Sermon Tone Analysis

All of our homes can use a “makeover” from time to time.

A new window treatment.

A new coat of paint.

A new decoration.

New furniture.

New floor.

You get the idea.

Medical people “treat” wounds or “treat” a patient who is suffering.

When dealing with people, sometimes we like to “treat” someone to dinner, or “treat” someone to coffee or ice cream.

As far as giving a gift, TREAT, as a noun means =an event or item that is out of the ordinary and gives great pleasure.

"He wanted to take her to the concert as a treat"

Human nature gets in the way.

Our selfish flesh can cause relational setbacks.

However, Good Treatment Can Become More Normal.

Today's Best Illustrations, Volumes 1-4 (Treating the Future Man)

If you treat an individual as he is, he will stay that way, but if you treat him as if he were what he could be, he will become what he could be.

Treat Family Members Well...

10,000 Sermon Illustrations (Rent-a-Wife)

It started with Rent-A-Wife, a small Petaluma, California in the 1980’s, company created by Karen Donovan to help clients decorate their homes, balance checkbooks, run errands, etc. Donovan, who launched her business through a small ad in the local newspaper, is already thinking big after four months of operation.

She wants to hire her father to initiate Rent-A-Husband and her two teens to start Rent-A-Family.

“We can do what any family does,” the newfangled entrepreneur joked.

“We can come over and eat all the food, turn on all the lights, put handprints on the walls, take showers and leave the towels on the floor.

When clients are finished with Rent-A-Family, they’ll have to call Rent-A-Wife.

It’s still a business today!

The “Rental Wife” get $40 and hour to work around the house, balance the checkbook, etc.

We don’t need to fake a family or fake perfection or fake problems.

That’s all part of living.

If God has called you to have a family, you can learn to treat family members well.

Ephesians 5 is one of three “Household Codes” passages of Scripture.

Col 3, and 1 Peter 2 are the other passages.

Included in these are “Pairing Passages” about how a man and a woman function as a “pair,” a “Couple.”

In the Day Paul wrote Eph, Col, and when Peter wrote 1 Peter, the concepts they teach are novel, they are unheard of.

These “Household Codes” redefined the structure of the home elevating others.

Roman society did not elevate women and children, but Christianity elevated Women and Children as Equal with men.

Even today, some people misread these passages and find them oppressive, but they are actually revolutionary in Paul’s and Peter’s day.

Jesus is the ultimate example of elevating women and children to the same social standing and demonstrating the same value as men.

As we read the text, think about how each person is value and each person plays a specific, difference, yet important role in the organizational structure of the home.

Treat Family Members Well...

HOW DO WE TREAT EACH OTHER???

3 Areas of “Home Treatment...”

Treat with Equality.

Mutual Submission.

21, 22-24

5:21 is governing this whole section:

SUBMITTING? ‘Christians are to engage in a lifestyle of “submitting to one another.”

For most, the immediate reaction is a cold shiver and the thought, Uh, thanks, but I think I’ll pass.

Submission is a word that needs and image makeover.

For most, it calls to mind tyrannical bosses and the mousy people they bulldoze.

Or we think of that grade school bully twisting our arm on the playground until we cried.

Submit?

Be somebody’s format or punching bag?

We’d rather get a root canal.

This is the submission that Paul is calling for.

Biblical submission is voluntarily putting ourselves under someone else.

It’s what Jesus did- taking on a servant mindset and setting aside his privileges and “rights.”

It’s humbly treating others as more important than us (phil2:3).

Instead of “looking out for number on.”

The submissive person looks out for the interests of others (2:4).

The way of the world is to think, “How can I get the upper hand and make these people do my bidding?”

The way of the restored soul is to think, “How can I subordinate my agenda to the needs of those around me and serve them well?”’

-Steve Arterbun in the “Recovery Bible”

Husbands are submitting to their wives with organizational loving leadership.

Wives are submitting to their husbands with gentle, respectful encouragement.

BOTH are Equal in Value.

Both are needed in a home being completed...

NO HOME IS EVER COMPLETE, the Home Treatment is ongoing in the progressing completing and growing of a family.

There is no “normal”

Both are important contributors to the overall function and effectiveness of the home.

Mutual Love.

25, 33,

Men are said to loves their wife 3 times here.

3 Times for the 1 time women are told to love.

Men tend to need reminded to love their wife more than they love themselves.

It is clearly implied, men love themselves - so - love your wife like you love yourself.

How did Jesus LOVE the Church?

This is our example:

Jesus gave Himself.

Jesus gave His life.

HAVE A giving, forgiving, living LOVE for your Spouse!

10,000 Sermon Illustrations (Four P’s for Prevention)

Infidelity can happen to anyone.

Here are a few tips for your readers to affair-proof their marriages.

I call them “the four P’s” for prevention:

1. Be protective of your marriage.

Avoid risky situations such as long lunches with a co-worker or drinks for two after work.

Most people do not plan to be unfaithful.

2. Be positive.

Look for what is right in your spouse and tell him or her daily.

People who have love affairs are often looking for appreciation and affirmation.

3. Be polite.

Always talk to your spouse with respect.

Be careful what you say to each other and how you say it.

Show courtesy and caring in the way you treat one another.

4. Be playful, and make fun, sex, and humor a mainstay in your marriage.

Schedule time to play with one another, and have a “date night” at least once a week.

Mutual Respect.

33

Love and Respect Your Spouse.

vs. 33.

Marriage may not be easy, but at least it’s not complicated.

Here in one short verse, Paul sums up our marital job descriptions; husbands, love; wives, respect.

Why is it so difficult?

Back up a few verses to Ephesians 5:18.