Well, praise God. What are we going to do now? I'm going to preach the word. And that's that's all I know to do is to go back to the Word of God today. And so we're so thankful that you're here. Today's going to be a great day. We've got uh graduate recognition uh the the next hour and we're celebrating graduates and we're we're celebrating uh what God has done, but also what God is going to uh continually do as we stay focused on Jesus. You know, I went I went over to uh Meridian Park the other day and I walked in to a little area where they allow me to give, they give me this privilege to vote. And and I and I went in to vote. And I I um you know, we don't talk about politics here, and that's not the point of what I'm what I'm saying. I just feel like I have a responsibility. I feel like um that's a freedom, it's a privilege. People have fought and died so I could go and have a voice. But I'm gonna tell you, when I was in the voting booth, I mean, the Spirit of God just reminded me that that while I should and we all should exercise every bit of that freedom, the ballot box is not the answer. As I've said before, ballots, bombs, and bullets will not solve the problems in this world. And so our problems may seem at times, they seem like they're political, they seem like they are they're things that we should be able to put our finger on and just fix automatically. I mean, what look at the advancements that we have in this world in the 21st century, but we still have problems. We still have issues. And so the problem is is not gonna be fixed by by just ballots, it's not gonna be fixed by bombs and bullets. It's gonna be it's gonna be transformed by hearts who've been changed by Jesus. As a matter of fact, we don't have a political problem, we have a family problem. And we really don't just have a family problem, we have we have a marriage problem as well. And really what we're looking at in the text today in Ephesians chapter 5 is we're looking at what Paul speaks about the family and specifically speaks into the life of husbands and wives and children. And and I know some of you uh are married, some of you may not be married, some of you want to be married, some of you were married, and that's why you don't want to be married anymore. Um, I mean, we we got everybody, every category, but God speaks to all of us in this passage. He speaks to all of us, but he does speak, he speaks to the church, he speaks to husbands, he speaks to wives, and he speaks to children and the whole family. And the big idea is this is that your home preaches what you practice. Your home preaches what you practice. And we can try to handle things in our own experience when it comes to things in the in the home, but the reality and what Paul says, and looking back at what we ended with last week, is it's the spirit. It's the spirit of God that produces a different posture in our life. And a different posture is what we need to change what happens in the life of a church. A different posture is what we need to make a difference in the life of families in the church. A different posture is what we need to change marriages in the church, to speak to husbands, to speak to wives, and to speak to children. And Paul, last week, we kind of finished in this little place in Ephesians chapter uh five. He says in verses 18 through 21, he says, and don't get drunk with wine, which leads to the reckless, which leads to reckless living, but be filled by the Spirit. Be filled by the Spirit. And as I said last week, I'm the goal is not to talk about the issue of alcohol here. The goal is for us to consider that somewhere we have a source that is going to uh influence us. And we can be either under the influence of substances or alcohol or other things, or we can be under the influence of the Holy Spirit. And so he says, don't get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless living, but be filled by the Spirit. He's saying, don't go to other sources to fill you up, go to the source of the Spirit. And then he says, speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music with your heart to the Lord, and giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then he says, submitting to one another in the fear of Christ. Submitting to one another in the fear of Christ. In verse 18, he says, be filled with the Spirit. And I think that we see in this passage, there's three marks of being filled with the Spirit. Number one is we sing. As a result of being filled with the Spirit, we sing together. We don't come to observe, we don't come to be entertained, we come to sing together. Worship that centers us on the Lord and not on ourselves. We come to give thanks. We come to be grateful for what God provides. Gratitude is an amazing thing that can replace a sense of entitlement and complaining. Gratitude can do that. And then we come and we submit to one another out of the reverence for Christ. We submit one another and submission to one another out of the reverence of Christ. It gives us a sense of humility. It reshapes power and ego and self-protection. These are the marks and these are the evidences of the Spirit's filling. We submit to one another out of the fear of Christ. He says, be filled with the Spirit. You know what he's talking about here? He's talking about relationships. If you want to impact your relationships, if you want to impact your marriage, you want to impact your family, you want to impact your parenting, you want to impact what's happening in a community. Listen, you are to be filled with the spirit. And Paul says, submit, and he's not talking about a difference in value with people, but he's talking about a posture that we walk in. Submission. A lot of people think that's a dirty word, right? Submission. I'm going to offend everybody today, okay? Submission is the Spirit training me to say, I don't have to win. I don't have to be first. I don't have to protect my ego. I can serve, I can listen, I can honor, I can go low because Jesus went low for me. And he says we submit out of the fear of Christ. That fear is not that we're scared, that we're scared of God. It's this reverent awe. That's why this is sacred. What we do in this room is to gather in the name of Jesus. It is sacred. And in the Roman Empire, this idea was foreign. See, during the age, the time of Jesus, when Jesus was living, the Romans, they they subdued people. They forced submission. They did it through uh through conquering, and they did it through authority, and they did it through uh humiliation of other people. That's not what God intended. He said we are to submit to one another in the fear of Christ. That's what he tells all of us in the church. But then he gets specific. And he speaks to wives, and he speaks to husbands and he speaks to children. So here he comes. Now he speaks to wives first, but you know what? The interesting thing, he only has about three verses for wives. You know why? Because I think they have less to work on. I thought that would bring a chuckle, but obviously you believe it's true because it's not funny. Husbands, he gives us about seven verses. You know why? Because we got a lot more to work on. And so what does he say to husbands? He speaks to wives first, but I'm gonna I'm gonna go to the husband part first. Here's what we learn spirit-filled headship and leadership looks like self-sacrificing love. Spirit-filled headship, leadership looks like self-sacrificing love. Here's what he says to us, husbands. Husbands, love your wives, which is great. Man, great start. Husbands, love your wives. But what is how do we define love? We've been talking about that. How do we define what love is? What does love look like? Love looks like a savior hanging on a rolling cross. Love looks like the stripes on the backs of Jesus, on the back of Jesus. He says, Husband, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word. So I'm gonna tell you, God uses this beautiful picture to help us to understand marriage on an earthly level by looking at this marriage that takes place on a heavenly level. And it's the marriage between Jesus Christ, our bridegroom, and the church, the bride of Christ. This isn't about control, this isn't about putting someone in their place. This is about a picture that we can all look at that points us back to the picture of the relationship that Jesus has with the church. So he says, How do husbands love their wives? Just as Christ loved the church and what? And what? And gave himself for her to make her holy, cleansing her with a washing of water by the word. He did this to present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and blameless. In the same way husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies, he who loves his wife loves himself, for no one ever hates his own flesh, but provides and cares for it just as Christ does for the church, since we are members of his body. And Paul gives husbands a command, but let me tell you what the command is not. You are in charge. That is not the command he gives to you to us men. The command is to love your wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. So what does he tell husbands to do? Love. Love. Love your wife. And then how do you love? You give your life. You stand in between your wife and anything else that could bring harm or disruption to the life that God has called her to. And it's a self-sacrifice love. It's this idea that men, we're called not to use our strength to get our own way, but to use the strength God has given us to carry the responsibility and the weight and the call that he's given us. We don't leverage leadership for our own comfort, we leverage it for service. And so when he talks about providing, he's talking about helping a wife to flourish. The goal is her flourishing, not for me to have control, but to flourish. I mean, just for a second, you you want something kind of comical to think about? You tell my wife that I'm in control. That's a joke there. And she she's not here to defend herself at this particular service, so I'll talk more about her at the 9 o'clock. But listen, she my wife is a godly woman who, and uh, she is, she has the gift of leadership. She has she has so many so she has such a gift in so many different ways. And my job is to help is to simply support her in a way and love her in a way that her gifts flourish even more. And so Paul says, Paul says, hey, we're we're we're coming along to help support our wives. Husbands help support our wives. How do I help my wife become everything that God's calling her to be? Paul gets practical. He said, in the same way, husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies. Provide and care for it. So provision, we think of provision. I'm gonna put food on the table. That's absolutely a part of it. I'm gonna provide for a home. That's great, that's part of it. But but it's also this it's it's let me let me say it by asking this question that I should be asking my wife on a regular basis. What do you need from me today? How are you doing? How's your heart? What do you need me to do to help you grow and flourish in your life? How can I support what God's called you to do? And to care. Care. It might mean caring is to cherish, it means to tend to, to protect, to be gentle. It means listening without trying to fix everything, speaking with gentleness, being emotionally present. You know what it is? It's have you ever thought of the difference between a thermometer and a thermostat? See, I don't know what the temperature is in here, but it feels pretty good to me right now. It's usually a little cool when we start in the morning, but as people fill in, it starts to warm up a little bit. But but we have these things on the walls, and we only had a couple of them over at the other building. They're everywhere in this building. And you go to that little device, and it's called a thermostat. And you can adjust the setting on that thermostat because it will set the temperature in the room. And here, listen, so the question is, are we called to be thermostats or are we called to be thermometers? Thermometers simply read the temperature and tell you what the temperature is. And I can't tell you the image that comes to mind when I think of a thermometer and where it's placed to tell you what the temperature is. It's not a pleasant deal, thank God, for the new thermometers that came out during COVID. That's one good thing that came out of COVID. He's called us all to be thermostats. Men, we're called to be thermostats. When we walk in the room, we should set the temperature in the room. We should set it to a temperature that includes kindness and warmth and service and care and the fruit of the Spirit, love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness, gentleness and faithfulness and self-control. Are you bringing warmth into the room or are you walking in with a critical spirit? Are you bringing safety to the relationships in your family? Or are you bringing unpredictability or a lack of security? Are you bringing peace or are you bringing pressure? That's what I think Paul is giving, is telling us here. And he's saying, passive. He said, husbands, don't be passive. Don't just stand back and let things happen and respond when you need something. And don't be to the other extreme, don't be domineering, be present and be sensitive to the Holy Spirit. Here's a question. If your wife and kids only knew Jesus by watching you, what kind of savior would they believe in? That stings a little bit, doesn't it? You're thinking, Russ, would you move on to the women? Would you move on to the wives? Would you please move on to the children? Move on to somebody else. I will. See, your marriage is the message. Your marriage is the message. Your marriage is the picture. There are a lot of people in this world, they listen, their first glimpse of Jesus is watching how a husband and a wife interact and love each other in a biblical Jesus way. And so he moves on and then he speaks to the wives. He doesn't have as much to say to the wives, so maybe this will be shorter. But here's what he said in verse 22. He says, Wives, submit to your husbands. Oh, there it is. There it is. Russ is going to tell us to submit to our husbands. But let me let me go back to the husbands for a second. Husbands, are you worth submitting to? I mean, are you living a life that is is where you lead in such a way that somebody could follow you? He says, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. Because the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the savior of the body. Now, as the church submits to Christ, so also wives are to submit to their husbands and everything. To sum up, each one of you is to love his wife as himself, and the wife is to respect her husband. And so wives, so husbands, you've had, I've spoken to you, wives, we are to have a spirit-filled posture of submission. Now, Paul speaks directly to the wives in that culture, that alone would have been something to take notice of because women would not even have been spoken to. They would not have even been part of the message in the Roman culture. In that ancient day, women were barely above a piece of property. So what Jesus is doing, what Paul is doing here, is he's elevating women. He's elevating them. But it's the reality is we think submission is a bad word, but submission starts to, submission starts to with Jesus. We start with Jesus. Let me tell you what submission never means. Submission never means enabling sin. Submission is about posture. Submission is not. Let me tell you what submission is not. It's not silence, it is not weakness, it is not control. It's not being unable to disagree. Submission is a spirit-led practice of honor, respect, support, and partnership. Listen, here's what can I sum this up? Paul says, husbands, love your wives. And then he tells the wives, submit to your husbands as Christ, as the church submits to Christ. So what basically what he's saying is, he's saying, husbands, learn how to love your wife. See, God knew that my greatest need in my life because of all the insecurities and all of my shortfalls, all of my problems that I have, that you probably observe, but I don't think you know. My greatest need is to be affirmed. I mean, it really is. And I'm speaking for a lot of men here, and we're all different, different levels of degrees, I understand. But basically, men, men want to be told that they're doing a good job. So there is design in what in what God is teaching us through the Apostle Paul that goes way beyond just the idea of who's in charge and who's not. It's about our needs being met. And for men, our greatest need is to be respected. That's why he didn't say, wives, love your husbands, because that's not our greatest need. We tend to love ourselves pretty well. And then he says, Husbands, love your wives. And see, God knew that my wife, who is probably I don't think of her being as insecure, but she has insecurities just like any of us have insecurities. And God knew that her greatest need in our relationship was to be cherished and loved. That's her greatest need. God wired us this way. This isn't a, this passage isn't a, this isn't meant to be a passage for us guys to say, hmm, look at this. No, it's the passage that should bring us guys to our knees because of the responsibility and the way that God has given us. So big idea. Your marriage is the message. How we respond in our marriages speaks, speaks loudly to the culture. We're to encourage one another. We're not to be on each other's case. We're not to to nag. And can I can I use that word nag? Is that okay? I mean, I mean, is that that's that's what kind of we think about. Matter of fact, the writer of Proverbs uses that word nag. It's one of my favorite verses. Proverbs 27, 15, an endless dripping on a rainy day and a nagging wife are alike. Now, see, I won't read this the next hour. You know why? Because somebody else will be here. But but it's there's truth in this that we see that it can go both ways. Man, we can we can go into a relationship with critical spirits, negative talk, and we all can nag one another. What Paul is teaching us here is listen, if if we could get this and understand this and love our wives, and wives learn to respect our husbands, and for us to fit together, work together, to reflect together, to mirror together to a broken, messed up world that God has created us uniquely. We have completely equal value. This is not a value issue, it's simply a role issue. And God's plan. And so if your husband and kids only knew Jesus by watching you, what kind of savior would they believe in? Wives, moms? And you think, man, I'm a kid, I'm a young person here, I'm in middle school or I'm in high school, you think, thank goodness he's not talking to me. Well, here's your chance right here. Kids and parents. Kids and parents, kids and parenting. Listen, spirit-filled homes, listen, this is what spirit-filled homes do. They disciple the next generation. That's what they do. Let me tell you something. As wonderful as Katie Landris is, it's not her responsibility to disciple your children. As awesome as Jonah is, it's not his responsibility to disciple your kids. Now he does. And Katie does, because they care and they love. And they they model it. Now who's responsible? It's us, parents, moms, and dads. It's our responsibility. But he speaks to children first. So if you're if you're still in middle school or high school, I know most of our elementary kids are back in kids' grove, but here's what he says to children. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, because this is right. And all the parents said, Amen. It says, honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise. It really is. It's the first commandment that has a promise. You know what the promise is? Your days will be long and you'll live a blessed life. Go back and look at the law. It says, so that you may go, it may go well with you and that you may have a long life in the land. Fathers, don't stir up anger in your children. I'm guilty of that. But bring them up in the training and the instruction of the Lord. And so Paul widens the lens again. And he says the spirit-filled life does not just reshape a marriage, it reshapes a whole home. He's talking about discipleship here. Children, obey your parents. Honor your parents. Let me tell you, from me, my personal story, I could not have imagined at some point in my life as a young man that I would ever honor my dad. Because he was rough. He was unfaithful to my mother. He was um he was an alcoholic. Two occasions, two occasions he physically abused me. I watched him physically abuse. I saw a lot of things in my dad that when I when I read that verse, I'm like, that does not, there's no way I could ever. But it's some of the lowest moments of what happened in the life of my family. My older brother, who is who's my brother slash father figure, slash pastor in my life, he walked with me through those lowest moments. And through the pastor who pastored him, and through his leadership in my life, I learned how I can disagree with my dad's behavior, but I could honor him at the same time. And it's hard, but it's possible. My dad came to Christ three years before he passed away, and we had, we, we had, we had a few good years where I did see life transformation in his life. I saw it. But I had, listen, I can't imagine. Now I I know there's worse circumstances than I had growing up, but it makes it extremely hard. What I'm telling you is not easy, but it is possible through the power of the Holy Spirit. Active in our life. What's the response? What is it that God is is calling for us to do as we think about dedicating this building, as we think about consecrating what God has done, as we think about moving forward, I believe that part of the vision for Church at the Grove moving forward is learning how we should make disciples starting in our homes? How do we take the Word of God and instead of it being a decorum on a shelf somewhere, how does it become something that we open up every day, that we write in, that we take notes in, that we learn about? How do we take this word of God and place it into our hearts in such a way that husbands who were harsh and just mean and difficult now have been transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit and now are loving and kind and helping their wives flourish? How do we take broken families and bring healing into those families where marriages are restored? Or maybe a marriage can't be restored, but relationships and forgiveness and reconciliation can happen. How do we take the word of God and put it into our life in such a way that we um we don't give in to the numbness that the world is imposing upon us, but we are present, we are alive, and we are full of the Spirit. And see, listen, when parents and families operate, the way in the way in which God designed, listen, you can't deny looking, observing, and seeing Jesus at work. Now, of all the things that we've talked about, all the things that I'm excited about, I want to share with you one last thing that we built this building for. And today I'm gonna just go public that we are now opening up our Grove Buddies ministry. Hey Jax, how's it going, dude? Look at me, Jax. I sure do love you, buddy. More than that, Jesus loves you. And because of how much he loves you, we built this building for you. And so, beginning immediately, even already started before today, at the 11 o'clock hour, we will welcome families with special needs of all ages to be able to come and to worship and to be a part of the church and not have to worry and stay home and to think that they don't have a place. And so Jax created, God, Jesus created Jax. And he loves Jax just as he is, and there'll be a day when Jax enters into eternity and he'll have a whole body and he'll be completely healed. But until then, it's our responsibility to love Jax and to love CJ and to love Nate and to love their families. And you know what we need? We need simply more people that'll step into the roles and help serve these families. So we begin it. We're beginning with 11 o'clock. That's as many people as we have enough to serve these families. But I want to encourage you to think about this. That we built this building, we built it for everybody. If we built it for everybody, we need to put our money where our mouth is. Yeah, absolutely. Praise God. Amen. So would you just reach out your hand? I just want to pray. I want to pray over families in our community that don't even know they have a place to go to church yet. And I and I want to I want to say thanks. I want to say a special thanks to Jason Britt and to Nan Britt who lead, who really founded this buddy's ministry at Bethlehem Church a dozen years ago. And so uh Jack has some seizures, and so he's he's having a seizure. This is normal for their family, they understand it. And these are some of his helpers that minister to him, but just reach your hand out and let's pray over these families. Because I tell you, when the word gets out, people are gonna come, and we're gonna need more people to ministry. So let's pray. Father, thank you. Thank you for creating Jacks because every time I see him, I know that you are smiling down on him. He is created in the image of our Heavenly Father for purpose, and you have a plan. So, God, I pray that you would bless our church as we become a blessing to this community. Lord, help us start at home. Help us start with husbands and wives and children, understanding discipleship, and let the church be a support to these families. Father, we love you and we thank you. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. And everybody said together. Amen. Hey, Jax, thank you. Can y'all thank Jax for Jax helping me out here? Now I want to ask all of you to stand. Thank you guys so much. Thank you all. I think all we can say is Jesus. It's all about Jesus. And so as we close this morning, if you don't have a personal relationship with Jesus, I want to encourage you to consider putting your faith in Jesus. Maybe for the first time. If you find your place in a you find yourself in a place where you feel tired, worn out, and you need to be refreshed. God is here. The Spirit of God is here. I'd be honored to pray with you. I know there's some others that would love to pray with you. If you want to come to the altar, you can pray. Listen, today is a special day. But you know what? Tomorrow's a special day too. And the day after that, and the day after that. And so let's live our lives with purpose and meaning. And you know where we start? We start with those closest to us. Some of us need to have conversations with our spouse, and we need to reconcile. We need to clear things up. We need to make sure our hearts and our posture is right. Some of us need to repent of our sins and seek reconciliation. Some of us need to, even as adults, to go back and get things right with our parents. And you say, Well, Russ, my parents are gone. Well, then you know what? Get right with your heavenly father, and he will restore you. Some of us adults need to go back to our kids and apologize. I've done that before because I didn't handle things in a way, in a godly way, as a parent, as a dad, as a husband. Whatever it is that God might be speaking to you about, the most important thing is for you to obey and respond accordingly. Father, God, we speak the name of Jesus this morning. And we know that demons tremble. Demons tremble at the name of Jesus. We know that lives are changed because of the name of Jesus. Darkness is pushed away at the name of Jesus. Hearts are healed at the name of Jesus. Relationships are restored at the name of Jesus. Marriages flourish at the name of Jesus. Children are raised at the name of Jesus. They become adults and they become great men and women of God because of the name of Jesus. So, Father, we lift you up and we worship you right now in the name of Jesus.