Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

It has been a crazy month for Katie and me.

In May alone, we have traveled to South Carolina twice, have been with my family one last time, and last weekend spent time with friends one last time.

It has been a hectic and sometimes stressful time moving states and getting married all about the same time.

This is also our last Sunday here at Friendship and our last week in Centralia.

So, in thinking and praying about this message, I wanted to leave you with a challenge.

Not just a “ho hum” message, but a challenging message and a call to step up and to act.

If you haven’t figured it out just yet, talks a lot about marriage.

And I want to get into that a little bit, but focuses on a more specific aspect of marriage which is the gender roles within marriage.

What exactly does God expect from a man and a woman?

And I want to speak on this because I have had a lot of people approach me in the last several years, whether it be in Haiti or here, and ask me my opinion on some of this generation's problems.

Usually, the person asking is older than I am, with kids typically my age or about my age.

It's an interesting question that I get because people see me as a in the ministry, yet still young enough to be relevant and a part of the infamous millennial generation.

And what I find is that older Christians are genuinely concerned.

They ask, “how should Christians respond to this?”, or “how should the church react to that?”

And those are questions asked with sincerity.

Out of love of Christ and for people.

Christians with an honest heart asking, “how should we see this, how should we view this.”

I have had a lot of people approach me in the last several years, whether it be in Haiti or here, and ask me my opinion on this generation's problems.

Usually, the person asking is older than I am, with kids.

It's an interesting question that I get because people see me as a in the ministry, yet still young enough to be relevant and a part of the infamous millennial generation.

And older Christians are genuinely concerned, since anymore, a 'millennial christian' is an oxymoron.

So, I feel compelled this morning to attempt to tackle, or at least start the conversation about today’s culture in marriage, with an emphasis on marital gender roles.

Because as we know, these roles of a husband and a wife have certainly changed dramatically over the last few decades.

As these marital gender roles have evolved and changed from generation to generation, what is unchanging is how the Bible commands us to live.

Furthermore, what the Bible tells us about marriage, what it expects of a man and a woman in marriage, and it's demands of holding strong in its truth without conforming to the world.

So, what does the unchanging Bible tell us about societies ever-changing roles of a man and a woman?

If you ask an old man, he will most likely tell you, that my generation is the worst yet.

That same old man probably said the same thing about my parents generation before me.

Ironically, a really old man probably said the same about the first old man's generation.

I am old enough now that there is a generation after me, friends I have that are sending their kids off to school.

I have done a lot of substitute teaching in the last several months, being around kids of all ages.

And even I am guilty of saying, "that generation is doomed."

Now, speaking about a subject like this must be done carefully and thoughtfully because it can easily be controversial.

But, this is not a thought that we should shy away from.

It is easy to glance at the Bible and read passages like , that say women should submit to their husbands and think, "uhhh we'll just skip that part."

Or it is easy to think "that is not true or relevant today.”

Because if we think the Bible is not true or relevant, we have completely new problem.

If this idea that "each following generation is the worst yet" is true, than is the world simply getting worse and worse in regards to Christian ethics?

Is this a never ending trend?

Even The Massage translation of the Bible does this.

says in the original Greek, “Wives, submit to your husbands”.

In the The Message translation it reads, “Wives, understand and support your husbands.”

It seems to communicate a totally different message in an effort to not be controversial.

We should not contort scripture into what we want it to say.

Likewise, we should not avoid issues in scripture that we struggle to fully understand.

Instead, these things should bring us further investigation on what this really means and how it applies to us.

And that is what we aim to do this morning.

Certainly, the social issues of my generation are too long a list to speak on each individually.

Just like my parents generation had social issues too vast to solve, and the generation before them.

This is the world, full of unending, innumerable problems.

However, I feel compelled this morning to attempt to tackle, or at least start the conversation about one issue in particular: our culture's relationship roles.

As the social issues evolve and change from generation to generation, what is unchanging is how the Bible commands us to act.

Furthermore, what the Bible tells us about our relationships with one another, what it expects of our relationship to others, and it's demands of holding strong in it's truth without conforming to the world.

In a history of ever-changing, ever-evolving social norms, we can and should hold firm to the fact that the Word of God is never changing.

So what does the unchanging, ever-consistent Bible tell us about our ever changing social relationships?

Ladies are first here staring at verse 22, 23, and 24:

This is not a thought that we should shy away from.

It is easy to glance at the Bible and read passages like ____ that say women should not lead and should simply remain quiet and think, "uhhh we'll just skip that part." or "that is not true or relevant today so the Bible is no longer inerrant."

We should not avoid issues in scripture that we struggle to fully understand.

Instead, these things should bring us further investigation on what this really means and how it applies to us.

So this morning, our goal is discovering what the Bible teaches about social relationships in three facets: (1) husband and wife, (2) child and parent, and (3) employee and employer.

And how these Biblical truths translate into our culture today.

In other words, 'Biblical Relationships in the New Age'.

Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord.

For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.

Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

Romans 1:26-32

In the last several decades, women have gained more and more personal independence.

For example, in 1950, just 37% of women worked.

Now, over 57% of women work.

And this is very substantial considering the 20% increase in the exponential growth of American population.

This financial independence has actually grown to surpass men in the millennial generation.

In a Bank of America survey of 18-24-year-olds, it found that 61% of young women have set aside savings versus 55% of men.

34% of women did their own taxes, only 28% of men.

While 33% of women said they have a health insurance plan independent of their parents, compared to 25% of men.

Finally, 38% of females paid their own rent, where only 32% of young men did.

Women attaining financial independence is certainly a good thing, but it has changed our culture pretty dramatically.

Women are now more independent, more driven, in more leadership roles, have greater influence in government than ever before.

It is even taking longer in life for women to marry.

The average age now 27.

All of these admirable things, but all of which is relatively new.

There are people in the room that can probably remember 1950 or can remember their parents in 1950.

And these people can certainly tell you that the female culture has changed.

And anyone familiar with American history can tell you that the female culture has changed.

It wasn’t until 1920 that women could even vote.

But just because the female culture in America has changed in the last 70 years, and it has certainly changed from first century Jewish culture, it does not mean that is not relevant.

And just because women today or more independent now than ever before, does not mean is not relevant.

As I began to think about and study this, it is difficult for me to conclude that the world now is dealing with a totally new set of sins.

Now, one could certainly argue that we are, but the same sins that define our culture today, defined cultures in NT Scripture as well.

These sins have certainly evolved and look much different now, but they are in essence, the same sins.

In Paul's letter to the Roman's he speaks on an array of sins that have defined to Roman culture in 1:26-32.

"Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts.

Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.

In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another.

Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.

They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity.

They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice.

They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.