Family Ties Series

INTRODUCTION

• SLIDE #1

• One out of three marriages ends in divorce according to the Barna Research Institute.

• This is the Census Bureau’s often-cited "50%" rate, the proportion of marriages taking place right now that will eventually divorce, which has since been revised downward to roughly 43% by the National Center for Health Statistics but was moved back up to around 50% by the Census Bureau in 2002, with even more ifs ands and buts than usual. Most recently, according to the New York Times, it has been revised downward to just over 40%. http://www.divorcereform.org/rates.html

• It seems like marriages and families are falling apart all around us.

• I think the answer for the break up of the family is found in the church. I believe that to be true, but according to Barna’s research, the rate of divorce for born-again Christians is about the same as those who are not saved.

• I am not here today to focus on the divorce issue. Nor am I afraid to deal with the subject, but today, we are going to look at some things that can make the family stronger and better.

• Marriages and families are struggling in part because we do not understand the God ordained roles of those who are a part of the family.

• What I am going to ask of all you this morning is for you to not tune me out because of what you THINK I am going to share with you from God’s Word this morning.

• Those who are in families are tied together and those ties we have to one another come with roles and responsibilities that when we fulfill them, we can have the great families we have wanted.

• Let us turn to Colossians 3:18-21 together this morning as we see what God’s Word has to say to us.

• SLIDE #2

• READ COLOSSIANS 3:18-21

• SLIDE #3

SERMON

I. A WIFE’S RESPONSIBILITY TO HER HUSBAND. (18)

• As a male standing before you this morning, this is the part where I can get in trouble with the ladies very quickly!

• Let us look at what verse 18 is telling us and what it is not telling us.

• When I was younger and dumber. I used to have this passage and the parallel passage in Ephesians highlighted and I made sure Robyn saw it. That was a smart move on my part!

• SLIDE #4

• When men start talking the responsibility of the wife, we sometimes go caveman in our thinking.

• Let us look at what verse 18 DOES NOT say first.

• Submitting to another person is an often misunderstood concept. It does not mean becoming a doormat.

• What is spoken of in verse cannot be forced upon the wife either. It does not say that Og is the supreme ruler of the wife or the home.

• In Paul’s day, the man in the Jewish culture was the absolute ruler in the home. Slaves were called to submit until they were free, male children were to submit until they were adults and the females were called to submit their entire lives.

• The submission Paul speaks of here is not the same that was practiced by the typical Jewish male of the time.

• SLIDE #6

• The second thing this passage does not imply is inferiority or superiority of one of the sexes.

• Many people think that because the wife is called to submit to her husband that it means she is less of a person or less important in God’s eyes and her own.

• SLIDE #7

• Galatians 3:28 (NASB) 28There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

• SLIDE #8

• Thirdly, it is not cultural in nature.

• SLIDE #9

• Genesis 3:16 (NASB) 16To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children; Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you.”

• The order of things comes from Genesis. After the fall of man, as part of the curse of sin, God said that the wife would be ruled by her husband.

• Women have suffered at the hands of man every since.

• Let us now look at what it does say.

• SLIDE #10

• The submission spoken of is a VOLUNTARY on the part of the wife.

• The word submission means to willingly subject oneself to the authority of another.

• This is a not a command that a husband can force upon a wife, she has to want to do it. In a minute, we will see how a husband can make this a joy for the wife to do.