Follow Along with the Message

Do You Promise...? (Part 2)

Pastor Tom Lundeen

This is a series for everyone...(72% of Americans get married at ).

The family is God's idea and creation (note Genesis 2) despite the family being under constant ...

We all live in a society that objective studies have shown will benefit from healthy families (note Proverbs 24:3).

1. Wives, Love Your Husbands (note Titus 2:3-4)

We must be careful not to assume that simply because a person is a female that she automatically and  knows how to love her husband as God intends. This is a very dangerous  to swallow and will lead to very real problems, discouragement, and failure.

Why do wives...need to be ...to love their husbands? Because:

A. Women are , too - remember what marriage is...the union of 2 deeply , imperfect sinful individuals. You are just as  and bent toward sin as any man.

B. Men are different from women - from birth, males and females are different (women on average speak  words a day, men ). Be careful...not to be overly critical of your husband for not being  enough (note Philippians 2:3-4).

2. Wives...Honor Your Husbands

To honor and respect means to value...to  the value of. A major part of raising your husband's value is found in the most misunderstood, feared, and misused theological principle in the New Testament (the dreaded "s" word = ).

Note Ephesians 5:21-22. God has appointed the husband to be the  leader of your family and relationship.

...the Bible doesn't tell wives to  like it tells children and slaves to...

...this is instead to freely offer yourself to your husband's leadership - not forced, , or manipulated, but an act of your free will.

...as to the Lord...does not put a woman's husband in the  of the Lord, but shows rather that a woman ought to submit to her husband as an act of submission to the Lord. (Liefeld)

Note Ephesians 5:23 = head = . ...according to God's design, the man is the source of the woman's being; they were created for each other and ...just as Jesus Christ is the source of the church's life. (Brauch)

Note Ephesians 5:24. The nature of the church's submission to Jesus us that the church freely assumes Jesus' leadership by humbly responding to His self-giving, sacrificial servanthood and His continuing empowering and  presence...it has nothing to do with external  or coercion. (Brauch)

Submission becomes a battleground and a tool of  and control when used or resisted by insecure people who want their own way.

3. Wives...Cherish Your Husbands

Note Ephesians 5:33b. How can you prize and treasure your husband?

A. Recognize your husband cannot meet  you have - spiritual leadership doesn't equal . There is no one person who can meet all of our needs except Jesus.

B. Give him honest  - ...honestly ask yourself how much you express admiration to your husband (and about your husband to others) as contrasted to how much complaints and criticism  your words to and about your husband.

WHO'S RUNNING THIS SHOW?

• God intended your relationship with your husband to be something good, that gives joy to him and you (note Proverbs 18:22; 12:4a).
• Marriage is not a 50/50 compromise, but a 100%/100%  (note Proverbs 12:4b).
• Be a woman who keeps her promises and  God's promises (note Proverbs 31:10-11, 28-30).
• Some suggestions (from the book Love and Respect): Praise his good decisions. Be  if he makes a bad decision. Never, in word or body language, put down his job or how much he makes. You sometimes let him fix things and  his solutions. Apologize and  when you were wrong. Allow him to dream as he did when you were courting.

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