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Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, how wonderful is my Savior's love for me. When in the ransom and glory, His face I last shall see, will be my joy through the ages to see God's love for me. How marvelous, how wonderful, and my song shall ever be. How marvelous, how wonderful, is my Savior's love for me. Amen. All right. Welcome back to Strong Old Baptist Church this Easter Sunday. This time, we'll go through our announcements once again. So if you don't have a bulletin, slip your hand up real high, and we'll make sure that we get one to you. If you open up to the first page, you'll see our service time is listed there. Sunday morning at 1030. Sunday evening, again, at 5 PM. Wednesday night, 7 is our Bible study. We've got the soul-winning opportunities listed there, as well as the salvations and baptisms for the month of March, as well as for the year. So if you went out soul-winning this afternoon and had any salvations, just slip your hand up real quick. We'll get those counted up. One, two, three, four. Amen. Very good. And then are there any other salvations to report that we didn't count this morning? Did anyone have anything that we just missed from this morning? All right, very good. Keep up the good work, preaching the gospel down there at the bottom of the page. Of course, we have the operating totals received through the month of March. Prayer requests, I went over this morning. Jaylene's friend, Toby, who has an aggressive MS, multiple sclerosis, that's very debilitating, causing a lot of pain. And it's a young man, so pray for him. And also, I didn't get the mail this morning. I got it this afternoon, and I saw Miss Juana. Juana Martinez sent us a note, and I'm glad that she updated us here. And thanks for giving us the updates, Juana. If you're listening, we'll add. I had removed her from the list because I thought that things were going well. But I'll just read this letter real quick from her. It's always nice to hear updates. She said, my sincere gratitude for Stronghold Baptist Church. Thank you for all your prayers. Please continue to pray for my daughter, Margaret Gonzalez. And I think I was unaware of this with her. I heard the depression thing, but this was, I was uncertain, I didn't know this fact here. It says on the 27th of March, the doctor of Duke University will be calling her and explaining what her plans are with five other doctors that are part of her team, which will tackle this cancer. So she's been diagnosed with cancer, and I think I was unaware of that. So we'll please pray for her. She would be admitted to the hospital for five days. If all goes well, they would have destroyed it, and she will have the surgery. But if not, then they will tell her how long she has to live. So it sounds very serious, obviously. They're gonna determine if it's operable, and they're gonna try to treat it. So please be in prayer for Margaret Gonzalez. I was unaware of this, so we'll definitely add her back. And then she said, I thank God that she is saved. Praise God, she will be healed no matter what happens. And then she said, PS, continue also to pray for me, for I'm healing very slow. I guess it comes with being up in age. So I don't think that's why, but we'll pray for Ms. Juana as well. She is healing, she's recovering, but I guess it's going slow for her from that car accident that she had on New Year's Day. So we'll pray that things go well with her also. And updates, updates. So Leslie's up and down. She was doing pretty well today in general, but still was worn out really quickly and not doing a whole lot. So she was able to come downstairs for a little while and enjoy a meal with us and then had to go back up. So she's making up and down the stairs every once in a while. But appreciate the continued prayers there. On the back, of course, is our baby announcement for baby Charlotte Taylor, who was born on March 28th. You can see all the stats there. Praise God for the answered prayers with that delivery. And if you would like to participate in a meal train for the Taylor family, please get ahold of Mrs. Rogers, who is helping with the meals there. On the next page, April challenge is the baptism challenge. So if you have, and you know, people, multiple people can be involved in this. I'm really open when it comes to who's responsible for helping to get people saved, encouraging someone. It could be a family member or anybody, and it doesn't have to be at our church, right? The whole point is just getting someone to get baptized. So like I said, you don't have to be the one physically baptizing them. You could have multiple people, maybe in the same family, if you got someone that you know or some friend or something, and you're offering that encouragement and explaining why it's important, why you should do it or whatever, and they end up getting baptized, then that counts, right? We're not gonna be like real hard on, oh, you can't, you know, you have to physically bring them in here and see them get into the water or something like that. That's not what it's about. So encourage people to get baptized, and hopefully we'll have a good turnout here. And I'm gonna do my best just to try to bring it up, every service in general, for people who are not baptized to get baptized because we have that available so readily. So please remember when you're out soul winning, sometimes it's easy to forget these things. Bring that up. New church plant in Greenville, I talked about that this morning. We're waiting right now to hear what they counter. I assume they'll counter and not just accept our original offer, but we'll see what happens there. Lord willing, they'll just accept it and be good, which would be great for us, but we'll see how that goes. Bible memory passage, we've got two weeks left to finish memorizing the first 20 verses of Hebrews 11. You'll be able to get a prize for that if you can complete that within the next two weeks. Upcoming birthdays and anniversaries, we had two birthdays today. We sang for them this morning and you can see the rest of the birthdays there through the month of April and down at the bottom of the page, upcoming events. Next week, there's an activity for the youth at Verity Baptist Church. We've got our homeschool field trip, Atlanta Botanical Garden. Please sign up for that. It's 1130. Sign up sheet should be right over there behind brother Matt. Men's preaching, song leading class, April 27th. Of course, the camp is the next big thing coming up. I can't believe it. It's just like a month and a half away. So I need to get ahold of you. If you wanted a cottage, I will be getting, I'll be reaching out to you soon, hopefully sooner rather than later. I'm trying to juggle a few different things right now, but in order to switch over the reservation so that it's under your name and not under the church's name. So if that's what you signed up for, then you'll be able to just be ready to handle the reservation and I'll be reaching out individually so we can set up a time to be able to do that so that we can do a smooth transition with the cottages. And then of course, there's a missions trip that Faith Ward is putting on at the end of May, beginning of June. So also when I mentioned about the church, the new church plant, beginning of June is loose. That's not, that is not definite. I'm just, that's just, I'm throwing out a date. I am aware Mrs. Carter is with child and is gonna be due closer to that time. And we're not gonna try to add a whole bunch of extra stress on top of the family. Well, right after a baby's born. So that's gonna come into play as to when our actual opening service is going to be. But we're also gonna need time to get the whole place prepared and everything else anyway. So we're going through negotiations. If this takes longer, if they are dragging their feet on getting this done, that also can push back our starting dates on this stuff. I was just putting out what I think would be one of the closer dates that we'd even be able to handle this. And we got the camping trip in the middle of May. So we're gonna have to get some people to come out there, do flooring and get some other work done. So all of that being said, just to give you a rough idea of what we're thinking, it will probably be a start time in June. So I think that's it for the announcements. If you notice us getting low on any stock, let me know about that. People have been pretty good about it in general, but just if you notice something that needs to be replenished, by all means, let me know. We got a new water tank over here, water jugs. I encourage you to utilize that as much as possible. It makes it easier on me. I'll just be honest with you. It makes it easier on me to not go out and buy all those bottles of water. But we will always continue to offer those bottles of water as well. So don't worry. They definitely will be offered. But if you can, this water is better, by the way. It's much better. It's a better tasting water. It's a better for you water. It's spring water. So you actually probably get some good minerals out of that but I encourage you to use that. Don't forget we have it there. I'm actually, if people are using it, I was planning on getting another dispenser to put over by that other entrance as well. So as long as people are using it, then we'll go full speed ahead with it. All right, I think that's it for announcements. So I'm gonna turn the service back over to Brother Devin. All right, I'll find that person one of these days. Here we go. All right, if you could take your handbooks again. Song 227. Say it by the blood, 227. Say it by the blood, 227. ["Saved by the Blood of the Crucified One"] Stayed by the blood of the crucified one, now ransom from spirit a new work begun. Sing praise to the Father and praise to the Son. Stayed by the blood of the crucified one. Save, save, save, my sins are all part in my guilty's love God. Save, save, save, my sins are all part of the crucified one. Save, save, save, my sins are all part of the crucified one. Save the blood of the crucified one. The angels rejoicing because it is done. The child of the Father joined there with the Son. Save by the blood of the crucified one. My sins are all part and my guilt is all gone. I say by the blood of the first of my mind, I say by the blood of the first of my mind, The Father He spake and His will it was done. Great Christ who I pardon His own precious Son, Saved by the blood of the first of my mind, Saved by the blood of the first of my mind, My sins are all part and my guilt is all gone. Saved by the blood of the first of my mind, Saved by the blood of the first of my mind, Saved by the blood of the first of my mind, All hail to the Father, all hail to the Son, All hail to the Spirit, the Great Three in One, Saved by the blood of the first of my mind, Saved, saved, my sins are all part and my guilt is all gone. Saved, saved, I'm saved by the blood of the first of my mind. Amen, good seeing you. Alright, I'll go ahead and ask the men to come forward for our Sunday evening offering. And as those offering plates are going around, you can all take your Bibles and turn with me to Ephesians chapter 5. That was Ephesians chapter 5. We're going to read the entire chapter, so follow along with the poet as he reads the verse. Ephesians chapter 5. Be therefore followers of God, as dear children, and walk in love, as Christ also hath blessed us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God, for a sweet smelling saviour. For an occasion in all uncleanness and covetousness, let it not people in stain behind you, as becometh saints, neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient, but rather giving of thanks. For this ye know, that no warmonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them, for ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light from the Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth, proving what is acceptable unto the Lord, and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather approve them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done to them in secret, but all things that are approved are made manifest by the light. For whatsoever doth make manifest his light, wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepeth, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore it be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is, and be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. Speaking to yourselves in songs and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. 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 water, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkles 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 loved his wife loveth himself, for no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourished with and cherished with, even as the Lord, the church. For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall I am 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 yourself, and the wife see that she reverenced her husband. Let's pray. Dear Father in Heaven, thank you for sending your son, Jesus Christ, to die for the sins of the whole world, and be resurrected, and thank you that our faith is not in vain, and we look forward to resurrection someday. I pray that you'll fulfill the pastor with his spirit, and help us to understand and glean something from your word today. Would you please stand and pray? Alright, so if you're here last Sunday, I preached a sermon called, The Pastor's Wife, and well I did want to illustrate that there really is no position in the scripture. It's not an office held by anybody of being a pastor's wife, other than just being the wife of the pastor, which is an office within the church. I went really in depth, just kind of in general, on the wife role within a marriage, and covered a lot of scripture regarding that, and I thought it would just be appropriate, since I covered that last week, to now preach for the husbands, right? And I don't know the last time I've really done this. I know for sure I've preached to the husbands in the past. Sometimes I think it's easier for a preacher to preach on women's roles more than men's roles, because it seems to be a little bit more upside down in the current society that we live in, that that was attacked first. Now we have a lot of attack on the men's roles as well, but it seems that the women's gender roles have been attacked first, earlier, and have been under attack for a little bit longer than some of the men's roles have been. Which is why it's easier to, you see these things in front of you, you see the world trying to make women more masculine, and trying to put all the value on what the man does, instead of value on feminine things. So it's easier to preach on that more frequently, I suppose. But we can't ignore the other side of things, right? We can't have an imbalanced understanding and preaching towards marriage. We need to be looking at, you know, there's two people. You've got a husband and a wife, and it's important for both people to be in their biblical role. And one thing I want to point out, Ephesians 5 is one of my favorite places to turn to for marriages, for instruction on marriage, because it's really clear, because it also likens the marriage to the church and Christ. And those are very, very, very important analogies, or very important symbolisms to keep in mind, because the sanctity that we should have in marriage is also symbolic and representative of the love between Christ and the church. So when we think about how holy Christ's love for the church and the interaction between church and Christ should be and is, well, that also shows you how holy a marriage should be between a husband and wife, since they're both being used here symbolically, the one to reference and teach on the other. So another point I just want to make here as we get into this, you know, when I'm preaching about the wives, the first verse here, well, the first verse I have in my notes, not the first verse in the chapter. The first verse in my notes is verse number 22. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. And then verse 23 just kind of gives a little bit more explanation for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands and everything. Three verses, covering one subject, submission, right? Who's in charge, the husband's in charge, and the wife is not. Three verses, but you know what? Now, husbands is verse 25 and verse 26 and verse 27 and verse 28 and verse 29 and verse 30 and verse 31 and kind of, you know, 32. So notice how much more is dedicated now to the husbands to love your wives. And when you boil it down and you study Scripture, it really boils down to these two main concepts that we see here in Ephesians 5. We're going to look at Colossians 3. We're going to look at 1 Peter 3. We're going to look at, you know, obviously there's a little more depth to relationships. However, when you really look at high level when it comes to men's roles and women's roles and when we look at the things that God wants to emphasize that are important that we probably need to make sure we're right on is for women, it's your place in the authority structure in the home. That is the one primary thing that's brought up over and over and over again, but with men, what is it? Love your wife. Amen. Love your wife. And you say, well, that just sounds super simple. Well, it should be super simple, right? But it's not always done very effectively by the husbands. And I'm getting on your husbands today and I hope you're listening and paying attention. Amen. Because this is good for you. It's going to be good for your marriage. We're commanded to love our wives. Now, fundamentalists and especially churches like ours because we're old fashioned and because we believe what the Bible says and we believe in these different gender roles will have a bad label slapped on us as if we're misogynistic and we hate women and we think women aren't as good as men and stuff like that. Look, it's nonsense. The value between a man and a woman in God's eyes is the same. The value. Human life has value. Men and women have the same value in God's eyes. Just different responsibilities, different roles. But all valuable. And we should hold each other in esteem. Men and women alike. And the Bible says in Christ there is neither male nor female. So in that regard, our value, our status with God, it doesn't matter whether you're a man or a woman. And we wholeheartedly believe that. We ought to act like that, too. Now, the husband is in charge in the home. But that does not mean that the husband should just act unilaterally with no consideration for their wife. You have the authority to do so, but it's not right by God to do so because you need to love your wife as yourself. So when you're thinking about the decisions that you make as the husband, you better have your wife in a very high position in your heart on making decisions as opposed to just gratifying anything that you want to do with zero thought and zero consideration for your wife. See, here's the thing. Husbands, look, we're in a position of extreme responsibility because God has given you the authority. When you have that authority, you have a lot of responsibility. And this is in one area. Ladies, I hope you can find the appreciation for being in a position that doesn't come with that authority because you can actually relax a little bit going, hey, at the end of the day, you're not the one ultimately responsible for everything that happens in the home. On the one hand, you might not want to give that authority to your husband because you think there's a better way or you think that your way, you know, whatever, right? Like, you want to be able to be the one making that decision. But if you just submit and allow him to make those hard choices and make those decisions and just support him in what he does, well, you know what, though? Now that responsibility is all on his shoulders, too. And husbands, we need to realize that because it is your responsibility to watch over and manage your family and to rule your house well. And that should include, first and foremost, your wife. Above your children. Your wife. And we're commanded in many verses here, which we're going to go through painstakingly slow to get this through the man's thick head. You've got to love your wife, okay? And look, this is a commandment. This isn't a feeling. It's a commandment, not a feeling. Don't let the world twist your mind on love. I don't know how many stinking divorces there are these days. Oh, I just don't know that I love her anymore. Man's let his relationship deteriorate at home and then goes out and he's out on work, on job, out in the world and making friendships with other women. And then, oh, wow, I'm real excited. I'm really interested in this person and starts forming emotional bonds with someone that's not his wife instead of repairing what clearly is a problem at home with the relationship he has with his wife. And not loving her the way he ought to, because if you love your wife, look, if you notice you have a problem in your marriage, you need to fix that right away. That should be top priority. Hey, love your wife. Love her enough to fix the problems in your marriage. She's relying on you, and you need to put her in a high regard in your marriage. And you can completely do that without losing any authority whatsoever. You can still make decisions and still hold your wife and lift her up to a place that is exalted and shown honor unto as unto the weaker vessel, to the point where you should love her as yourself. Let's keep going here. Verse number 25. So husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. There's the standard, husbands. What's the standard of love I should have for my wife? Well, you should be willing to die for her. And you know, when I was preparing for this sermon, I was thinking about this. And I'm not saying it's not there. It just wasn't as clear. There's a lot of good examples of bad examples and not many good examples. And, you know, we should learn from mistakes of others. But, I mean, the two that pop off in my head right now is Abraham and Isaac that were worried about being killed for their wife's sake and they didn't want to be killed so they're getting their wife to lie about being married to them. Well, how about, how about you not worry and be fearful about you dying for your wife and you saying, no, you're my wife and I'll protect you to the death. And, of course, have trust in the Lord that He's going to protect you anyways, right? I mean, that should be first and foremost. But still, you know, the love that you ought to have for your wife is one where you're going to be protective of your wife and you should be. You know, that's another attribute. There's a word called jealousy that, biblically speaking, is not a bad word. And the world twists things around quite a bit. Jealousy, biblical jealousy, is not bad because the Bible says that God is jealous. God says His name is jealous. But we have to understand and define what are we talking about when we're talking about jealousy. We're not talking about envy, first of all, like, oh, you're just jealous of that person. No, that would be like envious of that person. Right, if you want something that someone else has, your covetous or envious over someone else, that's not the jealous we're talking about. The jealous is the protective where you say, you know what, I want my spouse to only have love and affection towards me as a husband. Right, I want my wife to only have eyes for me. And that's jealous. And that's jealous. And just like God only wants us to have eyes for Him. He doesn't want us going after idols, going after false gods, getting involved in any other type of false god worship or bringing the way that other people worship their gods into Christianity. He's like, no, don't do any of that stuff. You respect me. You put your dedication and your devotion to me and that's what I demand and that's what I expect because I'm jealous. I don't want you running around playing the whore with these other gods. And that language is used, by the way. I didn't just make that up. The Bible talks about the children of Israel whoring around, essentially, with idols and false gods. And that's the way that God views it. And when it comes to marriages, right, ladies, don't be upset. If your man loves you, your husband loves you, he's not going to want you to have all these friendships with other guys. Because your husband's jealous. And he usually should be. Because when someone is near and dear to you, and look, first of all, if you're married, you owe them that attention and affection to only go to him. And hey, vice versa, right, this is still geared towards the men, okay. Your wife is jealous towards you. She loves you. And it's not just a one-way street there. Men are just typically the ones who get labeled as jealous, oh, you're just a jealous guy, and get demeaned for it when there's nothing wrong with that. When you want your wife to only have affection towards you. Hey, when wives want their husbands to only have that affection towards them. And look, if your wife is bringing this up, men, don't just brush it off like it's nothing. And listen to that, because I understand, look, I'm a husband, and I understand what it's like where you, in your heart maybe, or in your mind, you just think, like, so there's nothing going on, right. And sincere, genuine, you've got nothing going on in your mind, you don't care, but when your wife is jealous over you because of your interactions with someone, you know what, you need to love your wife and then deal with that, and not just be like, well, I'm just gonna do what I'm gonna, you know, hey, think about it if the shoe was on the other foot. And it has nothing to do with authority, it has to do with, I mean, how much do you love her? And look, everything I'm gonna say tonight is always gonna have to fall within some level of reasonableness. But that's just gonna go without saying. You know what's reasonable, and so do I. The standard here for loving your wives is as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. So there's really nothing to hold back when it comes to how much you should love your wife. Which is why, men, husbands, you need to be going out and working by the sweat of your brow and putting in whatever it takes to support and provide for your family. And you're gonna bear the brunt of whatever comes your way as a family, and you're gonna be the rock and you're gonna be the strong one and you're gonna have to deal with it. And you're gonna be willing to self-sacrifice. And when you're looking at the needs of your family, you put everyone else first. You say, but I'm the breadwinner. Yeah, I know, so what? If anyone's gonna suffer, how about it be you? And look, if Christ is the example of the love, was Christ getting people to serve him? Was Christ concerned about, oh, hey, I'm coming over here, so you better set me up like this and be like, you better put me in a better place. I want the uppermost room at this feast. You treat me right. He didn't have that attitude. He came to serve, he came as a minister. He had all the authority in the world, but he gave of himself to help others and to put other people up front. And you say, hey, I've got the authority, I'm the breadwinner, I make the money, so if I'm just gonna spend everything on me and then whatever's left over you could have, that's not very loving for your family. I mean, really, like, I'm trying to think of an example that's not too specific because I'm not trying to throw anyone under any buses tonight. And if this applies to you, then I have no idea, okay? I'm gonna tell you that right now because I'm not even trying to get anything close to anything. Over years you kind of see things happen sometimes and you get close to people and you hear different things about relationships and whatever. Obviously there's people that are wrong and right and different, sometimes the husband's wrong about something, the wife's wrong about something, whatever. Things happen. It's part of life, but we don't want to have problems. We want to grow and do things that are right. So I'm gonna tell you that right now So I'm thinking about things like, you know, with the husband's working and they have the wrong attitude and it's like, well, no, I want to buy this game or I want to buy this entertainment thing, right? I want to buy this thing and it costs a whole bunch of money and it's like, yeah, but we have, like, these other, like, way more important bills or schoolbooks or something, you know, like, well, I mean, hey, look, hey, you're in the position of authority. You can make that decision. But where is your love? Are you being loving like Christ was loving when you're just trying to gratify yourself with the money you earn as opposed to being self-sacrificial and saying, yeah, I could do without. And that's just one small example of how, you know, Christ was self-sacrificial in pretty much every way. And that's a way of, and ladies, understand, if you see, if you have a husband that's making sacrifices, they may not be home all the time, just please understand this, but if you see them making these sacrifices for you, understand that they love you. And look, because I don't think wives are ever satisfied with how often their husband's home. It's true. You're gone too much. I know. But they love you. Okay? As long as they're sacrificing and working for you, not just off doing this off somewhere else, having fun, whatever, like leaving you at home, I hope that's not going on. No, we are to love our wives. And lady, you know, when you see your husband making sacrifices and giving themself for you, they do love you. And men aren't always going to be able to express that love very well, which is why we work to express that love. We work. That's our method. And it's not the preferred method. I get it. But, you know, God made us this way. And if we can express it better, we will. But look at this also, because it continues on from verse 25 to verse 26. 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. So sanctifying, making it holy and clean and proper, right? Christ looks at the church. He says, hey, I want this church cleansed. I want this church sanctified. I love this church. But this church has some flaws and some issues, so I'm going to try to help clean up and fix this church and really make this a glorious church and a sanctified church and a holy church for me. That's the way Christ is viewing the church. Well, that same type of love, men, husbands, we ought to have for our wives, which means what are you going to do? You're going to be dedicated to the spiritual growth of your wife. That should be very important for you. And honestly, here's one of the things that you need to do. I think the husband's responsibility is more than the church's responsibility is to make sure your wife knows how to give the gospel. That's only one aspect. There's many aspects in life in general. I'm not going to go through every single possible sin and every spiritual way you could improve your life, but definitely one area should be that husbands are teaching and training their wives if they don't already know how to win people to Christ. And I know in our church we have a bigger lack of the number of ladies that are proficient at going out door-to-door and preaching the gospel in general. OK, look, there's plenty of ladies that can give the gospel, and it's great, and I know there's plenty of ladies that go on different times than sometimes the times that we have here. OK, so don't take this too much the wrong way, but hey, I'm preaching at the men. Husbands, if your wife is not very proficient at giving the gospel, look, take that on yourself. You're the spiritual leader, and this is an area that you need to work on, and hey, think about the level of love for you to spend time in your day to think about how can I help make my wife a better Christian? And think about this, ladies, and understand this, too. When your husband's doing things like this for you, don't be like, oh, he thinks I'm an idiot or he thinks I'm stupid. No, no. Don't assume that. Maybe he does, but just don't assume that. I'm just teasing, right? I hope that's not the case, but don't ever assume that anyways. Always assume the best with your spouse, always, always. Otherwise, you're just asking for fights and problems. Always assume the best. Your husband's wanting, but think about this seriously now, seriously. The more spiritual you are, the more rewards you're gonna have in heaven. You're gonna earn those rewards, men and women alike, so if your husband is invested in trying to help make you a better Christian, that shows that much more love that he has for you. And husbands, be focused on that. Don't get too focused on going off and doing your own spiritual life that you leave your wife completely out of it and behind. And I recommend this, too, so if you're uncertain, just practically, how you can help do that, because everyone's at a different stage in your life. Hey, if you're young and you're not even married yet, keep this in mind and start early because all the teaching and training with soul winning and stuff is a lot easier to do before you have children than it is after you have children. But maybe you are where you are. You say, you know what? We already have a big family, pastor. What do I do? How can I make this happen? You can always bring your children out soul winning with you. It can be done. We have families that do it. We've done it plenty of times. My family will go out and you can make it happen and you're gonna have to make it happen. So no matter how difficult things are, nothing's impossible. Right? And if you're not sure how to do it, talk to one of the bigger families that goes out soul winning. How do you do it? There you go. There's some really good advice. It can be done. But men, care about your wife's spirituality. Help your wife along the way. And sometimes, unfortunately, helping your wives along the way may lead to tough decisions that you have to make that aren't always popular, but as a spiritual leader, you're still gonna have to do. Early in my marriage, I had to make wardrobe decisions. Had to be done. Why? Because I'm responsible for my family. I'm responsible even for my wife. And there are certain lines that you set up for yourself in your family, how you see the Bible, what you think is appropriate, what you think is right, and stick to those things. It's not a lack of love to have holiness in the home. It's a better act of love to get right with God if there's things that are out of order in your home, even if it causes some friction, even if it causes some unpleasant discussions, it's better. And hey, you've got the responsibility. If your wife's engaged in something that she shouldn't be, you're also partly to blame for that. Hey, it's great being in charge and being the boss, right? Well, there's two sides of that coin. You also bear the responsibility of it too. But when you're invested, when your thoughts are there, it's going to help you. Honestly, it's going to help your wife. It's going to help you. And ladies, you're listening to this sermon as well. This is the man's perspective. So keep this in mind because men and women think like 180 degrees completely different from each other. So it's a little bit of an insight. We'll never know how you think. But this is how men think. And we'll never know because women aren't allowed to be pastors and preachers. So we'll never know. I tried to figure it out once, but it was too tough. I just went back to figuring out the Bible instead. So verse 27 there, it says 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, look at this, as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. So if it comes down to, as a material, providing food. Maybe you don't have a lot of money. Hey, I'm going to work for you, and I'm going to make sure that you're able to eat because I'm going to love you like my own body. I'm going to work and provide for you. For no man, look at this, verse 29, no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord, the church. I mean, think about how much the Lord loves and cherishes and nourishes the church. Well, that's the same mindset that the husband ought to have for his wife. The cherishing, which is deeply loving and caring for and nourishing and providing all the needs of the wife. 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. And look, the leaving of father and mother is important. You've gone off to start your own family, okay? Ladies too, but husbands, you're starting a new family. You've left behind the family you came from, and now you're joining yourself unto a wife and you're joining yourself. You are becoming one, making a union. You are a team. And if nothing else, I mean, get this mind, husbands and wives alike. You are one. You are one. And no matter what problems come up, you are one from the time you said I do forward. There is no he and she said this and that or whatever. You are one. You're on the same team. It's the same family. You're the same person. One flesh moving together. Now, the wife was designed to be the helper for the man to make the decisions, but it's still, you're still joined. You're still together. And when God joins together, don't ever, ever let the word divorce come out of your mouth. That should be anathema. That should be something that you should learn and settle in your heart that no matter how angry you get, no matter how upset you get, no matter how many problems you have, I will never let those words come out of my mouth. Where you can allow the trust to be there and let your spouse know, hey, for better or for worse, I meant it. I will never, ever threaten you or try to put that out there like, well, I'll just divorce you. That is, that is terrible for a marriage. And if your spouse ever says that to you, don't reciprocate. Reciprocate with, well, I'll never leave you. Overcome that with the good. And that's for husbands and wives alike. There's, marriage has been under attack for way too long. God's people better show the right way of how to have a good marriage. And that word, I'm sorry, that should never, ever happen. Like the Bible says, what God therefore joined together, let not man divide asunder. Verse 32 says, this is a great mystery by speaking to Christ in the church. Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself or her husband. So I'll boil it down to those two key points with husbands and wives. Turn, if you want, to 1 Peter chapter three. I'm gonna read from Colossians 3.19 for you. Colossians 3.19, about as husbands love your wives. Then it adds this, and be not bitter against them. You do not want to harbor bitterness in your heart towards your wife. Ever. Now, your wife may do things and might get under your skin and might aggravate you or might cause you to get upset or angry or whatever, but don't allow anything that you do to bring forward bitterness, where you're starting to despise. You can see, oh man, she does this, and whatever your wife's flaw is, to just continually eat at you to where you become bitter in your heart towards your wife. We're commanded, hey look, love your wives and don't be bitter against them. You know why? Because you have sins too. Because whatever you have to put up with with your wife, she has to put up with stuff from you too. And it's better to not be bitter. The bitterness is just going to cause more problems than anything else. Because it's going to be, I mean how hard is it going to be to love your wife if you have this bitterness? I mean that's fighting against you loving your wife. It's going to cause you and drive that wedge to cause you to not do things that are good for your wife that you ought to be doing to provide and protect and everything else to fulfill your love for her. 1 Peter chapter 3, of course the beginning of this passage is talking about the wives. But I'm just going to skip past that I guess. I was going to get there real quick right now. The beginning of this passage talks about the wives, again being in subjection we know this. I preached this last week and talks about how the wives should be focused on the hidden man of the heart and brings up Sarah obeyed Abraham calling him Lord. And then verse 7 now speaks to the husband. It says likewise ye husbands dwell with them according to knowledge giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel and as being heirs together of the grace of life that your prayers be not hindered. So you are heirs together. You're both saved. You're both children of God. You both have an inheritance in heaven and you need to honor your wife as the weaker vessel. Hey she's not as strong as you. She's weaker. I mean you're gonna prop her up and help her a little bit more. And when hard times come again I'm gonna work harder and I'll take the brunt cause I'm stronger cause I could deal with this and I'm gonna help her out more. I'm gonna love her and have this honor. And it truly is honor. You know it was honorable like nowadays again cause people are turning things upside down. Even just as something as simple as like opening up the door. Right I'm not saying opening up the door is just gonna revolutionize your marriage or anything like that. But it's a mindset of having honor to the weaker vessel. Hey I mean look these old fashioned ways were founded in truth. Right the stereotypical stuff right the man throwing his coat down over the puddle so the woman could step over it or whatever right. These things these chivalrous little acts I know a lot of them might sound kind of silly but it's the mindset of honoring the woman and the wife and allowing her to be feminine and allowing her and knowing hey she's the weaker vessel so I'm gonna do what I can to help her because I know that she's a little bit weaker and I'm stronger and I'm gonna do whatever I can to love her and to help her. And having that place that she should have that place in your heart. And while she is your helper she should not just be like an employee to you. You're in charge like a boss but hey the way that you deal with your wife and communicate and interact with your wife ought to be very different than the way that you would interact with an employee at work right because she's not just your employee. And it's when people don't have this right especially men don't have the proper love for their wife is when you bring the bad name of like looking like a slave driver or something because there are some guys out there that's gonna treat their wife like a slave and that's wrong. She's not your slave. Just because you have authority doesn't make her a slave. You should love her. Treat her well. Honor her. Be thinking about her. Be thinking about her. Care for her. Verse number eight. Finally and look this would now in First Peter chapter three it was a little bit opposite of Ephesians five. Ephesians five we saw a few verses for the wives and a lot for the love that the husbands need to have for their wife. This is a little bit different. There's a little bit more a few more verses for the wife and excuse me we have this one verse for the husbands join with them according knowledge giving honor unto the wife. Verse eight then says finally be ye all of one mind. This is gonna be for husbands and wives alike having compassion one of another love as brethren be pitiful be courteous. Speak with respect have courtesy be pitiful love as brethren also right your spouse your wife is just sister in Christ hopefully right I mean she should be saved ideally saved men are marrying saved women that's the way that God would have it to be obviously reality is sometimes something different than that but have compassion one of another you know be thoughtful not rendering evil for evil and this comes for those times when you're having problems in a marriage you don't render Christ didn't render evil for evil or railing for railing when one of you is out of line with this stuff don't go and respond and reciprocate the same way get above that because here's the thing none of us are perfect and I'm not gonna say oh yeah I've never been in that situation I've never said anything evil I've never done anything wrong of course I have but when you have one person failing in an area it's gonna go a lot better if the other person can overcome that and not also sink to that same level it helps you know and it's not easy but I guarantee you it's gonna be a lot better it's gonna help your marriage out a lot if at least one of you can rise above the railing for railing and the what's the what's the evil for evil it says but contrary wise blessing knowing that you are there unto call that you should inherit a blessing and you know what's gonna help you with that bitterness this verse just popped in my head Bible says be angry and sin not let not the sun go down upon your wrath okay you may have some problems sometimes in order to not allow that bitterness to creep in you're gonna have to just make peace with it and not let the sun go down upon your wrath and just say well I made this choice I'm stuck with her I'm gonna make the best of it okay however you gotta do it just just let it go cause usually I mean if we're honest a lot of the stuff that we get irritated about or angry about at the end of the day does it really really really matter probably not occasionally maybe but usually not most common things not so much 1 Corinthians chapter 7 I need to I need to cover this real quickly and we'll be I'll close with this 1 Corinthians 7 again I'm preaching to the husbands but this goes for husbands and wives alike because this is one of those areas that as we'll see here is applies both directions and don't underestimate the importance of a physical relationship within your marriage okay seriously and and you know I'm not obviously we're not gonna go into any detail but it's but we need to understand and understand that this is this is a reality this is there's a desires humanly speaking within us and that's why you get married it's one of the reasons why you get married the Bible says in 1 Corinthians chapter 7 of course I don't have verse number 1 in my notes but it's he wrote unto you that it's good for a man not to touch a woman verse 2 says nevertheless to avoid fornication let every man have his own wife and let every woman have her own husband so one of the purposes for getting married is to avoid fornication why? because fornication is a sin so you're gonna have that relationship that you wanna have with with the opposite sex and you wanna have that that intimacy well hey you don't wanna commit fornication so get married and and part of what you're doing though with the marriage within a biblical marriage is now you're consenting to have that relationship with that other person the husband and wife and look what it says in verse 3 let the husband have benevolence and that benevolence is love and likewise also the wife unto the husband hey they both ought to have benevolence for each other the wife verse 4 hath not power of her own body but the husband so who has control or charge over the wife's body? the husband does can't stop reading there and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body but the wife there's desires in men and women okay and culturally speaking it's always the the women that seem like oh women never want to have that relationship or something like that that's that's silly okay and now look if that happens the wives understand what the Bible's teaching here look you know you got into this and look at verse number 5 defraud ye not one the other defraud ye not one the other what does it mean to be a fraud fake right it's like an imposter it's like wait wait I thought I was getting this but instead I'm getting this right it's a fraud hey I thought we were getting married and now it's good now we can have this relationship now I don't have to fornicate okay now you know like like we can have this relationship now oh but you're withholding from me that's a fraud defraud not one the other except it be with consent for a time you say look when you want to with abstain and withhold from having that relationship you both ought to be on board with that and say okay we're going to do this for a time which is like a set time not just until who knows when for a time that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer so you think about how long you can go without eating is a good time for how long I mean we have examples of people going 30 days or whatever I mean you're doing a serious serious fast fine now and look this doesn't mean you have to have a physical relationship all the time or something like that I'm not teaching that but what it is is you ought to be there for your spouse husbands be there for your wife when they need you wives be there for your husbands when he needs you and that little thing and you know sometimes you may not be wanting to have relations but it's going to be good for your marriage if one person wants to to have that relation with them and look obviously husbands and wives both should respect each other enough to recognize yeah maybe this isn't the appropriate time or whatever but remember that it's not going to be a good thing to get to a place where you are just always withholding because that's what it's going to lead to right and no one should ever be holding that over the other person's head either as a way of extortion or something like that that would just be really wicked and wrong but physical relationships are important a lot of the marriage problems between Christians that I've been aware of a lot of them have had this problem in the relationship where they're just not having the appropriate relationship at home and again I'm trying to speak as real high level as I can because obviously we don't do bedroom talk it's not appropriate but it is important to understand and know that this is an important relationship to have between husbands and wives and it's a good thing it's a great thing it's a blessing that God's given unto us and it's an appropriate way to have relations within a marriage but I can't tell you how many marital problems that I've heard of that have come across my ears that have been presented to me and almost every time there's no relations going on either by one person or both you know like look because they're harboring bitterness there's all this other stuff involved and it's causing there to be a separation within the home and if you're allowing these other things to cause that separation it's time to pay attention it's time to focus on your family it's time to focus men on your relationship on your wife on what's happening in your marriage and we are as men very duty driven very work driven very hopefully just driven in general to stay busy and to work and everything else but if you start to notice these big problems happening in your marriage you need to put the brakes on other stuff because you have to have your marriage right if you're married you have to make sure your marriage is right that's going to be hey maybe it's time to call in and have a sick day from work maybe it's time to put other things on hold look no man wants to do that I don't want to do that I want to work work work work work work right but if you're out of balance and if things aren't going right this is way more important your wife is way more important than any job that you have to do than any job you have to do it's your wife it's your other half because you've joined together you're one as much as you care for your own body and your own flesh you have to care for her you have to love her and when you notice there's these problems you have to deal with them because it doesn't just solve itself and men even if your wife's not interested in solving a problem make it happen I'm not saying annoy her to death but you know put forth the attention and so many times when one person will be fulfilling their role that God says what they ought to do it's extremely helpful at repairing any relationship problems that you have so if you notice as the husband say hey things aren't going quite right in my marriage I'm having these other problems I'm having a hard time loving my wife I'm having some bitterness I'm having this or that you need to focus on that right away you can't have a split home because it'll ultimately just lead to divorce anyways we know God hates divorce we know that hey you've already made that vow to stay with your wife you've got to make it work and you see the reference in Ephesians 5 it symbolizes Christ and the church is Christ ever going to leave the church? should the church ever leave Christ? how ridiculous does that be? yeah we're just going to leave Christ now that's like suicide right? spiritual suicide yeah we're just going to leave Christ no well that's how you should view divorce well the husband's like Christ hey I'll never leave you or forsake you because that's how Christ is to the church I'm always there I'm always there and the wife should be thinking how can I leave Christ? obviously your husband isn't Christ but in the analogy it is and as much as you would be like I would never I would never turn my back on my Savior well you should never turn your back on your husband love your wife physical relationship is important make time for your wife and you know just a real silly I'm going to close on this I've gone long enough on this topic start with the little things how about greeting your wife when you come home from work or anytime you come in the house and I would say this you know put a primacy for those of you that have children that have families don't let any of your children be number one in the house your wife should be number one I love my kids as much as anything just about I mean my kids are extremely important to me and I can't measure the amount of love I have for each one individually but my wife is above all of them in my house and one way of ensuring that love the little things come home greet your wife first I mean my kids love to come and greet me and that's great and it's fun and I enjoy that but make sure that she knows where she stands in your heart because that means a lot to your wife here's how you think about it how much do you want to be respected of your wife it's a big deal for men isn't it God knows that which is why the main commandment for the wife is to be submissive and to be obedient to their husbands because for men that's respect well as much as you want that you know what your wife wants your love that's how much your wife wants that love so if you understand how much you want respect you better understand she wants your love so give her that love don't brush it off to the side like ah this love stuff give her that love she's your wife you chose her and you could have a happy marriage or a really bad miserable marriage if you do things the way that God says you could have a very happy marriage it's available it's there for you and we all make mistakes but get past them and start right now doing right if you're failing just start doing right it could get better let's have a word of prayer dear Lord thank you so much for giving us this wisdom Lord and and I'll be honest Lord as men we need all the wisdom we can get when knowing how to be a good husband Lord and we thank you for for making woman out of man and we thank you for providing such a beautiful creature to be a partner for us for life but Lord help us to to be good husbands I pray you please help the ladies be good wives and Lord help us ever continue to grow and have that Christ-like love the self-sacrificial love for our wives as we need we need Lord and just continue to guide us and Lord bring the remembrance and bring to our understanding whenever we're failing in this area so that we don't just ignore it or even if we're just not aware dear Lord I pray you please help us to be aware when we fail in these areas so we can get it corrected and have a healthy fulfilling happy marriage we love you to Jesus name we pray amen all right we're gonna sing one last song before we're dismissed brother Devin will you please lead us all right everyone you take your handbook turn to song 33 song 33 Christ the Lord is risen today song 33 Christ the Lord is risen today Alleluia Sons of man and angel say Alleluia Praise your joys and triumphs high Alleluia Singing and feathers reply Alleluia Where's again our glorious singing Alleluia Where all death is now thy sting Alleluia Dying by sea all the same Alleluia Where thy victory obeys Alleluia Love's redeeming work is done Alleluia Long the flight, the battle won Alleluia Death in vain, nor makes him rise Alleluia Christ has opened paradise Alleluia Let's story now where Christ has led Alleluia While we are angels today Alleluia Made like him, like him we rise Alleluia Hearts across the grave, the skies Alleluia