The Spirit-Filled Family

Paul says, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. 2 Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;) 3 That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth,” and then he speaks to the fathers, or parents, “And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”

We’re calling this series in the middle of the book of Ephesians, the Spirit-Filled Family, husband, wife, and children. That takes us back, just real quick by remembrance, to Ephesians 5:18. If you weren’t here that first night, I want you to go back if you can to our website and pull up that message. We have a command from Paul the Apostle there to be filled with the Spirit. It’s actually a command. He commands us to let the Spirit fill us, which means to be controlled by the Spirit. So, we’re born again, we’re indwelt by the Spirit, then we surrender our lives and our hearts to the Holy Spirit, and He controls us. The immediate result, we saw in Ephesians 5, is that we will be joyful, we’ll be thankful, and we’ll be submissive—we’ll have a joyful home, a thankful home, and a submissive home. We’ll be “Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.” That’s the foundation for our families, submitting to one another, and we do it out of reverence and fear of the Lord.

Then, Paul spoke to the wives and said, “Wives,” be obedient to your husbands, or “submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord…even as Christ is the head of the church,” and the church submits to Christ. And to the husbands, he said, “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it,” so there’s the submission of the wife, there’s the love of the husband, and we spent two weeks on each one of those.

Tonight, we move into the third area of the Christian family, or the Spirit-filled family, that is, the responsibility of the children to their parents and the parents to their children. Remember that those commands are followed by an equal responsibility, so wives submit to your husbands, but husbands love your wives; children, obey your parents, but parents don’t provoke your children to wrath or to anger; and then we see next in the passage that servants should obey their masters, but masters should give unto their servants that which is just and right and equal, so the balance there of God’s Word.

There’s little doubt about it today that the family is in deep trouble, and before we unpack this text I want to give you some simple, quick reasons why. First of all, I believe that as a nation, the United States especially, we have forsaken God and His Word. If we have forsaken God and His Word, God is the One who has ordained marriage, God has given us the design for marriage in His Word, how do we expect to survive without that? We cannot survive as a nation without God and His Word because our families will deteriorate. We’ve substituted humanistic philosophy for a biblical world view, and the sad thing is that it’s even crept into the church. Even in the church today we’re not really looking at marriage from a biblical perspective, so we need to get back to the Word of God.

Secondly, we’re living, I believe, in the last days. There’s only one way to explain the darkness, the evil, and the wickedness that we see sweeping over our nation today, that is, that we’re living in the last days. Write down 2 Timothy 3:1-5 where Paul says, “This know also, that in the last days perilous time shall come,” that word “perilous” means savage. There are three characteristics about these last days that stand out to me in light of the family. It says, “For men shall be lovers of their own selves,” lovers of money, and they would be “…lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God,” so there will be a perverted love in the last days.

We also see that they would not have a family love, which means they will not love family, they will not love having families in the design that God wants because it says, “…disobedient to parents,” and the phrase in that passage is without natural affections. In the English translation you wouldn’t really detect that but it literally in the Greek would convey the idea of without family love, without natural affection. There’s no love for family, and we see an exerted effort today in our culture to break down the family nucleus and especially as God has designed it with one man and one woman raising children in the fear of the Lord.

Lastly, I would simply say that we see the families in trouble today because Satan hates the family. There is a devil, he hates God, he hates God’s Word, and he attacks the family in every area he can because it is the divine institution, because it’s the building block of society, and we see in our passage because it’s a picture of Christ and the church. Paul said, “This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.” Marriage is actually a picture of the unity and the oneness between Christ and the church, that is, of the husband and the wife.

There are two simple sections that we want to look at. The first is in verses 1-3, that is, God’s Word to children. “Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. 2 Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;) 3 That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.” The word “children” here, verse 1, literally means offspring. There is some discussion as to whether or not they include adult children or just infant children, but the word is most often used for dependent children. It’s talking about children that are still in the home that are still dependent, but the principles that are in this passage apply even to children in adulthood, and we’ll kind of differentiate that and make that clear as we go. It’s speaking of offspring as far as the literal word “children” there means.

God gives two simple commandments: obey and honor. Look at verse 1, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.” The word “obey” literally means to listen under. It has the literal idea of to listen with the sense of obedience. Sometimes kids hear but don’t want to obey, right? Have you ever noticed, the parents will give them a direction, and they’re maybe playing on a tablet or with a computer device or with their parent’s phone, the kids hear their mom but just blow them off, shine them on, “I don’t hear you,” so it’s the idea of listening with the intention and the purpose of when your parents speak you’re listening to obey them, to hear what they have to say, and to follow that command. It actually speaks of an action of obedience. It’s listening and includes obedience—listening with the intent to be obedient. It’s a present imperative in the Greek, so a child’s obedience must be cheerful, prompt, and habitual. How’s that for a challenge in the home today? Just the idea that a child would obey their parents today is kind of an unheard concept—children obey your parents? God’s Word is actually commanding them. It’s a present imperative to be obedient, and God’s power will be available for those children to know Christ, allow the Spirit to fill them, and follow in obedience to God in His Word.

Notice, in our text, who they are to obey, verse 1, “…parents,” plural. That includes father and mother. Sometimes a child will say, “Mom doesn’t tell me to do that. I don’t have to obey you, I just have to obey Dad, or Mom,” and they try to play the parents on one another, but they are to be obedient to both the father and the mother. They are both involved here. It’s your Christian duty to do it, and look at the phrase in verse 1, “…in the Lord.” That little phrase, “in the Lord,” means that it is your moral responsibility and duty. Notice he says, “…for this is right.” The word “right” means righteous or the right thing to do or the praiseworthy thing to do. Clearly, the Bible tells children that they are to be obedient to their parents, “…for this is right,” or righteous. In Colossians 3:20 it says, “…for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.” If you are a child and want to be pleasing the Lord, then you will be obedient to your parents.

Again, there are a lot of different things we can get into, and I don’t want to get sidetracked, but when you get married, you have a wife or a husband, and the Bible says you leave, you cleave, and you become one flesh. It doesn’t mean that after you’re married and you’re older and out from under your mother and father’s care that you have to do everything your parents tell you to do. The next point is that you, “Honour thy father and mother,” that continues on, but you have to see that you have a new relationship with your spouse and that no one is to get in the way of that relationship. Secondly, if your parents ever ask you to do anything that is ungodly or unscriptural or unbiblical or unrighteous, you have a greater authority in God—we must obey God rather than men—that’s always the case, that we must be obedient unto God.

Notice, secondly, that they are to, verse 2, “Honour thy father and mother,” so the two commands are obey, verse 1, and honor, verse 2. “Honour thy father and mother,” both your mother and father, “(which is the first commandment with promise,” and it gives us the reason, “That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.” The word “honor” in verse 2 means to value or to respect. The difference between obey is obey speaks of the action and honor speaks of the attitude. I love that. It’s so simple. The word “obey” means the action, and the word “honor” means the attitude. You know, the Bible says that God looks at our hearts; so it’s not enough just to obey outwardly, God wants to look at the attitude of our hearts. Someone said, “Obedience is the duty. Honor is the disposition of which obedience is born.” I like that.

Remember the Parable of the Prodigal Son? The Prodigal Son was the younger of two brothers who wasted his substance on riotous living, came back to the father, and the father received him. The father killed the fatted calf, put a robe on him, a ring, shoes, and threw this huge party. The older brother was out working in the fields. When he came back, he heard the music and the party going on. He asked one of the servants, “What’s going on here?” The servant said, “Didn’t you hear? Your little brother that was gone and lost has returned. Your father’s killed the fatted calf, and he’s throwing a great big party. You oughta come and rejoice because your brother’s come home.” Instead, what did he do? He met his father with anger and was upset. He said, “This son of yours wasted his money on prostitutes and harlots. He comes home and you throw a great big party for him. Not once have you ever given me a party. I’ve worked for you faithfully all these years.” Immediately, we see the attitude of this picture-perfect son who stayed home and worked this whole time. His heart was not right, and he got all upset with the father. The father said, “It’s right that we rejoice. Your brother was lost and he’s been found. He’s come home again.”

This brother depicted the attitude of the Pharisees when Jesus receives sinners and ate with them. That’s why Jesus told the story of the Parable of the Prodigal Son, it was directed toward the attitude of these Pharisees, and the Pharisees are seen in the older brother. It also pictures the fact that we can be working outwardly, be obedient outwardly, but have an attitude that is dishonoring to our Father in Heaven. How do we deal with this? How do we honor our parents? We honor them by the way we talk to them, by helping them around the house, by caring for them in their older age. We outgrow the command to obey, but we do not outgrow the command to honor our father and our mother. This, again, is being lost in our culture—where we take care of and watch out for our parents. It’s kind of interesting, you’re the parent, you have the child, and then it reaches a point where actually the parent becomes the child and the child becomes the parent. That’s a challenging spot in life, but God has ordained that that take place within the home.

Notice, verse 2, it’s a command, “which is the first commandment with promise,” so here’s two reasons why we should honor our father and our mother. First of all, it’s commanded, “…which is the first commandment with promise.” This is taken from the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments, in Exodus 20:12. It’s the fifth of the Ten Commandments, “Honour thy father and thy mother.” Jesus actually gave that as well in the New Testament, backed that up with His statement and endorsement, so the commandment to honor your father and your mother. The Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day would actually try to circumvent that law by saying, “I can’t do that because it’s consecrated to God,” or “it’s been dedicated to God, so now I don’t have to take care of my parents.” Jesus quoted this passage to them that they should honor their father and their mother.

Notice also that this commandment has a built-in blessing that it brings in verse 3, “That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth,” two blessings. “That it may be well with you,” speaks of the quality of life, “…and thou mayest live long on the earth,” speaks of the quantity of life. If you want a better life—a blessed life, a happy life, a wonderful life—then obey and honor your parents. A lot of adults have horrible problems because as young people they did not honor or obey their parents. In Exodus 20:12, it repeats this statement that’s found here in Ephesians, “…that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.” This doesn’t guarantee that every obedient, honoring child will live a long and fruitful life, but it is a principle as a general rule known to be true that if you follow your parents obediently and you honor them highly, that your life will be more prosperous and more blessed because God places your parents over you to shape, mold, and to raise you (we’re going to see that in verse 4) in the ways of the Lord. It’s a general rule that children who obey and honor their parents will have better and longer life.

Let me give you some examples. I think of the negative example of Absalom in the Old Testament. He was a disobedient child, and he died at an early age. I think of Sampson, the man who could’ve and should’ve been and wasn’t. He was a man who had great potential to be used by God, and he didn’t follow his parents’ advice and got himself in big trouble. I think also the opposite, of Samuel the Prophet. What a godly, young man he was and how his life was blessed. I also think of the young man, David, who became the king of Israel, how he submitted to his father and was obedient watching the sheep and how God blessed his life.

Without going into any specifics or details, I’m convinced that by the grace of God, many blessings that I have in my life are because of the godly parents and the fear of the Lord that I had at a young age and learned to obey and to honor them as well, but I’m thankful that God placed these parents in my life and the blessings that it brought into my life. The times that I did disobey them and the repercussions that it brought, I realize how important it is for children to obey their parents.

Write down some of these verses I want to give you, moms and dads, Proverbs 10:27. It says, “The fear of the LORD adds length to life, but the years of the wicked are cut short.” Write down Proverbs 30:17. This is a great verse. “The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it.” Read that to your kids for a bedtime story. As a matter of fact, put it on a plaque in their bedroom and see how they like that. That’d be freaky. Again, it’s talking about a general principle.

Here we have Spirit-filled children…and what a blessing children are. I’m going to talk about them in just a second. These children love the Lord, want to honor the Lord and do as unto the Lord, to be obedient and to honor their parents, their father and their mother.

Here’s the second group, that is, the parents are commanded in verse 4. “And, ye fathers, provoke not,” negative, “your children to wrath: but” this is what you’re to do, “bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” The word “fathers” is from the Greek word used can also sometimes be translated parents. Legitimately, it’s translated “fathers,” but it can also sometimes refer to both father and mother. I do believe that is applicable. I don’t know if intentionally it’s rendered here, “father,” but the idea is that both the father and the mother are to be honored and obeyed, and both the father and the mother are to be engaged. Some would point out in light of this that fathers should take a leading role in the training and the discipline of their children, and that’s an interesting thought. I’ve actually preached a Father’s Day sermon on verse 4. We have it in a book, if you’re interested. It’s called How To Be A Godly Father, and we have that as well in our bookstore, but it’s an exposition of this verse that we’re going to cover tonight. It’s referring to not just the fathers, but this applies both to the fathers and the mothers. Fathers need to be engaged. They need to be involved in disciplining, training, loving, and nurturing their children as well.

Notice it says, “…provoke not your children to wrath,” anger. We need to realize that children are loaned to us from God. Write down Psalm 127:3, “Lo, children are an heritage,” or gift, as some translations have, “of the LORD,” so they’re loaned to you and we are stewards of them. We are to also allow them to bring us great joy. Write down Psalm 127:4-5. It says, “As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man,” referring to children, “that hath his quiver full of them.” Arrows are interesting. They’re different than swords. They’re connected to your hand. Arrows can go places and accomplish things swords cannot. Arrows are actually made, many times, by the marksman himself and designed for the purposes he wants to use them. Children are likened unto arrows in your quiver and are to be used to accomplish God’s purposes. What a blessing that is. But remember that they’re loaned to us and we’re stewards of them. They’re really God’s children. We take care of them, we give an account to God, and we’re blessed when God gives us these children.

There are four responsibilities in just this one verse in these four phrases that are conveyed for parents. Write them down. The first is, as I said, negative: Don’t provoke your children to wrath. This is a negative thing. The word “provoke” means to exasperate them. It means to goad them into resentment. Parents are not to exercise their authority with unkindness and with harshness. There’s the balance, “Children, obey your parents,” but parents “provoke not your children,” don’t exasperate them. Don’t dishearten them. Don’t cause them to lose heart. Don’t break their spirit, we might say, so you need to be careful as to how you do your parenting. It suggests a repeated pattern of treatment that gradually builds up a deep-seated anger and resentment that often boils over in outward hostility.

I’m absolutely convinced that a lot of the ills that we see in our culture today, a lot of the things that we see going wrong in our culture today, is because of a breakdown in parenting in the home—the breakdown in marriage, the breakdown in parenting, the breakdown in disciplining, loving, training, and fathers involved/engaged with their kids—and we have politicians talking about gun control and all these different laws, we have things we want to pass, and I’m thinking, If we would just open our Bibles. If we would just open the Word of God and get back to the Bible, God’s pattern for the home, what a difference it would make in our world today. Amen? So many kids are angry, upset, filled with hatred and anger because of the way they’ve been dealt with by their parents in the home. They have been disheartened or exasperated and have been goaded into resentment. Many of the violence, things that we see kids doing today, I think can be attributed back to the fact of the lack of parenting in the home.

How do we often provoke our children to anger? This is not a “Do” list; this is a “Not-Do” list. So often with criticism and fault finding, stuff like, “Why can’t you ever do anything right? Why can’t you do things the way your sister or your brother does?” or “You never do this right,” or “You never can perform what I want you to do,” and you criticize and heckle them to frustration and anger. You fault find and you’re critical with them. Or, you’re overly strict. This is often the case in a Christian home. We want our kids to follow the Lord. We want them to be obedient to the Lord and we don’t want them to follow the world, so we lock down real tight and get so strict with them that they sometimes rebel against that. I’ve often described raising children and discipline and rules as kind of like holding a wet bar of soap—you squeeze too tight, PTOOT! it’s gone; if you hold it too loose, SHWT! It slips away. It’s a delicate balance, right? You know, as a parent it’s hard to know, “Well, I don’t know if we should let them do this. I don’t know if we should let them do that.” You need to spend time on your knees in prayer but have guidelines, be involved, be engaged, but be careful not to be overly critical and strict with your children that you exasperate them.

There’s neglect, as we saw with David and Absalom. I’ve also preached a Father’s Day sermon with David and Absalom. Absalom died because David was a bad example and neglected Absalom. He got too busy with the affairs of the kingdom for his own son’s training, and he rebelled against his own father.

There’s often also inconsistency in the parents, “Do what I say, but don’t do what I do.” That doesn’t work. “Do what I tell you, but don’t do what I do and live the way I live.” You have to be consistent and don’t have double standards. It’s so very important.

Also, be careful of showing favoritism. If you have multiple children, not to favor one over another, but give them equal attention, equal love, equal praise, equal support. Make sure they know they are all equally loved. We see the sad result of Isaac favoring Esau, Rebecca favoring Jacob, and the problems that it brought into the family. Jacob carried that over into his family and favored Joseph, and look at the damage that came into the life of Joseph in the family of Jacob.

Notice, secondly, we’re not only to (not negatively, this is the negative) provoke our children to wrath or anger, but we’re to love our children. I love this in verse 4. The phrase, “…but bring them up,” actually means to develop up their character. It’s the same Greek word used in Ephesians 5:29 where Paul told husbands to nourish their wives. Remember, the word means to warm with body heat, so you’re to show them affection. Children need affection. They need to be hugged. They need to be kissed. They need to be loved. They need to be told, “I love you,” by your words and by your actions. Again, what a great opportunity for dads to lead the way. It’s transformative when a father is affectionate with his kids—a disciplinarian, yes; firm, yes, but loving—and the kids know that my father loves me and he shows and displays that.

Again, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had dads in my office for counseling that said, “I love my kids, but I don’t know how to show it to them. I was never shown love by my father. My father never hugged me. My father never told me he loved me, and now I don’t know how to do it with my kids,” and you keep that kind of going on. Learn to spend time with your kids. You can do devotions. You can tuck them in bed. You can give them baths. You can help feed them. You can take them to school. You can spend time with them. You can go around and say, “Goodnight,” to them and give them a kiss and let them know that you love them. You do that all through their lives and pour your love upon them. This will help them in so many ways. This is what this word “bring them up” means. It means to nourish them, to cherish them, to love them. Tell them that you love them, hug them often, listen to them when they’re talking to you, pay attention to them, spend time with them. Kids spell “love,” time.

Ask them to forgive you when you know you’ve done something wrong. Be man enough, or woman enough, to really honestly admit, “I’m sorry. Dad was wrong. I’m sorry that I said that,” or “I’m sorry that I did that. Please forgive me.” I’ve noticed how forgiving children are when parents humbly say, “I’m sorry. Please forgive me.” They’re so ready to forgive their parents when they do something wrong.

Notice the third thing that you’re to do as a parent. You’re not to provoke them, you’re to bring them up or love them, and you’re to discipline your children. Notice verse 4, “…in the nurture,” when it uses the phrase, “…bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,” but the phrase “in the nurture” conveys the idea of training by discipline. It actually conveys the idea of training them by discipline. Discipline isn’t just getting mad, flying off the handle, and smacking them, and they don’t even know what’s going on. Discipline is they have clear guidelines that they have deliberately disobeyed, and there’s repercussions to that disobedience. You do it for the purpose and the reason to train them. They’re learning submission in the home so that when they go into the society around them, they submit to the authorities around them.

In Proverbs 13:24, it says, “He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes,” often. If you love your children, like God with us, you will discipline them. Read Hebrews 12:6 where it says, “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth,” God loves us, right? but He does spank us. I’m glad He spanks me once in a while. It gets me back in line. It’s an evident sign of His affection and of His love. He’s using the board of education on us many times.

Spanking has just about been outlawed in our culture. Just using the word “spanking” right now, I could probably go to jail. Next Wednesday night, “Pastor John’s not here tonight because of the sermon last week.” I meet parents, “Oh, we don’t spank our children.” Well, maybe they don’t need spanking, but I’m watching right now and I think maybe they do need to be spanked. What ever happened to good ol’ spanking? I heard of one mother that had a spanking board hanging on the wall in the kitchen, and she wrote that stanza from a hymn that said, I need thee every hour. It’s kind of something that we don’t do anymore, and I think, again, how foolish can we be to think that children left to themselves, fed into the public school system, fed the philosophies and the views of the world, shaped and molded by the world, are not going to come out the way they are. We tell them that they’re products of evolution, they act like animals, and we’re surprised. It’s just so crazy.

The home is the institution for God’s place to learn, train, and raise children. I believe the first five of the Ten Commandments deal with our relationship to God of which “Honour thy father and mother,” is there in that first five—it’s five of the ten—because God places our parents over us to mold and shape us and to train us in the way of the Lord.

It’s got to be done properly, lovingly, and in a way that is purposeful, but I think that corporal punishment can be used in the home if it’s done in a proper way. Write down these verses, Proverbs 19:18, “Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying,” basically, “You’re killing me! You’re killing me!” Proverbs 22:15, “Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.” I heard of Franklin Graham, the son of Billy and Ruth Graham. He really gave his parents some trouble for a while, but he was left with a babysitter one time. He wasn’t obeying the babysitter, giving her a lot of problems, and Ruth Graham came home that night. She got the report and said, “Well, we’re just going to have to give Franklin a spanking,” and Franklin said, “No, you shouldn’t spank me.” She said, “Why?” “Because the devil made me do it.” Mrs. Graham said to Franklin, “Well, we’re just going to have to beat that devil out of you.” Look at today, God is using Franklin Graham—spare the rod, spoil the child.

Martin Luther, the great Protestant Reformer, had a very stern, harsh father. He had a hard time praying the Our Father prayer because of the image he had of a father. When he finally learned of God’s grace and God’s mercy, he was talking about the Scripture or the statement, “spare the rod, spoil the child,” he said, “Spare the rod, spoil the child, but keep an apple by the rod to reward them when they’re good,” that we should balance that off as well. We need dads and moms to step up and to discipline their children.

Write down Deuteronomy 6:7, it’s so very important, that you teach your children, train your children, in the way that they should go. You start young. You’re always doing it consistently. You do it privately. You don’t do it in anger. You do it in the proper place on the anatomy. You take time to give them instruction and love them after the discipline has been applied.

Here’s the last point I want to make in verse 4, that parents should admonish and teach their children. This speaks of instruction from the parents. It says, “…and admonition of the Lord.” You bring them up with nurturing and admonishing them in the Lord. This speaks of verbal instruction. It’s the parents responsibility to teach their children about God, about His Word, about the Bible, and about life. Another reason we’re in the trouble we are in our culture today is we have given that responsibility over to other institutions or other individuals. Moms and dads are to train their children, to raise their children.

I’m not anti public school, but I don’t know how in the world today a child can survive in the public school system. It’s so so so dark in the public school system, and it’s so important that you see this training and the raising and the focus and you’re engaged, you’re involved, but the primary responsibility…it’s not the Sunday school’s responsibility either. We do our best to train and teach your children the Bible and lead them in the way of the Lord here at the church, but it’s your responsibility to do that as a parent. You should have Bible stories with your kids every night, you should pray with your kids every day, and you should model it, teach them, and train them. If you sow to the flesh, you’ll reap corruption; but if you sow to the Spirit, you’ll reap life everlasting. It’s the parents responsibility to teach and to train them in the ways of the Lord. As I quoted Deuteronomy 6:7, “And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children,” these precepts.

By way of wrap up, we need Spirit-filled wives who love, submit, and respect their husbands. We need Spirit-filled husbands who dwell with their wives, who give honor to their wives, and who also love their wives. Then, we need Spirit-filled children who obey and honor their parents. We need parents who will love, honor, respect, nurture, and build up their children in the admonition of the Lord. We need Christian Spirit-filled homes. Amen?

We take communion tonight, and in the breaking of the bread and the drinking of the cup we’re remembering the sacrifice Jesus made for us on the cross. What a great opportunity before we leave here tonight to consecrate your life to God, to consecrate your marriage, to consecrate your home, to say, “Lord, help me to be the parent, the father, the mother, the child, obedient. Help me to be all that You want me to be. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit, and help me to live that crucified life.” I think it’s quite fitting that we have communion tonight in light of the study that we’ve done. Normally I’ll break away from my text and do a message on the Cross or on Redemption or Atonement, but the sacrifice that Jesus gave on the cross is a picture of a husband’s love for his wife. The obedience of the church to Christ is seen in the communion commitment of the bread and the cup. Jesus gave His life for us, and we submit to Him in loving obedience in our marriages. Our marriages are a reflection of Christ and the church, so Jesus gave Himself to purchase the church, His bride, so let our homes be Spirit-filled. Let them be based on the Word of God. Amen? Let’s pray.