Transcription
Coming up next on the Apostolic Connection, I'm going to tell you what you want in a woman. A Godly woman. You want a woman in relationship with God that will weather the seasons of life with you. You want a woman that's not looking at how much you're bringing home, but you want a woman that will look inside your heart. These are what true marriages are made of. People that bond together. People that come together.
We would like to welcome you today to the Apostolic Connection, the weekly televised service of the First Apostolic Church in here Maryville, Tennessee. I'm Pastor Kenneth Carpenter, and it is a Jesus joy to have you worshiping with us today. Let's go now and listen to the Sanctuary Choir as they sing, "Nobody Greater." Can we give Him praise? Come on, choir, help me sing.
I searched all over, couldn't find nobody.
I looked high and low, still couldn't find nobody.
I searched all over, couldn't find nobody.
I looked high and low, still couldn't find nobody.
Nobody greater, nobody greater.
Nobody greater than You.
Nobody greater, nobody greater.
Nobody greater than You.
I climbed up to the highest mountain.
I looked all around, I couldn't find nobody.
I went down into the deepest valley.
Looked all around there, I couldn't find nobody.
I searched all over, couldn't find nobody.
I looked high and low, still couldn't find nobody.
Nobody greater, nobody greater.
Nobody greater than You.
Nobody greater, nobody greater.
Nobody greater than You.
I climbed up to the highest mountain.
I looked all around, I couldn't find nobody.
I searched the deepest valley.
Looked everywhere, I still couldn't find nobody, nobody.
Nobody greater, nobody greater.
Nobody greater than You.
Nobody greater, nobody greater.
Nobody greater than You.
Nobody can love me like You, Jesus.
Nobody can save me like You, Jesus.
Nobody greater.
Nobody can hold me like You, Jesus.
Nobody can mold me like You, Jesus.
Nobody greater.
Nobody can heal me like You, Jesus.
Nobody can fill me like You, Jesus.
Nobody greater.
Nobody can love me like You, Jesus.
Nobody can save me like You, Jesus.
Nobody greater.
Nobody can hold me like You, Jesus.
Nobody can mold me like You, Jesus.
Nobody greater.
Nobody can heal me like You, Jesus.
Nobody can fill me like You, Jesus.
Nobody greater.
We are told in scriptures to save yourselves from this untoward generation. We understand in the church today that the world continues to redefine, changing the Biblical stance on marriage. On today's edition of the Apostolic Connection, I speak on the subject of husbands and wives. Let's go into that service now.
The greatest revival to hit us and to hit a marriage is when we are just simply truly thankful. If you would give me Matthew fifteen thirty-six. You say, "Pastor, my marriage needs a miracle." And I will agree with you. As a matter of fact, all of our marriages need a miracle of God's spirit living inside of us. There is no just perfect genetics that meet. There are no perfect people that just meet. If you're married and your marriage is happy, it's because somebody's been working at it. Somebody's been trying. Somebody's been putting forth an effort.
But there's a dilemma here in Matthew fifteen thirty-six. There are a lot of hungry people, and what they need is nothing short of a miracle to feed them. And so Jesus, He asks for bread, and He got bread. Seven loaves and fishes. Now notice this, I just overlooked this until I started studying about being thankful. The Bible said He took the seven loaves and fishes and gave thanks and broke them and gave to His disciples, and His disciples to the multitude. Now you realize a miracle took place in that one verse there. When they gave Him seven loaves and fish, it was what they had. But the Bible said He took what they had and He began to give thanks, and then He performed the miracle. Some of us are waiting for the miracle to give thanks, and God is waiting for us to be thankful in order to have the miracle.
I wonder if we could just start thanking God for life and for health, and stop zeroing in on what's wrong with our mate, what's wrong with our spouse. And we could just start thanking God that you're with someone today that has God's spirit. That God has given you someone. Maybe it has not always been a good life, but thank God for days that it was good. I praise You, Lord. I thank You today. I really believe that thanksgiving is something that needs to take place in our lives in order for God to work a miracle.
He said, "Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." Then notice this next verse, and this is where a lot of folks put the brakes on, pull the emergency brake, jump out of the scripture and stop reading. Because the Word says in verse number twenty-one, "Submitting, submitting." Now right there, oh, go ahead, you may not want to. Jonathan, put it on the screen, come on now. Ephesians five twenty-one, go ahead and put it on the screen. "Submitting, submitting." Now, boy, we start kind of putting the claws down. Now wait just one moment. But would you see what followed that? Did you see what followed that? What followed that was a spirit-filled person. What followed that was a whole person. What followed that was a person that is a thankful person, and now they are a submitted person.
Now, this is not just for the women. This scripture here, because the Scripture says, "Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God." That scripture is not written to just a male or a female. It is written to both. Because we must understand something today, that God's way is perfect. God's way is perfect. And if God says that we are to live submitted lives to each other, then God's way is perfect, not punishment. Jesus said, "Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for My burdens are easy and light. My ways are good ways."
You see, the society that we are living in that is ever defining and redefining marriage, they don't have the good way. God has the good way. And if we in the New Testament Apostolic church can just realize that this word submission here, to be in submission and to be people that are submitted one to another, because there is no one that has a position that is not submitted. All of us are submitted today. I, as a pastor, although I am in a place of authority, I am submitted to you this morning. I am a part of this body that says that I must be a spiritual leader and I must make sure that the climate is always right in this room for a miracle, and the climate is always right in this room so you can get your needs met. And the Word of God, I am always trying to submit myself to position us that God can take us to higher heights and deeper depths in Him. I am just not a carefree preacher with a walk in the park, but I am submitted to you today because I must give you what God has given to me.
On the other side, you are to submit your lives to one another. And in this submitted, we are a partnership today. This church is a partnership today. We are working together in harmony for the well-being of each other, right? We are working together in harmony for the well-being of each other. And we are working together. I can testify to this. I am a better man since I got in the church. I am a better man since I submitted my life to God. I am a far better man. How about you today? I am a better man since I have been submitted to God's ways. His ways are not punishment. His ways are perfect. He says, "Submit yourselves one to another."
And then He comes to verse twenty-two, and He says to our wives, "Submit yourselves unto your own husbands as onto the Lord." Now this is not, when it says the next verse, "The husband is the head." The husband is not superior to the wife. See, I'm going to make a statement today. I am a better man than my wife will ever be. I am superior to my wife in the fact that I am a better man than she will ever be. My wife is a far superior and better woman than I will ever be. And God made us male and female, and you can't even get an offspring... without a male and female. We are each dependent upon each other. That is the way God made us. And it begins with the wives when it says to submit, or to engage yourselves onto your own husbands as onto the Lord, as onto the Lord.
Now, if we could really understand that everything we do, we need to do it as onto the Lord, as onto the Lord. Being the wife, being the husband, as in the light of the Lord. I could say this morning that we would probably all be more enriched in our marriages if we were truly in that relationship with God that we need to be, and we truly considered all of our actions as if I were speaking to the Lord, I was dealing with the Lord. To submit. And submitting is something that never can be demanded. You cannot demand someone submits to you. Submitting is something someone does with their spirit. You may make someone do something. You may make someone do something in their flesh, but you can never make them submit their spirit.
The little boy in school was told to go stand in the corner. "Stop jumping up and down, and you go stand still in the corner. Put your nose in the corner and stand still." Well, he did that for a little while. The teacher asked him after a few moments, said, "Johnny, what do you think?" He said, "I will tell you what I think. He said, my body is standing here with my nose in this corner, but he said, in my spirit, I am jumping up and down in that chair right now." Well, that is the truth. Your spirit has to be given to someone. Nobody can make you be submitted. You have to surrender. You have to yield.
That says, "For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and is the Savior of the body." Now, this word "head" here is not talking about being a dictator. It is not talking about being a boss. It is talking about being a spiritual leader. Men today, our prayer needs to be, "God, help me to lead my wife." God, help me to lead my wife. And I am telling you in the fear of God this morning, that if your wife is in a relationship with Jesus Christ, that is her prayer too. That woman wants a man that will lead her in the way of Jesus Christ. There is nothing wrong, men, with us having hobbies of hunting and favorite teams and what have you. But I am here to tell you today that there will be nothing that will elevate you any more in your wife's eyes than to find you reading your Bible and praying, or to find you submitted to the house of God and to the spiritual leadership in the house of God. That is strength, and that is power. That is strength. The head there is not a dictator. It is a leader. It is a spiritual leader.
Now listen to this. "For the husband is the head of the wife, the leader, even as Christ is the head, the leader, of the church, and is the Savior of the body." Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ. See, this is one of the many reasons that the enemy has attacked Biblical marriage. It is because marriage, male and female, is forever a symbol of a relationship between Jesus Christ and His church. And He wants to erase all signs on planet Earth to anything that is Godly. Oh, I am thankful this morning, Brother Howell. I am so thankful to stand behind a pulpit and look at the faces of men and women today that want to defy culture and say, "We want to go by the Bible and by the Word of God and raise our children up to go by the Biblical definition of a marriage."
"Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself." Wait a minute. "And gave Himself for it." "And gave Himself for it." "That He might sanctify." Now that word means to bring this aside, to bring something out of, to separate something from. "That He might sanctify." Then the next step, "cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word." Men, listen to Pastor today. "That He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish." "So ought men to love their wives as their own body. He that liveth his wife liveth himself."
Now notice how the parallel here is Christ and the church. That God finds us in sin. God so loved the world that He gave. I heard a minister say one time, he said, "God hates the sinner." And I really have an issue with that phrase. I believe that God hates sin, but I do not believe that God hates the sinner. We could hate cancer when it invades somebody's body, but we don't hate the person. We separate the sin from the person and we love the person. Well, I'm so glad that God so loved. He did not say the church. Your standards are no higher than God's. Don't look at someone. Don't ever look at someone in disgust. Don't ever look at someone and think they are not worth witnessing to, because you are saying that your standard is above God's standard. He said, "I so loved the world." He so loved the world. He loved it. He loved the world. He separated the people from the world. The gospel calls us out of the world. The true gospel calls us out of the world. Come out from the world. And then He puts us in this environment. He sanctifies us, and then He begins to clean us. He begins to wash us. How does He wash us? With His Word.
You know, men, words are powerful, especially to women. That's why we need to be very careful with our words, because our words can wound them. Our words can forever scar them. And maybe, and to those guests who may be here today, I will say this to you, but I am very transparent. In our thirty years of marriage, I have had to sit my family down on the couch and apologize to them because I haven't been everything that I should be to them. Now, let me go ahead and exclude some things. I'm not talking about going to jail or robbing banks, alright? But as a Godly father, Brother Mike, I hadn't been a very good example. I had let pressure from the church get on me. I had let pressure from ministry get on me, and I had allowed schedules to get so busy that I hadn't really bent my knee to God like I should. And I don't care who you are. You go prayerless, that old man is coming back. I don't care if you have changed from blue jeans to a suit, the old man is coming back. And I have been rude to my family before, and I have been just, pardon it, but I have been an absolute jerk before. And when I realized it, and I went to loving Jesus, and all of a sudden the Spirit is not connecting with me, and the Holy Spirit begins to say, "Wait a minute. You need to go make some things right with your family and then come back, start talking to Me." And I sat my family down. I know what some may think. Some may say, "Oh man, that's a weak leader right there. I would never do that. If I went to apologize to my wife and my family, man, I mean, they would run plum over me. They just wouldn't think I was a macho guy like I ought to be." No, it's the opposite. When you sit them down and begin to pour your heart out to them, you will hear them say, "That's alright, Dad. You're fine, Dad. That's alright, Dad. Oh, honey, I love you. That's alright, Dad. Kids, pray for me. Kids, help me out." That doesn't diminish my leadership. That builds my leadership up, and it establishes what is called trust.
You know, maybe you need to understand that words are powerful. Words are absolutely powerful today. And when you speak those words, I can either speak those words over my family and build them up, or I can speak words over my family and tear them down. I either speak words, cleanse them, or I speak words and put dirt on them. He said, "He washes it, the cleansing by the Word." That He might present it, and I am aiming this mostly to our men today, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, without spot, without wrinkle.
You see, before God ever came to this earth and overshadowed the virgin Mary, before God ever did a work, He saw you and He saw me. He knew where He was going in eternity past. He knew that we were lost and dirty in our sins, and He knew that He had a plan that would take us from a life of dirt and shame and present us spotless before His presence in righteous robes of white, praising Him. He knew where He was taking us. Men today, what are your plans for your family? Men today, what are your plans? How are you going to start coming out of this situation? What do you want your wife to be like? Who do you want your wife to be like? Maybe we need to turn some televisions off. Maybe we need to lay some magazines down. Maybe we need to start getting in the right atmosphere to really know what a Godly, valuable woman is really all about. And I am going to tell you, I will help you out today in case you need some help. I'm going to tell you what you want in a woman. It is a Godly woman. You want a woman in relationship with God that will weather the seasons of life with you. You want a woman that is not looking at how much you are bringing home, but you want a woman that will look inside of your heart. These are what true marriages are made of. People that bond together. People that come together.
Thank you for worshiping with us today on the Apostolic Connection. I want to give you a personal invitation to come and be with us very soon here at the First Apostolic Church in Maryville, Tennessee. Scripture speaks of God pouring out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it. We understand that scripture here at First Apostolic Church. We have been in a tremendous faith journey the last several years. God's blessings on our present facility, on our church congregation, our Christian school, and our daycare center. We have simply had the blessings of the Lord come down, and we are out of room. That has caused us to enter into a great faith journey of a new worship center that will be over eighty thousand square feet. It will house our current congregation, it will house our daycare center, our school, and the other ministries that we have that are being a blessing to our community. We would like to take you through today and just show you what the Lord has been doing. As we said, this has been a great faith journey, and in saying that, the Lord has provided all of our needs. Everything that you see today, through the blessings of the generous offerings and gifts of God's people, First Apostolic Church of Maryville has not borrowed one dime for all of this facility that you're seeing here. We just believe that our God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ask and/or think. We wanted to share with you today, our viewing audience, because you don't get to see what goes on behind the scenes. We want to share with you what is going on, just less than one mile from our present facility. May the blessings of our God be upon you.