been faithful over a few things. I'm gonna make you rule over much. How much condemnation do you think the devil can bring into her mind, into our home, because of our daughter Jessica? It's a constant bleeding ulcer in our heart. Raised in the same home as Brittany. Same home. Same parents. Where did we go wrong? What could we have done better? I mean, this is a woman that dedicated herself to being a mother. And I mean, she's a good mother and wife. And that's the thanks she gets. I mean, come on. Give her that. They're already demeaned and and beat down because they don't have a career. Oh, you just oh, you do. Oh, you don't have no degree. Oh, uh-oh. Oh, you know? Yeah. I'm a mother. I'm a homemaker. Man, you have to defend yourself nowadays. What do you do all day? Those are fighting words with my daughter, Britney, with seven kids. What do you do all day? What do you do all day? And then the devil takes one of our daughters captive in this war. The devil uses as means of neutralizing Cathy and I in the field, in the field of battle. Our daughter's a casualty in this war. She was fine till we came here and began to serve the Lord. Devil don't play fair. And I kept thinking it was a short term thing. A phase that she'd grow out of and, gosh, she's 44 years old this summer. How many more decades do you wanna continue in this way? And now she won't even talk to her mom? Because we told her no to $70 she wanted on PayPal? 70 after 70 after 70 after 70. We start to think, well, maybe they're doing drugs again. Because they're working, it doesn't add up. They've got money. Where where's where's all their money going? So you don't wanna enable in that way. And you tell her no one time and now you're written off. Mother's Day coming up. Give her that. She's a good mom. Sometimes I feel worthless as a father. And Kathy will say, Rick, Adam and Eve had a perfect father and look what they did. And I think that's true. We all have free will. I can't force them. I can't make them. It's a pretty simple lifestyle. This love's a costly love. It's a cleansing love. Thirdly, it's a caring love. Verse 28. So ought men ought men love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loves himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh but nourishes and cherishes it even as the Lord the church. Love her more than yourself, guys. Don't buy into the psychobabble that your problem is you don't love yourself enough. I got low self esteem. No. It says right here that you're madly in love with yourself. That if you have a little owie, the whole world stops and she's gonna put a band aid on it for you because you can't handle it. Everything revolves around your comfort. And that's what the Lord's saying here. Paul's saying, love her the way you love yourself. The way that you manage the budget to always have what you wanna buy available. To do what you wanna do with free time. Sleep in, whatever. We're gonna go eat where I wanna eat. We're gonna go on vacation where I wanna go. We're gonna do everything what I wanna do because I'm the king of this castle. You know the hardest thing for me in the world to lay my life down for Kathy and and I fail. I I admit I fail. Early on, it was, let's go shopping. I can't do that. It's mindless idiocy stuff. It's just crazy, kooky town stuff. Just get in there, kill it, and get out. But we gotta look at everything on the shelf, every label, and the kids aren't behaving, and people at Costco are bumping into you. They're so aggressive and all that. Sometimes I go with her just to protect her. Just to protect her from these crazy people, you know. Then when Britney goes there with the kids, they stink eye her and they get mad at her because her kids are everywhere, you know. They're aggressive people. I hear the one up in Gig Harbor, the people are nicer. What is it about Silverdale? What is it? Is it too small a space? And I've been doing this a lot of years, man. A lot of years. And I went into Harbor Freight the other day and it's crazy What in are what are all these women doing in here? This a man's story, you know? They got big carts and they don't know what they want. They're getting in my way and the aisles are real tight and ugh. So then, I think I'm doing good early on because she's in the groove of she does the shopping, she I don't, and thank God for Amazon, she can do it from bed, know, and that stuff comes right there. And but here's a new one. And I I just don't know that I can generate enough love to do this. And in fact, I told her on her birthday, no, I wouldn't do it. I said, what do you wanna do for your birthday? You wanna go to, you know, Canna Beach? Wanna go to Vancouver? Wanna go no, no, I don't wanna spend the money. I wanna spend the money. Well, what do you wanna do? I don't know. I don't know. And Britney got her into this and they like to go thrifting, thrift storing. And over in Port Orchard, there's all these little thrifting stores downtown and little, ah. And I went on Britney's birthday, I went through there with the kids because I hang out with the kids on a sunny day and all that. But that's it. That's that I'm good for ten years now. Okay? Ten years. So I wanna go thrifting and I'm like, I can't do that. I'll do big things for you, but I I I can't I can't do it. And so she got Britney to go with her. Now, I don't know, I might pay for that eventually because that was a good way to show her that I'm willing to lay down lay down one day for her, you know. One day. But I I couldn't even lay down one day to go do what she wants to do, which is her thing. I I can't even comprehend how anybody would wanna do that, but she's she's doing it for you ladies. She's secretly buying something for Mother's Day for each of you. So she's gotta keep going back to the thrift stores all over Bremerton, Port Orchard, everywhere, and she goes a couple times a week. And she finds oh, there's another one. Oh, there's another one. And I'm not gonna ruin it for you, but she she loves you ladies. Praise the Lord. I think you're gonna see how much she loves you. But it's a caring love. Love her more than yourself. Marriage is death to self. On the horizontal plane, you come to me with a symptom, I know it's selfishness. How do we alleviate that selfishness? Vertical. Focus on the Lord. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. All these other things be added unto you. Die to self, put Jesus first. Add Jesus to the equation. Too much self. Too much I I I I I die to self. Cathy, we gotta die. Jesus needs to reign supremely. And so we give the picture of the cross. And the problem on the horizontal is a problem vertical. I've neglected my devotion with the Lord. I've neglected my time with the Lord. I haven't had time to go to church and bring my family to church. Now there's a crisis. Oh, the Lord's got my attention. I'm going back to church. I'm going back to reading God's word with my wife. I'm going back to prayer with my wife. That's the insurance. That's the protection I need. That protection of the Holy Spirit. It's a caring love. I care enough for her that I'm gonna make sure that my family is in a bible teaching. I have I'm sorry I have to keep saying that. It's not just church. Nowadays, all the churches used to teach the bible. They don't anymore. A bible teaching church is rare. You need to find a bible teaching church. If you don't like this one, find one. But make sure it's not a pseudo psychobabble feel good sermonette for Christianettes because that's not going to sustain you. It's not gonna feed. And she's gonna start to think, oh, I need to fill this void in my life because there's a man at work that's flirting with me now. My husband's not showing me that attention. I I don't have that honeymoon experience anymore and everything's flittering and fading away and she's vulnerable. She's vulnerable for a fall. And you made her that way by not protecting her, not cultivating that walking relationship with the Lord. Not allowing the Holy Spirit to guard her heart and mind. She's the weaker vessel. Protect her from the seduction of the wicked one. Not that she's stupid, she's not stupid. She's just more vulnerable. Love her more than yourself. Care for her every need, physically, emotionally, spiritually. Be her best friend. Be your wife's best friend. Best friends forever. That's how I look at Kathy. She's my best friend. She she's been with me through thick and thin, through good and bad. She is the most faithful person I've ever met. Faithful to Jesus, faithful to her children, faithful to me. Very, very faithful. Verse 30, for we are members of his body and of his flesh and of his bones, the two become one. The oneness, the intimacy of marriage. Four characteristics of this love, men. It's a costly love, it's a cleansing love, it's a caring love, and fourthly and finally, it's a cleaving love. Verse 31. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joined or in Genesis, it's cleave unto his wife and they too shall be one flesh. Genesis two twenty four. This word cleave speaks of taking two two by fours and gluing them together, and now they become as one. Now divorce is a picture of taking those apart. Splintered. Parts of her, parts of me. The splintering. And the splintering in the lives of your children. It'll affect grandchildren. It'll affect your entire family. We'll be traumatized by the breakdown of your marriage and your home. And people looking on to your testimony for Jesus as Christians are gonna look on and say, what happened? How big's their God? Where'd they go wrong? Do they see Jesus in your marriage? Can people see Jesus? Do you cause people to become jealous because they want a relationship that you have with your spouse? And then you're able to tell them the secret? It's Jesus. Jesus is everything. Jesus is the difference. I tried it in my first marriage. I tried doing it, you know, according to the code and it didn't work. And then I got saved. And the Lord transformed and changed me. He's continuing to transform and change me. And then he changed my wife and now Christ is ruling and reigning. There's a mutual submission. There's a love that emanates from our walking relationship with him. That's the glue that holds us together. Till death do us part. So what if you lasted forty years and then failed? So what if you went forty five or fifty and then cheated on your wife and divorced. All for nothing. Well, we had some good years. Well, what happened to you Philip? Well, I found out I was a perv at 78 years old. 78? You were almost finished. You wrote so many books. You were you were revered. What happened? I got ripped off. I believed a lie. I quit living it. Just went through the motions. Got picked off by the wicked one. My flesh gave in. All understandable, But you and I need to be aware ahead of time of how the devil is prowling like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. A cleaving love glued together, inseparable. Malachi two sixteen says, God hates divorce. God's love is an everlasting love. Will your love last a lifetime? Last week, I talked to the the men and let them know about the love that a woman needs. I interjected that marriage is not a prison sentence. The solution to a bad marriage is a solution for a husband that is clueless might be a divorce. That's overstepping the bounds maybe, but not really. Because then I said, well, either that or murder. God provided a written divorce, Jesus said, for the hardness of men's heart. It's not God's ideal. God hates divorce. But if you're a lunkhead and you continue to be a lunkhead and you don't get it, she can only take it for so long. And coming out of my mom's situation, I so hated divorce. I hated it. When I'd see Christian couples cheating on each other and on their second marriages and I was so judgmental. And then I had two daughters. I look at it so different with two daughters because I want their husbands to treat them right. And if they're not gonna treat them right, my daughter's not in a prison sentence. You gotta know who you got, and you better be grateful and thankful, and you better treat her right. Not that I'm gonna advise, hey, divorce the dirtbag. No. Hang in there. Do your part. You do your part. And I would counsel them, put the spiritual first, be in church, seek the Lord, seek the might of the Lord. I pray for German Jessica every day, Lord, help them put you first. Lord, help them surrender unto you. I don't care what their symptoms are. I know this the problem is vertical. But I wouldn't counsel my daughter in a marriage where the guy's beaten on her, berating her, belittling her to stay in that marriage. They don't know what they got. They have a prize and they don't appreciate you. No woman should have to put up with that. That's what divorce is for because otherwise, people would be committing murder. And so God gives a way of escape for unrepentant sin. Many a husband, many a wife would receive their spouse even after an affair. If it was a one time isolated thing. But most of the time, he's a serial unfaithful man. He won't stop. Well, she's she's trying to get him to stop, and he won't stop. She won't stop. She keeps doing it. She keeps being unfaithful to him. She's on her second affair. What do I do? And that's the grounds of divorce, is unrepentant sin. The objective is to bring them to repentance, restoration, and forgiveness. But you can't restore and forgive until they stop doing what they're doing. Trust needs to be reestablished. And we thank the Lord that he's the God of the second chance. We thank the Lord that many of us have had trouble in marriages and problems, and God, in spite of our weakness, in spite of our failure, he's given us a good second half of our marriage. Yes. Or a second marriage or a third marriage. Divorce can break a man, can break a woman. It can bring you to the place of just just putty. You got deceived. It isn't greener on the other side. It's not better. The problem was vertical. The problem was in your walk with the Lord, and you neglected your walk with the Lord. And now your eyes are open to the truth. And now as you refocus and you put your eyes back on the Lord, now there's a foundation for your life to be built upon because now you're a doer of the word, not a hearer only. The hearer only builds on sand. And when the storms come, the difficulty comes, his whole edifice, his whole house, his whole relationship breaks down. But the doer of the word, the storms come against your marriage, come under attack, and you're able to continue because Jesus is your rock. Jesus is the foundation of your marriage. It's pretty simple, isn't it? I should write a book on it. Oh, we already have one. This is a good marital counseling book. God hates divorce. God loves his love's an everlasting love. Will your love last a lifetime? Verse 32. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church, the bride of Christ. Marriage is God's idea. He created each of us with an emptiness, as I said. A God shaped hole in your heart. Marriage will not fill that God shaped hole in your heart. That guy you're dreaming of marrying, that girl you're dreaming of marrying, she's not going to fill the void and the emptiness in your life. Only Jesus can do that. Amen. And so first and foremost, you gotta be married to Jesus. You gotta allow him to fill your heart and life. And marriage is just the picture of the intimacy available to you and I spiritually as the bride of Christ. And so marriage is God's idea. He created each of us with this emptiness, this longing for love. And guys, the wives have an incredible longing to be loved, to be loved supremely. If she knows that you love her more than anything else, she'll go through anything with you. But if she suspects that you got a wandering eye and you might leave her if this business venture, this thing you're wanting to do doesn't work, she's like, no. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. You're gonna leave me behind. She's gotta know that you love her no matter what. It's not good for man to be alone, so God joined Adam and Eve. The two became one. The oneness, the intimacy designed by God was intended to illustrate, to communicate, to reveal God's desire for fellowship, for intimacy, for communion with man. But man rejected God. I I grew up finishing high school with a friend of mine, Andy's family, and they weren't Christians, but man, they were in love with each other. And they laughed a lot. What I saw on the outside was something that I wanted. I liked that friendship they had, that relationship. My mom was a screamer. My mom was a raging a raging screamer. And she has some husbands that were that way too, but but mister and missus Cheerson weren't that way. And there's a peace and a gentleness and a laughter and a love and and that that pricked my heart. I want that. I want that. I I don't know how. And the Lord, the Lord's the answer to the how. This is a great mystery I speak concerning Christ and the church, a great mystery indeed. Why? Why would God send his only begotten son knowing he would be despised and rejected of men? Knowing he would be crucified? The answer is love. For God so loved you and me. Love makes itself vulnerable. Love takes a chance because we have the Lord. We have Jesus. And you're thinking, man, don't wanna get married. I don't wanna go through that kind of hurt. Why would I do that? I watch my mom and dad. I watch this crazy. I don't wanna go anywhere near that. Well, once you're loved, once Jesus fills that void, once he comes into your heart, now you you know the secret. That everybody has free will. Everybody can choose to come to go. Can two walk together except they'd be agreed? There's no guarantee, but you got the best chance for success at that point. That God's working in her heart, he's working in your heart, and yes, nobody can betray you, nobody can hurt you to the depth of a spouse. We know that. But we're willing to take our chances. If you don't love, people will miss it. They'll misinterpret marriage, Christ and the church. In Genesis 19, there's a picture of this emptiness. Two angels came to visit Lot, they came to his house and Lot was at the gate by this time, meaning he's a mover and shaker in the community. Lot had a couple daughters that were married to a couple guys, son in laws. He had a wife and then he had two virgin daughters. And they came into the street, these two new guys in the community and these angels that looked like men and Lot implored them to not be in the city, not stay outside in the night. Come into my house. Come in. You gotta come. And and they they came to his house and then the men of the city, young and old, came to the door of Lot and they began to demand that Lot send out the two men, and they're not shy about what they're gonna do, their intentions, that we might know them. Know them means that we might rape them. That we might sodomize these two new men that we haven't sodomized yet. That's how blatant it is. And Lot says, no, no, no, no, no. He he's gonna protect these two angels. And so Lot, wanting to become father of the year says, no, I got two virgin daughters. You can violate them. And they're like, no, we don't want your virgin daughters. Who are you to tell us what to do? You're a foreigner and all, you know. You don't belong here. And so, the two angels pulled Lot in to the house and then affixed blindness upon these men. And these men would not stop trying to fill that emptiness in their heart, to fill that void that they thought they could get a little relief from through sexual perversion, which isn't designed by God. Isn't God's ideal, but men pervert. The devil convinces people that this will satisfy for a moment, a moment's satisfaction. And it says that as they're smitten with blindness, that they were groping for the door. Trying to find the door handle to satisfy. That's how aggressive that's how aggressive the culture is when the culture corrupts to this point. To try and satisfy their deviant, perverted longing. When by design, God made it for a spiritual need that they have. God designed the spiritual need to be filled with himself. And the sexual union, the two coming together as one, it's just a picture. The uppermost is not the physiological, it's the spiritual joining. It's the spiritual oneness that God wants to come into your heart and life, and that intimacy of oneness, communion with him. And they didn't get it, these guys. And they wearied themselves to find the door. They needed to know that Jesus is the door. He's the door. He's the way to satisfaction. He's the way to fulfillment. He's the way to intimacy. You'll find completeness in Jesus Christ. Husbands, wives, you'll find completeness in Jesus. Your spouse like me, I can't meet all of Kathy's needs. I can't meet the deepest need that she's designed with, which is a relationship with the true and living God. But I can do everything in my power, everything in my walking relationship, Lord, to set the stage for her. To help her to get to know Jesus, and to help her to be sanctified and prepared and be ready. When James handed off his beloved Sally, she was ready. He loved her with an everlasting love. He didn't abuse her. He didn't he didn't berate her. He he didn't tear her down and oh, God's got a lot more work to do. No. As a husband, he fulfilled his role in taking this wife of his youth and growing in the grace and knowledge with Jesus and presenting her when the Lord says it's time for my beloved to come home. Job well done. They belong to him. They're blood bought. And take heed, husbands, how you treat them. Take heed how you love them. Knowing that Jesus would be crucified, God still loved. For God so loved, Jesus is the door. And now in summary, verse 33, Paul brings a summary here. Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife, and it's a command, not a suggestion. So love his wife even as himself. And the wife see that she reverence her husband. Spirit filled wives, spirit filled husbands, a spirit filled church, a spirit filled bride of Christ. In Jeremiah thirty one three, the Lord says, I have loved you. Speaking to the nation of Israel who is apostate, who is estranged, who isn't following the true and living God, who doesn't know God, who's in rebellion to God. They once received a writing of divorcement with Gomer and Hosea, an illustration of of, their unfaithfulness. But the Lord says, no. I'm gonna come back around and I'm gonna restore you in this walking relationship with you, nation of Israel. The church hasn't replaced you. I'm gonna do my work, this mystery once had now revealed the mystery of the church. But nation of Israel, my love for you is an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn thee. What's the greatest truth, the greatest theological truth of the greatest men and women who've gone before us? What's the greatest truth? Jesus loves me, this I know, for the bible tells me so. That's the greatest truth. And in our marriages, in our families, in our homes, we have an opportunity to communicate to people the love of Jesus. That he's the door, that he's the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the father but through him. Let's pray. Father, thank you. Thank you for your love, and Lord, we pray now that you just bless as we partake of communion. Lord, we pray if there's anybody here now that doesn't know you, that as they're turning from their sin, as they're crying out to you, Lord, as they're crying out, God be merciful to me a sinner. If that's your cry of your heart, the bible says, as many as received them, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God. This is your moment to receive Christ, to receive Jesus into your heart and life. You can't do it on your own. Just lift your hand up. We wanna pray for you. We wanna lead you to Christ. We wanna point you to Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. Anyone here this morning? Father, thank you for the security. The security of our homes, security of our lives, the security that our children, even with my daughter, so in such a vulnerable place, Lord, I believe you have her in the palm of your hand. She's sanctified. She's set apart, Lord, that you're gonna finish that work that you've begun in her. And so too in the hearts and lives of each person that's here, all of our prodigals, Lord. We're trusting in you that you're gonna complete that work, Lord. We banked on you, Lord. We bet it all on you. No plan b, Lord. It's all or nothing. We're all in. And Lord, we thank you that you're all in with us. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus name.
About This Podcast
Calvary Chapel Bremerton - Sunday Service
Listen to Rick Beaudry, Pastor of Calvary Chapel Bremerton, teach the Word of God cover to cover, chapter by chapter, and verse by verse. Be edified and built up in your faith with solid Bible teaching. New episodes on Mondays in the Pacific Standard Timezone.
