Who are we? Why do we obay these scripturs and who are we looking to please?

intro:

(DON’T RUSH, take time you are with people who aren't worried about you but want to hear what God has to say so just give it to them and let God worry about the details)

Welcome, Name, Position,

I’m so glad you made it out to our summer nights gatherings.

(Tell short story about when you first came to the river)

we went from no young adults to 2-5 young adults to each location with MUCH MUCH more.

JUST Looking at what God is doing has been amazing to see, and now to officially have a opportunity to play a small role in all of it tonight is beyond exciting to me.

(Tell the story about when Keaton asked my to preach)

so several month ago Keaton approached me...

i said Yes, I’d love too!

He sent me two different options

Option #1

Colossians 1:15-23 which Is all bout the Glory of Jesus, His Gospel and His authority and Power

which i was all for!

but the date and time just didn’t work out...

Option #2

which was Colossians 3:18 which starts with this sentence,

“wives Submit to your husbands...”

and right then and there i started praying lol.

like OK God i’m not married i’m not a husband how can i preach this text.

But Gods word says

“His grace is scientific and His power is made perfect in our weakness.”

it also says

2 Timothy 3:16 ESV

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

So Tonight regardless of our stage in life...

Gods word is profitable and will not return void.

And before i Go any farther I want to make something clear

There will be hard things in this text

and I’m Not there so this is just as much for me as it is for you

tonight we have 4 different section we will be looking at tonight

Husbands and wives

children and fathers

servants and masters

And the reason behind all of this

As I've been studying as I've been seeking Gods wisdom

STORY: Leaving your burdens story

Lets Dial in AND SEEK after God.

Prayer:

Throughout Colossians we see God's complete control and how he would have us live our lives

And now we see Gods vision and plan even in the smallest details of our life

God is king over all things including the mundane daily things

So our text brings us to the family and what a Christian household should look like

which is a small but extremity Impotent aspect of our lives

Text:

Colossians 3:18–4:1 ESV

18 Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. 19 Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them. 20 Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. 21 Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged. 22 Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. 25 For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality. 1 Masters, treat your bondservants justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.

1. Wives & Husbands

Before we go any further I want to make two points

The scripture doesn't say boyfriend and girlfriend...

Even though most of us are not married we can still practice these things and prepare for what God may have in the future...

I want to look at the context for this passage

What was marriage like back then for men and women?

JEWISH:

women had no legal rights

Husband divorce for any reason wife not allowed to have a say

women had no voice

GREEK:

women were property

not allowed to go anywhere without a man

they were told to remain Chased while there husbands…

in both cultures Men had all the authority and none of the responsibility

but what Paul is saying, what God is presenting was counter Cultural then and is counter Cultural Now

the culture then was a mess

and our Culture now, it a mess,

our culture Disagrees with scripture

but if we look at our culture we will quickly see that it has no wisdom in the area of marriage.

Story about work today with George

Divorce rates are almost at 50%

One study put it this way ...

11. Every 42 seconds, there is one divorce in America, That equates to 86 divorces per hour, 2,046 divorces per day, 14,364 divorces per week, and 746,971 divorces per year

13. There are nearly 3 divorces in the time it takes for a couple to recite their wedding vows (2 minutes).

14. More than 172 divorces occur during your typical romantic comedy movie (2 hours).

15. 430 divorces happen during the average wedding reception (5 hours).

Our culture is falling at marriage

If we chose to walk in the way of our culture in the way of those before us in marriage our results will be no different

today we have a choice, will we continue down the path of our culture?

or will we begin the Journey of Gods way, and His plan for our Marriages our Homes and our lives/

Colossians 3:18–19 (ESV)

18 Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. 19 Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them.

in Ephesians we see this same concept in more detail

Ephesians 5:22–24 (ESV)

22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

Submission:

“should Submit”

The text is saying wives should voluntarily submit themselves or rank themselves under another, aka their Husband.

This is a choice

Men you are NOT to force submission

Ladies submission isn’t you being weak, or less valuable it is for the sake of order.

it is the Hierarchy God has established

and everything God does is good

even the trinity is a Hierarchy

one commentator put it this way.

Paul " does hold that there is a divine instituted hierarchy in the order of creation, and in this order the place of the wife comes next after her husband." However, this does not suggest (here or anywhere else in Scripture) that the wife is naturally or spiritually inferior to the husband, or vice versa. There is a hierarchy in the Holy Trinity, and yet equality. Orthodoxy teaches that the Son is simultaneously equal to the Father and submissive to him. Likewise, equality and submissiveness can coexist in human relationships, including the marriage relationship.

This isn't about value its about order

This also doesn't mean submitting to the point of Sin

when we are face with a situation where we have to chose between obeying God or man

We are to chose God alway

so how can we use this practically?

Begin to practice submission in your daily life and in your walk to the lord.

Father, mother,

Practice submission with the Now with the God given authority in your life

again… NOT YOUR BOYFRIEND, the bible Doesn't recognize that relationship

Love/ Self sacrifice:

Men I want you to listen up

Since we are the head of our household there is much required of us:

WE are called to be the number one lover of your home

WE are called to live in submission to Christ

WE are called to be a man worthy of being submitted to

WE are called to protect and keep you're home

WE are called to lead our family in scripture

WE are called to die to our self

If someone has to go without something it should first be us.

We Need to step up and save our Marriages before we get in them

the war for our marriage begins now

Ephesians 5:25–29 (ESV)

25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,

we are called to be self sacrificeing,

at Home… at work… at church…

when your mother or father ask you to do something around the house, Die to self and DO IT.

if you don’t live at home seek other ways to be self sacrificing

26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

Are you able to lead in the word?

Are you able to help lead a woman spiritually?

Are you leading Spiritually now?

Are you able to lead yourself in the word?

28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church,

Man we are called to love our wives as we love our own bodies

Even when we are most disappointed with our self we still chose to feed and care for our self

Even when we don't feel like loving our wives we must chose love regardless.

And men you can practice these things in your life, mother, sister friends.

MEN

we need to learn to lead in love

learn to walk in submission to Christ

learn to lead in the word

and learn to walk in self sacrifice

And for all of us, Both men and women

The opposite of love this lust

If you can't control your lust you can't love properly

as we prepare for marriage we must begin to deal with the sins that will destroy a marriage,

PORN will destroy you

Sex Before marriage will have consequences, now and in you future marriage

2. Children & Fathers

Colossians 3:20–21 ESV

20 Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. 21 Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.

I don't have as much time as I would like to unpack everything in this passage

But A good amount of us still live at home are you obedient to your parents?

do you walk respectfully of them?

When it comes to obeying their parents are you trying to please God ?

Because if you are you will be Obedient

And if you don't want to be under your parents authority move out.

But it is a perfect training ground to practice love and submission

Verse 21 has so much wisdom but we only have a little bit of time

Someone I'm gonna say is when you become a parent remember to build up your kids

Don't provoke them , Don't belittle them but raise them in the Lord and encourage them in the Lord

3. Servants & Masters

Colossians 3:22 ESV

22 Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.

Servants had no rights

This was a hard thing to hear

But they were called to do this in the fear of the Lord

Masters

Colossians 4:1 ESV

1 Masters, treat your bondservants justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.

Masters weren't off the hook either though

The masters were called to treat their servants the way they would want to be treated because they have a master in heaven as well.

Paul continues to make countercultural statements and guidelines for the lives of the Colossians

4. Why Do all this? Why live this way?

Colossians 3:23–25 (ESV)

23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,

We are working for the LORD,

Whatever we do we have to do everything for the glory of God

When we are told to submit we have to do this as for the Lord not for men

when we are told to love we are to do this As for the Lord not for men

when we are told to obey we are to do this As for the Lord and not for men

when we work we are to work for the Lord not As for men

we are not called to be people pleasers we are called to be God pleasers

Colossians 3:24–25 (ESV)

24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

‌in Matthew 25 Jesus tells us that whatever we do for the least of these we are doing for him.

when our boss disappointing us God wont, our attitude shouldn't change

Paul is reminding us who believe that our mind is to be set on the things above

if we are living as people pleasers we will seek to do the right things for the wrong reasons

and again when our boss has a bad day… our attitude will change if we are not focused on Jesus

unless we are serving God and not man.

BUT if our mind is set on the reward we have in christ we now have a different motivations for loving our wives, submitting to God given authority, and working hard

When we move from from a earthly mindset to a heavenly one then we are able to begin to see fruit in living these things out.

and we finish with verse 25

25 For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.

Paul is also pointing out that even though we have freedom in Christ the wrongdoer will still be paid back for what he has done

There are consequences when we disobey our earthly masters and those consequences will come to us.

John MacArthur puts it this way :

The warning is that the Lord will discipline without partiality in cases of disobedience Paul acknowledged that the Christian slave was responsible to repay Philemon. The Christian servant is not to presume on his Christianity to justify disobedience even if we're God's children we will reap what we sow”

In closing whatever we do we are doing for Christ

If you try to live and do these things as a people-pleasers you will fail

If you try to:

love your wife , submit to your husband, serve your boss looking to please man instead of God you will fail and it will fall apart and end up like the rest our culture

But once you realize you are doing these things for God

That changes everything.

YES we will still fail but we will not give Up becuse we are working for our father in heaven and he loves us to we can love Him and keep trying

and eventuly he will begin to do a work in us and it will gert better.

I also wanna make something clear, Serve our masters not expecting an earthly reward because we already have a reward not because we're trying to earn a reward

Not trying to earn salvation

Even if we live this out And we follow these things and do all these things while that isn't enough to earn salvation

Gospel!

Matthew 7:21–23 ESV

21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

We are not able to earn salvation, No one can do enough good works

If you find yourself being a people pleaser and you want to become a God pleaser ask him to change your heart

If you find yourself trying to earn your way to heaven understand that there is a different way

The Bible says

Ephesians 2:8 (ESV)

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

Romans 10:9 ESV

9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

at the Beginning of Jesus's ministry Jesus says repent and believe for the Kingdom of God is at hand

So if you don't know the Lord today I want to invite you to repent and believe and stop trying to work so hard

Because you can't earn salvation

But Jesus has already paid the price if you ask him if you repent of your sins and believe in him for your salvation

if you are a believer if you are a Christian but you struggle with these things

remember grater is He who is in you then He who is in the world

remember God will give you the strength by His Holy spirit

and remember one day after you've lived your life striving for these things you will one day be at the feet of Jesus

and he will say well done my good and faith servant,

enter into the joy of your master

we are living for a well done from God

not a well done from man

lets pray