Transcription
Hey there. I want to welcome you to our program today. My name is Aaron Philippone. I serve as the lead pastor at Indian Rocks and I'm so glad you've tuned in today. I pray that today's Bible study encourages you and challenges you as you pursue God's design for your life. So, grab your Bible. Let's dive into the truth of God's word together. Such a joy to gather together with you.
If I haven't had a chance to meet you personally, my name is Aaron and I get to serve as one of the pastors here. And uh we're going to continue in our time of worship through our Bible study. So if you have a Bible with you, uh if you have a digital copy on your phone, your iPad, go ahead and get that out, turn that on, and we're going to have our Bible study in just a moment.
I will tell you, I'm feeling a little bit under the weather today. You may hear that in my voice, and that could be because I I have had a lot of funnel cakes this week. And you know, there's something about a carnival in your parking lot. It's not good for you. And um it's the gift that keeps on giving. But don't worry, this morning I've already had um you know a steroid from my doctor and some Advil and I've got a a good healthy dose of Coke Zero. So I think I'm good. All right.
Today, if you have that listening guy, go ahead and get that out. We're going to fill in some blanks. We're going to have a Bible study here. And today we're going to talk about the family. The family. We've been studying through the book of Ephesians. But once you get to Ephesians chapter 5 and chapter 6, Paul gets all up in our business, and we're about to see that here this morning.
One of God's greatest blessings in my life is my family. I'm so grateful for my family. I have a a great mom. I have a great dad. I've got three incredible brothers. We grew up fighting each other but loving each other. It's awesome because I'm Italian. I've got all these aunts and uncles and nieces and nephews. Some of them I've never met. I mean, they are our family is so big. I don't even know all of them. But family was always a big deal for me growing up.
My wife also grew up in a in a big family. She's got five brothers and sisters, six children. Big family. We've got nieces and nephews on her side that I've never even met. Like I don't even really know who all of our family is, but I do know family is a big deal because when I was growing up, my mom and my dad taught me that family was a big deal. Uh from time to time, my dad would call us together in the living room and he'd pull out a legal pad and he would have a family meeting. Every Sunday we would have family dinner. Didn't matter what was on the calendar, you cancel it because we're having family dinner. It was always a pot of gravy with some pasta. That's what you do in an Italian family. We had family birthday gatherings. We had family holiday gettogethers. We had family road trips, family vacations. Family was a really big deal.
But when I was growing up, my family wasn't a Christian family. We were a good family. I'm very grateful for my family, but we weren't a Christian family. We We were from New Jersey. And if you're from New Jersey and you're Italian, you're probably going to be Catholic. And we were. But we weren't convictionally Catholic. We were more culturally Catholic. We called ourselves CEO Catholics. Christmas and Easter only. That's when we went to church. And we were good at it. And so we didn't have a Christian family. And my faith came alive when I was a teenager. And I'm so grateful that today my parents are believers in Christ. Their faith came alive. They got baptized in that same little church where I got baptized in Lakeland, Florida.
But as a teenager, we didn't have a Christian family. And I I always knew I wanted a Christian family. When I grow up, I want to marry a Christian woman, have a Christian wife. I want to be a Christian husband. I want our children to be Christians. I want them to grow up in a Christian home. That was a really big deal to me. Some teenagers when they think about their future, they think about how they want to be billionaires or they want to have a Ferrari. That wasn't me. Now, if you have an extra Ferrari, I'll take it. But for me, it it was I want a Christian family. That was the most important thing to me. And I started aligning my life and the decisions I made around wanting a Christian family. So, when I was a teenager and a young man, if there was a girl that I started talking to and I found out she wasn't very serious in her faith, she's out. I mean, I wouldn't even give her the time a day because I knew what I wanted. I wanted a Christian family.
And then God gave me this incredible, amazing wife, Amanda. She is amazing. She's the greatest Christian I've ever met. And God has given us these children. And since the time they were little, we have dedicated them to the Lord. And we've worked really hard to try to raise them in a Christian environment. In fact, wasn't it so beautiful seeing the orings up here this morning dedicating these beautiful girls to the Lord. I mean, it's so powerful, isn't it? when a Christian family comes around a family, when a church family surrounds them with love to point them in the right direction.
So, as a young man, I started aiming my life at being a Christian dad. And so, when our kids were little, and even now, we try to talk about faith a lot. That's what Deuteronomy 6 says I'm supposed to do. When I walk down the road, when I lie down, when I rise up, bind it to your hands, bind it to your forehead, put it on the doorframes of your house. talk about your faith often and so we do we pray a lot just at meal time and I pray for our children pray for my marriage a lot and as we've done this God has continued to bless our family and today Amanda and I have been married for 21 years and we don't have a perfect marriage we have real bumps and bruises just like everyone else we have a real journey just like every other marriage but I will tell you we have a Christian marriage and our home is not a perfect home. It's a real home with real challenges just like all of you have. But I will tell you, our home is a Christian home and we have children and they're not perfect children. Sometimes our children are like bucking broncos, you know, and uh they they have strong wills, but I will tell you all four of our children are professing Christians and they're trying to honor the Lord. They are Christian children, and it's amazing how you'll get what you aim at.
Now, that's not a rule, okay? Sometimes, look, I know a lot of really good Christian families that have done everything they can to raise their kids to know and love Jesus, and for whatever reason, they go off the rails and they just go bananas and they totally leave their faith behind. At the same time, I know some non-Christian parents that are absolute bums when it comes to parenting. I mean, bums. And yet, somehow, through the grace of God, these kids grow up to know and love Jesus. And it's a miracle. And so I'm not saying this is a 100% rule that works every time, but I will tell you most of the time you will get what you're aiming at. You will get what you're aiming at. And so for me, I started aiming at a young age at God's design.
And today we're going to talk about God's design for the family. We're in this series through the book of Ephesians, and we're looking at mental health struggles. And over the last several weeks, we've looked at facing isolation and facing hostility and facing anxiety and facing depression. And last week we even talked about facing your past. Today we're going to talk about facing relational brokenness. And isn't it true that the people that are closest to you have the opportunity to hurt you the most? Isn't that true in our own families? I know not everyone here had the wonderful family upbringing that I had. Many of you are navigating very real relational brokenness. And because of this, when it comes to family, some of you are really, really, really suffering. I mean, just thinking about the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, some of you are already starting to break out in hives because you know who you're going to have to be around. And I understand that.
So, today, we're going to do something a little bit different. At the end of our Bible study, we're going to carve out some time to do what the Bible says to do. We're going to pray for healing. And so, uh, we're going to have at the time at the end of our Bible study, we're going to allow you to come forward and we've got our prayer team available and, uh, we're going to do what the Bible says, which is when you're suffering, we should anoint you with oil and pray over you and pray that God would bring healing. So, just know it's not going to get weird, okay? It's not going to get mystical, but if you are suffering, if there is a very real brokenness in a family relationship, we're going to carve out some time to pray for healing today. All right?
Now, as we jump into God's word, two things that I need you to know just on the front end. These are caveats. These are not in your notes. You may want to write these down. When we think about this Bible study, number one, all of us are dealing with relational brokenness. All of us. Okay? There is not one marriage that's got it perfectly figured out. There's not one parent in here who feels like they've got it totally figured out. All of us are works in progress. So, for the next 30 minutes of this Bible study, and while we're together, really anytime you're on this property, I want you to see this 30,000 seat arena right here as what I call the no judgment zone. You have walked into the no judgment zone. Okay? So, no matter what your family looks like right now, no matter how much brokenness, no matter what you're currently going through or what fight you got in on the way to church, we're not judging you. We're not judging you. And if you'll promise not to judge me, we won't judge you. We're just going to decide right on the front end. This is a no judgment zone because none of us have this fully figured out.
And number two, if you are a Christian, then Christians aim at God's design for the family. That's what we're aiming at. You have to know what you're aiming at, or else you're going to be wandering for a long time. So, when we talk about God's design, we have a way that we like to talk about it here at Indian Rocks. One of the things we like to say is that God has a design for every area of life. for men, for women, for boys, for girls, for churches, for schools, for government. God has a design for how the whole world is supposed to work. But the problem is we depart God's design. The Bible calls that sin. And when we do, it leaves us in brokenness. And brokenness is a terrible feeling. All of us have felt the pain of brokenness. And in our brokenness, we're constantly trying to find ways out of our brokenness. Some people try with drugs or alcohol. Some people try with relationships and they'll go from one to another to another. Some people try with pop psychology or through social media. They're just trying to figure out how to alleviate the brokenness in their life. But the problem is the Bible teaches all of these methods are just going to lead us further and further from God's design deeper and deeper into brokenness. The Bible says we can't fix it ourselves. What we need is something outside of ourselves. What we need is the gospel. The gospel is this truth that we were just singing about. It's a truth found in God's word that Jesus Christ, the son of God, was crucified on a cross for our sin. He died on the cross for our sin. He was buried. God raised him from the dead. And anyone who repents of their sin and believes in the gospel can recover and pursue God's design from wherever they are. So, no matter what's going on in your life and in your relationships, you can get on a journey to recovering and pursuing God's design for your family right now. Some of you, you've been pursuing God's design for your family since the time you were a little boy or a little girl. Some of you have just started recovering and pursuing God's design for your family like very recently. Some of you are going to start making that decision today. But no matter where you're at, you can start to recover and pursue God's design today. No matter what your family looks like, whether you're married, single, divorced, widowed, married again, single again. Maybe you're single and you want to be married. Maybe you're married and you want to be single. It doesn't matter where you're at on the spectrum. All of us can pursue God's design from here. We are aiming at God's design. If you're a Christian, we're aiming at God's design. And the reason why we aim at God's design, it's not because of legalism. It's not because of some religious box that we're trying to check. It's not because of some holier than thou standard. That's not what it's about. The reason we're aiming at God's design for our marriages, for our children, for our families. The reason we're aiming at God's design is because that's where the blessings of God are. The blessings of God are found inside the arena of God's design. And look, as one of your pastors, I so want God's blessings for you. That's why we talk about this so much. It's not because we get paid commission. It's not because of some religious box we're trying to check. I so want God's design for your marriage, for your children, for your family, for your home. I want God's design because I know that's where the blessings of God are.
So, since we're aiming at God's design, let's look at God's word and let's see what God's word has to say about God's design. If you have your Bible, go ahead and open to Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5. It's awesome. All right, just so you know, they're not clapping for me. They are clapping for God's word because we know every time we open God's word, our lives are about to change. And we are so thankful that we have a copy of God's word. Ephesians chapter 5, verse 21. submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its savior. Now, as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Pause right there. If you have your listening guide, go ahead and write this down. Number one, in Christian families, the wife respects and submits to her husband's leadership. In Christian families, the wife respects and submits to her husband's leadership. And I can just tell based on the looks on some of your faces, I have just lost a certain percentage of the room. And some of you right now are thinking, I knew it. I show UP IN THIS BAPTIST church and this preacher starts mansplaining marriage for me. Well, I will tell you before you check out, let me just admit this text and some of the verses following it have been misunderstood and misapplied by many churches and Christians for years. Some of you have been in churches where people taught that the word submit means servant. That is not what that word means. Some husbands have used Ephesians chapter 5 to be doineering with their wives. Can I just tell you the only time that this word doineering or dominate is used in scripture with a relationship has to do with a man and a woman coming together as husband and wife and together they take dominion over the earth. That's what happens when the two become one. When they come together they do so to dominate, to take dominion over the earth. not to take dominion over one another. It only works in God's design. And just being off by a couple of degrees can really get you in trouble. Some parents have used Ephesians chapter 6 to be harsh with their kids. That should not be the case. Some have even used Ephesians chapter 6 to justify slavery. So, let me just say just because these texts have been misapplied in the past by other churches and religious leaders, it doesn't mean that we should miss out on the true application of the text today. So, don't just check out just because you hear words that rub you the wrong way. Let's take a look at these words.
So, let's start with this word submission. What is biblical submission? Well, to all the wives in the house, ladies, submission does not mean that you submit to every man or frankly any other man. Biblical submission is a willful submission to one man, the one you chose, your husband, and only him. Submission has nothing to do with your worth, your value, your intelligence, your ability. Submission is a willful choice to come under the leadership of your husband. Submission does not mean silence. Submission does not mean inferior. The word submission is a compound word. Submission. It means I'm coming under the mission of God for my family. That's what that means. Submission. I'm believing that my husband is the head of this home and I'm coming under the mission of God. That means I'm putting my plan and my desires and my wants as less important than the desire of God for this family. That's what I'm doing. That's what submission means. In fact, that's why verse 21 says that there should be a mutual submission that husbands and wives together submit to Christ coming under the mission of God for their family. Yes, the husband is the head and headship headship means something. But as it says in my big fat Greek wedding, the man is the head, but the woman is the neck that turns the head. There's some truth to that. Can I just tell you from experience? This head is nothing without the help of his wife. Nothing. In the garden, the Bible says that there was no suitable helper found for Adam. So God made him a helper. Eve was not the help. She was a helper. This word for helper, it's the Greek or the Hebrew word azer. Azer e ze. And azair is no maid or maid servant, no assistant. The word occurs 21 times in the Old Testament. In two cases, it's referring to Eve in the garden. In three cases, it's referring to those powerful nations that came alongside Israel to be their helper in time of need. Powerful nations. The other 16 remaining occurrences. It refers to God as our help in time of need. He's the one who comes alongside us in our helplessness. When God says, "I will make a helper fit for him." This is no assistant. This is no servant. This is not an afterthought. This is a rescuer. This is someone who's going to come alongside you and help you because without her, you are incomplete. Without her, you will fail. The implication is you can't survive without her help. You need her. And look, I'll just tell you, this is not scientific research, but just anecdotally as a pastor, I've been a pastor now. I'm in my third decade of pastoring. And I'll just tell you, um, when I meet church members, many times there's a senior adult woman who will lose her husband and she'll bury her husband and, uh, I'll ask her, "Hey, do you have plans on getting remarried?" And usually she's like, "No, I'm good, man. Been there, done that. I'm I'm good." You meet a a man who buries his wife within months, sometimes a couple of weeks, he's on Christianmingle.com because he can't figure out how to live without, and it's not that he doesn't grieve. It's not that he's not sad, he just can't make it without her. He needs help. We hear the word helper, we think a plumber's assistant, you know, be my helper, hand me that wrench, or the most chauvinistic form of this, make me a sandwich. Okay, I'll just tell you right now, Amanda Filippone is no sandwich maker. When I think of her as a helper, that's not the kind of helper I'm thinking of. She is my very present help in time of need. My wife works tirelessly to help us raise these four eternal souls that God has placed in our care. She gets up early. She stays up late. She cooks and cleans and make sure that our family is cared for. She makes them clean their rooms. She makes them finish their homework. She makes them apply for colleges that they want to get into, but they would never get into it without her help. In fact, every time a college acceptance letter comes to our home, it should have her name on it because she's doing the majority of the work. She is an everpresent help in time of need. Without her, we would have nothing. Usually, she's late to these church services, not because she's late. She gets here earlier than most of you, but she's usually out there in the lobby praying with you and helping church members and just trying to care for this church. This church would be nothing without the help of my wife. Nothing. She is my help in time of need. She's wise. She's smart. She's beautiful. She schedules everything. She's mission control for our family. She is not a make me a sandwich kind of aair. She's so much more. She's my ride or die. With her, I feel like I can dominate. Without her, I can do nothing. God has given her to me and there's no way I could do half of what I do as the pastor here without her support. Wives, your role is so important. It's so meaningful, so powerful. Do not let a hobby or an aspiration or a career or any other ambition or relationship ever get in the way of your calling as a wife. In fact, if you're a husband in the room, let me just earn you a couple of brownie points right now. Can we all just give it up for the wives that are here? The wives that are part of Indian Rock, can we give it up for our own personal wives? Don't misunderstand the text. It means something.
Number two, in Christian families, the husband loves and sacrifices for his wife. Let's look at the text. Verse 25. Husbands, love your wives. How do we do that? As Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies, he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound. And I'm saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself. And let the wife see that she respects her husband. And right now, some of the men in the room are like, "Oh, Pastor Aaron, I got this. Oh, I got this. Sacrifice for her. I would die for her." All right, Romeo. She doesn't need you to die for her. She needs you to take out the trash. That's really what she needs. She needs you to do the dishes. She needs you to save some mental energy after work so that when you come home, you can actually check in and be present. That's what she needs. She needs you to turn off the TV, get out of the lazy boy, get down on the floor, and play with the kids. That's what she did. She doesn't need you to die for her. She needs you to live for her. That's what she needs from you. And sometimes what it looks like for you to love your wife means that you're going to sacrifice these other ambitions in your life to chase after the one thing that's going to bring you together as a family and love her and sacrifice for her. That's what it means. She needs you to help. She needs you to get involved. She needs you to be present today. It's so funny because the most controversial verses that I've read so far today have to do with wives submitting. But in the Greco Roman world in the first century, those verses would not have turned any heads. Why? Because women were property. I mean, in the first century, children were property. Submission wasn't just expected. It was demanded often times by force. But for a man to love, which is the word here is agape. I'll tell you about that here in a minute. And sacrifice for his wife, when they heard that in the first century, this would have certainly turned heads. People would have said, "What are you crazy?" Like that's not how we operate. Sacrifice for your wife. Yeah, we do. And in the Christian context, in a Christian home, that's what it means for husbands to love their wives and sacrifice for them. So, we sacrifice our time. Maybe we not play as many rounds of golf, not watch as many games, get rid of some of the hobbies on our schedule so that we can help out at home. Sacrifice your ambition. Sacrifice your view of what your wife should be. Do you hear me on that? Love her for who she is, for who God made her to be. Become an expert in your wife. When I got married, I thought I was an expert in Amanda, you know, 21 years ago cuz we've been dating for a few months and we've been on some dates and we've been engaged for a few months, but that was just remedial Amanda. That was like Amanda 101. Now we've been married. I'm in my third decade of learning Amanda and I know some things now. I get the wonderful lifelong joy of studying my wife and getting to learn her and how God made her. And I've learned some things that bring her great joy. And I've learned some things that really upset her. And after this sermon, she might tell me of a few more of those, but I get the joy of being her husband. And no one else gets that joy. That is my privilege and my joy. And every day I get to learn how to love and sacrifice for my wife. It's amazing. It's a mystery.
Number three, in Christian families, the children honor and obey their parents. Oh, come on, guys. And all the parents in the house said, >> "Yes, hopefully." All right, let me give you some proof text for all the kids that are breaking out in hives. Ephesians 6 verse one. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother. This is the first commandment with a promise that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land. This is God's command. It's his design. I'm not talking about if they are telling you to do things that point you away from God's design. It is interesting though because some of the children in the room right now are thinking, "Well, what if they're not Christians?" It's funny. Paul doesn't say, "Honor your father and mother if they're Christians." He simply says, "Honor them for the position that they have." The command is simple. Honor them. Well, what if they don't deserve honor? Well, Bible says positionally they do. What if my parents have done shameful things, dishonorable things, maybe even illegal things? Okay, honor does not mean that you excuse shameful or illegal things. In fact, if that's going on, you need to get the police involved. Same in the husband wife relationship. Submit does not mean that you allow abuse to continue. If that is happening, we need to call the police. And I've got some deacons in the house right now that'd be they'd love to meet your husband. Okay? If that's going on, we will help. That's not what I'm talking about here, though. Honor means you respect the fact that God made these people your parents. God gave them this position of authority in your life. Now, honor looks different in different seasons of life. When you're when you're a child, the way that you honor is by obeying. We have an 8-year-old in our home. The way that our son Eli honors his parents is by obeying all the way, right away with a happy heart. That's what we always say for obedience. That's our definition of obedience. all the way right away with a happy heart. But when you get older, honor and obedience are almost separated. They look a little different. If you're 5 years old and your mom says clean your room, you honor by cleaning your room. If you're 35 years old and your mom's telling you what to do, we got another sermon for that. Okay, that's that's a different kind of sermon. But when you're younger, honor and obedience go together. When you're older, they look different. So, let me tell you some ways you can honor. Maybe if if you're older, maybe you honor them by including them. Maybe you honor them by helping when and where you can. Sometimes your parents need help. Maybe you honor by getting along with your siblings. Don't stir up all this strife within your family. Find a way to get along with your siblings. Maybe you honor with your time. Honor with your words. Maybe you even honor them in the final stage of their life as you care for them medically. And I know many of you are doing that. It's one of the ways you honor your parents. So in Christian families, children honor and obey their parents.
Number four, in Christian families, the parents raise up children to know and love the Lord. That's our job. Look at verse four. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Hey parents, it's our job. It's our job. Now, your church can help you. Just as Pastor Jordan said, we're like a spiritual Home Depot. you can do it. We can help. But ultimately, parents, it's your job. You can get um you you can get a coach to help your kid if you want them to be a better soccer player. You can get a tutor involved if you need your kids to get a better SAT score. You cannot abdicate the responsibility of teaching them your faith. You can't sub that out to someone else. Okay? You can do it. God has given you everything you need to pass your faith down to the next generation. You can do it and we can help. It is your job. You can't farm this out to a pastor, a youth pastor, a kids pastor. This is your responsibility to help teach them your faith.
Number five, in Christian families, the family is on a kingdom mission together. Paul says this mystery is profound. And what he's saying is that your family with all of its warts and all of its flaws, your family is pointing the watching world to Jesus. It's a signpost. It's a billboard. That's why this is such a mystery. It's profound. You might be saying, "Oh, brother, we're supposed to be doing that. We barely made it to church today." I mean, like, if you knew the level of brokenness in our family, we are definitely not pointing people to Jesus. Well, that's okay because everyone can recover and pursue God's design from right here. No matter where you're at, no matter how much brokenness, no matter what even happened this morning, you can start pointing your family to God's design today.
And I want to give you real quick just four takeaways, just four things to think about if you are facing relational brokenness. Number one, facing relational brokenness requires mutual submission. Mutual submission. Did you notice the text? Verse 21, chapter 5, verse 21. submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. In God's design for marriage, we are both choosing to come under the mission of God for our family. So that means dads, you need to lead the way in this. You need to lead the way in this. You should take your wife by the hand and say, "Hey honey, I'm coming under God's design for our family. As the leader, as the head of this home, I'm coming under the mission of God for our family."
And number two, if you're going to do that, that means you're going to need lots and lots and lots of humble repentance. Humble repentance. You can't be like Arthur Fonerelli on Happy Days, you know, I'm sorry, I was wrong. You know, where he can't even say it. We ought to be professional repenters, constantly trying to pursue God's design for our families. That's what it takes. You know what a family is? A a family is a sinful man who falls in love with a sinful woman and they form this sinful marriage and then they start having all these little sinners who run around their house just sinning all over each other. That's what a marriage is. It's one big beautiful hot mess all the time and it's going to require lots and lots of repentance because there's no such thing as a perfect family. All of us need to get in the habit of humble repentance, apologizing regularly. It's why we need to repent. We need to apologize. We need to change our minds, change our actions.
And to do that, it's going to require Holy Spirit power. Holy Spirit power. I don't know how you do this. I don't know how you chase God's design without being a Christian. You can't do it. And some of you, if I could just speak candidly, some of you have been trying to live this Christian culture and surround yourself with Christian people, almost feeling like by osmosis, maybe my kids will pick up on this. Maybe our family will just change just because of who we're around. You've got to submit to God's design. You It's got to be personal. Until the Holy Spirit of God comes into your heart, comes into your life, there's no way your family's going to pursue God's design. You've got to have a heart change. You've got to stay humble. You need the power of the Holy Spirit.
And number four, all of this takes unconditional love. Unconditional love. Husbands, love them way more than you love your plans. Way more than you love your aspirations. Love them for who they are. Love them. Wives, respect them. Compliment them. Thank them for working hard. Take notice of when they're trying to do good things, even when they screw it all up. Look, we do. We screw it up a lot. Compliment them. Kids, obey your parents. Even if it doesn't feel right, do it because it is right. It's the right thing to do. God even promises you're going to live a long life if you do that. If you learn to submit to authority early on in life, you'll probably live a long life. obey them and wrap all of this with this rockolid commitment to unconditional love. The word that's used here in the Greek for for husbands loving their wives, there's several words in the New Testament, there's aos, which is like an erotic kind of love. There's fileto, which is like a brotherly kind of love. That's where we get the word Philadelphia, city of brotherly love. The word that's used here is the word agape. Agape is this never ending, always trying, never going to give up, never going to give you kind of love. It's you got Rick rolled and you didn't even know it. That's what kind of love this is. It's never going to stop, never going to give up on you no matter what. When our kids were little, we would tuck them in at night, read a little Bible story out of the Jesus Storybook Bible, pray with them, and the last thing I would say to each one of them before they go to bed is I would say, "Hey, Caleb, I love you no matter what." And I'd make them say it back to me, "No matter what." You know, almost catechizing them to have a truth in their heart that they could always rely on. Isaac, I love you no matter what. He'd say, "No matter what." You know, sorry, Isaac, you were little. Grace, I love you no matter what. No matter what, Dad. Eli, I love you no matter what. No matter what, Dad. We would teach them this early on. And I don't know what it is. Maybe maybe it's cuz I'm like in my mid-40s. I'm just crying a lot more often these days. Got all this estrogen coming up in me. I don't know what it is. our son, our oldest son, Caleb, he's he's 18 now, so you know, he's a real adult and he wants he wants to play college football. So, yesterday we got invited up to a school in Birmingham. We were up there. Um, while we were in Birmingham, our flight home got cancelled. That was fun. Had to book a flight that got us in at midnight last night. And uh we're walking around this college campus and I I just get a little emotional thinking about the challenges he's going to face as an adult because I just keep seeing him as a little boy and I'm asking God, is he ready for this? Is he going to be okay? And what I keep going back to is this idea that he's going to be just fine because he has a dad who loves him no matter what. He has a mom who loves him no matter what. because of that, he's going to be just fine.
Hey, I want to invite you to bow your heads and close your eyes. And in just a moment, we're going to take some time to pray for families. I heard a story of a man and his teenage son who had this massive falling out. The son ran away from home and was gone for a long time. And after after the dad cooled off a little bit, the father searched for months and never found his son. And out of desperation, he took out an ad in the local newspaper. This was in Madrid, Spain. So he took it out in the Madrid Times. And this is what he wrote in the article. Dear Paco, all is forgiven. I love you. Meet me in front of the newspaper office at noon on Saturday. Love, Dad. And that Saturday, the father went down to the city square. And when he arrived, there were 800 young men named Paco, all waiting there. All of them hoping it was their father. That's how deep this longing for reconciliation runs in every human heart. That's what some of you are carrying right now. the weight of brokenness, the weight of distance, the weight of regret. Some of you are facing deep, deep wounds. So deep that I really don't have to cut too far for it to get emotional in here. But the Bible gives us instruction on how to care for these wounds. James chapter 5. James the brother of Jesus says this. Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone among you sick? Let them call for the elders of the church. Let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick. and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
So, with your heads bowed and your eyes closed, I know I know there's a lot of relational brokenness in this room. But if you'd say, "Pastor, I want God's design for our family. I want God's design for our family. I know he can move mountains. I know he can make a way where it seems there's no way. I want God's design for my family." If that's you, if you'd say, "Pastor, I am chasing God's I want God's design for my family." Why don't you just stand right where you are? If that's what you want, go ahead and stand where you are. I want God's design for my home, for my marriage, for my children. I want God's design. I'm aiming at God's design. That's what I want. You got to know what you're aiming at. The Bible says if you're suffering, bring it to the church. So today, we want to do just that. I'm I'm going to pray. And while I'm praying, if you need healing, I want you to come forward. Don't wait until I say amen. Just go ahead and come forward. Some of you need physical healing, you come on forward right now. Some of you, you need relational healing. You come forward right now. Some of you, you need a prayer for your marriage. Grab your spouse's hand. Come on forward right now. Maybe it's cancer. Maybe it's a medical diagnosis. Maybe it's a financial burden. Maybe there's some other brokenness. Maybe it's a prayer for a parent. Maybe it's a prayer for a weward child. Maybe it's a prayer to grow your family. You've been struggling to have children. You have fertility struggles. You need the church to pray for you. Maybe you want to adopt. You come forward. Don't wait. You come forward right now. The Bible says that there are some things God will not do apart from prayer. So come forward. You come forward right now. It's okay to be not okay, but it's not okay to stay not okay. You come forward right now.
So, Father in heaven. We are turning our eyes to Jesus. God, I'm praying that you would speak Jesus over our families. that you would speak Jesus over the brokenness of our families. God, I pray that marriages would be mended, that relationships with children would be healed. God, I'm praying in the powerful name of Jesus that you help us to pursue your design for our families. God, may our families be a testimony to the watching world that there is a God who reconciles. We pray these things in the powerful, matchless name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Thanks for joining us today. If our Bible study made you realize that you want to take a spiritual next step, we'd love to help you with that. You can connect with us on any of our social media platforms throughout the week or visit our website at indianro.org. And if you want to hear more content like this, you can watch on demand on our website or anywhere that podcasts are available. I hope you'll visit us anytime you're in the Penllis County area and we want to connect with you. So from all of us, hope you have a great week in Christ.