For We Serve The Lord Jesus Christ

Introduction

Well, let’s open up our Bible tonight and look at the book of Colossians in the third chapter and beginning in verse 18. And let’s notice here that the writer now is going to turn after telling us that everything we do should be done in the name of the Lord Jesus. Whatever we do in word or deed, it should all be done. And so everything about that, and we said this this book really teaches us the value of seeing that Christ is everything. And when Christ really is everything to you, I mean, He you’re you, if you’ve got Christ, you’ve got everything you need. You might say, I don’t have anything to eat. Well, you got Christ, well, you’ve got all you need. It’s hard to imagine, but having Jesus is having everything.

And when he gets into everything you do and everything you think about, you have finally dawned on what happiness, contentment, joy, essential living. I mean really living. That’s what really living is. And when people stumble onto that and realize Christ is all I need, I can do all things. If I’ve got him, I can do everything he wants me to do. His strength will help me do whatever he wants me to do. And so when we can learn some of those fundamental things about life, it will affect everything about us. But now notice when we now look at the latter part of this book, the writer turns to talk about relationships. And I want you to think about the fact that when you read these verses, and we’re going to scan through them in a moment, you will see over and over that there’s one thing that governs every relationship in life.

And believe it or not, it’s what we’ve been talking about. Christ governs every relationship in life. And when you think about your marriage, and you say, Well, I’m having trouble. My marriage, maybe my wife is having trouble submitting to me for some reason, maybe I don’t earn her respect, or maybe I’m not treating her right, but in some way I’m having trouble. It could be you’re not having trouble with your wife. It could be you’re having trouble with Christ. That could be what the trouble is. And the more you will try to be like Christ, you may find out some of those other problems will go away. And some wife may say, Well, now my husband, uh, he won’t take the lead, and he uh he takes advantage of me sometime, and he just kind of becomes a tyrant rather than a leader, spiritual leader.

And so you may, ladies, be struggling with that. Well, I’m gonna tell you, if you think about it, maybe it may not be your husband. It could be that that’s a lot of it. But it could be that maybe it’s your relationship to Christ that’s affecting that. Children with parents, parents with children. You know, uh sometimes I’ve heard uh read where men say some parents think when their children were young they were wonderful little people, you know, and they grew up and became teenagers, and the green-eyed monster possessed them and took over and they didn’t know what happened for a period of time. But I’m gonna tell you what. If you have trouble with your teens, it could be that your problem is with Christ. And young people with your parents.

It could be if you’re having trouble with your parents, it could be that you’re having a problem with Christ. And on the job where you are in the market today. I know you say, well, I’m not a slave, and the master of the job, the boss on the job is not the slave master, but you may sometimes feel better. I’ll tell you, if you’re having trouble in your job, you say, Thank God it’s Friday, you know what will make you say, thank God it’s Monday, is to think about Christ. And thank God you’ve got a job to go to. And so if you go at it with everything that’s in you, and you think about Christ, treat everybody the way you should, you may find that you could change the fact, or you may become the president of the company.

You don’t know what will happen. But it’s amazing how, listen as we read these verses. Wives, submit yourself unto your own husbands as is fit or proper or suitable unto the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and be not bitter against them. Children, obey your parents in all things. For this is well pleasing unto the Lord. Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they become discouraged. Servants, obey in all things your master according to the flesh, not with eye service, as men pleasures, in singleness of heart, fearing God. And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as unto the Lord and not on the men, knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive a reward of an inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Christ. But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done, and there is no respect of persons.

1. What God Intended in the Very Beginning

Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal, knowing that ye also have a master in heaven. And so the writer then turns to talk about other applications of that, but let’s just talk about these relationships tonight and spend some of our time talking about how we can make those a little better. When you begin to study the Bible, of course, and you come to the second chapter of the book of Genesis and the creation of man, and then when he named all the animals, saw the animals, and he saw that there was not any anything suitable for him, then God put Adam to sleep, and he took the rib from him and made the woman, and brought this woman onto Adam. When Adam saw the woman, he he saw the value of her.

This is bone in my bone and flesh of my flesh. She should be called woman because she was taken out of a man. And so we find here that God tells us that what he was doing was making this woman a suitable or a helpmeet for the man, a counterpart for the man. And I I have told about uh in my neighborhood where I live, I’ve been living for almost 40 years, that my neighbors always kidding me, the women especially, because when my wife pulled in the driveway at our house, uh she I told her to always toot the horn. And when she would toot the horn, we, me and the boys would run out, and we would carry everything into the house. She was not carrying any house, that was a man’s job.

And I always had trouble because my wife was always wanting to do the man’s job. She was always wanting to carry things and do things. I said, Baby girl, you take care of the ladies’ things and let us carry the loads and do the things like that. And so my neighbor ladies would come and say, Would you train our husbands to do those kinds of things? But but you know, uh I’ve you’ve ever seen in the building sometime a uh a man will come in the building carrying his Bible and come up and sit down on the third or fourth row, and he’ll come to wife, she’s got two babies in a baby basket, and she’s trying to come in here and crawl in and get to a seat to sit down.

And you just, you know, when my wife comes into the room and she’s carrying something, I’m gonna I’m gonna go to her and take away what she’s carrying and carry it for her. I want her to see that I know that she is uh she is uh to me uh uh something very fragile and precious and valuable, and I don’t want her to think that I want her to be some old uh and uh you if you want uh uh uh somebody who can whoop you up and beat you up, that’s your business, but I I want a lady that, you know, uh I hope I’m not seeming offensive by saying that, but I I want my wife to be a lady in every way. I think that there’s nothing she could do any more glorious.

And I tell you, I could not do the work I do. Uh and and and be able to uh the think the way I do and to write sermons and because if it weren’t for my wife, you see. Now, I’ve told people everybody go, go with y’all watching her when I’m preaching, you may wonder, so why doesn’t he have an outline? Well, my wife is lip syncing all this, and I’m watching her, and she’s going like that, and I don’t know what to do, see? But I’m gonna tell you what, she helps me in every way. And I’ll tell you, I I told people when we first got married, our marriage was like every marriage, I guess. You know, I I can remember when I first saw her, my heart started beating fast, and I told myself, the first instant I saw, I’m gonna marry this girl.

I don’t know what it was. There was just something, I don’t know whether it was the smell of her or the looks of her, or what it was, it was just something that overwhelmed me. I just I felt like she had put a banner up over me and conquered my heart as soon as I saw her. But uh I I I can remember when we as we courted and dated and began to build a relationship and get to know each other, how much I began to love her more and more all the time. And finally, then when we went, when we finally got married, and that was all a kind of a rush job, I had to tell you that, because I went in the military, was going overseas, and we had to kind of we were supposed to get married on a Friday, but the military made me cancel that.

So we ended up uh she ended up getting it all back together. They gave me a couple of years, got married on a Tuesday, uh, or a Monday, I can’t remember, with I always tell people if we’ll the cake and uh and uh both of Fars and stay okay. But uh we we got married, and uh we she came to Germany and we lived in a little two-room apartment. The Germans turned the heat off in those places at night, and so when you go to bed, I always told people, sometimes my wife and I would get in a little fuss, a little disagreement about something, but because we knew you you would freeze to death at night sleeping by yourself, uh, about 9 30 we always made up because Ecclesiastes says, uh, how can two be warm alone and when two lie together they have heat, and so we learned the value of three cold before and putting people together and two people working together, they have a great reward.

And so my wife and I learned that early. And I said, I was gonna say, when we first got married, and and we began to come together, uh, we would have some disagreements, and sometimes it seemed like we would uh have a real disagreement, it would take us maybe sometimes I think maybe uh almost a day. We would get mad and kind of stay mad about that for about a day. And then as time went on, we’d get over that, we’d get back together and say, oh, this is the most wonderful thing. And then we’d get upset again, and so we’d kind of weave out again, but then it seemed like as time went on, you know, it started out, we would have these big things like that, and then it began to get where it went like that, and then it got to where, you know, and now we could say some sharp things to each other about something we disagree about, and in ten seconds we’re hugging and kissing each other again.

Because we’ve learned that those things don’t really matter. You need to express and work things out and solve your problems, and you need to be honest about things, but you don’t need to fall apart about that. Now, it takes some time, some years to learn that. And so, what you see in uh in Genesis the second chapter is a picture of God intended for two people. Somebody said it’s like two rivers running together somewhere. Uh that one may illustrated of up in Pittsburgh at the Allegheny and the Mongahela Rivers, they run together right there at Pittsburgh, and when they do all this water runs together, mud and rocks is going everywhere, because there’s two forces coming different directions. You know, my wife didn’t cook the way my grandma did, my mom did when we got married, and I learned pretty quick not to say that, you know.

And and so there were just a lot of things about that, you know, that you had to learn and adjust to. But I want you to think about the joy and the excitement of three of two people who work at becoming becoming one person. And you know, it’s amazing to me now. People come into our house, and my wife and I, and we will be talking, and and the lady or so, the man will say something to me, and when they say something, look, my wife should go like that. And I don’t know what that means. She just said a thousand words to me, and so I’ll start saying this, you know, and then she’ll be talking out her and I would hear an uncle like that, and then she’ll start saying something to the lady, and you know, we can we can carry on the conversation without saying a single word.

And many times we’re driving somewhere, and I say, you know what? She said, Oh, we’re thinking the same thing. It’s amazing how you just it and it’s such a joy. And I’m going to tell you, when you’re younger and going through all the bumps, and you think, oh, this is terrible, I’ll just throw this away getting that one. Let me tell you, you’re going to go through the same bumps no matter where you go. I mean, people who come together, they have to work things out. And so you might as well just stay where you are and work through it and get and solve your problems and learn as you get older. It’s such a joy. I’m so glad I’ve still got the same girl that I started with.

She’s a blessing to me, and I know it don’t always work that way. I know it’s not uh it’s it takes two people to make that work. That’s why I’m not saying to make anybody feel bad or feel guilty. Please don’t think that. I’m saying this for the young people that are hearing me, so they will learn and see the value. My parents separated when I was young, and it just about and just about destroyed me trying to deal with what happened when my mom uh ran off and left. And so I’m just saying, think about the joy of what God intended in the very beginning of two people coming together, and and when they come together, these two people they become one flesh. And when they when they leave their mother and their father, and you know, we uh my wife and I went to Germany again, and we got over there, I was making $97 a month, and we got hungry uh quite often.

And so my dad found out we were running short on money, so my daddy sent me $20 one month, uh, and my wife said, Oh, look, we got $20 from your dad. I said, Send it right on back. And she said, Well, we could use it. I said, I know, but if you don’t mind, let’s just send that back. And she said, Why? I said, Because if my daddy starts paying our bills, he’s gonna think he can tell us what to do. And he’s not the head of this bunch I am. And so you I wasn’t a Christian, but I knew I was supposed to take care of my family, see. And so I would ride by a hundred pounds of potatoes, and we’d eat potatoes at the last week of the month, and we got through it.

And we did, and it was a blessing. And we learned how to survive on what we had. And we didn’t have a car. We had to walk everywhere we went. We just barely had the clothing that we needed. And so but we did just fine. And it was by being away from our parents for two years, and I tell people, sometimes you need to cut the psychological and biblical cord. You know, you can move, you can move out of the house, move across the street, and you can have moved a thousand miles away if you cut the psychological bill. But some kids get married and their parents still control, and the parents want to, and the kids want them to, and so they just stay, and so that creates a lot of trouble.

And so what you need to do is make up your mind, I’m going to become one with this person when I get married. Mom and Dad, I love you, but God bless you. You keep your off business over there and keep your money over there, and we’ll work on what we got, and it’ll be just fine that way. And so if you can learn the value and respect you have for each other, and really how your parents, as time and on, my daddy uh he just it upset him because and my mother also, because that we didn’t uh cave into that. And finally, as years went by, they bought my my mother bought us a big uh deep freeze, and my daddy bought us a television, they’d been separated, uh, but they just appreciated what we had, and they still to this day, or my mother uh still just can’t get over how uh she talks about how I talked to Diane, how much I was saying.

2. Free at Home One Year to Cheer His Wife

I don’t see most men uh uh talking to their wife the way you do and how you how you refer to her. She said, if men would do that, would sure help things. But I’m saying you look at the tenants to kind of see what God intended, and if you start off with that as a foundation of what you’re doing, Jesus brought this up in the 19th chapter, and and Matthew, and where the Pharisees went to Deuteronomy 24 and verse 5, and I’m sure you’ve read that. If a man has taken a new wife, he should not go out to business. He not should be charged, he should not go out to war or be charged with any business, but he shall be free, be free at home one year, and listen to this man and cheer up his wife which he hath taken.

That always tickles me. The woman just got married, and God said, You better learn how to cheer her up. Well, what depressed her? But the point is not that she’s depressed. The point is that man doesn’t know how to cheer a woman up. Men need to learn how to cheer a woman up. You’ve got to learn that, you see. Women are the they’re they see and they sense, and I’ve said, you know, I I love I we a lot of times at church we’ll get the men together doing something, and uh maybe have a pitch in somewhere, and the woman be in the kitchen, and the men are in the living room or somewhere, and the men are sitting there watching the ball game, and we’re all bored watching the ball game.

Oh, yeah, they just made a touchdown. And the women are in the kitchen there laughing and cutting up and having fun. I don’t want to go in the kitchen, hang out with the women. They they seem to be see, they’re busy and they enjoy what they’re doing. But I want you to see the value of what men and women, so ladies don’t feel like that you have been shortchanged in some way. I I I think that there’s a kind of a movement among young girls, they want to be more like men because they feel like, and you know, they’ve they’ve even done some studies in school. They’ll ask, how many of you boys want to be a girl? It used to be that no boy would raise his hand.

But they say, How many of you girls would like to be a, would rather be a boy? And and believe it or not, there’s some girls who wish they had been boys. You see, they feel like they’ve been, it’s because we as men sometimes have not respected and valued the beauty and the significance of what God made in this crowning act of creation when he made woman, the value of what she is, the wonder, and that’s why the Bible shows what the beauty of Proverbs 31 of a woman and the influence she has when she does what God says. And so, uh, Deuteronomy, it seems to me, helps us to see. And when you get married, one thing you need to think about, I tell young people this all the time when I’m involved in a marriage.

I have five sessions with them before I get involved in it. But I tell them, listen, when you first get married, please think about this. Give constant attention to your marriage for the first year. I said, I said, plan on Friday night going out and splitting a McDonald’s cheeseburger. If that’s all you get the money to get, plan on taking off somewhere and going and getting a cheeseburger, sitting under a shade tree by the river somewhere, and just spending time together. And I said, Spend time, don’t work a lot of overtime. Don’t get busy. Don’t keep having a lot of people piling in on you. You spend the first year of your life devoted to making sure the other person’s bowl is full first. When you get something, always make sure that your wife has it first.

When you get in the car, men always make sure your wife’s in the car before you get in. Shut the door, you go out again in. If it’s raining, you pull up the cool up the building and get her in the car. You show her the value that she is to you, and you say that when she cooks and cleans house and does all those sorts of things of value and appreciate it. Tell her about her beauty. A lot of times, women we have learned, uh, they they sense who they are but what their husband says about it. And so if you make your wife feel ugly and unvaluable, she’s gonna feel that way. You don’t want that. You want your wife to be happy. Your job is to cheer her up.

Learn how to do that. And so what that says is don’t go out to war. Don’t go off and go off somewhere and fight some more somewhere for the first year, and don’t get uh involved in some company where you’ve got to give all your time to your company. If you give your first year to making sure your mate is happy, what you will find out, I tell everybody at the end of the first year, let me tell you what you’re gonna say when you go out on your anniversary uh dinner to eat somewhere. You’re gonna look across the table at each other, you’re gonna say, This is so much fun. Let’s do it again next year. And what you’ll find out is every year your marriage will just get greater, and you’ll find yourselves getting closer and closer, and the excitement and the thrill and the joy.

3. By Wisdom a House Is Built

It’s a it’s a marvel. I love my wife more every day than I did yesterday. I’m more thrilled and more excited about who she is. Because we have worked at it through the years. And so you see that in Deuteronomy 24 and verse 5. You know, there’s some other statements in Proverbs 23. I’m sorry, Proverbs 24, verses 3 and 4, where then the Bible says, I might have mentioned this, by wisdom a house is built, and by knowledge it is established, and by understanding, all the rooms are filled with pleasant and precious riches. I’ve mentioned those three levels of learning. But notice, you know how a house, you know what makes a house? The word house, there’s the word family. What builds a family? What makes a marriage?

I studied with some people one time, and uh they thought that uh it was uh they asked me if I would talk to them about their marriage, and I said, sure, if I told them what the Bible said. They said, Well, we’re not sure. So they went out and they got two dogs, and that and they thought if they got a dog each that that would help them, and they got two dogs, or dogs did like they did, their dogs fought all the time. Then they thought, well, get a couple cats, so they got two cats, and the cats and the dogs fought. And then they even bought a monkey, and their house smelt like a zoo when you went inside of it. Well, they called me back and said, Come back and talk to us again, we’re just not making it.

And and they bought a new car and they moved into a new house, and they had bedrooms finally on each end of the house. And they said, What are we doing wrong? I said, You’ve got to go back to the Bible. And I said, if you will learn, study each other. If a house is built by wisdom, knowledge, and understanding, that means my wife is my study project. And I told this about when her brother died uh years ago. He died on my 33rd birthday, I believe it was. And he had a heart surgery, had four heart surgeries, and he struggled. He obeyed the gospel before he died. But anyway, when he died, it just, my wife and him even shared a room when they were little.

They had they had nine kids in the projects and they were poor, and so they had to, she shared a room with Mike until she was a little older. And so it just took the wind out of Diane. And I could just tell that she was she was so brokenhearted, she just couldn’t, she couldn’t find much joy in life. And so I would notice quite often when I couldn’t find her. I said, Where’s where’s mom? The boy, I don’t know. I’d look out in the yard and she wasn’t in the kitchen. I couldn’t find her. I’d go back in the bedroom and the lights would be off, and I’d go in there and say, Baby girl, what are you doing? And she’d be rubbing on the furniture.

She said, Oh, I’m dusting the furniture. Now I’m not very smart, but I know you don’t dust furniture in the dark. So I thought there’s something else going on here. And so I said, Baby girl, I said, Why don’t you pack up some things to go down? Your mama’s and stay a couple days and see if I’d help you go back to some of your old memories and try to put some of that to rest in your own mind. She said, You know, I think I’ll do that. And so she’d pack up and go down there and she’d come back and she’d be a little better. And we’d go along for a little while, and then before you knew it, I couldn’t find her again, you see.

And I said, you know what? Some men would have done. You know when I’m always looking for my wife at lunchtime? And so most men would have, when they got, where’s my wife? Go back and find her in the bedroom and you say, honey, what are you doing back here? And she says, again, I’m dusting furniture. Most men would have said, Well, get out of here and make me some lunch. Most men wouldn’t have had the wisdom to see him. Here’s a broken-hearted person who’s got scars that are so deep that she needs somebody to understand that’s what it’s about. I wish we men would wake up and get a little wisdom and get a little understanding, a little knowledge of what a woman is, what God made in the marvel of a woman.

And so I would tell Diane again, go on down to your mama’s, you know. And finally she got over that. And uh, you know, she got past that now, you know, and she’s gotten older. Other things have made scars in her mind and her heart. And so I just wanted to say to us, if we can see that these, the idea in Proverbs 24 is to make sure that you’re studying your mate all the time. When you, men, when you talk to your wife, don’t read the newspaper or look at the television. Look into the eyes of your wife. And when you start seeing them getting a little red or pink, and you see some water starting to come down, don’t think she’s got an allergy problem.

You’ve hurt her feelings. And so trying to figure out what you can do. And so if men would just spend a little more time, it seems to me. If we would be more what God wants us to be, I think our wives would have greater respect for us, and we would not be saying, Well, my wife, the term I made, my wife just won’t submit to me. Well, maybe you old hound dog, maybe you haven’t paid any attention to what’s going on. I I studied with a man and a woman one time, and the lady, I went over there, and the husband hadn’t quite come in yet. And she was saying, No, my husband just doesn’t show any emotions. He didn’t, he never tells me he loves me, he never compliments me or says anything good to me.

And so he came in uh in his car and got out, and he had this big old yellow dog out in the yard, and he got out of the truck. That yellow dog jumped up on him, put the paws on there. He wrapped his arm around the yellow dog, and they looked all over each other. It looked like to me. I mean, it looked like they were kissing each other a time or two. And so anyway, he knocked the dog down to come on in. And so we started studying. And I said, I said, Buddy, I said, you know, you uh do you compliment your wife and kiss her and hug her and tell how much you love her and do things like that to her?

Uh and he said, Oh, no, I’m not that kind of person. I said, What? I said, You’re a lion dog. He said, What do you say? I said, You’re a lion dog. He said, What do you mean talk to me that way? I said, I saw if you treated your wife the way you treat that dog, you would, I wouldn’t be over here talking to you two. I said, when she comes in, you kick uh you could kick that dog out of the way. Come in here and grab your wife out of the way. You won’t be involved with me to come over here and tell them about your marriage. I said, You’ve got to show this woman every single day. She’s got to know every single day.

Well, I heard about a man who got married, and after a while his wife thought she didn’t, he didn’t love her, so they went, she went to get a divorce and went to the divorce, uh, talked to a lawyer, and uh, and the man and the woman of the man said, Well, what’s the matter? Why don’t we get divorced? And she said, Well, you never tell me you love me. He said, Well, when we got married, I told you we got married I love you, and I told you if I changed my mind, I’d let you know. Well, I’m gonna say it don’t work that way. You’ve got to open your mouth, and I I’m shocked. I’ve had some study with men at Madison, and they’re mentioning, I just can’t, I can’t, and you know, I say to these men, and I know it’s just about a lot of men, I’ll tell some man, I said, Well, I sure do love you, and they’ll go, Oh, I well, I I I I respect you too.

4. Unless the Lord Builds the House

They can’t say they love me. They think there’s something wrong with telling somebody, and their wives, and and these men said in this men’s study we had, so I just can’t tell my wife. I said, What in the world is wrong, you sick edge? Go see a psychiatrist or read your Bible or do something. Something’s wrong with you. We need to see what the Bible teaches. And so when we see what these old testament passages tell us, uh in Psalm 127, 128, well, I have a Jewish commentary that I love to look at, and it uh it calls Psalm 127 a psalm of prosperity. And that always tickled me because there’s nothing in that psalm about money. That psalm is about the home. And if the Lord built a house, unless the Lord builds a house, they labor in vain to build it.

That word house again is the word family. Unless the the the watchman, unless the Lord keeps the city, the watchman waketh but in vain, and foolishly to rise up early, just pay up late. And so the writer just paints a picture here of the wife being like a fruitful vine beside the house. And I’ve seen that so many times when I’ve gone to other countries, uh, go to India or somewhere in Africa, and you can always tell an old bachelor from a man who’s married, uh, and when there’s a woman in the house. Because if you go down the road and got to go in somewhere to have a Bible study, and you see you come up on this hut, and there’s this old thatch roof house with with a grass with a mud, a mud wall for the outside house of a round hut, and you see blue paint on the bottom of it, and you see a beautiful vine growing up on the side with beautiful flowers and blossoms on top of that building, and and you see where it’s been swept out around in the front of there, you know there’s a diligent woman living here taking care of this old boy.

And most of and I told some of these men in India when we talked about marriage, and they said, Well, you know, we got married, so we’d have somebody to carry firewood and carry water. I said, You old boy should have married a mule. That’s what you wanted. You didn’t want a woman, you wanted a mule. But you see, that’s not what God intended. But it but if we could just stop, and I know this may be offensive the way I’m saying this, but just stop and take a look at it, men. That’s all I’m saying. I’m I’m a man. If I was a woman, and why wouldn’t be up here, would it? But if I was a woman talking to women, I’d be leaning to women.

I say, Women, you better do this, but I’m a man, so I’m gonna lay into you men, see. If I was a woman, I’d be jumping on the other fence and tearing the ladies up. But I want to say to you that if we, I think it would help so much if we as men, I think that women would uh if they would you know they could they could respect us. I preached a sermon years ago in Columbus, Indiana on 1 Peter 3 about how that the the woman is to respect her husband. And I went back to the back of the building when it got finished, and this this man came back to tell me, and he was walking up very heavy. His wife said, Honey, I guess you heard the preacher tonight, didn’t you?

He said, You’re supposed to respect me, honey, and you’re supposed to call me Lord. What about that, honey? And this lady walked up there very humbly. She bowed her head down. She said, Yes, honey, I heard the preacher, and I believe everything the preacher said. And she said, I will be glad to call you Lord and respect you when you start acting respectable and act like a Lord. You see, sometimes we don’t, and I I’m not justifying uh women not doing their role. Please don’t think that. But I’m just saying that I think we would make it a lot easier if we as men would take more seriously the treasure of what a woman is and to value her. And so those two psalms, you might go home tonight and read those two psalms, because each each one of those psalms three times says the man that fears the Lord, God is going to bless him, and he’s gonna have his children gonna be a blessing, it’ll be a blessing on Jerusalem, a blessing on Israel.

5. Wives Submit, Husbands Love, Children Obey, Fathers Provoke Not

And that just simply says, if we will act right as a family, you know what will happen? Our nation will be a greater nation. You know what makes strong nations? It’s it’s family, it’s families that are strong. You know what makes strong churches? It’s when families are strong. And families stand together and raise their children right and respect God. And so the Old Testament is just filled with statements like that. Let’s just read this in verse 18 again. Wives submit. That means to rank yourself under. Now, you know, uh, do you do you think, ladies, when that’s kind of that’s kind of humbling that for me to submit myself, rank myself under my husband. Well, let me ask you something. How bothered are you by submitting to the elders?

When the elders ask something to be done? Do you ladies feel like you’re a second-class citizen because you’re supposed to rank yourself under the elders? Do you feel like you’ve been robbed because you’re not an elder? You know, I don’t think most faithful things. Or what about when you get out on the street and drive your car and a policeman pulls you over and you’re supposed to submit to the government. Uh are you bothered in trouble because you feel like you’re not a full American citizen because you have to submit under the you know, I was in school, I played football, and everybody had a job on the team. I wasn’t a coach. I wasn’t an assistant coach, I wasn’t the uh uh athletic uh uh person that hurt, helped you when you got hurt.

I had a role, and everybody else had a role, and when everybody got in their role and did their job, I’d say we won games. And I think we took state two or three. Now, I wasn’t, it wasn’t because of me, but we took state two or three of us in high school because everybody learned you do your job and let that person and don’t try to be the quarterback. If you’re not, don’t try to be the end, don’t try to be the guard. You be what you are, and you get in your place, and you do, and when people get in their place and fulfill their role, let me tell you, your life is going to come up. Now you might say, Well, you don’t realize how long we’ve been going wrong.

I’m gonna tell you what, I’ve seen people who who got into trouble and had fusses and fights and mess, and and they got separated and divorced, and one of them went off and lived in another city with an with another person. And I ran into the lady one time who was living in another city with somebody else, and uh I said, Would you like to sit down and eat lunch with me and talk about the Bible son? And she said, Well, yeah, we’ll just sit down and talk about it. She was upset and mad at the church because of all what happened in their marriage. So I sat down and talked a little bit. And she got mad in the horn as we went on, and so she finally got up and left.

Well, I went home, and so I about 9:30 that night, she came to my house with a Bible. And she said, You know, this has always bothered me. And she said, I know I need, I I’ve done, see, can we talk some more about this? I said, let me tell you something about your husband. I said, I told your husband you always want a house, and you always live in an apartment. He wasn’t even trying to get a house. He wasn’t concerned about because you didn’t want to have to mow grass and things. I said, I told your husband, I said, your wife left you because you didn’t try to provide what would help her. She wasn’t asking too much. She just wanted to get out of an apartment and raise a family.

And I said, You need to get busy and buy a house. And so he got busy and bought a house. And so I said, Do you know what your husband does now? She said, Well, I see he lives out in the house out in Hanover. She said, He bought a house. I said, He sure did. She said, Why did you? I said, Because he wants you to come back. He knows what God told him to do, and he failed. She says, Well, where’d he live? I said, Well, we’ll go up. It was about 11:30. I said, We’ll go wake him up. So we went out there and woke the old boy up. We sit down and talk. And about two weeks later, they got married in my backyard and had another child.

And so it just shows you, don’t think, well, but it’s just such a mess that it won’t. Let me tell you, it can work. But you’ve got to make up your mind. It’s me and the Lord, and not me and my mate that’s having a problem. It’s me and the Lord’s having a problem. And if you work at it from that direction, try to get closer to God and quit witting on everybody else. You know, we always uh like to look at somebody else as the problem. But here is a picture of a woman. Uh this is fit, it’s proper, the Lord. This is what the Lord wants, ladies. So don’t think that’s some disgrace to you. Uh verse 19 says, Husbands, love your wives and be not bitter against them.

You know, I I’ve I’ve told a lot of men, it’s it’s easy uh as time goes on if things don’t work the way you want and hope that you kind of get where you just get bitter, you know. And and that statement in in Hebrews the twelfth chapter about uh root of beds will spring up, and thereby many will be defiled. I I’ve told this old story about the boy you may have heard about him riding on a train years ago. Uh they used to have this stuff called quinine water, and the old boy’s riding on a train and he fell asleep with his head hung back like that, uh like people doing your preaching, his jaw was open. And this old boy who was a prankster, he thought, I’m gonna drip some of that real bitter quinine water down the old boy’s tongue.

So he dripped something down on him, and then it went down there and it touched the old boy’s tape buds, taste buds, he jumped out of the seat and started screaming for the conductor, and the inductor came and said, What in the world? What do you scream? He said, What happened? And the man said, I don’t know what happened. He said, I went to sleep and I think my gallbladder busted. All they could taste was bitter. Well, I’m gonna tell you, you can get to where if you’re not careful. If you don’t watch it. All you can think about is bitter. You’re just bitter. The Bible says, men, don’t get that away. That’s where you’re headed if you’re not careful. Don’t let yourself get that away.

Get up out of that old bitter stuff you’re into, and come out of there and start doing something. And what you need to do is to love your wife. Treat her right, do good by her. No matter what she does to you, you’ll treat her right. Children, obey. Listen, young people, to your parents in all things. This is well pleasing to the Lord. Children, I know you think, and and so I know my children were smarter than me. I told about my boys got a paper out of that when they were too young. I got them a paper out. They were nine or eleven years old. And so I got a paper out, and I told the professor, Well, they’re to young. I said, Well, I’m going to help them.

I had paper out on when I was younger, and I’m going to help them. So I went home the first day and we went down the street and I had the numbers. I was walking down the middle street, and I said, Count out the numbers. And the boys are throwing those papers down the street and went around and delivered all the papers. Well, the next day, I got into a Bible study with somebody and they got heated up. It took a little while longer, so I got home late. And I got home and said, Boys, come on, let’s get them papers out. And my uh my older son John, he was 11 years old. He said, Dad, we already delivered the papers. I said, son, you couldn’t.

I said, I delivered papers probably uh five or six years. I said, You couldn’t memorize all those houses that got papers uh the first day after you delivered them. He said, Dad, I didn’t remember all the houses that got papers. I just remembered the four or five that didn’t. I thought I would have never thought about you. My children were smarter than me when they were little bitty fellas. But you see, they still had to listen to Dad. They still had to respect young people. Listen to your mom and dad, they love you. They’re trying to help you. And I I tell folks about my boys when they got up and about Jews and seniors, they just started getting a little smart with their mom sometime.

I tell the boys, listen, fellas, you are in the fourth quarter of this ball game here. I said, We’re about to send you to college and we’re about to pay the bills, and we’re gonna keep you in the school as long as you want to stay in there and go. But if you all fool around and mess it up here at home and get out of here and that we have to throw you out of you, you have to run away. I said, You’re gonna be on your own. So if you want a free ticket, you better stay on the game on the fourth quarter, behave yourself, and respect your mother and listen to the laws of your mother. Proverbs 1, of course, verse 8 and 9 shows that the law of your mother and your father is to be respected.

And so, you know, sometimes young boys would try old mom. I was overseas one time and the boys were pretty big and dying. We never let the boys fight. Matter of fact, I told the boys, I said, if you’re all going to fight in this house, when I find out you’ve been fighting, I’m going to make you I’m going to make you kiss each other on the mouth. They said, we’re not going to bite that. But one time they were scuffling around, I was overseas in Diane. She went, because they were they wouldn’t pay much mind to her, she went and got the broom, went over and cracked them on the head with a broom. And and buddy, that hurt their heads good. And so they settled down.

Well, she went and put the broom in the washroom. Well, my oldest boy, John, he got up and went over there and grabbed the broom, going through the broom out in the backyard. But he got the point. He didn’t give her any more trouble. And so young people listen to mom and dad and respect them. Fathers, don’t provoke your children. Notice this says, provoked into anger. You can stir them up and you can excite anger in a child. You know, there’s always so much that you can uh I’ve I’ve learned that humor is one of the best things in the world for teenagers, especially. And trying to find ways when things get tense, I could tell you a lot of stories tonight about when my boys, I I’ll just tell you a couple real quick.

Uh my older son John wanted to uh he he wanted to get an earring, you know, and he was in the school and and said, Dan, I’m gonna think about getting earring. Well, you think about that, Dad? I said, son, I said, that’s fine, but I said, let me tell you, I said, anybody in my house anyway, and I’m down, What do people do? That’s fine. I said, there’s nothing wrong with having an earring. But I said, if you wear every ring in this house, uh, everybody that wears everyone in this house has to wear panty holes in the house, too, see. So I said, if you want to wear a ring, you’ve got to get you some pantyholes with it, and that’ll be just fine.

Well, he didn’t say anymore about that. And then Scott, he went off that was in a basketball playoffs, and he he wanted to carve his basketball number inside of his hair due. So he called Diane and said, I want mom, I’m gonna cut my number inside my head, my hair do. And she said, Scott, that won’t look very good. He said, You better talk to your dad about that. And so she gave me the phone and he said, Dad, I want to get my number carved inside of my head for the basketball playoffs. And I said, That’ll be all right, somebody. I said, make sure you have mom carved on the other side. He said, What? I said, Yeah, may I have mom on the other side.

Well, he came home, he didn’t have anything. And Diana said, Well, I thought you’re gonna get your number. He said, Well, I was trying to get Dad all riled up and see if I could get him frustrated, and he just didn’t seem to be bothered by it, so I just let it go. Sometimes they’re just trying to try the water, you know. You have to learn that about young people. Don’t turn tear the world up and shoot your kids just because they’re trying to test you a little bit. You have to learn ways to deal with them. But so, children, uh uh, you you learn to respect your parents. And parents, you make sure that you don’t provoke your children in some way, that they just become exasperated because of what you’ve done.

6. Servants: We Serve the Lord Christ

They become discouraged. And then servants, uh, of course, here’s a picture of anybody in some kind of a servitude. Make sure you always give your heart because you’re serving God. My grandmother taught me years ago. She said, Go to work. She said, I don’t care what you do. Work hard and do everything. She said, Everybody else will be aggravated and bothered about you because they’ll think you’re trying to butter up to the boss. But she said, You go to work and you find things that you don’t enjoy, and you learn to enjoy. That’s amazing how you can learn to enjoy something you don’t like. You ever notice that? I used to couldn’t stand sauerkrauting and kale greens. I eat all of mine good nowadays. You can learn to enjoy all kinds of things if you make your mind up to do it.

And so I’d go to work and as a result, I got on jobs, and and and I’m not smart at all. But I was able to move up through some uh ranks among jobs where I was before I started preaching. I started preaching them at the bottom of the barrel all the time. But you can move up the ranks in all kinds of ways if you just go to work and work hard. And my grandma said, if you go to work and work hard, when it comes payday, you can walk up to the boss and say, Okay, partner, how much are you going to give me today? And you can look him right in the eye. But he said, You know, if most old boys can get the paycheck, you gotta come up to the boss like that, because they know they’ve been hiding and sneaking around and they’re embarrassed about it.

And my grandma said, When you go home from work, you’ll lay down at night and you’ll sleep hard and your rest will be sweet and you’ll get up and feel good because you’re doing what God intended. And so let’s all learn uh whatever we’re doing, whether it be a boss or whether it be a uh somebody uh in a servitude position of some sort. Uh, let’s make sure that we understand that principle about we’re serving the Lord Christ. That’s what we’re doing. So we we’re not going to please a boss. Uh I I had one time a boss, they were trying to, I was going to start preaching. And it made the company mad because I was going to quit. They want me to take a lead ass and no, I’m quitting.

I’m burning every bridge, so I won’t come back. I’m going to try to preach and I’m going to make myself stay at it until I get it working. And they said, No, just take a leave abs and come back in a year because it may not work. I said, No. Well, they brought me off my job and put me on a job digging a ditch out back, thinking that would make me mad and I’d change my mind. And so I was out there digging and uh on a second shift, even put me on the second shift. And the old boy was watching over me. He said, You know, uh there was some other guys out there working with me. Well, these guys would sit down and take a break.

I just kept working because I like to work. I love working. I just kept working. And finally the boss came to me and said, What do you are you? Are you sick? What’s wrong? He said, I leave to give you all a break, and you just keep on working. Don’t you understand? Because seal through again. I said, Yeah, but I’m not doing it for those guys. I’m not doing it for you. I don’t care whether you’re watching me or not. I said, God’s watching me. And whatever I do, I’m going to try to do it with all my heart. Put all my strength into it. I don’t care if it’s something I like or not. It’s amazing how your life can be changed. Everything about your life.

Conclusion

It’s amazing, the marvel of what life will be. If we could just come to value that, well, I talked too long, didn’t I? Thanks for letting me come. I hope I’ve been of some kind of benefit to somebody. And if I’ve offended you by my poor ways, please forgive me, because I just wanted to come and help the church here. If you’re here tonight and you’re not a Christian, can you see what we’re calling you to? We’re calling you to serve Christ. And you begin by confessing your allegiance to him if you have a desire to repent, to change your will, and to do his will, and then to be baptized so your sins can be washed away. And you become a part of this big family.

And then you go out those doors out there, and you go out tonight and you say, okay, I’m going out a different person. I’m not going to be what I used to be. If you can make up your mind and you want to do that tonight, my friend, everything’s ready. Why don’t you come? I’ll sing the song and encourage you.