The nice things about expository preaching is no
one can accuse you of choosing a theme.
You start in verse 1 of chapter 1
and keep on going and you take what
comes.
And tonight we come to 1 Peter chapter
3 verses 1 through 7, dealing with the
all-important subject of the home.
It so happens that a large percentage of
the people who live in this near north
side are not married, they are singles.
It also happens that those who are married,
most of them do not have families.
Someone says, why in the world then preach
about this subject?
Well, for several reasons.
Number one, it's in the Bible.
All scripture is given by inspiration of God
and all scripture is profitable.
Number two, some of you are going to
get married.
You may look in the mirror and think
it's pretty hopeless right now.
I told you about the lady who sent
her picture to the Lonely Hearts Club and
they sent it back and said we aren't
that lonely.
Some of us are married and it doesn't
hurt for us to hear this again and
be reminded of it.
And some of you will be able to
assist those who may need this kind of
assistance.
So we make no apology for this theme
tonight.
It's the word of God and it's going
to help us.
Peter's been talking about submission.
It began back in chapter two, verse 12,
really, where he talks about in verse 13,
submitting to the ordinances of man.
Verse 18, the servants submitting to their masters.
That talks about our Lord Jesus Christ who
submitted himself to the will of God.
And so in chapter three, verse one, in
the same manner, in the same manner as
I have described our Lord Jesus as being
subjected to the will of his Father, ye
wives be in subjection to your own husbands
that if any obey not the word, that
means they aren't saved, they may also apart
from the word, that means without nagging and
preaching and hollering and arguing, be won by
the behavior of the wives while they behold
your chaste conduct coupled with fear.
Whose adorning, let it not be that outward
adorning of braiding the hair and of wearing
of gold or of putting on of apparel.
Now, obviously, he's not talking about these things
as things in themselves.
Otherwise, he'd be teaching nudism.
He doesn't say it's wrong to put on
apparel.
He doesn't even say it's wrong to fix
your hair and wear gold.
What he's saying is don't make this the
most important thing.
But let it be the hidden man of
the heart in that which is not corruptible,
all these other things are, even the ornament
of a meek and a quiet spirit, which
is in the sight of God of great
price.
For after this manner, in the old time,
the holy women also who trusted in God
adorned themselves being in subjection unto their own
husbands, even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him
Lord, whose daughters ye are as long as
ye do well and are not afraid with
any terror.
There's a difference between the reverential fear of
verse two and the terrifying fear of verse
six.
In like manner, that's the way he started
in verse one, talking to the wives.
And so he talks this way to the
husbands.
Just as I said, we should be in
subjection to ordinances.
Just as I said, we should be in
subjection to our masters.
Just as I said, our Lord Jesus was
in subjection to the will of God in
like manner.
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.
We have in our society today an amazingly
strange situation.
Now here it is.
We have more studies on marriage than ever
before.
We have more books and tapes on marriage
than ever before.
We have more magazine articles.
We have more experts, more counselors, and more
advisors available in this field than ever before.
And yet we're having more problems among married
people than ever before.
And this includes Christians.
Something's wrong.
I walk in bookstores often because this is
my interest and books are my tools.
And I check out the section on the
home and it gets larger and larger.
And you can find books in Christian bookstores
written by fine, competent Christian people on every
subject relating to the home.
Some of them very explicit.
I reviewed a book recently on the self
-willed child.
My mother could have used that book when
I was a kid.
Something's wrong.
We have this great mass of information and
yet for some reason it's not distilling into
the hearts and minds of people.
And I fear that there are many Christian
homes that are staying together only for the
sake of reputation.
There has already been an emotional, if not
a physical, divorce, but not a legal one.
And this is sad because the home is
the one remnant of paradise that we still
have on earth.
Everything else was wiped out, but the family,
the home, is still a remnant of paradise.
Now the apostle Peter knew something about marriage.
He was a married man.
Every once in a while someone says to
me, I don't like to read what Paul
had to say about marriage.
You know, Paul was a stodgy old bachelor.
I say, what's rather interesting, Peter was a
married man.
He must have been a good married man.
His mother-in-law lived with him.
And if he could get along with his
wife and his mother-in-law and be
able to write things like this, he knew
something.
And yet Peter says the same thing Paul
says, so you can't argue about them.
Peter heard Jesus teach about marriage.
Peter himself was a married man and Peter
was inspired by the Spirit of God to
write these words.
And so he says something to us we
need to listen to.
And you know, all of this looks so
complicated, but when you just look at it
and meditate on it and pray over it,
you discover that Peter is saying this.
A home can be a happy, holy, Christian
home.
A marriage can be something to enjoy, not
something to endure, provided that the husband and
the wife fulfill their duties to one another.
That's all he's saying.
Now, says Peter, to make it easy for
you, I'm going to boil it all down
to two duties, one for the wife and
one for the husband.
The wife has the duty of submission.
The husband has the duty of consideration.
Now, if the husband will show consideration and
if the wife will show submission, you won't
have any problems.
You may have some difficulties and troubles.
You may have some hard places to go
through, but those things, instead of pulling you
apart, will draw you closer together.
You may have difficulties to face, but they
will not be weapons to fight with.
They'll be tools to build with.
And so I send you home tonight with
two words ringing in your memory, submission, consideration.
Now, before we look at verses one through
six, where he deals with submission, I want
to answer the question bouncing around in the
minds of some of you.
Because I have discussed these things with some
of you, and some of you who are
single have wondered, why in the world does
Peter spend six verses talking to the wife
and only one verse talking to the husband?
That's not fair.
There should be three and a half verses
for the husband, three and a half verses
for the wife.
We want this thing to be equal, equal
rights all the way around.
Well, the answer is so very simple.
Do you know what Christianity did for women
when Christianity was unleashed in the Roman Empire?
It completely changed their status.
Up until the time that the gospel went
across the Roman Empire, women were things.
They were just a smidgen higher than slaves.
The husband had dictatorial rights.
Women were not to be seen.
They certainly were not to be heard.
Though there were pagan homes where there was
love and a depth of devotion, they were
somewhat exceptional.
Now, the reason Peter has to say more
to the wife is because she had a
whole new position in life.
Being a Christian woman gave her a whole
new status.
It was much harder for a woman to
become a Christian, particularly if her husband was
not saved, than it was for the man
to be saved.
You see, in those early days, if the
head of the household was converted, it was
very natural for the rest of the household
to get converted.
The wife would say, I want to become
a Christian.
The children old enough to understand would say,
we want to become Christians.
Not always, but often.
This is why you find households being baptized
in the New Testament.
And so he has to spend a little
more time with the wife who's all new
to her.
And he had to deal with certain aspects
of her new status in society and in
the home.
So he doesn't give six verses to the
women because the women have six times more
problems than the men.
Or because the women create six times more
difficulty than the men.
No, it's just that he has more to
tell them.
And it all balances together.
The wife has the duty of submission.
And Peter gives us three reasons why a
woman should be in submission to her husband.
Number one, it is an obligation.
God says so.
In the same manner, ye wives be in
subjection to your own husbands.
It is an obligation.
Number two, it is an opportunity that if
any obey not the word, they also may,
apart from the word, be won by the
behavior of the wives.
And number three, it is an ornament.
Not only are you a blessing to your
husband, but in submitting yourself, you develop the
beauty of Christian character.
And this he deals with in verses three
through six.
So these three reasons for submission.
Number one, it's an obligation.
Number two, it's an opportunity.
And number three, it is an ornament.
It's an obligation.
God commands it.
In the same manner, ye wives be in
subjection.
Now, subjection is not subjugation.
There are people who when they read verses
like this and like Ephesians chapter five, they
lose their insulin.
They start developing the DTs.
And they say, oh, don't talk to us
about submission.
Because they think submission means slavery.
That headship is dictatorship, lordship.
He uses Sarah as an example of what
a wife ought to be.
She called him Lord.
When she got the word that she was
going to have a baby, she said, hey,
this can't be.
My Lord is rather old, and I'm not
too young myself.
But you don't find that Abraham was lording
it over Sarah.
Once he listened to Sarah's bad advice and
got into trouble, once he listened to Sarah's
good advice and saved himself some trouble.
So subjection is not subjugation.
Subjection is the willing, loving, accepting of my
place in society.
You see, it goes all the way back
here to the ordinances.
Chapter two, verse 13, submit yourself to every
ordinance.
Now, is it right for us as citizens
to be under the authority of government?
Yes, it is.
Is the government always right?
No, it isn't.
Do we have a right to rebel and
blow the place up because they aren't?
No, we don't.
There are orderly ways of making changes.
Verse 18, servants be subject to your masters.
Is it right for an employee to be
in subjection to an employer?
Yes, it is.
If you didn't, you'd have chaos.
How about our Lord Jesus?
For even here unto were ye called because
Christ also.
Was it right for Jesus to come as
a servant and be in subjection to his
Father's will?
Yes.
If it is right for me as a
citizen to be under authority, if it is
right for me as an employee to be
under authority, if it is right for me
as a Christian to be under authority, then
it is also right for me as a
husband, for you as a wife to be
under authority.
Now, Paul makes it very clear in Ephesians
chapter five that this subjection is not one
sided.
In verse 21, he says that both husband
and wife are to be submitted to the
Lord, submitting yourselves one to the other in
the fear of God, the husband submitted to
the Lord and therefore to the wife, the
wife submitted to the Lord and therefore to
the husband.
Submission is not subjugation.
Now, I'll tell you how you can tell
the difference.
Some wife at this point may be saying,
I wonder if I'm submitted or subjugated.
Well, here's the difference.
Submission is a joyful act of love.
Subjugation is a difficult act of fear.
Submission brings out the best in you.
Subjugation brings out the worst in you and
in your husband.
Submission leads to freedom.
You become all that you can become.
Subjugation leads to bondage and there's no fulfillment.
Would it shock you if I told you
the Bible taught the equality of men and
women?
He tells us we are heirs together of
the grace of life.
He says that we pray together.
Did you know that men and women were
made by the same creator?
They're equal in creation.
They were made of the same material.
Dust.
They were given the same dominion and God
blessed them.
And God said unto them, have dominion.
The same Savior died for them.
The fact that Jesus came as a man
does not exclude the women.
The same Savior died for them.
The same Holy Spirit lives in them.
In Jesus Christ, there's neither male nor female,
bond nor free.
We're all one in Christ.
The Bible teaches equality.
I used to work for the Rockwell Manufacturing
Company.
I've told you that several times.
I'm glad for that experience.
I wish everybody going into missionary work or
ministry of some kind would spend a few
years being knocked around in a manufacturing company.
And every once in a while, Colonel Rockwell
would go through the plant.
And you know what?
He was no better than I.
I was sitting there at the clock.
I used to punch the tickets and give
the fellows their work.
I was important, you know, with the clock.
And here came the Colonel with all of
his authority.
He's no different, no better than was I.
But he had a different authority.
Now, if there is not authority in society,
you have chaos.
If there is not authority in employment, you
have chaos.
If there is not authority in the church,
you have chaos.
If there's not authority in the home, you
have chaos.
Subjection has nothing to do with inferiority.
The fact that I worked for Colonel Rockwell
did not make him superior to me or
me inferior to him.
It just meant there were different levels of
authority.
And if there were not, we'd never manufactured
a valve.
So he's not talking here about inferiority, superiority.
He's talking about order and authority.
And so submission is an obligation.
And I'm going to ask a question now.
In your home, is there cooperation or competition?
Now, if two people get married and there
is the proper submission to the Lord and
to each other, you're going to have cooperation.
And it's beautiful.
The wife knows his weaknesses and she compensates
with her strengths.
The husband knows her weaknesses and he compensates
with his strength.
And when there is that submission to the
Lord and to his authority, there is cooperation.
When one party says, I will not submit.
I am better.
I work harder.
Then you don't have cooperation.
You get competition.
And dear friends, you can't build a home
on competition.
Can't be done.
So I'll say to you single folks tonight,
don't marry girls.
Don't marry a man you cannot lovingly, sincerely
be submissive to.
I don't care how much money he has.
I don't care what kind of car he
drives.
I'm not interested in any of those things.
If you lovingly, honestly cannot submit to him,
don't get married.
You're better off in single blessedness than married
cussedness.
Now there should be submission, not only because
it's an obligation, but it's an opportunity.
He's talking to Christian wives who got saved
after they were married.
He's not talking to Christians who married unsaved
people.
That's not in the Bible.
It's wrong for Christians to marry unsaved people.
Don't argue about it.
Don't debate it.
Don't discuss it.
It's just there.
Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.
Oh, but I prayed about it.
Fine.
Quit praying.
Read your Bible.
It's an opportunity.
Here's a Christian wife and she wants to
go to church and she wants to serve
the Lord.
And Peter says, hey, your first obligation's at
home.
Let's win your husband.
How do you do it?
Submission.
Oh, but what if he asks me to
do something wrong?
You submit unto him as unto the Lord
and don't be afraid.
God will take care of it.
It's an opportunity.
An opportunity to do what?
To be a spiritual blessing.
You know, one of the great joys of
Christian marriage is that a husband helps his
wife to grow spiritually and a wife helps
her husband to grow spiritually.
That's the opportunity of submission.
Now, where there's competition, you tear each other
down.
And oh, when a husband and a wife
want to start fighting, they got tools to
do it with.
Words or no words.
Pouting.
You can't have any money.
There are several weapons you can use in
a family if you want to fight.
Money, words, or lack of words.
The children, they're great weapons.
If you want to manufacture some juvenile delinquents
in your home, just do this.
Mother says, hey, you can't do that.
And dad says, oh, yes, he can.
And before long, the kids say, hey, we
can play both ends against the middle in
this house.
They're using us to fight each other.
It's one of the worst things you can
do.
Submission is an opportunity for spiritual blessing.
He's saying to the wife, you'll never win
your husband by arguing with him and preaching
at him.
When I counsel couples about to be married,
I sometimes ask the question, is there anything
in the other person's life you plan to
change after you get married?
That's an interesting question.
They kind of look at each other, you
know.
If they say yes, I say, then change
it before you get married.
Because marriage does not create problems.
Marriage reveals problems.
You say, well, I can say I can
straighten him out after we get married.
Great.
Do it before you get married.
He's talking here to Christian wives who were
prone to argue and prone to nag.
May I just say a word as one
who has been a husband for some 25
years?
Nothing will drive a man out more than
nagging.
Nagging about, I can say because we've never
done it, nagging about money and nagging about
the color of the kitchen and nagging about
the...
Now, men can nag too.
I know men who nag.
You know what Peter's saying here?
He is saying to us, if we are
submissive to one another, we don't need arguments,
we don't even need words.
Our actions, our attitudes create such an atmosphere
in the home that it's easy for us
to get better.
And the wife's attitude and the husband's attitude
creates such a beautiful atmosphere that each one
starts growing and becoming better.
Now, submission is not only an obligation and
an opportunity.
And I'd like to spend the rest of
my time talking about the opportunity, how Christian
husbands and wives can build each other up,
be a spiritual blessing to one another.
But he goes on to say that submission
is an ornament, verses 3 through 6.
The tragedy back in Peter's day in the
Roman Empire was that, like today, many women
live for fashion.
They competed with each other in fashion.
They had to have the most outlandish hairdo.
They had to have the most expensive clothing.
Now, Peter's not telling us that it's wrong
to look nice.
I think one of the best ways for
a man to be proud of his wife
and really want to be with her is
when she takes care of herself and she
looks nice.
No reason why a woman has to be
unkempt, or a man for that matter.
What he's saying is don't put the emphasis
there.
He's talking not about externals, but about internals,
about character.
He's saying just as you want the outside
to look beautiful, work on making the inside
beautiful.
Work on a meek and a quiet spirit.
That's just the opposite of nagging.
Work on an inner beauty, not a glamour,
not an artificial glamour.
Not the kind of beauty you buy in
a bottle.
Now, some folks need all the help they
can get, and I'm not going to argue
about that.
But we men have a tendency sometimes that
same way.
What he's saying is develop Christian character.
Submission is an obligation.
God says do it.
Submission is an opportunity.
God can work through you.
Submission is an ornament.
God can work in you.
And wherever you find a wife who's not
submissive, you're going to find an angular, abrasive
kind of a character.
Usually, the wife who cannot get along with
her husband can't get along with other people.
Usually, the husband who can't get along with
his wife can't get along with other people.
He's talking about building character.
The home, the Christian home, ought to be
such a place where the things that matter
most are not prices, but values.
What good is a $200,000 house filled
with a million dollars worth of trinkets if
there's no home?
So he said you better live for the
things that really count.
The ornament of a meek and a quiet
spirit in the sight of God's of great
price.
Now, if God came down to my home
or your home and began to put price
tags on things, I wonder what those price
tags would be.
Here's this shelf full of goodies that you
are so proud of.
He might put a zero price tag on
that.
You see, you can't build a home on
prices.
A home is built on values.
You can't build it on externals.
It's built on internals.
It's built on character.
Can't build it on things.
The only difference between men and boys is
that men buy more expensive toys.
And sometimes those expensive toys have a way
of wrecking a home.
Now, we've said three things to the wife.
We've said submission is an obligation.
Are you and your husband competitors or partners?
We've said that submission is an opportunity.
Are you each changing the other for the
better?
Can you really say I am a better
person spiritually because of this marriage?
And thirdly, we've said that submission is an
ornament.
Can we honestly say that we are living
for the things that really count?
Character and not things.
Well, we must hurry.
I don't want to give you the impression
that the wives need all the preaching because
we husbands need it too.
In verse 7, he says, like men, are
you husbands?
And the husband says, all right, Peter's going
to go to meddling now.
Yes, he is.
And the word he uses is consideration.
All that he says in verse 7 is
summed up in one word, consideration.
He said, if a wife is to have
submission, a husband must have consideration.
Now, what is consideration?
It involves three factors, knowledge, honor, and prayer.
If a husband is considerate of his wife,
she has no problem being submissive.
There isn't a godly Christian wife in the
world who would not gladly submit herself to
the protection and the provision and the blessing
of a husband who has consideration.
Now, consideration, first of all, involves knowledge.
And like men are ye husbands, dwell with
them according to knowledge.
I read a book once on Einstein's theory,
general theory of relativity.
Please don't ask me what it said.
I thought I'd show my friends how smart
I was.
I understood Einstein.
I read the book and put it down
and said, well, I'm glad that's over with.
Somebody asked Mrs. Einstein one day, Mrs. Einstein,
do you understand Dr. Einstein's theory of relativity?
She smiled and said, no, but I understand
Dr. Einstein.
I said, good.
Every once in a while, a wife will
say, oh, my husband's read so many books
and done this and done that.
Doesn't make any difference.
You ought to learn all you can.
But you know, a wife and a husband
need to understand each other.
The first factor involved in consideration is knowledge.
You dwell with your wife according to knowledge.
I went to get my license renewed the
other day, not my marriage license, my driver's
license.
They sent me that notice that said we
want you to come down, get your picture
taken and everything.
And so I went down there and watched
people.
I love to watch people and went through
the written exam just like that.
And they checked my eyes and I went
through that and I was stood in line.
Hurry up and wait.
I was watching people.
I thought to myself, you know, you go
through an examination to get a driver's license.
Some of the people they took out on
the range and made them drive and rejected
them.
Why?
Because you can get in an automobile and
if you don't know how to drive and
don't know what's involved, you can kill somebody.
If they had requirements like that for marriage,
I wonder what would happen.
You can go down to City Hall and
get a license, go find somebody to marry
you.
You're married.
No preparation, no training, no examination.
It's no wonder nearly half of our homes
are falling apart.
Now, I could bluff my way through on
my driver's examination, maybe have an accident.
They'd catch up with me.
They'd say, hey, wait a minute, man, there's
something wrong with you.
That doesn't happen.
I've never heard them reclaiming a marriage license.
Of course, you can't.
Once you're married, you're married.
That's the law of God.
Men need knowledge.
I'm not complaining because of all the books
and tapes that are available today.
I read them.
I wish I had read some of them
30 years ago.
Somebody said to Tim LaHaye one day, my,
you've written some wonderful books on raising children.
He said, yes, I wish I'd known all
these things 30 years ago.
Knowledge.
Now, what are we supposed to know?
Dwell with your wife according to knowledge, knowledge
of how she's put together and knowledge of
her moods and knowledge of her needs and
sensitive with the extra ear and listening with
the heart.
Now, this involves communication.
You can't have knowledge without communication.
Do you know that the average American married
couple spends a whole 37 minutes a week
talking to each other without interruption about something
other than the children, the bills and the
backyard?
A whole 37 minutes.
That's marvelous.
How can a man say I know my
wife when he doesn't have any time to
talk to her?
Listen to her.
A year or so ago, three pastors called
me up, came in to see me.
Each of those three pastors had been through
the same experience.
Their wives had walked out on them.
And I said to each of the men,
weren't there some signals?
Didn't you catch any signals?
And one of them said, well, I can
look back now and see that they were
there, but I was too busy to follow
them.
Knowledge.
And so we husbands have a big responsibility.
Knowledge.
Read the Word of God and find out
what a husband's supposed to be, what he's
supposed to do, and do it.
When all else fails, read the instructions.
Which leads me to ask this question of
husbands and wives.
Do you understand each other better today than
you did a year ago?
Is there communication not just on the level
of things or the level of events?
Is there a communication on the level of
real, excuse the term, gut level concerns and
anxieties and worries?
Is there an openness and an honesty that
leads to knowledge?
Now, his second responsibility, if he's going to
show consideration, is honor.
Dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor
unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel.
Now, some of the feminists don't like that.
There have been books written showing how much
stronger and better equipped women are for life
than men.
Maybe so.
But generally speaking, the wife is looked upon
as the weaker.
Now, it doesn't mean that the husband is
strong in everything.
Each man has a weakness.
Each woman has a weakness or more, each
of them.
And as I said before, the strengths of
the wife will compensate for the weaknesses of
the husband and vice versa.
But he's talking here about honor, respect, showing
respect to her.
Courtesy, kindness.
Opening the door for her, not slamming it
in her face.
Oh, what a tragedy it is when a
man is courting a woman and he can
hardly do enough kindnesses for her.
Then he gets married and he can hardly
ignore her anymore.
And he forgets to be a gentleman.
Now, no woman has any problems submitting to
a man who has knowledge.
He knows what he's doing.
He understands and who has honor.
Are you taking each other for granted?
That's what Peter is saying.
Don't take each other for granted.
Then the third factor involved is prayer.
As being heirs together of the grace of
life, that your prayers be not hindered.
Every married couple has an inheritance.
Now, some refer this primarily to the bearing
of children because children are an inheritance.
I go much farther than that.
I believe that when God brings a Christian
man and a Christian woman together and he
joins them in marriage, he has an inheritance
for them.
And they are heirs together and we are
enriched together.
Now, he's not talking about money riches.
He's talking about the kind of an inheritance
that you can't measure with slide rules and
computers and calculators.
That spiritual inheritance.
Did you know that your home is an
investment in eternity?
And so there has to be prayer.
Now, the husband is to be the one
to lead in this.
If there's one complaint I have heard from
Christian wives in nearly 30 years of ministry,
it's this, Pastor, I would give anything if
my husband would only take the lead in
spiritual things.
He accuses me of taking over and being
bossy, but I have to do it because
he doesn't do it.
I can't think of a greater privilege than
for a young husband, new husband, new wife
to join their hands and hearts in prayer
every day.
Read the word of God.
I can't think of anything more wonderful in
our home than as the children come along,
teach them how to read the word of
God and pray.
The family prays together.
It's a privilege.
I wouldn't want to give that privilege to
somebody else.
I jealously cherish the privilege that I've had
over these years of gathering our family.
We read the word of God.
When I've been out of town, my wife
has taken over and done it.
Hasn't upset anything.
Prayer.
It's amazing how many Christian couples do not
pray together.
Then they wonder why they argue and why
they can't get along with the children and
why things happen.
In fact, at the end of verse 7,
Peter dares to say that if our home
is not right, God will not answer prayer.
One of the thermometers for measuring the spiritual
life of the home is answered prayer.
I would rather at my funeral, one of
the children be able to stand up and
say, as we look back over our family,
we see that God answered prayer.
More than anything else he could say, because
answered prayer is the thermometer of spiritual life.
Now, if a husband and wife are not
getting along with each other, they can't pray.
God won't answer.
That's one of the rules of the Christian
home.
Now, we've said all of this.
I'm going to wrap it up into a
little inventory and then we'll be on our
way.
Are you partners or competitors?
Submission is an obligation.
Are we both growing and changing for the
better?
Submission is an opportunity.
Are we living for character, the things that
really count?
Submission is an ornament.
Do we understand each other better today?
Consideration involves knowledge.
Are we taking each other for granted?
Consideration involves honor.
Is God answering our prayers?
Consideration involves prayer.
In other words, these seven verses become somewhat
of a spiritual inventory for the home.
I recall some time ago, a folder came
to our home through the mail, one of
these occupant things.
And it was from the fire department during
National Fire Prevention Week.
And it said, there are X number of
home fires every day.
Here, take an inventory of your home.
And here it said about your outlets and
your inlets and this and that.
I thought to myself, that's a good thing.
Be terrible to have your house burned down
around you, especially while you're in it.
I thought to myself, I wonder what would
happen if every year the church mailed out
an inventory to homes and said, husband and
wife, would you sit down and just take
this inventory?
Half of the people who got it would
be angry.
You keep your hands off our home.
But you know when they've got problems, you
know where they run for help?
The church.
There are times when I have to really
pray for patience, not to say things that
I know I shouldn't say.
Here's some couple or here's some family.
They haven't got time to come to church.
Kids can't go to camp.
They won't go to Sunday school.
Then they have trouble and they come to
the preacher.
And I feel like saying, hey, where have
you been for the last year?
You can't say that, that's mean.
Be good to take an inventory of our
homes and husband and wife say, are we
partners or competitors?
Is there submission?
Are we growing in character and spirituality?
Are we depending on things, externals?
Do we have to have a lot of
gadgets and toys to keep our home happy?
Or is there the development of Christian character?
Do we understand each other better than ever
before?
Do we take each other for granted?
Is God answering our prayers?
That's what a Christian home is all about.
It's not complicated.
It's not even difficult.
It's simple.
Submission.
Consideration.
Both of which are born of love.
Who does this for us?
Jesus.
By nature, I don't want to submit.
By nature, I want to fight.
I was born that way.
Then Jesus comes into your heart and He
changes you from that pugnacious attitude of rebellion
and vindictiveness to a submissive attitude to Him.
Who's the one who gives us love?
Jesus.
What He's saying simply here is, here's a
wife who's submitted to Jesus.
Here's a husband submitted to Jesus.
And the love of Christ flows through the
both of them.
And there's submission and consideration.
And out of this comes an atmosphere that
leads to growth and honesty and openness and
understanding and tenderness.
And your home becomes a heaven on earth.
Mr. Spurgeon said our home should be so
heavenly that if the angels were to visit
us, they would not know that they were
away from home.
Heavenly Father, I pray that something that you
have said to us tonight will result in
our being holier and happier and more useful
in our homes.
Thank you, Father, for those you have given
to us who are a part of our
family whom we love.
I pray that you'll help us to measure
up to all that you've had to say
to us.
And I pray, Father, that because of this,
our children will grow to love you and
to serve you.
That they will bring great honor to your
name.
Pray for our singles who are here, how
thankful we are for them.
Some of them you have chosen always to
have a life of singleness.
This is their life and their ministry.
Now bless them in it and help them
to be a blessing in the homes where
they'll minister.
Some will be getting married.
I pray you'll help them to get married
on the right foundations.
Pray for those, Lord, who have been married
for some years, who have problems.
Help them in facing and solving them.
Help us as men.
To have consideration.
Deliver us from selfishness, from exploiting.
Help our wives to have submission.
And may we be the kind of husbands
that they find no difficulty, but only delight
in submitting.
And may their submitting result in their growing,
their happiness, their freedom, their fulfillment, and not
in their exploiting.
Do it for Jesus' sake, I pray in
His name, Amen.