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Uh, just to bring you up to speed. If you’re a visitor this morning or this is your first time, or if you weren’t here last week, I guess, uh, we’re just started last week. A four part series on marriage and Pastor Nathaniel kicked off last week by demonstrating out of the fifth chapter of Ephesians, um, the ideal that God has for our marriage and what God desires out of this institution of marriage that he has given us, and the roles in which the husband and the wife and the the children are to play as a means to glorify him in that institution. And as we discussed last week, we know that Paul wrote to us, superintendent, through the Holy Spirit to give us the ideal what God desires. But as Pastor Nathaniel touched on, the ideal can’t be achieved, and that’s because of sin. We’re all marred and marked with sin. And because of that, God’s perfect design and ideal for marriage is lost among us. It’s it’s broken. But there’s good news as well. There’s good news that God has revealed himself and has provided a way in which we can be first rescued and redeemed and be drawn back to our creator through the gospel of Jesus Christ. But he’s also provided a way in which we can bridge the gap in our marriage between the ideal and the real. And so these are the things that we are going to attempt to tackle this morning.
And my assignment this morning was to speak on and preach on the husband’s role. What the husband should be doing. In the marriage institution. So we’re going to begin with Ephesians chapter five, verses 25 through 28, I believe. And after I was going to say, go ahead and grab your Bibles. But after Russ’s announcements, maybe you should just grab your iPod or your iPhone and look it up there right now. If you have your Bible, go ahead and turn to Ephesians chapter five, verses 25. We’re going to read there, and you can also follow along on the screen behind me. It says, husbands love your wives, just as also Christ loved the church and gave himself for her to make her holy, cleansing her in the washing of water by the word. He did this to present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing but holy and blameless. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. And I know the slide stops there, but I want to continue reading here in this passage of Scripture, as Paul continues to speak of this analogy between Christ and the church and husband and the wife. He goes on to say, for no one ever hates his own flesh, but provides and cares for it. He hits us men right where it hurts in our bellies, right? Just as Christ does for the church.
And so because we are members of his body. And for this reason he quotes the Old Testament passage there in Genesis, what God originally designed. Paul is bringing us back to what God’s original intention was. For this reason, a man will love his father and mother. Uh, and we’ll leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This mystery is profound, but I’m talking about Christ in the church. So as broken as this can be, and as hard as marriage can be, sometimes the ideal is seems so far off. But yet Christ, through his work and and through Paul’s letter here, through the superintendent of the Holy Spirit, he’s bringing us back to the original design. He’s telling us as husbands to to strive to emulate these things. And the title of my message this morning is called The Dance. And hopefully the reason for this will soon be made apparent. I was trying to play off of the the title of the series, Once Upon a marriage The Idea of the ideal. And let me begin by asking you all a question. For those of you who have been married or are married, do you remember your wedding day and how good that was? How great that was? Well, how about your reception? You remember that? I love the reception. That’s my favorite part of a marriage bond.
And, um. My favorite part of it is when the bride and the groom, they get to do their first dance together. Right? It’s the fairy tale, goes the. The groom steps into the center of the dance floor, and as they as they he looks to his bride, his bride comes out, sweeps out in her long, elegant dress and starts stepping to him. And they interlock their gaze and they embrace each other, and the music starts to play. And all those who are in her attendance are around and honoring the newlywed couple and watching them as they begin their first dance together in life. And it’s designed for those that are in attendance to see their love, to express their love of one another to those who are in attendance. And that this morning, gentlemen, is the paradigm and everyone, I guess, in which I’m asking you to view this passage of Scripture through this paradigm of leading your bride, this, this lens of or analogy of leading your bride, not just in the first dance after being married, but through the dance of life. Through leading your wife through the many days and the nights and years, and, Lord willing, the decades of your marriage. And essentially, that is what God is calling us to do. God and our Lord is calling us husbands to lead our wives and our children. And the Apostle Paul provided us the example for which we are as husbands, or which we are to emulate.
And that’s the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he also goes on and provides in this passage of Scripture to provide attributes and the intentional actions that Christ has towards his church, that he calls us as men and husbands, to strive to replicate in our relationship with our bride. And so let’s dive into this a little deeper. The first thing Paul writes to the church and the Holy Spirit superintends to us today is this husbands, love your wives, just as also Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. I need to back up a little bit here and make sure we define our terms. It’s been 2000 years of church history now, and because of that, the definition and the idea of church has, uh. It can be a wide range of different definitions of the church. And so as a students of the Bible, as we have the presupposition that God has revealed himself in his special revelation, which is Scripture, we need to go back and understand what Paul was trying to say when he wrote the word church. We need to define it from his terms and not the terms that if you do a Google search on church today, you’re going to have many different definitions. But what did Paul mean by that? And the word he used was ekklesia. And what that literally means, means to call out from.
And so we’re the called out ones and, and it’s this amazing, uh, universal body of when the apostles and fellow believers went into the known world and went into the towns. A good example is Paul, uh, in his In the Book of Acts, as he goes on his missionary journeys, he was going to a town. He would go into a synagogue, he would preach the gospel. He would tell the Jew that the Messiah has come in Jesus Christ, and some would beat him and be angry at him, but some. Would be cut at their heart and they would believe. And they would be called out from the world and placed into what is called in Ephesians and other places the Bride of Christ, which is the church, the church, our members of the called out ones, and they exist in every tribe, nation, and tongue throughout the world. Alpine Bible Church is a physical manifestation of that. We look around and we see all of us here, and we’re all from different backgrounds and upbringings. And we all have one thing in common, hopefully, and that is that we’ve heard the gospel message of Jesus Christ, and we’ve trusted and believed. And because of that, we’ve been placed in to this group of the church, the called out ones, and we meet here as the physical manifestation of that. And it is manifested physically in the underground churches in China and the the Christians in Iraq that are undergoing persecution all over the world.
This church is. Uh, manifested in physical bodies such as this one and others around the world. And this is this church, this cult group of called out ones. This is the church that Christ gave himself for. And so as we look at this, we need to understand that. And and we need to understand this husband, that this is the type of sacrificial love that God calls us husbands to love our lives, our wives and children with. Christ has provided the example in this passage of Scripture scripture that we’re reading. He loved the church, and he didn’t do it just with words, but he did it with intentional actions by giving himself up for the church. And this is the type of sacrificial, selfless love that our Lord is calling us to as husbands, to give ourselves up. To our wives to sacrificially live for them and serve them. I found as I was studying for this this sermon, I found this, this great example from history. Historians uncovered an in the Greek histories, an account pertaining to Cyrus the Great. He was a Persian king in the Near East, and we are told that he was very powerful and had a lot of domain. And we are told that one of the generals wives for King Cyrus, she was caught and accused of treachery against the state and was found, uh, convicted or was found guilty of of treachery against the state.
And the penalty was that she was condemned to death. But the general, upon hearing that his wife had just pronounced, had to the death penalty pronounced against her. He didn’t just stand by, but he burst, ran to the palace and burst into the into the castle there and into the throne room, and and he threw himself down on the floor before the king, and he said, O King Cyrus. Um. What did he say? Oh. Oh, Lord Cyrus, take my life instead of hers. Take my life instead of hers. Let me die in her place. And all accounts, historical accounts have said that Cyrus was a very insensitive and, um, kind of wishy washy man. And so because of this, he was touched by this offer, and he said, love like this must not be spoiled by death. And then he proceeded to reunite the husband and wife back to each other and let the wife go free. And what I found interesting was as the story continued, this account continued. As the couple was walking away, the husband looked at his wife and said, did you notice how kindly the king looked on us when he gave us the pardon? Wasn’t that romantic? And the wife said to her husband, I had no eye for the king. I saw only the man who was willing to die in my place. I think it would be safe to say that it would be a whole lot easier for our wives to be led by us in this stance of life, if that is how our wives truly saw us more consistently at least.
Well, let’s face it, most of us will probably never have the chance to put our love to that great and ultimate test for our wives. As for laying our lives down on the line for them. So how does this selfless, sacrificial love look in the everyday in this everyday dance of life? What is that to look like? One wife put it to her husband. This way, dear. I know you’re willing to die for me. You have told me that many times. But while you’re waiting to die. Could you spend some of that time by drying the dishes? All right. It’s in the everyday life and the little things and the mundane in which we can serve our wives and treat them like Christ loves the church. And honestly, man, I think this gets to the heart of the passage that Paul is speaking to or writing here on how selfless love should look like in the everyday it involves. And this is the practical side. It involves often foregoing, um, what we might normally do to satisfy our own personal pleasure and comfort. After our hard days with long days of work, it’s really hard for us to not just go sit on the couch and rest for a while.
And oftentimes that’s what it requires. And it’s a battle. Our flesh has a tendency to draw us towards self-interest. No doubt about it. The song we sing, the last song we sing, there’s that line in there that says, prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. It’s a constant battle, and it exists and rages inside of each and every one of us, regardless if we’re husbands or not. And Christ has been provided for us. Not of selfishness, but of selflessness. And husbands were given the opportunity to demonstrate selfless love. On a consistent basis. Are we not in our marriages towards our wives? We are provided many opportunities to set our own things aside, and to embrace what God has called us to do, and put ourselves down and sacrifice ourselves for our wives. And Paul continues the analogy here, verse 26. He says, to make her, which is the church, to make her holy, cleansing her in the washing of the water by the word. He did this to present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing but holy and blameless. And so the picture that Paul is creating for us here is that Christ is an intentionally seeking to cleanse his church and to sanctify her and to set them apart. So all of us who are in Christ’s body, Christ, desires to make you more like him and to cleanse you by the washing of the water by the word.
And the ultimate goal is that we will be holy and blameless when glorification comes. Through death or through the Lord’s return. But this is the analogy that Christ has given us, and it’s an important point Christ’s intention in saving us. Uh, those of us who are in the church goes far beyond just punching a ticket to go to heaven someday. If you’re in Christ today, if you’re in the Bride of Christ, if you’re in the church because of your faith and trust in the gospel message, then the day of your salvation was the only the beginning of God’s true intention for you, and that is to transform you and to renew you into the image of Christ. And Paul is illustrating Christ’s intentional and continuous actions towards its church as a means to show husbands. And this is where what this verse is doing, he’s taking see what’s Christ is doing to his church. Husbands, this is what God desires to do for you to do have you do with your wives? It’s so important that we have a concern for our wife’s spiritual walk. That’s what Paul’s calling us to do, just as Christ seeks after his church. Each one of us individually to cleanse us and transform us. Paul is telling us that we need to provide an environment in which our wives can have that opportunity to draw closer to Christ.
And I don’t really want to stand up here and tell you what that should look like in your homes, because all of us are all very different and all of our relationships are vastly different. And so there’s no way I can tell you if you’re following after this, this is what it should look like, because we’re all different. But I just want to give you provide you a few examples of my own life that might give you some. Well idea of what you might be able to do. And I think, um, the best way to do that is I love to read books on the gospel and counseling books and stuff. I’m always trying to read and do these things, and I’ll read one, and it just blesses me. And I just have, you know, such fuzzy feelings about it. And, you know, I just makes me draw closer to Jesus. And I just think it’s great. And so I’ll come into the room and I’ll go up to Tara and say, Tara, I just finished this book. It’s awesome. It just really blessed me and drew me closer to the Lord. I think you should read it. And she’ll take it and she’ll grab it. She’ll thank you and she’ll set it down by her nightstand. And then in about a month later, I’ll come back and it’s right where she left it. She didn’t touch it. And it’s consistent.
I’ve tried so many times. Here’s a book. Right. But what I fail to recognize is, is she has her own relationship with the Lord. She has that walk with God and my goal and my responsibility as the husband leading my wife is not to be a spiritual tyrant. To say, you must follow Jesus this way and you must read this book, okay? But instead he desires us to lead first through example and what we’re doing with our walk with Jesus. But he’s also asking us to look at on upon the marriage and our home, and to study them and to understand them, that we might help connect them with their Savior. And so what that looks like for me is, although Tara doesn’t want to read the books I gave her, I mean, I’ve even tried reverse psychology. Tara, I hate this book. It’s terrible. Here, I’ll sit it right by your nightstand. Still wouldn’t read it. But what she does do is she’ll never turn down an opportunity to pray with me. She loves to pray. And I can do that. With her, and she loves to play an instrumental role in our devotions with our children. And so instead of taking the lead every time and gathering the family around the table and me saying, okay, I’m going to lead my family now and all that, Tara, lead our children and worship and instruction because she loves to do it. She loves to have an opportunity to speak the gospel into our children’s lives.
And so I see that as a means in which I can focus on and allow and assist, and for her to have a fertile environment for her spiritual growth and connection with the Lord. And, um, I can pray with her, like I said. And I can pray for her while I’m at work. These are all things in which we can do to lead our lives, and to provide that environment where they can have a closer relationship with the Lord Jesus. It means quelling the anger, getting rid of the the friction that’s going on in the marriage, because all those are obstacles in which my wife and my children have to overcome to have a connection with Jesus. It’s about letting go of who was right and who was wrong and leading by example. And allowing peace to reign, so that the environment in which our wives are in and our homes can be an environment in which they can connect with Jesus. Because the reality is, is I will never be able to fulfill her every need. And I know terror doesn’t do this, but if terror was looking to me to provide her happiness, her every need, and her full fulfillment and happiness, I’m going to fail her every time. Only Jesus can be that for her. And it’s only when I attempt and allow and try to create the environment in which she can connect with Jesus, that that will be able to be a reality in her life, that she might be washed in the water and cleansed in the washing of the water by the word as she goes to her scriptures and doesn’t have the the anxiety of wondering if I’m mad or upset or not, that she chose to do her personal devotion in the morning instead of doing what was required.
In the kitchen. These are all ways in which we can provide an environment in which our wives can connect with Jesus, and that they can have complete and full fulfillment in that. And as I’m talking about this and I was writing this, we just always have to touch on this. Husbands, what I’m not saying to you today is you need to put on more on it. You need to buck up and do a better job. I don’t want to pull a Yosemite Sam on you. You guys remember that? Some of you older. There’s cartoons dating myself here. Yosemite Sam would come out with his six shooters and find Bugs Bunny, and he’d pull him out and start saying dance, and he’d start shooting the bullets at bugs feet. And so bugs would get his hat on and start dancing. And he was dancing all right. But he really didn’t want to be dancing. And that’s how this type of message, if we don’t stop and just reevaluate what we’re basing these, these commands to do on, that’s what this kind of sermon can turn into.
Dance. You need to laugh. You love your wife more, right? I’m hurling these guilt ridden spiritual bullets at you. Dance. You need to love your wife more. You need to, you know, pray more. You need to do all these things. Dance, dance, dance. And then as we do the dance, we become tired and bitter and frustrated. And friction ends up in the home and in the relationship because we’re not doing it the right way. Yes, these are commands. And this yes, this is what Paul is calling us to do that God is calling us to do through Paul. But operating out of a sense of guilt and expectation will profit you or your wife. Nothing. And so what I’m saying is, is, husbands, you need to come to a point where you realize you need help. They say in the recovery world, the, uh, admitting you have a problem is the first step towards, um, the step of recovery to recovery. And that’s what we need to do as husbands. We need to realize and admit. We need help. And that’s the wonderful news of the gospel message. God provides us that help. God does not desire for you to pull this commands on you, put them on your back, and to strive to do a better job in your own strength and power. That’s not what this New Testament declares.
Let me kind of show you what my way of thinking here in the Matthew 22. This is an account of Jesus while he was on his earthly ministry, and the religious leaders of that time, the Jewish religious, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, they are always trying to trip Jesus up because he was gaining more and more popularity, and they can see their power and control over the people just dwindling more and more. And so they were trying to trip them up and to condemn in order to condemn him. And so they came to him and they said, master, what is the greatest commandment of all? And this in Matthew 22 was the response he gave to them. He said, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. And notice this. This is the greatest and most important commandment. He goes on to say the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets depend on these two commandments. And so we’re focusing here on the second commandment loving your neighbor as yourself. Right. We went through the passage of Scripture. We’ve seen what Paul has written to us through. The superintendent of the Holy Spirit is what we’re trying to do in our marriage relationships. And that’s the second commandment love your neighbor as yourself. The closest. If you’re married today, the closest neighbor you have is your spouse.
And you’re supposed to love your spouse as yourself. He’s calling us back to the original intention and the ideal that he set in the Garden of Eden. The two shall be one flesh. But we can’t do it unless we are grounded in the first commandment. We have to be grounded here. This is the source and which we are giving enabling grace to pursue those things, these this higher calling in our marriage. In order to receive this enabling grace, we must be grounded here. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. It has to be start and begin with their. If you’re loving, trying, attempting to love your wife as Christ loved the church in your own strength and power, I promise you you will fail. But if you stop. And turn to the Lord Jesus and begin in your own personal walk with him to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your mind. The second commandment is going to be a lot easier to fulfill, because it will be the power of Christ in you that’s doing it. And so the key is not to start with what we think we want, right? What we think will make us happy. It’s all about me, and I stand guilty before you. Guilty of that? Often times as well.
But it’s only when we start with God as God is the sinner, someone bigger than ourselves can we escape the destructive results of our own selfishness, and that flesh that desires to pull us away from what God desires and satisfy our own selves? And when we do that, when we start with God and begin with him in his plan and his operation, and look to Him and His enabling grace, when we look to him for help, that is when the love of our life, that is when we can love our lives, love our wives with the love of Christ. So thinking back on the illustration I gave you regarding Cyrus the King. King Cyrus the Great, he was called. As I was mulling this sermon over, uh, I was thinking about this, this, this account of Cyrus. And it kind of began to rub me the wrong way and as emotional and romantic, and it kind of made a point in which the, you know, the husband giving up his life or being willing to give up his life for his wife, as great as all that was, there was a problem with the story. And that was justice. You see, Cyrus was a king. His responsibility was to carry out justice of the land, to defend the laws and provide justice and protection for his people, and doing so. And when the general burst into his throne room and proclaimed, take my life! He was moved and his emotional heartstrings were tugged on.
And although it was great for the husband and wife because the wife got to go free. Justice was not served. Cyrus might have been very sensitive and romantic man, but Cyrus as a king was unjust. And that is great for the couple. But what about the next person who was accused of treachery against the state? What about them when they became before Cyrus and they were not able to pull on Cyrus emotional heartstrings? And because of that, he can, you know, condemn them to be to die. It’s unjust. It’s unjust. And as we begin to mull that over, I begin to see there’s a lot of similarities between this this account of Cyrus the Great and the biblical narrative as well. There’s a lot of similarities, but there’s also a lot of differences, and I just want to kind of touch on those. Scripture is clear. The entire book of the Bible is a redemptive story, and it’s a redemptive story because there’s sin and because of sin, we have been separated from our God. We have violated God’s law. And the verdict that is pronounced on all of us because of this sin, because we’ve committed and violated God’s eternal law as death. Eternal separation from our Creator and Savior. And so we see the similarity here. Both were pronounced of death sentences to these, to us and to this wife. And. This is where the the story is different.
Although there is death. And because we are committed. Uh, pronounced to be guilty of this eternal law and because the punishment is death and eternal death. Uh, it’s very bad news. But the good news is, the good news is. Is that our king? Didn’t just pronounce death. Our king demonstrated his love. His own selfless love. Philippians two paints a beautiful picture of God the Son and all majesty and glory in the heavens, humbling himself and take upon the form of a man to come into this world, to give himself up for his church. The king got off of his throne, and that same king demonstrated his selfless love by laying down his life for the bride. He did this by going to the cross and taking the punishment of our sin on our behalf. So the king remains just because justice was dished out. But the king is the means in which the justice was dished out. The Eternal King gave himself so that he might endure our eternal punishment for us. That is a love story. That is the gospel. That is the good news. Ephesians. I just love the book of Ephesians. These are some of the verses that speaks to that, this wonderful thing that our King has done. We have redemption, and him through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.
And again in 18, this is Paul praying a prayer as his prayer for the the the church at Ephesus. He says, I pray that the perception of your mind may be enlightened, so you may know what is the hope of his calling? What are the glorious riches of his inheritance among the saints? And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power to us who believe? According to the working of his vast strength. And that is what our king, our eternal King, has done for us. And this is what I have for you this morning, husbands. Because of this, because of what Christ has done. Your King stands at the center of the floor of the dance floor of life, with his hand extended to you, ready to lead you through this command to lead your wife and family. You cannot do it on your own strength and power. It must be through the enabling grace that is given to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. He stands ready to lead you as you lead your family. As Paul said to the Corinthian church. He gave this example to them. He wrote, he wrote this. He says, follow me as I follow Christ. And I believe God is telling us husbands to do the same thing, to turn to our family and say, follow me as I follow Christ, because you can’t lead in your own strength and power. It’s only through being led by our King who gave himself on our behalf.
Follow me. As I follow Christ. And honestly, this is for all of us, whether you’re married today or not. Husband and wife, not married. Divorced. This message is for all of us. If you are in Christ this morning, if you’ve been placed into the church, then he stands ready to spiritually lead you. And maybe you’ve never had a marriage partner to lead a dance with you. Your dance of life with you. Or maybe you and your spouse are dancing to two different tunes. There’s a lot of friction going on. You have different and alternate beliefs. Maybe you’ve lost your dance partner through one means or another. And if that is you this morning, then going through a marriage series of marriage has got to be pretty difficult. And I’m sorry for that. I am, I probably couldn’t even begin to imagine the the the pain and hurt that’s most some of you carry because of that. But if that is the case, I also have good news for you as well. And that is Christ’s. Um, if you’re in Christ, then the King desires to lead you in the stance of life as well. That is what we’re created for. And that’s what he desires us to do. That is the means in which we can bridge the gap between the ideal and the reality is being led by Christ. All right.
I’m going to set that down nice and softly. So that’s great. That’s wonderful. Christ desires to lead us. But what does this look practically to us? How can this really be something that we can use in our lives? How does Christ lead us? One day it’ll be face to face. One day he’s coming back for his church. And that time will be face to face. We will. He will lead us into the dance of eternity. But until then, how does Christ lead? And and Ephesians and numerous other passages of Scripture demonstrate to us how Christ desires to lead us in. The first one is the Holy Spirit. When you believed in him. Ephesians 112 says, you were also sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. As you understand your need, because of your sin for the gospel and the trusting in what Christ had done for you on the cross by giving himself up on the cross for you as you believe and trust in that Scripture undeniably declares that the Holy Spirit comes and dwells within the heart of the believer. He is, um, dwelling in the hearts of all who have believed. And in his church, as Scripture declares, the Holy Spirit or God does not dwell in temples made with hands. But we are now the temples of the Holy Spirit. And so we have God, the spirit working inside of us, desiring to cleanse us and make us new and afresh and to lead us.
And he’s also given us God’s revealed word, his special revelation and spirit, or, uh, in Scripture. And it says there in Ephesians 617, the sword of the spirit, which is God’s Word. It’s the tool in which God, the Spirit, uses in our lives. It’s as we open up God’s Word, the spirit begins to illuminate us to the truths and understanding, and allows us to try to begin to apply these things in our hearts and minds and to renew us. And it’s the tool in which he uses is the Word of God. Hebrews 412 is the Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword. And it goes on to say, and it is the discerner between the thoughts and the intentions of our hearts. It is the tool in which God, the spirit who indwells the believer, uses to lead us. And there’s also prayer. Pray at all times in the spirit with every prayer and request. I confess to you that I don’t do this enough. How important prayer is. God has. Jesus Christ has given himself up. And because Hebrews especially declares that he has ascended to the right hand of the father and is forever making intercession to the saints, and because of that, he’s our great high priest, and that great high priest allows us to come into the throne room any time we desire, night or day, in sickness or in health.
And to present our requests and our concerns before his throne. The eternal God. And he’s given that as us as a means to draw closer to him and to be led by him. And finally, he’s also given us the church. Ephesians 519 through 21 speaks of that speaking to one another. This is what he’s calling us to do in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making music from the heart, from your heart to the Lord. And that’s what we did this morning before we opened up God’s Word. But it’s so important that we understand that this physical manifestation of this universal body is a means in which God uses to grow us and to be led by us. Numerous scriptures throughout saying, be bear one another’s burdens. Love one another. Care for one another. This is all done in the context of the church. Our Triune God, who is the epitome of unity and community, desires to have unity and community in his creation, unity and community in His church, and unity and community in the family. That’s what he desires, and that’s what he wants to do in us as we look to him to be led in this dance of life. Um. So these are the means which has been provided in which our King will lead us. But we know that the ideal that is painted for us in Scripture can’t be obtained. But what God desires for us to do is to draw that gap closer and closer to the means in which I’ve been provided for us.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t happen overnight, right? We can’t go to God and say, can you just fix my marriage, like right now? Unfortunately, we don’t have the The wand of the fairy godmother of Cinderella to poof and make our marriage perfect overnight or draw that gap closer. But it’s a dance, remember? And through this dance, God desires to draw us closer and closer to him and draw that gap closer together with one another. And just like a dance, when two partners who don’t know each other when they begin their dance, oftentimes it can be a little awkward, right? Step on each other’s toes. Maybe even trip each other up on occasion. And as you turn to Christ and allow to seek to allow him to lead you in the dance of life, if your husband leads you and your family as you turn to him, and if you haven’t done it very often, or if you’re a brand new Christian, or if you just have gotten away from the dance for a while as you turn to him, it might be a little awkward at first. But God desires for you. Through the dance of life to draw closer and closer to him. To get to know him. And as you get to know him, there’s that part of of dancing. If you dance with someone long enough, you stop worrying about the steps.
And you just enjoy the dance. And that’s what Christ desires for us. Let me stop worrying about the list keeping and what we’re not doing right and what we’re doing wrong, and we just looked at him and allow us to lead him, allow him to lead us. And we just enjoy the dance. And the great thing about that is, as you begin to do that and just enjoy the dance and become more intimate with your Savior, your individuality begins to be expressed in this dance with your Savior and those who are in your life that are on the outskirts. Watching you in this dance sees the glory and the fun and the enjoyment and the splendor of your King who you’re dancing with, that they might be drawn to this King to be led in this dance of life as well. It’s all about his bringing glory to our King through allowing us to be led in the stance of life by him, so that he might be glorified in our expression of him to those around us. But maybe today. Maybe today you’re dancing solo. Maybe you’ve never been placed in Christ. I’ve said that word phrase several times now. If you are in Christ, then. It’s so important to understand that to be led by Christ, you must be placed into the Bride of Christ. And to be. In order for that to happen, you must first understand that sin has separated you from your creator and from your King.
But the good news is, as I’ve already said, the King has laid down his life for you. He has paid the penalty on your behalf, and all you must do is trust and believe in this saving message of the gospel. The good news that he did it for you. Turn trust in him and allow him to lead you. When this happens, you are brought into the Bride of Christ, which is his church. And if that is not a reality for you today, then I pray today will be the day the King, as many of us in this room, will testify. The King stands at the center with his arm extended to you, desires to save you and to lead you not only into the dance of life, but into the dance of eternity as well. That is the gospel message, and that is the means in which us who are in Christ can draw closer to him. And as we do so, we are able to have the fruit of the spirit that demonstrates to those around us loving our wives as ourselves, providing the environment in which all of us can grow closer and in this walk and dance with our Savior. These are the means in which he has provided, and I pray we all turn to him afresh and anew, and seek to follow him as He desires to lead us in the stance of life.