God came up with the idea of relationships when He decided to create man and have fellowship with Him in the Garden. Half-hearted allegiance to the _________ of Christ not only robs Jesus of the honor and glory due to Him, but also robs us of the joy and fulfillment and purpose for which He _______us.
In relationship from the Beginning–God designed us to ________ in relationship. He desired that we walk with Him, AND in fellowship with each other (see Gen 2:18; 22-23). It was only after God had created both of them, male and female that He determined that all creation as He originally made it, was _________ Good. Without relationships with each other, something was _____________.
Jesus as Lord in Our Home
We all want a _____________home, filled with joy. A home that not only meets our basic need for shelter, providing us somewhere to store our water and food, but a place that is our __________.
God ordained the institution of the ____________ as the place where we model the relationship that we have with Him to those _____________ to us. Marriage is intended by God to be a ____________ lifelong relationship between a man and a woman enduring through trials, sickness, financial crises and all sorts of emotional _____________. Jesus affirms marriage in Matthew 19:4-6. The _____________ of Jesus Christ within our homes is the only lasting foundation that can bring the Love that God has shown us into our homes and make our homes a place of peace, joy and love. By ___________________ to Him and orienting all of our family relationships toward the model that He has given us in His Word, we allow Him to transform our households. 1 Cor 7:14 tells us “For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband; So as believers we bring holiness into our household, conducting ourselves according to the instructions that God has given us in our relationship with our spouse. The light of Jesus shines through our lives as a witness to those who spend the most time with us; our __________.
The Work of God’s Spirit in the Household
See Ephesians 5:21-25 The context of these verses is found in Ephesians 5 vs. 15, and deals with our walk with God, and so our ability to enjoy marriage the way that God wants us to driven by our walk with God followed by a series of phrases which tell us the _____________ of being filled with the Spirit of God Literally, the passage says: “Be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord in your heart, always and for everything giving thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father, being subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.” It’s the being _____________ with the Spirit that causes the submission! It’s what Paul means when he says back in Ephesians 4:1–2, “Lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called in all lowliness and meekness, with patience, forbearing one another in love.” And in Romans 15:2, “Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to edify him.” And Romans 12:10, “Outdo one another in showing honor.” And Philippians 2:3, “Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in lowliness count each other better than yourselves.”
If we desire to see the Spirit of God __________________ our family life, we must surrender totally to Jesus as Lord and turn all our daily doings into an offering of worship to him. When the Spirit reigns in our life, we do everything with a _____________to honoring Jesus. And in that way Jesus becomes the foundation and focus and goal of the family, and life at home is transformed. And in verse 25 husbands are commanded 25 husbands love their wives as Christ loved the church. This first word to husbands is this: Be ____________ with the Spirit! Yield to the lordship of Christ! And then recognize this: your God-appointed headship in the family is to be exercised in love using the pattern of Christ’s _________for the church. In Gal 3:28 we read: 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. That means that all people are ____________ in value to God. We just have different ___________ within marriage.The husband must be meek, and a _______________ leader within our households, serving our wives, loving them as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for Her. But we must also __________.
Submission in Context: Ephesians 5:22 means: if wives are filled with the Spirit and yielded to the lordship of Christ, then you will be _____________ to your husbands as to the Lord. The phrase “as to the Lord” is very important, and has two implications. One is that a woman’s first and ______________ allegiance is to the Lord Jesus and that other allegiances are subordinate to and derivative from this one. The other is that, therefore, the subordinate allegiances are limited by the ________________ will of Christ. This means that the form which a wife’s submission takes will vary according to the ____________ of her husband’s leadership. If the husband is not following God, her witness will cause him to have to confront it, and he will feel guilty that he is not assuming the role of moral leadership in his house. 1 peter 3:1-2 tells us: In the same way, you wives, be subject to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won over without a word by the behavior of their wives, 2 as they observe your pure and respectful behavior.
And we must always remember that whether or not we are currently married to another person on this earth, we are, each and every one of us who is a believer, the __________ of Christ. There we are already betrothed (see Ephesians 5:25-32. As 2 Corinthians 4:14 tells us, we will be presented in Heaven to Him 14 knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us with Jesus, and will present us with you. And as the Bride of Christ, we ____________ walk with God. We must walk as Jesus walked in His life on earth. 1 John 1:6 tells us If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; And like Or as 2 Cor 11:2 tells us I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. For I promised you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his trickery, your minds will be led astray from sincere and pure devotion to Christ. That call to purity as the Bride of Christ, and guarding the flock by continually challenging you to live Holy Lives as revealed in the Truth of God’s word, and ___________________ you to do the same for others, using the gifts that God has given each of you is what Shepherding is all about.
And follows it up in verse 20-21 with 20 Children, obey your parents in everything, for this is pleasing to the Lord. 21 Fathers, do not antagonize your children, so that they will not become discouraged. Notice that there is no expiration date on these commands. God can use our ____________ to teach us long after we have left their household. We obey God first, but we also obey the first teachers that God put in all of our lives—our parents. And by the same token, we should not _________________ our children, even if they are all grown up. Our words ______________ to them more than we know, and our attitudes toward them have an effect on them that is more than they will admit—so we must always be careful to be Godly in the way that we treat, advise and instruct them.
So, I ask you to take spiritual inventory of your relationships, and in particular your family relationships. Since we ask God as in Matthew 6:12-13 to 12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.’” And we are told in the following verses 14 For if you forgive other people for their offenses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive other people, then your Father will not forgive your offenses. And are assured that it is up to us to “go to our brother who has something against us” and ask for forgiveness, then I ask: Who has hurt you? Against whom have you been holding a grudge? Who do you have resentment against? Against whom are you seeking revenge? Are you jealous of someone else? Make yourself a little ____________. These are the people that God wants you to be like Him toward and _____________ and make up with. And this is so that you may be presented to Him blameless, without spot or wrinkle. We must also ask ourselves honestly: Who have you hurt? Who do you owe an amends to? Who have you criticized or gossiped about? Have you justified you bad attitude by saying it is “their” fault? We should ask God’s forgiveness and the forgiveness of those we have hurt. If we will do this, then the Holy Spirit will be free to do His _________ to mend our hearts, and perhaps theirs as well.