The Hallmarks of a Godly Wife - Ephesians 5:21-24

3:29What's his message? What's the overall theme of the book of Ephesians? If you were to flip back just a couple of pages, we would land right in the middle of the message, and that would be Ephesians 4.1. We'll talk about it more in a moment, but the message here is to walk in a manner worthy of your calling. That's the message. He spent the first three chapters telling us who we are in Christ, and then he spends the last three chapters about how to walk with Christ. You might say, how to behave. It's a walk that he's given us. In other words, what he's saying there in chapter 4, verse 1 is simply this. Live your life in a manner consistent with his choice of you. That's a way to put it. Be a wife in a manner consistent with his choosing of you.

4:15As I said, we're starting this series at the 9 o'clock Sunday school hour, and it's the, as you can see on the wall there, it's the hallmarks of a godly family. Please, if you want to be a part of next week, we're probably going to spend more time on a godly wife next Sunday morning, but we're Going to make our way into what are the hallmarks of a godly husband over the next few weeks. So you're more than welcome to be a part of that. You see, Paul addressed this letter to the church, and then the Holy Spirit, he wants husbands and wives and parents, children, employees, and employers to walk in a manner worthy of their calling.

4:53So this morning, it's the hallmarks of a godly wife that we're focusing on. You might be saying to yourself, well, I'm not a wife, so I can't be a godly wife. You might be a man, and you're thinking to yourself, I'm certainly not going to be a godly wife. But the text is all the same, is it not? If we are to love each other, encourage one another to walk in a manner worthy of our calling, shouldn't we be able to encourage women who are married or women who will be married to, or men, as the case may be, to walk in a manner worthy of a calling based upon what the scriptures say? Maybe you're thinking to yourself, I'm probably never going to be married. Well, then you have a responsibility still to encourage other women to walk in a manner worthy of their calling, and that is to be that kind of woman that we're looking at even in the text today. You see, sound biblical teaching leads to godly families. Isn't that a truth? Sound biblical teaching leads to families and people that love one another. Well-taught families who love God's Word are compelled to love the people in His church.

6:01I would submit to you today that the word divorce would be eliminated from our vocabulary if we understood completely and fully the book of Ephesians. If we understood that we are believers in Christ, therefore I want to walk in a manner worthy of my calling, therefore I want to be a husband or a wife who honors Christ in my walk. I would submit to you again that divorce would be eliminated from our vocabulary because we would be more focused on God's glory than our own selfish individual needs or demands.

6:32Dysfunctional families lead to dysfunctional churches. Really, a dysfunctional family is a family that hasn't really carefully considered this book of Ephesians. It's a family that's not walking with the Lord, or a husband or a wife who is struggling to work out their walk with the Lord. It's a book of grace, it's a book of encouraging us to live for his glory, even as we struggle through these very things that we talk about this morning. You're going to see that the focal point isn't so much about the hallmarks of a godly wife as much as it is about the hallmarks of an amazing Savior, because we're going to see that in the text. Since Christ is the head of the church, he calls us to submit to one another for a reason. Here it is, so that his church, Emmanuel Baptist Church, is equipped to glorify him. Well, enough talk. Let's pull out the text. I want to start in verse 15 of chapter 5 just to. Make sure that the context of what we're looking at is in perspective here. So, in verse 15, he gives some direction there in chapter 5. He says this, Therefore, be careful how you walk. In other words, be careful how you act, not as unwise men, but as wise. He's going to give us some instruction on wisdom here. Making the most of your time. Here's the reason to make the most of your time, because the days are evil.

7:56Verse 17, so then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Let me just stop there for a second. He's saying, if you don't know God's will, you're a fool. Think about that for a second. How many times in my life have I said to myself, God, I don't understand your will, especially as it relates to the family. And he would say to me, Eric, just pick up the book of Ephesians and let me give you some wisdom and then you won't be foolish. And so he's saying to us this morning, if you understand this text as it relates to the family, you're not going to be foolish. And he gives some direction there in verse 18. He wants us to think clearly. He says, do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation. We don't talk like that anymore. What does dissipation mean, Paul? Dissipation is the exact opposite Greek word of the word to save. It means to destroy. Dissipation means to destroy. So if your mind is filled with anything other than God's word, drugs, alcohol, whatever it may be, you don't have the capacity to think in a way that would lead you to understand God's will in this text.

9:00So he says to them in verse 18, be filled with the Spirit. Here's the results of being filled with the Spirit. Verse 19, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart as to the Lord, always giving thanks for all things in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father, and be subject one to another in the fear of Christ. Now, here's our text for this morning, verse 22: Wives, be subject to your own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is also the head of the church, he himself being the Savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands and everything.

9:49That's the text for this morning. Wouldn't you like to be me standing up here? Well, let's dig into the text itself. What does God want us to get out of this text? You see, a wife, as you see on the screen here, the takeaway for the morning: a wife who walks with the Lord is filled with the Spirit so that she desires to eagerly submit to her husband. There's a roadmap that can help us to understand a little more about this. I call it an outline, call it a road map or an outline for you note-takers who like to take notes. Here's where we're heading this morning. We see in verse 21 that we need to understand the plan, the four principles. For eager submission, understand the plan, understand the precedence, understand the purpose, and of course, understand the pattern for all this submission that we're talking about this morning. Well, first, the first principle, understand the plan.

10:47Understand the plan. It's in verse 21. Probably ought to say right off the bat, we need to deal with the elephant in the room, don't we? How do we define this word submit, right? Our culture doesn't like this in any capacity at all. It's completely different than what God designed for who we are in Christ. Let's be sure that we have a clear understanding of the word submit. So, what does it mean? Well, there's a few observations we get from it. A few observations. In verse 21, submission is voluntary. It's voluntary. It means to place yourself under someone else's leadership. Now, I would say it's voluntary in this particular verse. There are other times in the New Testament where the word submit is used, and it is to cause your, it is to understand that you are to submit to other people. This is something where it's a voluntary effort that we're seeing here, this word submit. Secondly, submission is the result of verse 18. Verse 18, if you just look at verse 18, we'll take a look at it here. Again, don't get drunk with wine, for that's dissipation, it destroys, but converse to that, be filled with the Spirit. The Idea is to be being kept filled with the Spirit. So we don't talk like that in English, but that's the way the original Greeks would have read it 2,000 years ago. Be continuously kept filled with the Spirit.

12:14Okay? So that's what he's asking us to do, to be filled with the Spirit. And it's something that we would respond to Him in a voluntary manner. If you look at verse 17, he says, So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And then again, verse 18, we see that it's this, not this save, not this destroying, but the filling with the Spirit that's so important to consider when we think about that. There's a third observation: submission applies to all believers. Each and every one of us who have said, I submit myself to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, I have repented of my sin, then this applies to all of us. It's all in this chapter and also in chapter 6. The idea here is that we are to be filled with the Spirit. We are to be filled with Him in such a way that we joyously do these things. We enjoy a greater capacity for joy and submission. Verse 17 is so clear. We've touched on it. If you resist this, this meaning the Spirit's filling in your life, then you're a fool because you can't know God's will in the matter.

13:23So now that we know what submission is, let's understand from the text the plan. For a wife's voluntary submission to her husband in the context, get ready to turn some pages with me in your Bible. We're going to stay here in Ephesians for now. But if you were to flip over to chapter 1, verse 1, I want to remind you that, again, he's writing to faithful saints. The reason the world doesn't like what we're studying here is because they've rejected this, and so of course they're not going to like it. So he's writing to faithful saints in chapter 1, verse 1. We also know in chapter 1, if you just glance through it, that this plan for voluntary submission assumes that she, the wife, understands in verse 4 that God chose her, that Jesus redeemed her in verse 7, and whose salvation is sealed in the Holy Spirit in verse 13. We can't expect to force people to comply by these rules in the Bible if they don't know Christ. And if you find yourself resistant to them even now, you might want to say, Lord, am I really in Christ right now? Am I really there?

14:32The plan for this godly wife includes the fact that, according to Ephesians 2, verses 5 and 8, that she's saved by grace through faith. Again, we're talking about a believer here, a salvation that has nothing to do with being a good person from her perspective. It's by God's grace that she's saved. Again, in verse 1 of chapter 4, the plan of voluntary submission includes chapter 4, verse 1, where a godly wife walks in a manner worthy of her. Calling of God's choice of her.

15:05Look at verse 17 in chapter 4. A godly wife recognizes this plan of voluntary submission, which includes verse 17, where her life is defined by who she is now. Think about that. It's defined by who she is now, not who she used to be, not the former skeletons in her closet before she was saved, before God called her to Himself. She is one whom Jesus has redeemed her with His own blood. Chapter 5, verse 1. A wife who walks with Christ bears His image so well that no one can accuse her of the immorality that's mentioned in chapter 5, verse 3.

15:50We've already looked at this, but in Ephesians 5, verses 15 through 17, the plan for a wife's voluntary submission means that she is a wise woman who recognizes that these days are evil. She's living in evil days, and so she needs to make the most of her time. She isn't foolish because she knows what God's will is. It's being filled with the Spirit. Despite the edge, the ragged edge of life upon which she traffics, she joyfully notice this in verse 19, she joyfully, in verse 19, she joyfully speaks to others through psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

16:30She sings from the depth of her heart, making melody to the Lord. It's there in the text, isn't it? And because she's filled with the Spirit, she expresses thanksgiving for all things in Jesus' name. Even when she's in a tough marriage, she's filled with the Spirit, and she can have this joy in her life. And she can, in verses 21 and 22, she can lastly, because she's filled with the Spirit, she can constantly be filled with the Spirit because she is submitting to her husband. Out of love for Christ, she gladly submits to her husband, even the tough one. You know what? This has been God's plan ever since the very beginning. It's been God's plan all the way back to Adam and Eve. This is how he designed marriage. And all this sets the stage for our second point, which is to understand the precedent for what's happening here. There's a precedent that is set for this kind of godly submission. If you look back down at verse 22, I want you to see a very small word there that blows this thing wide open. It's the word as. In fact, the word as, you're going to see it two more times in our text this morning. The word as in verse 22 tips you off to the fact that this is an analogy. It's a comparison that sets the precedent for how wives voluntarily submit to their husband. The word as, it's a great word. Ladies, at the moment of your salvation, you showed evidence that the Spirit was filling you. Here's how. When you repented, Repented of your sin, and when you trusted Christ, you voluntarily placed yourself under his management and put your management to rest. That's the idea here. Submit as if you're submitting to the Lord. It's an analogy. So, this analogy sets the precedence, doesn't it? It sets a precedence for you to continue being filled with the Spirit in verse 22 by your voluntary submission to your own husband. He says, Your own husband. Isn't that interesting?

18:29He doesn't say submit to every man, he says, submit to your own husband, which is analogous to your submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ Himself. You wouldn't one day, if you're saved, bought by the blood of Christ, walking with the Lord, one day just say, That's it, God, I'm done, and walk away. Maybe you would. But the analogy is that the assumption is you would not. As I said, our culture runs counterclockwise to a biblical culture. We could say that scores of women rebel against God's design for marriage because scores of men give them just cause, right?

19:10Your wife isn't filled with the Spirit through your abusive ultimatum, guys. She's filled with the Spirit. The result of the filling with the Spirit is this singing and giving thankfulness and submission to her husband. God's will is to be filled with the Spirit. By guiding your household in love, protection, service, and provision. That's what God is calling us men to do. So, what you're seeing here has a much greater precedence than what you would notice here in Ephesians chapter 5. Flip back to the depths of the Old Testament, chapter 3 of Genesis, if you will. We'll take a look at chapter 3 and Genesis. Where does all this come from, we ask?

19:57It was in the very first culture. Adam and Eve's rebellion to God's call for submission rocketed the human race to 6,000 years of destruction, rebellion, and continuous rebellion against the Lord. I mentioned Genesis chapter 3. I'm going to start in verse 13 and just kind of make my way through a few verses here just to get a flavor for what's going on. This is in the garden, Adam and Eve were told not to eat from the fruit of the tree, and they did so anyway. In verse 13, the Lord God said to the woman, What is this you have done?

20:37And the woman said, The serpent deceived me, and I ate. And in verse 16, we see the consequences for Eve's deception, consequences that are felt even today. Here they are. Verse 16: To the woman he said, I will greatly multiply your pain and childbirth, and in pain you will bring forth. Children. And it's not just the act of giving birth. It's the act of that and raising them. I'm going to increase your pain. And he says this, yet your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.

21:17Underline that word desire. Underline that word desire. Let me just read it again. Your desire will be for your husband, and better yet, better translation from the Hebrew, is but he will rule over you. This word for desire, it only appears, this particular word for desire, it only appears in the Hebrew Bible three times. Three times. The third time it appears, it appears 3,000 years after this incident. And it's found in the Song of Solomon, chapter 7, verse 10, where desire indicates an intimacy between a husband and a wife. So you would think maybe that's what it means here in chapter 3, verse 16.

21:57I would ask you to flip the page over to Genesis 4:7 so we can get a better understanding about the second time how this word desire is used. Chapter 4, verse 17, it's a different kind of desire than the one in Song of Solomon. I'm sorry, chapter 4, verse 7. He says this, God speaking to Cain after Cain's sacrifice was not what God wanted. He says to Cain, if you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at your door, and it's what? It's desire. is for you, but you must resist it.

22:34I would say to you today that the desire that we see in verse 16 is the same desire that we see in chapter 4, verse 7. It's not the intimacy desire of Song of Solomon. What do I mean by all that? Sin's desire, in the case with Cain, is to rule him, to dominate him. But he must resist that desire. He must resist sin. And so, in verse 16, what does it mean? It means that there's going to be this desire to dominate her husband. That's part of the curse. As a result of Eve's deception, she and all her daughters who resist the desire or the temptation to rule over or dominate their husbands. That's the idea here. But in 3.17, the gender war begins, doesn't it?

23:24Her husband's going to rule over her. And so here it is. We're launched into the last 6,000 years of men and women fighting one another, going against God's plan. And the manner Cain must master his sin, husbands and wives mustn't give in to the curse or the temptation to dominate one another is going to be there. Domination, fellas, is not the same thing as headship. It's not the same thing as leading your wife and loving your wife as Christ loved the church.

24:01Well, there's a third principle, but let's turn back over to Ephesians 5, 22. Get this straight. We've seen that submission has a plan, and submission has a precedence, and we've seen that submission has a purpose. So the purpose is in verse 23. In Ephesians chapter 5, the first word there tells you a lot about what's going on here. It gives you the purpose. The reason that you, as a godly wife, are called to submit yourself to a husband is found right here. The word is for, or some of your translations might be because, and that's the reason. Because your husband is your head. That's why you should submit to him voluntarily as to the Lord.

24:42Paul frequently uses analogies or word pictures from the human body, doesn't he? In this case, if the head is separated from the body, the body won't function as intended. Negatively, if the wife separates herself from her husband, the marriage won't function properly. Positively, if the wife submits herself to her husband's leadership, then both of them function properly in their marriage. So we see yet another analogy with the word as in verse 23. The word as. So the question is, who is the head of the church? You see it there in the text. Christ, right? Christ is the head of the church. So what happens when the church separates themselves from the head of the church? Well, they become apostate religions.

25:30The world is riddled. The landscape of the world is riddled with churches and religions that have rejected God's word, the inerrancy of Scripture, and they decided they wanted to go their own way. And so we have apostate churches. That's where they come from. They leave the lordship of Christ. They ignore Jesus' headship and their submission to him at their own peril. So there's the analogy. The hallmark of a godly wife is found in her glad submission to her husband, which is analogous to how the church gladly submits to the lordship of Christ, because Christ is the savior of the body.

26:06That's why we say that there's more about the hallmarks of this, of a woman, in the statement that this is more about an amazing Savior. You see that in verses 23 and 24. Notice that we see in verse 24, Christ is the savior of the body. Guys, you are not the savior of your wife. You may save her from an accident, but you are not her savior in terms of salvation. Jesus is her savior. Listen to how Paul explained this kind of analogy to the church of Corinth. You don't have to turn there. I'll just read it. 1 Corinthians 11, 3. 1 Corinthians 11:3, we read these words, but I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman. Not women, a woman. And Christ is the head of the church. Christ is the head of the church. So, So here's what we've seen so far. We've seen submission as a plan, we've seen submission as a precedence, and we've seen that it has a purpose, a purpose. But let's unpack the fourth principle for a godly woman to eagerly submit to her husband. It's an eager submission. Here it is. Number four, understand the pattern. There's a pattern here in verse 24.

27:28This is the third time we've seen the word as. It's in verse 24. Again, it's an analogy. You could say in verse 24, we see another pattern or an example or how you, as a godly wife, should submit or should desire to place yourself under your husband's headship. The way a godly church submits to Christ is analogous to the way a godly wife would submit to her husband. So how does the church submit to Christ? Shouldn't we ask that question? If I am to submit to my husband in this manner, then how does the church submit to Christ? Well, perhaps the best way to see this is to see how the church subjects itself to Christ by looking at how in the New Testament Christ addressed even individuals.

28:15From the earliest stages in his ministry, Jesus preached a message of repentance. Let's look at how Jesus addresses the church or addresses people for submission. In Matthew 4.18, Jesus begins. His public ministry, and from that time on, Matthew 4, 17 says, Jesus began to preach and to say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The king was in their presence, therefore the kingdom is at hand. And he's saying continuously, is the idea in that section of Scripture that this is what he continued to preach throughout his ministry: repentance. Mark chapter 1, verses 14 through 15. Jesus came to Galilee preaching the gospel of God, it says in verse 14, the gospel of God. Isn't that interesting that it would say that Jesus was preaching the gospel of God when Jesus hadn't died on the cross yet? He hadn't lived a full and complete, perfect life yet. His life was still in existence. He was still living and breathing. Verse 15, this is the gospel. Verse 15 and saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. Again, the gospel, the gospel hadn't been fully lived out. He hasn't risen from the dead yet. But the message of the gospel is the good news. It's repentance. It's turning from sin and turning to Christ.

29:36There's consequences for refusing to repent, of course, for refusing to submit to Christ. And we see it in Mark 1, verse 20. It says, Then he began to denounce the cities, which most of his miracles were done, because they did not repent. They refused his lordship in their lives. He says, woe to you, Khorazon, woe to you, Bethsaida, for if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon, which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and in ashes. Again, this is the message that he gave people.

30:10You would say, why such harsh judgment? Why is this happening? Well, because they refuse to subject themselves to Christ. They refused it. There's more to this pattern of submission. Jesus, as the head of the church, told several churches in the book of Revelation, chapter 2 and chapter 3 specifically, that if they didn't repent, remember what was going to happen if they refused to repent? He says, I'm going to take your church away. You won't even be a church anymore if you don't repent.

30:42What other ways is Jesus the head of the church? What other ways did he instruct the church or instruct people? In Matthew chapter 2, 36 through 39, Jesus was asked by a lawyer, what is the greatest law? What is the greatest commandment, Jesus? He wanted Jesus to tell him the most important commandment in the Old Testament, probably Moses' law. And he was very clear with them. And he says, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. And then he says, The second one's just like it. Just like it? What could be more just like loving God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength? He says, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

31:26You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Those are the things, the patterns of. Submission that they are to come under. Well, as we go a little bit deeper into the gospel, we see his last command in the book of Matthew ought to be our greatest concern. They're called to submit. We looked at this just a few weeks ago on a Sunday night. Matthew chapter 28, verses 19 through 20, he says, Make disciples of all nations. That was a command. How? Baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have taught you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. So there's a pattern here. There's a pattern for headship. Jesus tells us as a church how to operate, and we submit to that because we want to submit to Him. The message is clear: the church finds great grace by submitting to its head, the Savior of the body. Glance back at Ephesians 5:24 with me. Ephesians 5:24.

32:26It reveals even more about the pattern for godly submission in verse 24. He says, Wives are to submit to their husbands in what? Everything. Yikes. Everything. What does he mean by that? You say, well, you know, I'm not willing to sign that blank check. Right? Everything? Maybe you're thinking, what if he wants me to violate the law? What if he wants me to hurt somebody or hurt myself or hurt others? What do I do then? That's where your submission ends.

33:00Because a husband who violates God's word is not a man who is loving his wife as Christ loved the church and commands that he would give her that are not honoring to Christ. Verse 25 talks all about that. We'll dig into that in our Sunday school class if you want to be a part of that. But this thing about everything, what does, well, I read recently a guy named Clinton Arnold. I liked what he said, the way he addressed this in his commentary. Clinton Arnold addresses this statement that wives are to submit to their husbands and everything. Here's what he said: quote, the basic idea is that women should not seek to assert themselves in the home in a way that could be viewed as ruling or controlling or dominating. Remember what we looked at in Genesis 3:16, not a domination kind of thing, but rather they must acknowledge the God-given role assigned to their husbands and respect the leadership he endeavors to provide to the family. Again, we're talking about a family that is sold out to the first three chapters of Ephesians. They're believers. They're walking with Christ. They're submitting to Christ. They've been sold out to him. And so he's talking about a kind of godly submission, a kind of godly leadership in the home. I would say this: as the family goes, so goes the church.

34:24God calls us to submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, of course, in everything. Even when it comes to knowing his will on how to operate as a family, remember, he said, don't be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Well, these things are God's will. As I was studying this passage, I was discussing it with my wife, Debbie, a little bit, and she came out and she said, she introduced me to one of her favorite books. In fact, I've known about this book for a while. But The Excellent Wife by Martha Peace. And she has a great section in here about this whole idea of submission. This book is highly recommended by the Council of Biblical Counseling. And so, anyway, she pointed out in here, and I like what Martha Peace wrote. I would highly encourage you to get this book if you don't have it. There's a, I don't know, there's a handful of these next door in the resource room. And she writes this. She says, in understanding the biblical relationship between submission and joy, remember that submitting will not always be fun, but there is always joy in glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ. You should therefore submit yourself to learning submission, or commit yourself to learning submission, not with dread of what is to come, but with an anticipation of how you best glorify the Lord. This is God's ordained purpose for you. He has created an orderly world, and he alone has the sovereign right to determine how he wants you to be a part of his creation and to glorify him. I think those are wise words. This is about glorifying him, not demanding. Husbands, your own way, or wives, your own way. It's about submitting to Christ or submitting as if submitting to Christ. When we all submit ourselves to one another, which is verse 21, in the fear of Christ, notice what happens. I'll just put on the screen here. When we submit to one another in the fear of Christ, husbands will love their wives as Christ loved the church in verse 25. Wives will gladly submit to their own husbands as to the Lord.

36:32Children will honor their parents. That's in chapter 6, verses 1 and 2. And guess what? Parents won't provoke their children to anger, but will instruct them in the Lord. That's in chapter 6. These are the hallmarks of a godly family. This is it right here. These are the hallmarks of a godly family. But what about the godly wife? As we said earlier, the hallmarks of a godly wife. A wife who walks with the Lord is filled with the Spirit so that she desires to eagerly submit to her husband.

37:06It's an eager submission. Because she loves Christ, she wants to love her husband in the same way. Notice this. We looked at the plan. We looked at the precedence and the purpose and the pattern. The plan of submission is voluntary, isn't it? That's the definition of this word in this text. It indicates that you're being filled with the Spirit as you voluntarily, out of love for Christ, submit. To your husband. And there's a precedence. We saw the precedence in Adam and Eve. We saw that biblical churches submit to Christ. So wives, godly wives, submit to their husbands. And then we looked at the purpose because God made your husband your head, just as he, Christ, is the head of the church. And what about the pattern? The pattern. The pattern is the church submitting to Christ. There's your pattern. As the church submits to Christ, then I would gladly, joyously submit to my husband. Well, those are some tough things we looked at, but hopefully it's very encouraging this morning as you see God's plan for a godly marriage. And single guys, this is what I would say, this is what you look for on your future wife list. Now, ladies, if you want to know what to look for in a godly husband, come back as we go through what a godly husband looks like.

38:24The hallmarks of a godly family. It's all right here in the text. I'm so grateful that the Holy Spirit gave this to us so that we would know how to do this. Why don't we close in prayer? Father, we're grateful for the truth of your word. We know that what we read here in Scripture is so foreign to many in our culture, and it's foreign because the instructions that we received are 6,000 years old in some cases, some cases 2,000. And our culture rebels against this. And yet, you call us to be different than our culture.

38:58It wasn't common. In New Testament times, for a husband to love his wife as Christ loved the church. That ran counterculture. And it wasn't common for a woman to submit voluntarily, not being forced in such a way. That would be an ungodly submission. Father, it wasn't common then. It's not common now. And so we live in difficult times. And we pray, God, for grace. We pray for great grace. Would you fill us with your spirit? And the outcome, the exhaust of your filling, the result of your filling would be that we are those who are filled with joy. We are those who sing songs of praise. We are those who make melodies in our hearts. We are those who are those who are about giving thankfulness to you for our lives that you've given us, even through the treacherous times. We're thankful, Lord, that you bring these things into our lives. And we're thankful that you would fill us with your spirit as we submit one to another.

39:58And yet we live in this culture that rebels against that, Lord. And so we're scripture is seen as foolish in that regard. But, Lord, we know not to be foolish. We know to understand your will because your word says so. And so, Lord, we call you to, if we're not willing to be submissive, would you make us willing to be submissive? Would you move us to that next level of trusting in you with our lives, with our walks with you?

40:29Perhaps. You've heard some things this morning that you are contemplating, and you know that you want to be filled by the Spirit in a greater capacity. Would you just take the next few moments to do business with the Lord and prayer and just bring to Him what's on your heart as a result of hearing this text?