Being Mindful of God in the Home
Notes
Transcript
Announcements
Announcements
AWANA on Tuesday Nights
Men, we need help stacking Middle Section chairs
Putting the chairs away to give the AWANA program this middle section.
Counseling Training Course
Thursday evenings – 7:00-8:30pm
October 4 – November
Free to those who attend GBFC
For non-attenders it cost $100
Lord’s Supper at the End of the service
Components are in the back
Mark will come up and lead us
Opening Prayer
Opening Prayer
Remember the Example of Christ
Remember the Example of Christ
He never sinned, He never reviled, He never threatened, He entrusted Himself to His Father.
The Son of God, equal to God, submitted Himself to His Father.
This is the example that Christ left us...For us to follow.
No matter the circumstances, we keep our eyes and minds fixed on God.
We cling to God in order to get through any circumstance while honoring our Savior.
And, we honor our Savior through faith and obedience.
When we do this what the world sees is not an ultimate desire to escape the circumstance...
But, an ultimate confidence in the One who is present with us in the circumstances.
This morning we’re going to begin looking at the home.
The Importance of the Family
The Importance of the Family
Families are the building blocks in the structure of society.
And, a healthy relationship between husband and wife is the cement that holds the family together.
Let me give you some examples of the devastation of broken homes...
Children from fatherless homes typically struggle more with their emotions and self-loathing.
Children from fatherless homes typically exude a more bullying persona to hide their underlying fears and unhappiness.
71% of High School dropouts are from fatherless homes.
85% of youth in prison are from fatherless homes and they repeat offend.
Children from fatherless homes are more promiscuous and highly more likely to create multiple fatherless homes themselves.
They are also 5x’s more likely to be exploited by adult men.
They are more likely to experience drug and alcohol addiction.
90% of runaway children are from a home that is absent of a father.
Preschoolers that do not have both biological parents present are 40x’s more likely to be sexually abused.
Fatherless children are more likely to be unemployed, have low incomes or experience homelessness.
Listen to this word from God...
Proverbs 1:8 Hear, my son[daughter], your father’s instruction, and forsake not your mother’s teaching,
God’s design for society is to have homes filled with Father’s and Mother’s instructing their children in the love and admonition of the Lord.
Some would ask, and rightly so, “What if I’m in a situation in which there is no father in the home?”
Seek council from your church leaders.
There’s help for you and your family.
Let your church leaders find a godly man that can spend time with your sons.
Let another family pair up with yours to mentor.
Let the community of faith fill the voids in your life.
That is a role that the Church is meant to fill.
In 1 Peter 3, Peter addresses the wife and the husband...
Showing them the attitude and behavior that will allow them to glorify God in their relationship...
And, which, will set a godly example before the eyes and hearts of their children.
So, let’s read the text for this morning...
The Concerns of a Wife
The Concerns of a Wife
1 Peter 3:1-7 Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, 2 when they see your respectful and pure conduct. 3 Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— 4 but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious. 5 For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, 6 as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening. 7 Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.
So, first Peter addresses wives.
Peter starts with the word Likewise...
This word points back to v.13 for the Lord’s sake...
And, vv.21-25 based on the Lord’s example.
So, For the Lord’s sake and based on the Lord’s example...
Wives be subject to your own husbands
Remember from last Sunday, to be subject is biblically...
In its simplest form, is to place one self under in an orderly fashion
orderly fashion would be defined by God...
As in behavior, attitude, motivation.
An expanded biblical understanding of to be subject would be...
to renounce one’s own will for the sake of others and to give precedence to others
Now, because of the cultural animosity that we see towards being submissive to anything...
Let me start out with this...
#1 – What is this text not teaching?
#1 – What is this text not teaching?
It’s not teaching that women have to submit to all men.
v.1 be subject/submit to your own husband
Not to men in general, but your own husband.
There are authorities that men & women, equally, are called to submit to...
Government, Masters/Employers, Church Elders...
But the wife is called to submit only to her husband…not all men, or any other man.
This passage is not teaching that women are physically or spiritually inferior to men –OR– that the wife is physically or spiritually inferior to the husband.
v.7 they (the wife) are (joint) heirs with you (the husband) of the grace of life (salvation)
The wife is an heir with you, not because of you.
Paul says it like this...
Galatians 3:26-29 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
Paul is not saying that somehow when we become Christians that gender and roles are no longer in place.
He’s saying there is no inferiority in them.
He’s saying that the righteousness & atoning blood covers every one equally...
You’re not more of God’s child if your a Jewish Christian.
You’re not more of God’s child if your a slave or if your free.
The world’s value system is not God’s value system...
—> Which we’ll speak to more later.
Every Christian is of equal value in God’s eyes...
And, should be in the eyes of Christian’s, as well...
Because we are created in the image of God...
And that image is being renewed in Christ.
This passage is not teaching that there is never a time in which a husband and wife should separate, if physical harm is/could take place, with the purpose to make the relationship better and rejoin, by the grace of God.
This passage is not saying a wife should not have a voice in the relationship.
Any husband that does not consider the wisdom, thoughtfulness, and womanly perspective of their wife is unwise, to say it kindly.
This passage is not saying that you should sin against God if your husband leads you in that direction.
God is always our ultimate authority and His commands transcend all commands.
Some have argued that submission is not God’s ideal plan for marriage, it’s actually contrary they say, but Peter merely commands it here for the purpose of winning the unbelieving husband.
However, for Peter to command anything that is not God’s ideal plan would be missing the mark...
And, it would be Peter, under the inspiration of the HS, commanding sinful behavior...
And, we’re told in this passage that pure conduct is what wins the husband…not sinful conduct.
Now, we know what this passage is not saying...
So, what is this passage saying...
#2 – What kind of husband is this?
#2 – What kind of husband is this?
1 Peter 3:1 Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives,
So, wives, one of the reasons to be subject to your husband, if he is an unbeliever...
Is that you may win your husband to the Lord without a word by your conduct/behavior.
Now, how can someone be won without a word?
I thought in order for someone to be saved they must hear and believe the gospel?
Well, the phrase do not obey the word...
Actually, means that they actually willingly disobey & rebel against the word.
It’s not an ignorant disobedience.
It is a willful disregard for what they know.
So, this is a husband who has heard the gospel.
Most likely, they heard the same message as the wife...
Or the wife, upon conversion, bursting at the seams, shared the good news of JC with her husband...
Being compelled by the joy and peace that she knows/experiences by faith.
Peter, here, says to the wife...
Don’t think you will win your husband to the Lord by badgering him.
Don’t badger your husband by incessantly telling him how he’s disobeying God...
Or sinning towards God…or rebelling against God.
Peter is saying what will win him is your behavior, not your lecturing.
It’s interesting that Peter says even if...
Peter is not anticipating that this is a common thing...
He’s actually stating this as if it is a rarity...
Rather than a common thing.
#3 – What can the wife do for her husband?
#3 – What can the wife do for her husband?
1 Peter 3:1-2 Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, 2 when they see your respectful and pure conduct.
If you are a wife that has an unbelieving husband...
You can possibly win your husband over to the Lord...
Through your behavior rather than lecturing him about his sinful choices.
Proverbs 27:15 A continual dripping on a rainy day and a quarrelsome wife are alike;
Proverbs 21:9 It is better to live in a corner of the housetop than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife.
What is the behavior that can win them?
The conduct that the wife can express is one of obedience to the Word...
In the witness of the husband that disobeys the Word.
This is a way for the wife to paint a similar picture that Christ painted by His example.
Christ submitted Himself to unjust suffering for the welfare of His spouse, the Church.
He set aside His privileges in order to win His spouse to Himself.
So, Peter tells us that a wife of an unbelieving husband...
By submitting herself to her unbelieving husband...
Who disobeys the Lord...
Can win her husband to the Lord...
By obeying the Lord.
So, Peter is saying this, “Wife, your unbelieving husband will never believe the power of the gospel until they see the power of it changing you. Until they see it cause you to behave in a way that is unexplainable to the natural mind.”
What a picture that a wife can paint when you don’t just obey God when the conditions are acceptable to you...
But, when you obey the Lord no matter the circumstance...
Which shows your hope is in the Lord & His promises...
Rather than your circumstances.
#4 – Are Wives only to submit to Unbelieving Husbands?
#4 – Are Wives only to submit to Unbelieving Husbands?
No. The command is to all wives.
Winning an unbelieving husband is a potential benefit to a submissive wife...
But the command to wives to submit to their own husband is to all wives.
We see this explicitly in vv.5-6...
1 Peter 3:5-6 For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, 6 as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening.
The example Peter uses to show a godly woman who was submissive to her husband is Sarah.
Sarah’s husband was not an unbeliever.
Sarah’s husband, Abraham, was the Father of Faith.
So, much so that Peter says if you imitate Sarah in your submission to your husband...
It is a fruit of being a child of hers.
Meaning you are truly of the seed of Abraham.
You are truly a son/daughter of God if you imitate Sarah...
In her submission to her husband.
The attractiveness of a wife’s submissive behavior, even to an unbelieving husband, suggests that God has inscribed the rightness and beauty of role distinctions in marriage on the hearts of all mankind.
Christian wife, you will do well by submitting to your husband...
Following the example of Christ.
Following the example of Sarah.
And placing your hope & joy in the Lord & His promises.
If you have an unbelieving husband...
Oh that this passage would drive you to pray more for God’s grace to obey God...
Submit to your husband...
And, to pray for God to do a mighty work in his life...
To bring him to repentance and faith.
Next, week I want us to look at vv.3, 4, 6, 7.
Next, week I want us to look at vv.3, 4, 6, 7.
So, husbands, men, if you are here today...
You have to come back next week.
Lord’s Supper
Lord’s Supper
Mark will lead
Prayer
Prayer