1. Sermon • Marriage • Ephesians 5:21-33 • Introduction

2. Men, if money were no object and you could get your wife anything she wanted for Christmas, would you do it?

3. [21] submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. • Wives and Husbands [22] Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. [23] 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.

4. [24] Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. [25] Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, [26] that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, [27] so that he might present the church to himself in splendor,

5. without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. [28] In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. [29] For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, [30] because we are members of his body.

6. [31] “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” [32] This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. [33] However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

7. Marriage is a dipstick of How Great your joy in Christ is. • Marriage is the CANARY IN THE MINE SHAFT

8. We can’t respond IN MARRIAGE the way scripture calls us to unless we have great joy in God. • Marriage is Gospel Re-enactment. • In no arena of life is there a more powerful witness to the wonder and beauty of the gospel than in Christian marriage.

9. Paul introduces this with talking about being filled with the Holy Spirit because he wants us to know that the goal is to have a marriage that can only be explained by the work of the Holy Spirit.

10. Oneness is the biblical mandate set forth in Gen 2:23-25. • what oneness isn’t: • - We are exactly alike. • - One of the partners has taken control of the marriage and his/her will dominates the other. • - We have a 50/50 marriage

11. SELF SACRIFICING LOVE (out of reverence for Christ ) IS THE CORE OF MARITAL ONENESS. • To submit means to arrange and order your life under somebody else’s benefit.

12. Practically what might this look like in YOUR marriage? • Figure out what says, “I love you” to your spouse and do it. • We’ll never have a relationship that reflects the mystery of Christ and the church unless we are willing to die to self.

13. The call is to walk this way with someone who doesn’t deserve it. • We do it out of reverence for Christ.

14. Men, if money were no object and you could get your wife anything she wanted for Christmas, would you do it?

15. …an interesting statistic shared by David McLaughlin in his wonderful series entitled The Role of the Man in the Family reflects that the divorce rate in America is at a minimum one out of two marriages. But the reported divorce rate among couples that pray together is about one in ten thousand.

16. How to pray together as a couple: • Keep it simple. • Don’t try to impress. • Be honest. • Do it consistently, by that I mean 4-7 days a week.

17. Have reasonable expectations. • Don’t forget the other 23+ hours in the day.

18. My bet is that what your wife wants more than anything is a husband who prays with her regularly – AND the best part is that IT DOESN’T COST A THING.