EPHESIANS 4-5 (FATHER'S DAY)

morning church if you could stand up on your feet and happy father's day to all fathers let's put our hands together we'll have to join this morning this is the day you were made so i'll rejoice and be glad rejoice is that you are more than enough more than enough the joy of the lord is my strength it's more than a feeling the joy of the lord the joy of the lord is my strength oh my soul bless his name all that is within me say the joy of the lord the joy of the lord is my strength oh you are worthy of all you're worthy of all my we're not standing in your presence i'd have everything i need the joy of the lord the joy of the lord is my strength the joy of the lord the joy of the lord is my strength the joy of the lord oh holy spirit holy holy holy oh oh the joy of the lord within me the joy of the lord is my strength Can we hear a shout of praise to the Lord! I remember how you provided, how you held me through the night. And I remember how you sustained me when you stepped in to save my life. If I knew then what I know now, I would be still and let you work it out. Jesus, I was tossed in the water, but I never went under.

Yeah, you were always on time. And Jesus, when I went through the fire, you were right there beside me. Yeah, you were always on, always, always on time. Yeah, you were always, always, always on time. And I remember how you carried me when I couldn't take a step. And I remember how you loved me when I couldn't love myself. Jesus, I was tossed in the water, but I never went under. Yeah, you were always on time. And Jesus, when I went through the fire, you were right there beside me. Yeah you were always on time. Yeah, you were always, always, always on time. You were always, always, always on time. Yeah, you were always, always, always on time. You were always, always, always on time. What a faithful father. Always on time, yes. There's never been a day, never been a minute. There's never been a moment that you weren't in it. There's never been a time that you didn't see me through, God. So I worship you. There's never been a day, never been a minute. There's never been a moment that you weren't in it. There's never been a time that you didn't see me through, God, so I worship you. There's never been a day, never been a minute. There's never been a moment that you weren't in it. There's never been a time that you didn't see me through, God, so I worship you. There's never been a day, never been a minute. There's never been a moment that you weren't in it.

There's never been a time that you didn't see me through, God, so I worship you. Yeah, you were always on time. And Jesus, when I went through the fire, you were right there beside me. Yeah, you were always on time. It's never been a day, it's never been a minute, it's never been a moment that you weren't in it, it's never been a time that you didn't see me through, God, so I worship you. It's never been a day, it's never been a moment that you weren't in it, it's never been a time that you didn't see me through, God, so I worship you. It's never been a day, it's never been a moment that you didn't see me through, God, so I worship you. It's never been a day, it's never been a moment that you didn't see me through, God, so I worship you. It's never been a day, it's never been a moment that you didn't see me through, God, so I worship you. It's never been a day, it's never been a moment that you didn't see me through, God, so I worship you. Are you always on time? Just give him praise if he's been on time in your life. He was on time whenever the depression left. He was on time whenever your marriage was healed. He's always on time. Thank you, Jesus. Oh, come on, church. We can do better than that. If he's been on time for you, come on. Some people might want to go back to the way it used to be. Maybe your presence is not good and you're looking to the future, but I promise you that God is right here in the present time of your life. Amen. Thank you so much for being at Revolution Church today. You can be seated. Fill the presence of the Lord in the house. Anybody else? Anybody else? Well, it is a beautiful day.

Thank you so much for joining us on this Father's Day. Turn to your neighbor and say, I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you made it. You're in the Father's house. Turn to him and say, you're in the Father's house. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. Well, my name is Grant. It is a privilege to be in front of you today as a youth pastor of this church. You know, somebody told me a while back, one of my mentors, before we had our daughter over eight years ago now, and they said, you'll never know the love of God as the Father until you are one yourself. Say it again. You'll never know the love of God as the Father until you are one yourself. Any fathers resonate with that in the room? Understanding the love of God as the Father when you become one. The protection. The plan. The provision. The encouragement. The correction sometimes. And that's been my prayer with a lot of parents this year. Even some of you in the room, you're like, yep, you prayed that over me, that we would understand the love of God, the heart of God as a Father in ourselves and in our fatherhood. And I pray you receive that today of who he is. Amen. So a couple of things as we transition. Hey, if you're a first-time visitor, please fill out one of these connect cards. This is what it looks like. It's not just something so you can get another spam email. All right. More of that stuff. No, no.

We want to get connected with you. We want to get to know you. Become a part of this church family and what the kingdom of God is doing. Please fill those out. You can turn them in. The first-time guest area back there on my right and your left. And also today, you can give to the kingdom of God. It's expanding. Listen, you don't think you can make an impact? Let me give you an example, okay? We had about 170-ish kids here for VBS this past week. They brought money. They brought over $3,000 for missions this past week. If even the little kids can give a little bit of what they've got. I mean, it was change. It was all these different things. It was dollars. Giving to the kingdom of God. We can do it. What a blessing. What an opportunity we have. You can do that on the tap tags, on the chairs right there you can give, and the buckets. In the back, we love the opportunity to get to what God is doing. And lastly, all the fathers in the room, you get a gift on the way out of the house today, right? Something different, we're calling it Socks for Pops, okay? We have some fun, awesome socks you can grab on the way out the doors. Or if you know a dad, a papaw, I'm grabbing some for my dad, because he's not ashamed to wear them on the way out the door, right? If you know my dad, you're laughing, you see it. And also, there's a cool photo backdrop.

Dads, stop out there and take a picture. Take a picture with your kids, with your family, with your grandkids, all right? Let me pray. Jesus, we love you. Thank you, Father in Heaven, that you demonstrated the ultimate example in the verse that we've all heard in John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave the ultimate fatherly example of giving and of love and of sacrifice and of a plan that we might not see at the time, but you see it in the future. Father, thank you that we're here today. We give you all the honor, the glory, the attention, and everything. In Jesus' name, everybody says, Amen. Good morning, Revolution Family. I'm Lisa, and this is my husband, Charlie, and we would love to welcome you to Revolution's Sunday service. Especially love to welcome our first-time visitors today. We're so glad you're here. Please take the Connect card, fill that out, drop that off in the buckets as you leave, and meet us at the Connect table in the back today. We have a gift for you. We want to get to know you and see how you can connect with our church family today. Also, Lisa, if those that are here decide to make Jesus a Lord of their life or online, let us know about it. We want to know. We want to pray for you after the service. Our prayer warriors have been praying all week, ready for this moment. So please, if you've not done that or if you want to rededicate your life to the Lord, do so after the church service today and let us know. We want to celebrate that with you. So meet us at the New Believers table.

We have a gift for you there, a Bible. You're going to need that on your walk with the Lord. It's going to be the greatest adventure you've been on. We're going to walk that with you. If anybody misses anything today, go to the Church Center app website The QR code that's on the screen today will help you to remember all that we have going on as well. And we have RCA enrollment, I think, as well, right? Absolutely. That is going to be open until August the 3rd. If you are interested in a strong Christian foundation and education for your kiddos, that serves children from two years old all the way to eighth grade. Connect on the Revolution Christian Academy website for more information. That's right. RCA Marriage Center. Check that out. Lisa, and of course, our Church Center app. We'll share some more information as well as the QR code below. Lisa, we have baptism next Sunday, 330 at the river. Highly encourage you to go to do that. It's a great experience. Our daughter was baptized there not too long ago. Very powerful. Even if you're not the one getting baptized, go there and worship and pray with those that are. It is an amazing service that you don't want to miss. Absolutely. What a special time. And, you know, there's just a lot going on this summer. And we are so glad you're a part of our church. And we would just like for you to sit back, relax, and enjoy the rest of this service. Well, good morning. How are you guys doing today? Anybody glad to be in God's house? Come on. Let's make some noise for Jesus. Amen. He's worthy. Well, it's good to see all of you in the house of the Lord.

Thank you for worshiping with us today. Have a lot going on, but we just found out that there's going to be a new church. But we just finished up VBS Week, and it was absolutely incredible. I want to take just a second and thank all the volunteers, all the staff, everyone that worked so hard to pull this off, all the kids that showed up. And also, I want to thank those who dressed up in the inflatables. Now, right now, we have a video clip that's going to show you just a glimpse of what took place this week. Check this out. The Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. Then in Genesis 1, verse 3, it says, God said, let there be light. Everything we can ever want. Everything we can ever need. You're the reason we come in here. You're the reason we're gonna sing. Everything we can ever want. Everything we can ever need. You're the reason we come in here. You're the reason we're gonna win We're shouting out loud from the rooftop We won't be quiet We're falling for your heart and we can't stop We won't deny it You're everything we could ever want You're everything we could ever need You're the reason we're coming here You're the reason we're gonna stay You're everything we could ever want You're everything we could ever need You're the reason we're coming here

You're the reason we're gonna stay We're shouting out loud from the rooftop We won't be quiet We're falling for your heart and we can't stop We won't deny it We're shouting out loud from the rooftop We won't be quiet We're falling for your heart and we can't stop We won't deny it We won't be quiet We're shouting out loud from the rooftop We won't be quiet We're falling for your heart and we can't stop We won't deny it We're shouting out loud from the rooftop We won't be quiet We're falling for your heart and we can't stop We won't deny it We're falling for your heart and we can't stop We won't deny it God bless you guys. We're so grateful for men of God. Godly men in our lives and people that mentor and lead and disciple. We're so thankful for that. I sure appreciate Mr. Don Stevenson. He's a mentor in my life and he's my spiritual father and I just love you. Thanks for all you do and all you mean to this church and to me. So we're in a sermon series. It's the book of Ephesians. And if you have your Bibles, if you would, go ahead and turn to it. I was wondering how am I going to fit this into a Father's Day message? Oh, by the way, Josh told me to apologize to you. He can't be here this year, but he's promised that he'll be back for Father's Day in 2027.

Okay, so I know a lot of you are disappointed. I've already talked to a lot of youth. It's like, man, I was looking so forward to hearing Josh. He's funny. He always throws you under the bus and all that good stuff, but give him a hard time. He said he was busy, but he would be back next year. So anyway, if you have your Bibles, go ahead and open it up. The book of Ephesians, we're going to pick up where we left off last week and that's chapter 4, verse 13. When you get there, say, let's go. All right, come on, let's go. All right, here we go. Till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God. Hold on just a second. I need to pause this. Somebody told me that somebody's getting old in the house today. I think Steve Hepler just walked in. It's his birthday. Come on. Let's give it up for Steve. How much older are you than me? Oh, that's funny. Man, I would throw him under the bus, but I'm going to be good. All right, back to business. Back to verse 13. Till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man. Check that out. To a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. If you would leave that verse up there just for a second, because I have a quick question. How many perfect men do we have in the house this morning? Come on, raise your hand if you're a perfect man. All right, we got Ron. Ron's perfect. Anybody else? Yeah, there you go. Hey, I want to see you at the altar. First person at the altar today. Amen.

You know, I was thinking about that verse. And how many perfect men, fathers, people do we have? Actually, the English definition for perfect is completely free from faults or defects. Completely free. But what I want you to look at is the original word in the Greek here is teleos. Say teleos. Teleos. And this word doesn't mean the same as you and I would define it. It actually means complete, mature, grown up. How many grown up young men do we have in the house today? Come on. We've got a few. We don't have many grown up men. How many mature men do we? OK, we've got one or two. All right, we've got some honest men in the house today for sure. But anyway, teleos. This is not the first time that we're going to see this verse in the Bible. Multiple times you're going to see it in the New Testament. But another time, I want to share this place with you where it's found. It's Matthew 5.48. Turn to Matthew 5.48. Jesus said, therefore you shall be what? You shall be perfect just as your father in heaven

is perfect. Now on the surface, these verses seem unattainable. Like we can't do that. But when we look at the context, actually this is referring to God's love. And how many of you know that God's love is perfect? It's unconditional. And the scripture is telling us here that we can grow up in Christ and actually operate in his perfect love. And so every time you're going to see this perfect man, the context is God's love. Look at verse 14 and 15. Let's continue on down. He said, and we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. But speak the truth. Here's the word again. Speak the truth in love. May grow up in all things unto him who is the head. And that's in Christ. So Paul here with the church in Ephesus is placing a great emphasis on maturing in Christ, growing up in Christ. Now what I want to do is I'm going to jump forward into chapter 5. I wanted to touch on several verses that relate to men and fathers, husbands found in verse 5.

But let's look at verse 1. Chapter 5, verse 1. He said, therefore, be imitators of God as dear children. Walk in, there's the word again, walk in love as Christ also has loved us and given himself for us. An offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. So right here, we see Paul telling the church in Ephesus that we are to be imitators of God. Perfect men imitating God. And obviously, it's talking about walking in love. Now how many of you realize that children like to imitate their fathers? Anybody recognize that, realize that? They do, and we see that. And I was thinking about my sons, my two boys. Both of them like to work out. They like to stay in shape. I'm not sure they're imitating their father in that, but they just like to do that. And so yesterday, we were in our backyard. We're sitting in the pavilion. Family's there. We have seven grandkids. They're all gathered around. Sons are there, daughter-in-laws, Connie and I. And we're just talking. We're hanging out, spending some time together. And one of my grandsons, his name's Archer. And he's a stinker, buddy.

I mean, he is that kid. He's lively. He's got the baseball mullet going. He's playing tee ball now. He's the big deal. And he's always cutting up. So Archer walks over to where I'm sitting. And he looks at me, and he has that little grin that he's got. And he's looking at me, and he grins, and he said, my daddy's muscles are bigger than yours. I said, oh, yeah? I've got a short-sleeved shirt on. Let's see. And I pull it out, and I start posing. And before you know it, man, we have a gun show going on in the back patio. Now, you know you're redneck. OK, you know you're a redneck when you gather for a family gathering, and you have a gun show. So the next thing I know, there's Archer throwing his muscles. And he's flexing, and he's trying. And then all the rest of them on, they're all, I mean, they're all doing it. And you wouldn't believe it. I turn around and I look over in the chair beside of me and there's Mimi and she's flexing her guns She pulls her guy said oh, no. Oh, no, it's gone too far guys. Come on But we know children like to imitate

their fathers and so As I was thinking about that and thinking about this verse Paul is telling us that we should imitate God our Heavenly Father Abba Father And when he's talking about imitating God, he's talking really here about Walking in the love of God and so in chapter 5 We talked about that. This is the chapter on application. The first three chapters are really about doctrine They're about theology and then we moved into chapter 4 It's about how to live your life and he's teaching the church in emphasis. This is the way you should live your life So today we're going to understand walking in love is one of the big things that that Paul puts great emphasis on now I want to move on down into chapter 5 and I want to get down to a verse that most men consider their life verse Okay, all you men know where I'm going right here. It's the most memorized verse in the Bible by men Anybody want to guess what that verse is? Ephesians 5 22, come on somebody Hey, Ephesians 5 22. Let's go and put it on the screen. So everybody knows what it is wives Say it loud wives No, say it loud wives Look over to your wife if she if she's with you today wives submit to your own husbands as to the Lord Can I hear a big amen, man? Come on, we got fist bumping we got you know, okay Yeah, here's the thing Man we Which we love that verse we talk about it, but we miss the verse before that And today women we're gonna look at the verse before it. Let's go ahead and look at that verse the verse before verse 21 says submitting to one another in the fear of God So so Paul's context. Amen. We got some women right now applaud We got more women women applauds. Come on you get you it's your opportunity women. Come on if you want to shout if you want to run So it's all about submission and it's submitting to one another In in this word submit in in the original language. It's it actually means to yield

To yield to give up the right or yield the authority or to the authority or the will of another person It's a military term here and it refers to the rank you have generals You you have sergeants you have privates and and it doesn't say that the general smarter than a private It's just saying that there's different roles. We understand that there's different roles and now Paul is going to talk about the roles in in a family and in a church. So Submission is is important, but I want you to understand submitting to one another goes both ways It's just not for the women to the husband's It's also from the husband's to the women can't hear an amen women. Amen. And so let's look at let's continue on verse 23 24 he said for the husband is the head of the wife as Also Christ is the head of the church and he is the Savior of the body Therefore just as the church is subject to Christ so let the wives be to their own husbands and everything and So men before you jump to conclusions here, okay Let's remember what we talked about last week We talked about how Jesus flipped the flowchart Corporate world you've got the board of directors. You had the CEOs and it flows down Jesus flipped the flowchart as a matter of fact Jesus went straight to the bottom and he said if you want to be great become a servant and So we see Jesus give the example of Going to the bottom and lifting and supporting people Around them and and so same with husbands. We should emulate Christ example our role as a husband is Listen to me. It's to support our wives It's to serve our wives. It's to honor our wives. It's to respect our wives It should be yeah, you're the head and and Paul made it clear here The Bible makes it clear, but our role should be a supportive role And and so I also want you to understand this verse doesn't insinuate that the husband is superior at all He's the head but again not implying superiority as a matter of fact I want to give you a scriptural example. Look at 1 Corinthians 11.3. If you have your Bibles, turn to 1 Corinthians 11.3. Here's what Paul had to say to the Corinthian church, but I want you to know that the head

of every man is, help me, is Christ. The head of woman is man. The head of Christ is God. He's given us a good example, a scriptural example of how this is to flow. He's saying Christ is the head of man, man is the head of woman, God is the head of Christ. But I want you to understand something. Of all the biblical scholars, theological scholars that I know that either pastor or lead or teach, I don't know of anyone that would say Jesus is not equal with God. Amen? We understand the triune Godhead is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Now, they're different roles, but one is not inferior to the other. Holy Spirit's not inferior to God the Father. Jesus is not inferior to God, even though God, it says right here, is the head of Jesus. Are you guys with me here? So again, what this is explaining to me is that we have in our marriage, we have husband and wife, husband being the head, but the wife is not inferior, they just have different roles. Let's say that all together, different roles. And it's important that we understand that. And Paul's making it clear to the church in Ephesus of how that the family should work, how the church should function. And so, let's continue on. We understand Jesus, he even said in the scripture, he said, he said, the Father and I are one. We are one, one and the same. As a matter of fact, Jesus, though, had submitted to the Father in the garden of Gethsemane, right before the betrayal, right before they come in and took Jesus to Pilate's hall. He's praying in the garden of Gethsemane. The Bible says that his sweat became like great drops of blood. He recognizes what's in front of him, the pain, the struggle, everything that was coming, and he prayed a prayer and he asked God, if there's any way possible, would you allow this cup to pass from me? Nevertheless, help me with the rest of it. Not my will, but thine will be done. So what Jesus was doing right here, he was submitting to God the Father. You guys with me? He's showing us an example of what submission really looks like. Now, there's something, though, that I want to be very clear on to men and women here today. The Bible never commands a general submission of women to men in society. Only in the home and in the church. I can't find scripture anywhere else in society. I've got three women clapping. I would have figured I would have got at least 90% of the women clapping right there. No. Business, politics, anywhere in society. Education, it goes on and on and on and on. There's nothing that you can't accomplish, women. God be for me, who can be against me? But there are roles, but again,

these roles that we read about in the scripture, they're only pertaining to the family at home and church. So I think it's important that we understand that. Let's move on to verse 25. Now, husbands, are you ready? Say, let's go. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her. How much did Christ love the church? I mean, it's extraordinary. It's incredible how much that Christ loved the church that he would lay down his life for the church. And this is the kind of love that we are commanded in terms of loving our wives. Now, the word husbands, this word husbands in the Greek actually means to till the ground or to cultivate the dirt. How many of you guys have ever worked a garden? Let me see your hand. A few of you have. Have you ever cultivated? Have you ever worked or tilled the ground? Why are you doing that? Somebody help me. Why are you cultivating? Why are you tilling? You're loosening the ground. You're also keeping the weeds out. And so as husbands, what we can learn right here is you and I are to cultivate our marriages. Okay. I don't know about you, but working in the garden is not easy. It's hard. Okay? It requires a lot of effort. And so for us to cultivate our marriages, we got to put forth effort, man. Come on. Women, right there's an opportunity to elbow your husband. Are you listening? Let me tell you a funny one. Last weekend, I was talking about long-suffering. Long-suffering meaning it takes a long time to rile you up. And I gave the story about my wife and how that, you know, she used to call people names if they cut her off in traffic before she got saved. Now, but listen to this. Sunday after church. Now she says, bless them, Lord. So sarcastic. But last Sunday, last Sunday. Hey, it's Father's Day, remember? Now, last Sunday, listen to this. We're leaving church and she gets a text message. I mean, we've not been gone 30 minutes. There's a text message that comes to her phone and it's Miss Connie. Let me tell you something that happened today. We're leaving church. We're driving down the road and a motorcycle cuts in front of us and almost clips the car. She said, I called him an idiot. My nine-year-old in the backseat said, did you not listen to the pastor today? So come on, the kids are listening. Let's give it up for the young people. Come on. By the way, the youth did an amazing job teaching Bible school, BBS. Let's give it up for our youth. And dressing up into costumes. Yep, yep, they

all did incredible. So anyway, but cultivating our marriages, it requires effort. Keeping the weeds out. Now, let's move on to verse 26 and 27. Paul said that he may sanctify. Now this is, this is referencing Jesus to the church. That he, being Jesus, might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word. That he might present her to himself a glorious church. Not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be, check this out, holy and without blemish. That's what the Lord is looking for in the church. He's looking for a glorious church. A church without spot or blemish or wrinkle. A holy church. And so Christ loved the church so much that he's actually sanctified and cleansed us. And so this is an example for you and I when it comes to our marriages. When we look at our marriage, if you want your marriage to be sanctified, if you want your marriage to be holy, if you want your marriage to be without spot, then guys, the scripture is very clear on what to do. Somebody help me. Love your wives. Love your wives. This is the way we can imitate God and it's the perfect love that God shows to us. So we can love our wives that way. Honoring them. Now let's move to verse 28, 29. Verse 28 says, so husbands ought to love their their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself for no one ever hated his own flesh but nourishes and cherishes it just as the Lord loves the church. Now I want to ask an honest question. I want you to raise your hand if you do this. How many of you guys work out occasionally? Let me see your hand. Come on. Hold it up high. Occasionally. Occasionally being once a month. How many of you guys never work out? Hold your hand. We got some honest folks in here. How many of you work out at least weekly? Let me see your hand. Okay. Now here's what I want to take a minute right here and give you some practical information that will be helpful. For you guys that don't work out, get off the couch and go do something. I got a few of you grinning. I got a few of you with mad faces looking at me right now. But God says that you and I are the temple of God and I don't know about you but if you're want to be used of the Lord, you need to be healthy as possible. Amen? Eat good, exercise, walk, do whatever you like to do, work. Those things are very good for us

men. Amen? And so most of us don't like to work out. So what if we put the same energy into loving our wives as we put into caring for our body. Come on somebody. Yeah, come on. We've got this lady back here in the back clapping. Give it a lot, give a big clap. What's happening is when we love our wives the way God's called us and Paul again is teaching the church in Ephesus. If you want a healthy marriage, do this. This will bring a great return. Look at verse 30, 31. He said, for we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this reason, check this out, a man shall leave his father and mother, be joined to his wife, and the two will become one. So right here is a timeless principle that first was talked about in Genesis chapter 2 and it's a man leaving father-mother, joining to their wife, and the two of them becoming one flesh. So the first thing in this that we're taught is leaving one relationship. Okay, young people. How many people do we have in here that are not married? Let me see your hand. Okay, we got quite a few individuals who are not married. How many do we have in here are planning on getting married? Hold your hand up. Are you serious? Got a couple. How many of you are thinking of one day you might get married? We're doing better but we're still not there. The scripture says that we should replenish the earth in the context of marriage. Are you guys with me? Get married, have children, and so when we look at this, leaving father and mother, this is leaving one relationship. And then the second part here that we can learn, this principle, is joining another. This is when you join with your spouse. And then so we've left one, we've joined another, and this word for join is proskolay and it means to glue together. It's being glued together or to cleave to. And then the third thing that we see right here in this principle, two becoming one, is weaving. So what we have here, and I've got this on the screen, the timeless principle of a healthy marriage is leaving, cleaving, and weaving. Leaving one relationship, it is cleaving to another, and then it's weaving together. And so look at verse 32 because remember Paul's using this analogy for the church but he's going to the family to explain to the family how it operates and the

church can can do the same. So let's look at verse 32. He said, this is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. This is not the first time that Paul used this word mystery in Ephesians. As a matter of fact, the first time he used mystery he was talking about how the Jews and the Gentiles are now all part of the family of God, coexisting together in one family. Now we're seeing him reference another great mystery and the great mystery is is being part of the church body, the ecclesia, the called out ones. So three things that's important for you and I to become part of the body. If you're not part of the church, you're not part of the body, you're not part of the family of God, here's the three things that's needed. Number one, we need to leave our sinful lifestyle. Number two, we need to cleave to Christ. And then number three, we need to weave into the body of Christ. So it's leaving, cleaving, and then weaving. These things are very important. Verse 33, nevertheless let each one of you in particular, and here he goes again, so love his own wife as himself and let the wife see that she respects her husband. So again, he finishes up chapter 5 going straight back to the to the men and he's saying love your wives. This is where it starts. Guys, I've shared this and I'll share it again as long as I'm the pastor, I'll tell this story. But this church will will not be any healthier than my marriage, our marriage. Connie, will you come up here for a second? It'll never be any better than what goes on behind closed doors. You see in many cases, come on let's give it up for my wife, she's an amazing woman of God. She's put up with me for a long time. But here's what I want you to hear today. This is my best friend. We get up every day, every morning, and we have a routine. We pray together. We pray for each other. We pray for you. We pray for our church. We pray for our children, our grandchildren.

We pray for our school. There's a lot of prayers there, but that's our routine. And I want to tell you something. The devil don't like that. When you're close and you stick together and you love each other the way that the Bible tells us to, he can't get in that. The only way he can get in it is if we stop doing what the Word says to do. Here's what I want you to hear today. I said it earlier. There's some of you who are not married. Maybe you're thinking about it. Find someone that loves God. I can't say that enough. I know that's very simple, but simply find someone who loves God. Because if they love God, they're going to love you. Can I hear an amen to that? Just find someone that loves Him and serves Him and that's committed to Him. And today, I want to leave you with this. Christ loves you. He wants you to be part of this family called the church. And today, maybe you've been hurt by a father or a mother or a family. Maybe a spouse has left you. And today, honestly, quite honest, I'm talking to over 50% of you who have been divorced. That's the real statistics. And we understand that. We're not here pointing our finger because we believe wholeheartedly. You may have been through a hard time in your previous marriage, but God can do something special in the next one that supersedes anything that you could ever imagine. Just applying biblical principles to it. Can I hear an amen to that?

How many of you believe that God has good plans for all of you? How many of you believe that God has good plans for all of us? Amen? He does. So right now, I'm just going to ask you to stand and we're going to pray. Father, we thank you for this day. Thank you for the love of God. Help us to all walk in your love. Help us, God, to honor people around us, especially our spouses. Help us to reflect your love. Forgive us of our sins. God, the blind spots in our life that we don't even recognize, would you forgive us of those? And I pray today that we all leave better than we walked in. That we hear the word of God, that we apply the word of God, and we see the fruit and the benefit from it. There's anyone here today, Lord, that's discouraged. Maybe they've made mistakes. Today I feel like the Lord would say there's no condemnation. There's no guilt that you should feel. You should only feel the love of the Father, saying, I care, I see you, I know where you're at, I have good plans for you. If you're here right now and you say, Pastor, I don't know this Jesus that you're talking about. I've heard about him, but I've truly never invited him into my life. I honestly can't tell you that my heart has been transformed. Today the Lord wants to save you. You can be born again. It'll be the best decision you'll ever make in your life. Everybody please pray right now that the Holy Spirit would move in person and online.

If you would say, Pastor, I need this Jesus. I need to experience his love. Would you remember me in prayer today? I just want to ask you right now while everyone's praying, just slip up your hand real high and hold it up high right now. God sees those hands. Hold them up high. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. The Lord sees hands going up all over this place. Come on. You're just being honest with the Lord. I need the Father's love. Father, right now, in Jesus' name, if there's anyone here that's away from you, God, if there's anyone here, Lord, that don't know you as Savior, I pray that you would give them the courage and confidence to invite you into their hearts today before they leave. Say yes to you. Lord, start. a new journey. If you're here right now and you say, Pastor, if I'm honest, the enemies tried to discourage me. Would you remember me in prayer right now? Hold up your hand across this building. There's so many hands going up. Be encouraged in the Lord today. Know you're loved. Be encouraged right now, this very moment, right now, in the name of Jesus. Be encouraged because the Lord loves you

and He cares for you. You're in the family of God. God's brought you in, in Jesus' name. Guys, listen, if you would look at me for a second, we're gonna sing one last song. Worship team's coming. Prayer team, would you come up? If there's anything today that we can pray with you about, we would love to take this minute and just pray. If there's anything that you would like to bring to the Lord, these individuals have been praying all week for this moment. Let's worship the Lord. Let's pray. Let's spend some time. Thank you guys so much. Thank you so much for your presence today on this Father's Day. Amen. God bless you. All my words fall short. I've got nothing new. How could I express all my gratitude? I could sing these songs, as I often do. But every song must end, and you never do. So I throw up my hands and praise you again and again. Because all that I have is a hallelujah. Hallelujah. And I know it's not much. I'm nothing else fit for a king, except for a heart singing hallelujah. Hallelujah. I've got one response. I've got just one move. With my arms stretched wide, I will worship you. So I throw up my hands and praise you again and again. Because all that I have is a hallelujah. Hallelujah. And I know it's not much. I'm nothing else fit for a king, except for a heart singing hallelujah. Hallelujah. I just want you to sing out this next part of the song. I want you to sing it out to the heavens. I want you to sing it to our Father. I want you to not be shy. I want you to lift up your voices and lift up your hands and worship. Thank you, Father. Come on, my soul. Oh, don't you get shy on me. Lift up your song. Because you've got a lion inside of those lungs. Get up and praise the Lord. Come on, my soul. Oh, don't you get shy on me. Lift up your song. Because you've got a lion inside of those lungs. Get up and praise the Lord. Come on, my soul. Oh, don't you get shy on me. Lift up your song. Because you've got a lion inside of those lungs. Get up and praise the Lord. I just want you guys to remember, church, that these altars aren't for the healed, they're for the hurt, they're for the broken, the beaten down. The Father wants you to bring your pain and your suffering to this altar and lay at His feet. He wants you to go to Him and just ask for His love and just come and just give Him a

hug. He just wants to be there for you. I just ask, I just pray that you heal, that you guys would come and pray at this altar for God to come lift you up. And we just want to sing, we just want to sing out to the heavens and we thank you, Father God. So I throw up my hands and praise you again and again Cause all that I have is a hallelujah Hallelujah And I know it's not much I'm nothing else, fear for a king Except for a heart singing hallelujah Hallelujah Father God, we praise you. We thank you, Lord. Father God, Lord, we just want to thank you for this beautiful Sunday. We thank you for all the fathers in the house, Lord. We thank you for your love and your kindness and your grace, Jesus. We thank you for your sacrifice. And Lord, I just want to ask that today can just be a blessing, Lord, that you can continue to just make it a good day and a good Father's Day, Lord. And we just, we thank you and we praise you in your name. In Jesus' mighty name we say, amen. God bless.